Edited, Nov 3rd 2009 11:37pm by TirithRR

It's because every pre-teen, tween, & teen girl in America has read the books & wants to get hammered by Edward Cullen.

Why?

Because he sparkles.

I'd imagine it's much the same thing that caused a lot of us back when I was a stupid kid to get into the Anne Rice book craze.

Nah, Lestat was just @#%^ing cool & bad ass. Well, before Tales of the Body Thief. That book was ghey.

(Memnoch the Devil was cool, again, though)

I read them (GF had 'em) & they sucked. Granted, I'm aware I'm not the target audience, but to build up an entire series to one pivotal fight & have them talk it out was just cruel.

But, I read this thing that got leaked online where the author of the Twilight series (Stephanie Myers) wrote the first book from Edward's perspective & it was actually pretty cool. The fact that he's telepathic is almost glossed over, as the books are from Bella's perspective. & he can't read her mind. His telepathy is pretty much always on, so while it was from his perspective it was also a pseudo-omniscient perspective as well.

But she got PMS over the fact it was leaked & like a little girl decided she wasn't going to do it anymore.

Bitch.

Her other book, The Host (GF also bought), wasn't horrible.

It's true about the sparkles.

I was watching the movie (I carelessly stumbled across it at the video store, read the cover and figured it would be a decent vampire movie) when Edward says they don't go into the light, because it shows their true form. He takes that chick through the forest into the sunny patch and I was like "Hells yeah, we're gonna see black smoke, red eyes, membraned wings of awesome and fangs" and then he starts to sparkle. I think I lost a lot of respect for the movie there. So vampires don't go into the sun because it reveals their final form of... glitter? Ooh, scary.

As for Anne Rice, I enjoyed the Vampire movie and loved the Mummy novel. The latter wasn't exactly "teenage romance," though. Unless teenage romance involves a smoking hot resurrected Cleopatra to have sex with you and then snap your back like a twig afterwards. In which case Species, I imagine, would have quite an audience as well. Tongue action!

Thinking back, it's true that the Twilight story caters to a lot of young females. Even more so in the sequel where that native guy gets a haircut and turns out to be a wolfie, rawr. Vampires vs. Lycan-- woops, werewolves. Yeah, original.

Funny thing is, my sister has read the books and watched the movie and she's normally very, um, sane when it comes to judging pretty boys. I was discussing the movie with her and I told her how I didn't get the mania going on. The actor portraying Edward wasn't even that good-looking (I can say stuff like that without questioning my sexuality, by the way). She just dropped her jaw on the floor and told me he was such a "hunk" and dark and handsome. I was like, girl, look at his face. No, look at his face when it doesn't sparkle! Yeah, he's like 10% of the handsome seen in any teenage movie these days. Yes, he's tall and has that dark gothic /wrist thing going on, but seriously, he's not hot.

She couldn't follow me. It was then I realized that the mania had claimed yet another victim. A girl who will never again be normal until she nails that sparkly vampire guy who can't be with her but won't leave her alone.

Bleah.

Some of us still hold out hope for humanity?

Only question is: Will the werewolf sparkle?

Yeah, but Anne Rice can write.

Wow...how have I lived so many years amongst Harry Potter fans and fic'cers without ever having caught a whiff of this phenomenon? It hurts, and yet...I...can't...stop....

It totally was. I think thats why it was my favorite.

Edited, Nov 4th 2009 11:05pm by Dyadem

Just wait until he discovers the drinking game that goes along with it. :D

"My Immortal" has nothing on "Artemis's Lover." That fanfic was so bad, my husband printed out a copy and slapped a UN warning label on it saying it violated the Geneva convention.

You think that's bad, you should read "A sorceror, A Demon, and Emeralds." Now there is a story that'll make you rip your eyes out. I don't even dare to link the story. Of course, I read the slightly editted version from this website.

That link looks familiar, though ...

That was actually quite a good read, if you read the MST thing.

Laughed out loud a couple of times.

This. Verily this.

Actually, the TVTropes for Eye of Argon reminds me of an "epic story" I started writing when I was like 12. It was terrible and over 300 pages or so. Maybe I should see the infamy I can attain by putting it online at some point.

