Twilight Quandary
The Twilight Saga, as of now, is the most popular franchise since Harry Potter. Millions of women want to be Bella Swan because of Edward Cullen. Most of those women also want to be Kristen Stewart just so they could get a taste of Robert Pattinson as well. But what made this story so special? Is it the amazing, yet recently tapped talents of now-renowned writer Stephenie Meyer? Or is it because of the media hype surrounding the latest movie that somehow got lucky with their uber-hot C-list cast?
Honestly, I can’t decide which. I’ve already posted this story about how I came to discover Twilight so this is for the latest readers. I was slightly obsessed with the movie The Covenant so I decided to look up one of my favorite actors in the movie, Toby Hemingway. I scoured the YouTube site fanvids including him and I came across one that featured him as some guy named Jasper Hale.
It was an amateur video about a book named Twilight and even though I barely understood what it was about, I kind of liked the idea of it all. When I saw the section about related videos, I was surprised to a lot more juts like it. I watched and watched all day, trying to understand what was going on in the videos.
I finally gave in to my curiosity and Googled the keywords twilight, jasper hale and stephenie meyer. The results showed me the Twilight Lexicon site, Stephenie Meyer’s author site and the book’s Amazon page. I was immediately fascinated by the hype surrounding the book. What was so great about it? Why were there hundreds of fans bent on shouting their praises to the world through blogs, fansites and Myspace?
I was already engaged in Fanfiction.Net, so I was surprised to see the Twilight section having thousands of entries. It even had more than Pirates of the Caribbean, which was saying a lot. There were almost ten thousand stories that time. Now, I think it’s accumulated more than the Harry Potter section. So anyway, I thought if a lot of people are writing fanfiction about this, then this “Twilight” must be worth looking into.
So I did something that I’m embarrassed to admit. I downloaded an illegal ebook. Okay, yeah, yeah. I suck and I’m not helping the authors and artists and also the economy but my curiosity got the best of me. Okay, so when I started to read, I was immediately hooked. I mean, wow! This is new. Vampires…that aren’t exactly vampires? I mean, it was amazing how this woman, Stephenie, delved into the scientific and biological aspect of creating vampires. Admit it, her explanations were out of this world but they had points.
Vampires as animals. Primal in their need for blood. There is nothing artistic about wanting to suck someone dry without any of the dramatic flare of causing death to be the ultimate experience. They’re just hungry so they’ll probably kill you. Yes, there is indeed the psycho vampires, but that’s another topic I’ll discuss later on.
Sparkling skin? Unbelievable, but really, it’s kind of understandable because these vampires are indeed hard as rocks and without blood, their skin becomes translucent. What else would translucent rocks look like when a light source as bright as the sun hits them? But P.S, I don’t get why they need to be hard as a rock, but hey, it’s original and frankly, the rapid regeneration thing was starting to get old.
Aside from that, nothing pulls in an audience more than the promise of true love and the heartbreaking separation it entails in some climactic event in the story. It was good. It was really good.
So then, I asked my mom to buy me the books while she was in Australia. I had no idea they were expensive, so I had to put up with the need-for-money speech when she finally gave the first three books to me. Breaking Dawn was still in the works at that time.
I was so into it. I mean, it was refreshing to read something as original as this and I couldn’t keep myself from getting involved with the hype. At that time, the movie was just announced but my country hadn’t really heard of Twilight yet. There might have been a really small percentage of fans at the time I read it and the book wasn’t even selling in the market. Either those Filipinas had their books shipped internationally, or they sneakily downloaded the ebook like I did. Haha.
Anyway, I joined several fansites. I browsed the fanarts. I even subscribed to Stephenie’s mailing list and watched out for the updates on the movie. I wrote fanfiction about it, and let me just say that a lot of people loved my stories! Even though they’re not finished. Haha. I discussed the book and the movie that was under production with other fans. I even gained a new friend because of it. Shout-out to my friend Mel!
All in all, Twilight has sort of changed my life. I learned to appreciate books more and it made me want to write something just as good(although, it hasn’t happened yet.haha). It also gave me something productive to engage in.
But sadly, something happened that changed the way I saw Twilight. It was no longer the most interesting book I’ve ever read in a long time. It was now a sordid fad that even the illiterate people monopolized.
