The Twilight Obsession

When I first heard about the Twilight saga a  year and a half ago, I at first felt a little squeamish. The idea of a vampire love story sounded childish , so I deflected the novel’s enticing advances. However, in the fall of 2008, my friends convinced me to see the film version of the first novel. While watching the amateurish special effects, I was lured into the story of a curious young girl who is swept off her feet by an introverted classmate…who may or may not be human. Fascinated by the story, I picked up a Twilight book, opened to page 1 and did not put it down. I begged people to read along to share my experience. Then, I soon began to understand that Twilight and its sequels are not really books about vampires, so much as about obsessive yet chaste love. No wonder they’re a sensation, echoing as they do other romances in our theatrical history: Romeo & Juliet and Jack & Rose come to mind.
So here I am, a year later, a Twilight fanatic. I’m not the only one. The just-released Twilight sequel New Moon has smashed Fandango’s advanced ticket selling history, beating out Stars Wars Episode III,Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and The Dark Knight, respectively. Romance beating out blockbusters…somewhere, my high school films teacher is having a laugh about this one. Love does conquer all.
I’m going to see it this weekend, so stay tuned for an update early next week!