Weird Weekend – Vampires, Werewolves, and Bestsellers, Oh My!
So I’ve got to work on the consistency thing, but it seems that for the first time in a long time I’ve bitten off way more than I can chew. Getting the garden going, managing feeding, watering and cleaning up after 29 chickens takes up the little time I have after work. I found myself falling asleep at my computer!
But with the weekend comes extra sleep and some free time, so here is my next Weird Weekend installment.
On my breaks at work, I’ve been reading New Moon. I’m sure this will cause legions of girls to hate me…but I was not impressed with Twilight, and didn’t get its appeal. There must be far too many years between me and my angst-ridden teens. And while I was deep in their throes, yes, I fantasized about odd things, but nothing about snuggling up to an icy cold, sparkly dead guy sounded awesome then or now. So I mostly yawned through the pages, irritated by Bella perpetual klutziness and self-deprecation and Edward’s arrogance and obsession.
I picked up Twilight in the spirit of research. I’ve written my own urban fantasy novel about werewolves, and for the two years I was constructing my own world, I avoided the genre. I’m a hardcore geek, former RPG’er, and life-long sci-fi fantasy reader, watcher, but by the time I came up for air and looked around, I was astonished by the sheer volume of choices out there. It is staggering, and I decided to start with this vampire/werewolf series, and try to figure out what was Twilight’s ‘IT’ factor?
Is this hot, or not? Source: http://digitalcitizen.ca/2009/12/30/twilight-and-new-moon-wallpapers-1024-x-768-pixels-part-1/edward-cullen-poster-1024×768/
I finished Twilight a few months ago and was baffled by ‘IT.’ A friend told me that the devotion Edward had for Bella was the hook for her, “I just wish I could find someone to love me like that.” To me, a stalker-ish dead guy with control issues is not sexy, it’s scary. To tell the truth, I found his character unlikeable, and Bella irritating. I was somewhere between 30 and 50 pages into New Moon when I realized ‘IT.’
I guess I am on Team Jacob, because he is so much Edward’s complete opposite; Stephanie Meyer emphasizes his warmth and Bella calls him the ‘sun.’ I never understood Bella’s attraction to Edward, but Jacob is another story! And somewhere in Bella’s mental maunderings I began to hear echoes of my 16-year-old self. I realized that if I were 16 right now, I would be devouring these books whole again and again. I wouldn’t have been into Edward, but I would have been all about Jacob. I too, would memorize every word, and treasure them up like gems. I was in a fair way to disliking the series, and somehow Stephanie Meyers managed to connect me to a person I thought I’d left far behind, my teenage self. I got ‘IT’! In Bella’s self-talk I could hear echoes of the young girl I was, sifting through every word said and expression change. What teenage girl has not thought that she was nothing special? Not pretty enough, not graceful, and always managing to say or do the wrong thing? Bella does all that and more and yet she still manages to get two (well, ONE, in my opinion) awesome, not to mention legendary guys to fall for her. How can that not cause hearts and minds to race, and imagine, just for a little while that you are that one, who, as my friend said, is so utterly loved? I even felt a little guilty that a declaration of devotion from a teen pre-werewolf could make my heart beat a little faster. I guess shapeshifters are just my thing.
Source: http://www.fanpop.com/spots/twilight-series/images/17273251/title/jacob-black-wolf-wallpaper
What about you? Are you Team Edward or Team Jacob? Do you get ‘IT’ or do you not understand the appeal of these books?