How could a wonderful piece of literature turn into media fodder in such a short span of time? Why is Harry Potter still respected, even if it’s becoming less and less popular? I loved Twilight. It was the perfect model for my other works and stories, and then the dissection came.
I had no idea how stupid the whole concept was. It wouldn’t have been if nobody pointed it out. Bella’s an insecure and hormonal teenager who needed an unrealistically perfect boyfriend to make her feel good about herself and this didn’t even happen until the fourth book when she was invincible, beautiful and immortal. Talk about helping teenagers cope with their insecurities and self-esteem. Nice going, Steph.
What about the Perfect Guy? Edward is an impractical character that has no basis to why he does what he does except for the fact that the author said that that’s just how VAMPIRES are. They feel too much. The very natural trait of animals when they mate converted into human thoughts and actions should be explanation enough. What’s Bella’s excuse?
I might be cynical in thinking this, but human beings don’t act irrationally like Bella unless they have a psychological disorder. You don’t die for your alleged soul mate after dating for a few months. It’s not even an original idea because it’s been used dozens of times. An example would be Night World. I read the series when I was like, ten? Eleven? At least in those stories, there was a supernatural explanation for the Soul Mate concept. So I repeat, what’s Bella’s excuse? Answer: Because Stephenie says she’s SPECIAL.
What about the fourth book? It sucked. Big time. I was not amused with Bella and Edward. The other side stories were okay, but their love story had become very, very tired. If I hadn’t read so much fanfiction, I would have probably appreciated it but the book was too predictable in some aspects. That’s why, once more, I simply downloaded the ebook and refused to waste my allowance on the book.
I have a lot more to say. So much that I’m actually getting tired of rambling on about this so I’ll stop with the hacking and slashing of the book. I still have to discuss the movie, you know. I guess what I’m trying to say is, I’m disappointed. I’m not sure if it’s because after being such a loyal fan, I can easily put Twilight down like this. Or if it’s because of the attention that started to surround the books made it a focus of the public and most of the literature world that it’s been degraded to the point that it’s considered as the world’s most successful and popular fluff story of all time.
I’m glad that a lot of people are starting to read more now, but what the hell? They just read Twilight and don’t even try to find books that are as good as Twilight or even better! It’s a mockery to those of us who appreciate books and the pain and hard work of the authors who write them. So, what now? You can’t even be bothered to read the other books about vampires(if that’s your preferred genre) or teenage romances that don’t feature deux ex machina’ed characters and too-perfect-for-words leading men!
And what about the movie? Kristen Stewart is a slightly talented actress that doesn’t know any other persona except for the angsty teenager who frowns and sighs and cries all the time if she’s not biting her lip and running her hand through her hair for her current love interest. She’s pretty, I love her. But she is so not a Bella. Bella is not a sultry, smoky-eyed teenager. Kristen is hot, but BELLA is not. Kristen doesn’t do Simple Jane. I’d probably believe it more if they picked that chick from A Series of Unfortunate Events. Now, she’s a Bella.
Robert Pattinson. Hot, but he doesn’t know how to act and speak with an American accent at the same time. Too hot to be related to while watching the movie. And he will never ever be good enough to be Stephenie’s Edward. No one is. Nice going, Steph. Let’s see if any guy can get a date now without putting glitter lotion on their bodies.
The movie didn’t stray too much from the book so that was very impressive. I’ve long since accepted that film and novel mediums can never ever be the same. There will always be adjustments and it’s up to the screenwriter to try and merge the two mediums and be as loyal as possible. Unlike some that I don’t want to mention. (*cough*Dragonball Z*cough*)
I loved the scenic cinematography, hated some of the indoor camera job. IT’S NOT “THIRTEEN” CATHERINE! Twilight is not a documentary. So kudos to “some” of the crew. Lots of kudos to the casting director. But I stand by my Steven Strait Jacob. There will never be another in my heart.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that, if Twilight weren’t so popular, maybe I wouldn’t be thinking like this right now. Its popularity has become its downfall. How could the book that should have been my favorite, be the one that I learned to insult so much?
In conclusion, I am a hypocrite. I HATE WHAT HAPPENED TO TWILIGHT. But I will always love it.
