The
book, Twilight by Stephenie Meyer hit
the self of bookstore in 2005 and become an overnight pop cultural phenomenon
among U.S. teen girl. I asked myself
what make teen girls read Twilight
and follow the adventures of Bella and Edward, who is a Vampire? Is it
because vampire is sexy with a hint of danger or because Bella is a damsel in
distress who needs to be rescued?
Mercer,
2011, in her article argued that the appeal of Twilight is the result of the ability to explore the sexual and
spiritual desire of girls. Over a period
of twelve months she talked to girls between the age of eleven and fifteens asking
them the questions “Are you reading Twilight? What do you think?” The feedback
is rather interesting and gives an insight with the obsession of vampire.
A
cleverly designed marking campaign targeting these teenagers from upper middle
class with the spending power who have been coached into loving vampires and
into buying the products such backpacks, guidebooks and clothing to share their
pleasure with their friends. Social media such as Twitter which focus
everything on Twilight from press
release, blogs and discussion group all help to keep the interest and
consummation high.
The fears of isolation from friend of appearing
and the feeling of being left out and the inability to don’t share any inside
knowledge of Twilight. Luci, one of the girl interviewed said,
“The day I finally said, ‘this is it I just have to read the
stupid thing’ was one day when my friends at lunch started saying, ‘Oo, look at
Andrew, he’s going to imprint on you’ [a reference to the mysterious, fated
bonding that falls upon werewolves in Meyer’s books] and I was like, ‘What are
you talking about?’ and they sort of laughed at me turned their backs on me
because I didn’t know how to be in the conversation. That felt bad.” (p. 267).
But when she finally gets to read the book,
she said, “ .. but these books are definitely page-turners. And now I know what
everyone is talking about. I don’t like to be left out” (p. 267).
The
pleasure the girls get from reading Twilight, ‘a kind of jouissance clearly
involving the readers’ desires evoked through the account of Bella and Edward’s
erotic yearning, alongside the pleasure of curiosity about what would happen
next in the lives of these characters’. (p. 267)
Lexi,
who is 13 years old, who told Mercer,
“but actually the main reason I
couldn’t stop is that when I read this book I feel all these intense feelings
inside, when I’m in these stories it’s like I’m the one in love. . . . Oh, and
Edward is so hot.” (p. 265)
Edward,
the sexy vampire with a hint of danger and Lexi, the Bella in the book, the
damsel in distress, the ability of Lexi
to relate to the characters in the book and movie. It is any wonder young teenagers are swooning
over Edward and not over Homer Simpson?
The
question is: Should teenager read Twilight?
Is it bad for them?
Reference:
Mercer, J. A. (2011). Vampires, desire, girls
and god: Twilight and the spiritualities of adolescent girls. Pastoral
Psychology, 60(2), 263-278. doi:10.1007/s11089-010-0322-7
http://link.springer.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/article/10.1007/s11089-010-0322-7/fulltext.html
I’m sure many would disagree with me but I don’t think there’s anything “bad” about Twilight. I confess I really loved the Twilight series – except for New Moon (because I can buy the vampires but not the werewolves!). I know it’s not well-written and I found the number of errors in it really annoying, but there was something about the storyline. It would never have been on my “bookshelf” but for TD (teenage daughter – although, at the time, she wasn’t quite; more a tween than a teen). I’m almost embarrassed to admit that TD was not a reader; she was the victim of an English teacher mother who spent too much time on lesson prep and marking to notice that her daughter’s engagement with written text was not what it should be. Just as I struggled to engage her with reading, the Twilight tidal wave was gaining momentum. As you point out, the marketing of the series was phenomenal but I decided to capitalise on it. As TD started to show an interest, I made a deal with her: no book, no movie (plus I had to read them, too)! And that’s all it took … she was hooked on reading. She devoured all four novels in the Twilight series and didn’t stop. She ravenously read whatever she could find – Vampire Academy, Vampire Diaries … but eventually she got to Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Somewhere along the way, she also discovered other authors too – Jane Austen, the Brontes, F. Scott Fitzgerald and many more. I owe Stephanie Meyer a big thank you. Not only is TD a voracious reader but at a time when relationships between mothers and daughters can become a little distant, we bonded over vampires. So Twilight gets a tick from me!
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