Decoding Twilight #1

Ok, so you'd need to have been stuck under a rock somewhere to not notice Twilight. When the DVD was released in Australia, it sold a massive 264,077 copies in the first week. That's huge - particularly for a rather ordinary movie. Huge hordes of girls are calling themselves twihards and wearing "I love Edward" t-shirts. There's even a new internet acronym: OME replaces OMG.

What's the deal? Is it something to get on board with, or something to hiss and point crucifixes and garlic at? Here's the first in a few posts decoding the Twilight phenomenon, and what it might mean for the young people you work with.

What is it?
For anyone who's been in a coma for the past few years (or happily occupied elsewhere), Twilight started out as a young adult fiction book, written by Stephenie Meyer. It was based on a dream she had one night where a young vampire was talking in a meadow to a young girl, explaining how he struggled between his love for her and his overwhelming urge to drink her blood. It's basically a romance, rather than a horror tale. There's very little of the gory stuff, and more of the heaving bosoms of chaste but desiring young things. Think of it as Gone With the Wind, or Pride and Prejudice for the 21st Century.

Key Characters
Bella - the heroine of the tale. She is supposed to be average, physically clumsy but intellectually clever. The child of divorce, she chooses to live with her father in a rainy small town so her mother can travel with her new man.
Edward - the hero. Appearing on the outside to be a handsome yet pale and imposing teenager, he is in fact a hundred-year-old vampire. He's part of a "family" of vampires headed by Carlisle Cullen, who is at least 350 years old, though he looks 23.
Jacob Black - a member of the Quileute tribe, Jacob is a year younger than Bella, but in later books discovers that he is a werewolf. He's the main rival for Bella's affections.

Other characters - there's a host of other key characters in the book: Bella's Dad, the other teens at school, the rest of the Cullen family, etc etc. But the four-novel story mainly revolves around Bella's love triangle, and the regular rescues from mortal danger that she requires...

Vampires and Other Dark things
In this tale, vampires have largely lost their dark and sinister nature. Sure, there are a couple of bad-guy vampires who show their faces, but they're firmly in the background for the most part. Instead of being coffin-dwelling, virgin-killing creatures of the night, they're more like superheroes. They stay out of direct sunlight, sure, but it's not because they're going to turn to dust. It's because their skin sparkles like diamonds, showing they're "different".

In fact, there are many points in the book where Bella is more like Lois Lane trying to discern Superman's secret identity than a young girl at risk of being taken by a vampire. Edward has more similarities with Superman than Lestat: he's super fast, super strong, has super hearing, and he can read people's minds (OK, so Superman didn't have that one, but he had X-Ray vision, so it's close). Lois/Bella also keeps getting herself into trouble where she needs to be rescued. Vampirism in this tale is largely removed from its Occult beginnings, and given a benign image: they're "vegetarian" vampires who live on the blood of animals rather than people.

James Dean Strikes again
Twilight taps into the classic "really good bad boy" archetype. Edward has a past: he's killed people before. He looks young, but is actually very old (my husband has said: "if Hugh Hefner had plastic surgery to look 17, would we be happy with him pursuing a 17 year old girl?"). As someone mentioned to me once, "Most 15 year old girls want the guys in their year to be more mature than they are." Edward fits that completely. He's handsome and dangerous, but besotted with an average girl. He fights his darker urges to be a protector instead of a predator. Well, that's what the story says, anyway.



Good thing #1: It's OK to be different
Being different is the constant fear of teenagers' life. They want to be individuals, sure, but Bella's predicament is common to many. She stands out when she just wants to blend in. The books place her firmly in the heroine's spot, and along with Edward and Jacob, make the point that different = special. Particularly when you have superpowers. Or a couple of superhero boys nearby.

Problem #1: Dangerous is usually, well, Dangerous
Twilight is a great fantasy. But the number of girls who have turned it into reality is a problem. Because most guys who have that "dangerous" air about them turn out to actually be dangerous. Not in a "I could succumb and suck your blood" kind of way, but in a "I could snap and put you into hospital" kind of way.