It was as much about socialist revolution and progress of class struggle as sex.

Edited, Nov 7th 2009 12:04am by Pensive

"Blackwood Farm" and "Blood Canticle" disagree with you though. Seriously, seriously disagree with you.

I suppose we can blame Anne Rice for the current Twilight tragedy, she set the scene for the misunderstood, rebel, gothic, mostly all gay, or bi at the very least, except if they're women as far as I can recall, vampire.

But admittedly, apart from those two truly awful books, she did it rather well. "Memnoch the Devil", "Blood and Gold", "Interview with the Vampire",... all are pretty darn good. (imo anyway)

I wouldn't read Twilight if someone put a gun at my head. Or rather I would but I wouldn't remember a word I read, although I do tend to vividly remember the worst stories I read for some reason.

True Blood ftw.

I know you're mentioning the age for comparison to the preteens, but I read that as if there is a large age gap between you and her. Now I'm imagining you as a 30 yr. old with a hot 22 y.o. girlfriend. No offense =/.

loledwardcullen, I've seen hotter guys on the buses at school. Why can't they just swoon over Brad Pitt and George Clooney like they're supposed to?

I think his role as Floyd in True Romance is the best thing he's ever done.

I like it. I like it probably more than many "young adult" or "teen" directed fiction. No need to hate it just because it's popular...that frame of mind is also only cool to the younger crowd.

I read the first of the Harry Potter novels, directed at roughly the same age group but I didn't care for them. The Twilight books were a little better written (though, as with all teen novels, written with the tendency to hit you over the head repeatedly with any important plot point but that's to be expected). I enjoyed the character development of the side characters at least as much as I enjoyed the main characters...possibly a fair bit more. I found the ending of the series predictable, but that doesn't make it bad either. Sometimes predictable is fun. The movie was, and I never say this, about as good as the book. The minor tweaks that the director made to the plot weren't horrible and the soundtrack and cinematography were fun. I really enjoyed the baseball scene. It probably helps that I like most of the bands on the soundtrack.

It's just another supernatural Pride and Prejudice for teens, really. Nothing to be overwhelmingly excited about but certainly nothing to look upon with great disdain...unless you're just one of those people that hates anything that's popular.

Nexa

Just for the record, I don't hate it because it's popular. I hate it because it sends the wrong message to the target audience: teenage girls. It tells them that it's okay for a boyfriend to break into your house and watch you sleep. It's okay for him to be controlling over different aspects of your life. It's okay if he's borderline abusive, because he loves you! Oh, and let's not forget the classy, it's okay to not have an abortion when the fetus will kill you!

I'll admit, I haven't read the books and I haven't seen the movie. I've read enough in different reviews of the book to be extremely bothered by the Twilight mania though. I actually really like the Harry Potter books, and I think they try and pass on good values to the readers: the importance of friendship is a huge one. Twilight on the other hand, no. All it does is promote the author's conservative/Mormon views on her audience, and I think that's incredibly @#%^ed up. I've also heard a lot of people complain that her books aren't even well written, but I'm not going to agree or disagree with that since I haven't read the books. However, the idea of Edward "sparkling" is just retarded.

haha, I see that you haven't read the books. It's funny that you'd have so many comments on what happens in a book and a movie you haven't read/watched, but to each their own...I'm more of the "original research and form your own opinions type".

I like the back story and human interest of each of the books and I think they both have their arguably good and bad influences. I think it's a little silly to take the protective behavior of a vampire who is trying to keep his human girlfriend safe from another set of vampires set on murdering her to the level of "it teaches kids that obsessive boyfriends are cool". Also, the abortion thing is just silly. I'm certainly pro choice but I would never favor FORCING a woman to have one against her will.

Again, I've read both, neither are fantastically well written or will go down as literary classics...they're just fun fantasy and both are perfectly safe for teenagers to read. I've read a lot, and I've done a lot of research on both literature and psychology and there's nothing that jumps out at me as anything but silly fun. I guess if someone were unstable, that would be another problem, but hell...the meow mix commercial could be dangerous then.

Nexa