E&H Professor reflects on Twilight Craze

The number one movie in the country right now started off as a mere dream that came to a middle aged woman one night. New Moon – the second instillation of the Twilight saga – is currently ripping through Box Office records after its November 20 release date. On its midnight premiere, the second movie in this four-part series set a new record for midnight showing sales, earning around 26.3 million dollars. It already has surpassed the earnings that Twilight received over its whole run, which lasted roughly from November 2008 until January 2009. With just about two weeks in theatres, New Moon has already earned over $200 million. Whether you love it or hate it, the phenomenon is here to stay.

Hooking an audience from middle-school aged girls all the way to grandmothers in their seventies, it is obvious that the series has to have some kind of an appeal. However, that appeal varies from person to person. Some people enjoy the romance, some people enjoy the twist on classic monsters, and some people just love looking at Robert Pattinson. On the contrary, just like with any other societal craze, there are the people who cannot stand the phenomenon.

Students may not realize it, but there are two classes offered here at Emory and Henry that list Stephenie Meyers’ Twilight as required reading. Kathleen Chamberlain teaches the book in both Introduction to Women’s Studies (WMST 200) and Women in Literature (ENGL 345), but her take on the popular novel might surprise some.

In the Women’s Studies course, the book is taught from the perspective of problems with gender definitions. Those who have read the book realize that there are some severe gender differences in place from the very beginning of the series. Bella Swan, the damsel in distress of this saga, is instantly dependent on the dangerous vampire that she falls in love with, Edward Cullen. In New Moon, Edward leaves, and Bella is left with a hole in her life that she seems unable to fill for months. As soon as she begins hanging out with werewolf pal, Jacob Black, this hole is filled with yet another male. When the work is examined from this angle, Bella is the stereotypical helpless female who needs a male in her life to survive and be happy.

In the Women in Literature course, the book is taught in regards to those gender elements in addition to literary issues. Writing style, structure, and language are all taught with the book in this English course.
Professor Chamberlain first read Twilight in preparation for the Women’s Studies course. She hasn’t read the other three books, but thinks that she will in the future to balance out her views on the series. To Chamberlain, the appeal of the book is very different from the accurately named “Twihard” fans.

So what is most fascinating to her about Twilight? “The fact that it is such a huge cultural phenomenon. Any time something takes the culture by storm in this way, it’s worth analyzing. I want to know why our culture seems, at the moment, to need ethical vampire stories and why this particular ethical vampire story meets our needs so well,” Chamberlain said.

This point is definitely one worth considering. With hoards of memorabilia for sale, fights breaking out over which ‘team’ a person belongs to, and all the attention the three stars who play the main characters receive, it’s obvious that the world can’t get enough of this series.

Deviating from the stereotypical vampire that we’ve seen throughout the ages, the vampires in Twilight feed off of animals, sparkle in the sunlight, and have no sharp pointy teeth. Even though several times throughout the series (books and movies) Edward makes it blatantly clear to Bella that he is designed to kill humans and could indeed eat her, she insists that she doesn’t care. Of course, he never ends up hurting her, but the point still remains that he could. The fact that his family doesn’t feed off humans has made it socially acceptable to have a particular affinity for vampires. No other vampire tale in history has stuck like this one has.

“I don’t like the book at all; I think it’s poorly-written and offers potentially-dangerous, regressive messages about gender and sex. But I have no problem if my students like it! Two of my ten students last year were great fans. I don’t want to ‘bash’ the book, just try to understand it. And I can definitely see why the books are so popular, why they appeal so strongly to readers.”

Chamberlain is right, the books are nothing short of a whirlwind phenomenon that has captivated young and old, male and female alike. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly why this has happened. Perhaps it is the lightheartedness of the reading that offers consumers fast entertainment. Perhaps it is the visual effects that the movies offer up as vampires fly through the air and werewolves transform into larger-than-life creatures in the blink of an eye. Or perhaps it is merely the intense love triangle that is created among Bella, Edward and Jacob which has ignited the sale of t-shirts proudly displaying which “team” you are on. Chamberlain bats for the werewolf.

“To the extent that I’m a team player at all, I’d have to go with Jacob. He’s at least interesting and has a modicum of complexity; Edward, on the other hand, I find silly,” she says.

The books, as entertaining as they may be, are not masterpieces that will go down in history for their literary genius. The films (so far) aren’t Oscar worthy, though they are earning millions upon millions of dollars, and aren’t showing any signs of stopping yet (the next installment, Eclipse, is slated for a June 2010 release). Yet despite these factors, the whole world is intently watching while the love triangle between a human girl, an extravagant vampire, and a friendly werewolf unfolds on the big screen.

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