Accismus

- a form of irony, a pretended refusal of something one desires

This Twilight craze got to me.

Before Christmas, my curiosity got the best of me and I started reading the now infamous Twilight series. A week and four books later, I had finished said Twilight series. Some might assume that because I read the books so fast I was addicted to them. That's not really the case, I do that with all books. I'm in such a hurry to find out what happens that I stay up for 72 straight hours, doing nothing but reading. But alas, I finished and last night I watched the movie. What better place is there to comment but on my blog? C'mon, everyone's doing it... :)

For starters, Stephanie Meyers, good job on creating a fairly interesting plot and set of characters. The writing style itself was nothing immensely fascinating or unique, but then again, when your audience is 13-18 year old girls who read the book for a dreamy male character, prose is not your priority.

Moving on to content, I won't deny being intrigued by the story outlined in the four books. BUT, I had trouble believing the story. And no, not because there were vampires and werewolves, etc. I have no problem believing in such fantastically, unrealistic things in a book, but I had a huge time believing the love story/stories that occur in this book. The characters lack what I consider the "realness" factor, they are perfect in every way, including their 'flaws". Yes even their 'flaws' are perfect.

Now perhaps I'm a bit jaded as a 21 year old in a completely amazing relationship, that I just can't get excited about a fictious relationship between a klutzy human and a blindingly good looking vampire. But maybe it's just because the characters are so inherently unrelatable. Edward (main vampire) is the quintessential protective, mysterious, and completely romantic male that falls madly for the most unlikely of girls, Bella. Bella is the qunitessential klutzy, non-belonginging, indepedent girl. Together their relationship is what ever girl desires. Action, romance, anger, sadness, passion, adventure and throughout it all, complete and utter bliss. But seriously, who can believe that any relationship has that much going on. Most nights with Justin result in doing homework, the occasional movie, maybe a night out for dinner etc. And we're ok with that, in fact, I daresay if we were under the same stress of the characters in the book, we would have a rough time remaining sane enough to be in love.

Ms. Meyers, I assume, meant the characters to have these flaws that makes them more relatable. Edward's wayward passion, Bella's emotional instability, Jasper's ironic lifestyle, Jacob and his impatience. But what she does instead is give them the perfect flaws to make the story even MORE perfect. Seriously, Edward would be so much more relatable if he occasionally ditched Bella for a night with the guys, or if Jacob could once in awhile chill out and just be around Bella without freakign out. I can't really explain it but to say that while reading the book, I was so frustrated at how perfectly unreal everything was that it prevented me from truly loving the book with the same intensity that I see in my peers.

Only I would expect a book about a romance between a human and a vampire to be realistic.

On to the movie. Someone described it to me as being the most melodramatic thing to hit a screen since early episodes of 90210. Obviously, they never read the books. I really never enjoy movies made from books. I try to enjoy them, but they can never fully live up to how the story unfolds in my head. This is just as true with Harry Potter. So I watched Twilight with the knowledge that I probably wouldn't love it, but could enjoy it for its entertainment value. And I did. I won't pay 10 dollars to go see Twilight 2 in theaters, nor will I be buying the DVD, but I was impressed with how closely they stuck to the book. Props. They strayed slightly, but only for time's sake I imagine.

I imagine I've lost the interest of most of my readers by now, but I miss being able to have literary criticism discussions. My only advice to the male readers, particularly those of the MSOE variety, is this... girls are madly in love with Twilight for a very distinct reason. Those books are like a manual to the mind of the average 15-20 year old. Read them, and take a few notes. If nothing else, when your future girlfriend drags you to the movie, at least you'll know what's going on ;)