Emily Grant Privett

People obsess over the little things.  One of which is Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight, later to be followed by New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn.  Since the past few years, one cannot walk the street without hearing about this new vampire and werewolf phenomenon.  It is everywhere surrounded by mobs of teen girls and moms, with the occasional male thrown in here and there.  Why did a book of this genre find so much success?  What is its secret?  Why is there such a following?

When this book first came out, I knew practically nothing about it until I was forced to read it by a friend.  I eventually found myself sucked into the event, soon to be considered a wave of enthusiasm about this series.  Little did I know then what this seemingly simple story was about to become.

This is not to say demeaning things about the readers of these books as I too have been sucked into this pop culture phenomenon they call literature, but this is to stand as an argument to convince those from wasting their precious time with such frivolous activities.  This series may be addicting but is not worthy of your time.

Many young girls find comfort in this series because they find the main character relatable.  Yes, young Bella Swan is your seemingly average high school girl, crushing on the not-so-average high school teen or not teen.  She may be clumsy and quiet.  Bella moves to a new town where she feels to be an outcast.  She is a member of a broken family with her father living in Forks, Washington, and her mother and step-father residing in Jacksonville, Florida.  But if you think that you are a clumsy, clueless, helpless girl, living in a small, wet town surrounded by dangerous creatures and an oblivious police force, you have a sad life, my friend.

The world that our protagonist lives in is a complete and utter fairly tale, not in the sense of the world itself, but by the people, or should I say monsters that reside in it.  From nomadic vampires to werewolves and shape-shifters, this universe is entirely surreal.  The innocent townspeople survive “animal attacks” that really happened to be attacks from hungry vampires.  It is strange that these “hungry vampires” only exist in a few places in the world.  Never do we read about vampires attacking the people of  other states, such as Wyoming or Maine, but they all reside in places like Washington, Alaska, and Europe.

It is also strange that when Bella is told that half of her friends are beasts, she finds it so easy to believe.  After accidentally brushing her hand on Edward, and she feels his icy skin, she automatically starts to think that he is non-human.  If I went up to a friend and was like, “Hey, I don’t eat normal food, and my skin is always cold, and my eyes are weird,” the first thing that pops into her head is not going to be the fact that I’m a vampire.  It’s not even that he told her what he was.  She decided to Google his features and easily “discovered” what he was.  She had to believe what the Internet told her, because everyone always knows that the Internet NEVER lies.

Why are people so obsessed over Edward Cullen?  I’m not going to lie, I had a little obsession over him myself, but the more I think about it, I really can’t give a practical explanation why.  The first time we meet this Edward character he looks as if he is about to explode.  Of course she has to sit with him, and of course she thinks he’s a bit strange.  After missing for the next few days, he appears acting completely differently with different-colored eyes.  Upon further investigation, we discover that he is a complete creep.  He stares at her through her window at night by climbing up a tree outside of her room.  He can’t sit in the same room with her without staring at her.  He is completely obsessive over her existence, and this is all before she discovers what he truly is.  After she finds out he is a vampire, she is completely fine with his actions because she loves him.  I’m not sure about you, but someone who shows up everywhere, stares at me while I’m sleeping, and randomly disappears and reappears, doesn’t sound like a romantic to me.  She is willing to believe anything he tells her.  And like a child, she follows his every action.

Time after time, Edward willingly hurts Bella, knowing what kind of effect it will have on her.  He pulls himself away from her after previously forcing himself on her just a few chapters before.  Who would want to live in the footsteps of someone who would continuously hurt her time after time?  She spends all of her time thinking about this creature that is creepy and cold, no pun intended.  Other than his physical attractiveness, what is really attractive about the character of this being?  The reasons for liking him are few.

She spends the majority of her time around Edward and his vegetarian vampire “family”: Edward, a mind reader; Alice, one who can more or less see the future; Jasper, one who can tamper with emotions; Emmet, the strong one; Rosalie; Esme, the mother figure; and the father figure Carlisle, the doctor.  Stephanie Meyer has a sense of humor when she created this family.  She transcends all stereotypical vampire assumptions.  The vampires never sleep, as assumed about most vampires, but unlike fake vampires, these “real” ones have a crucifix in their home, and their father is a doctor, dealing with blood every day.  It no longer affects him and eventually hardly affects any of the other members of the family.  This family is a group of vegetarians.  Instead of living off of human blood, they survive solely on animal blood, as not to kill off the people.

Bella also finds herself living in the midst of werewolves.  When she’s not spending all of her times around bloodsuckers, she is living among the dogs.  The only beings she associates herself around willingly are non-human.  And of course, what kind of story is it without your classic species conflict?  Vampire against werewolf, and both against man.  Not only is this conflict between the two different beasts, but it also evolves into a love triangle.  Edward and Jacob are enemies fighting over the love of their lives, Bella.  Not only has this character found herself stuck in a relationship with a vampire but also with a werewolf.  Needless to say, the situation got hairy.  One attractive fact about this story is that Bella has two “kind of people” fighting for her with their unconditional love.  The fact that Edward and Jacob are willing to do anything to gain her favor is what interests many.

Alongside these two feuding groups of people, there are vampires that are only concerned about themselves and are human killers.  These are the “weird” vampires.  They aren’t “normal” in comparison to the Cullen family.  They go after Bella, and in order to keep them away, Edward kills James.  James is Victoria’s mate, and obviously when James is killed, Victoria has to come back with a vengeance — how else would there be a sequel?

It is strange that the somewhat stereotypical vampire is the one that we classify as strange or evil in these books.  When a vampire is willing to drink animal blood, work in a hospital, or not mind the smell of garlic, we are completely accepting.  But the instant a vampire appears, one that does what vampires are generally thought to do, we find them utterly revolting and unworthy of life.  Now, this is not to say that their actions are pardoned because of their lifestyle, but this is to say that it is interesting to think that these characters are naturally rejected because they are your usual sort of vampire.

Stephenie Meyer’s pop culture sensation has affected the lives of many and not necessarily in a good way.  A countless number of people have thriving obsessions over the characters, and in some cases, these obsessions have impacted their lives.  There is no real reason why this series has become popular, or at least should be popular.  The story is rather predictable and the characters are weak.  It is sad to see what modern “literature” has become, though not worthy of being called literature.  There is no good, logical reason why this series is so popular, other than its ability for others to somewhat relate to it but only in minor ways.  It is full of love triangles and the main character just floats aimlessly through.  So, having said all of this, there is no real point in wasting time reading this pop culture sensation.  There is no real reason for its popularity and success.