The Infamous Sparkly Vampires...

This isn't a formal piece on it yet, but a lot of you commented that you either want or don't want me to do a piece on Twilight so I might. If I do it will be on the one movie I've seen as I really don't care to see more of them.

First off let me say that yes, I liked the books. I miss the days when you could go up to someone and ask "Have you read Twilight?" and they would answer, "No, what's that?" (And yes, there was a point where you could do that. It was nice.) I truly think the movies have destroyed the books' reputations as they've brought out all the crazies, mainly teenage girls (and a couple of middle aged women.) This is not to say the Twilight series are among my favorite novels. In fact, Stephanie Meyers completely overlooked book, The Host, was my favorite work by her, not any of the vampire nonsense. Which is nonsense, I've never understood the vampire thing (always been a fan of dragons personally.)

Which brings me to my second bash: sparkle. We all know what I'm talking about there. For those who somehow missed one of the most picked on novel moves of its time, in the book and film Twilight the main male character Edward Cullen leads the main female character Bella deep into the woods to show her the secret of what happens to him in sunlight. I, as I am reading the scene (haven't seen it--I watched New Moon, or rather was forced to by my mother which is a much longer story) am thinking Edward is now going to turn into some dark, twisted, awesome creature or something and then... ...and then... ...he sparkles. I cannot express how utterly disappointed and infuriated I was with that. I wholly embrace the idea of taking old ideas (vampires) and giving them new twists, but sparkles? This is a creature of the night, a dark, demonic force. Demons do not sparkle, darkness does not sparkle, NIGHT DOES NOT SPARKLE. Sorry, but I'm not the only one bothered by this.

However, to not entirely bash Twilight allow me to make this point to people: it's not all bad. There are a few exciting twists to the story, and the characters are a bit interesting (if not occasionally infuriating, but real people can be too). The problem with Twilight is not what it is, it's what it has become: a huge, obnoxiously funded cult. Admit it: if we were still at the point where someone could say "You read Twilight?" and you answered honestly, "No, what is it?" you'd like it more. Fame can make something famous...
...and it can make something infamous.