So last night I was dinking around on facebook looking at flair and amusing myself greatly. At least, I was 90% amused, 10% disgusted: there was more Twilight flair per page than anything else! Gag me with a pair of forks! (Oh bother.... ☺)
Of course this actually led to a new ratio: 50% amused, 50% disgusted, 100% intrigued. I have steered clear of Twilight like it was some contagious pandemic, giving it a nod only insofar as I watched the original trailer, read the back of the latest book thinking it would be about the book and not an actual excerpt (more forks, please), heard the plot from Beth, and thoroughly enjoyed the post about the movie by my friend and fellow-bloggette here. I'm intrigued because a.) if so many people agree it's pretty much trash at the least and chick porn at the most, b.) what's the base appeal, and c.) what does it mean?
Obviously, since I'm writing this blog, I think I can answer all three questions. I'm guessing the base appeal, whether it's trash or chick porn, is that here we finally have men. Okay, they're not precisely human men, but that's just the point: a Mormon stay-at-home mom had to invent super-human, pathological, blood-sucking vampires to produce the characteristics women long for in their men every day-- fidelity, protection, desire, ability, perseverance, intelligence.
These are not alien ideas, girls. God thought them up years ago. In fact all of those spring from God in the first place, and He has woven them into His image: humanity. We aren't aberrant to want them. They aren't even unrealistic because God is still in the business of perfecting His children, and though it does seem like there are only a few good men out there, I promise you, they are more prolific than vampires.
Hmm. Looks like it might be time to write that post about imprinting I've been planning for over a year.
2 comments:
Thank you for saying so succinctly what has been floating around my brain for awhile. I can't even divide my disgust/amusement 50/50, I tend towards disgust more and I refuse to expend more brain power on it. I think my loathing comes from the overabundance of grown women who have fallen in love with twilight and all the pre-teens being led astray.
I read the first hundred pages of Twilight (purely because I was curious about why a girl I knew [age 11] was hooked on it), and this was my response:
http://acoolcleanrain.blogspot.com/2009/08/aaaah-twilight.html
I didn't pick up any of what you mentioned about "men" and the characteristics you identify as the ones she gave them. Every scene involving the "men" were focused on shallowness (if a synonym for "beautiful" exists and she didn't use it, I'd be shocked).
As for why it's popular, I have a few theories:
1. People think it's a cute, innocent story (*gag*).
2. It's fashionable now to have a "bad side" and indulge in things that are dark and they KNOW is bad... and they like it.
3. Girls are obsessed with gorgeous, beautiful, ethereal, mysterious, etc. males, regardless of their character.
4. People read it to be accepted into the Twilight crowd.
...That's what I got out of it. And I think all four theories are true to some extent. They're what I picked up from the book and watching people in real life. As for why the 11-yo girl was reading it, I know for sure the reasons are 1 and 4. She's not old enough to understand the subtle messages (which to me is kind of scary).
K, I'll stop writing you a book now. :-P I didn't think much of Twilight, and I'm not going to touch any more.
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