Much to the delight of millions of screaming preteen girls-and my Editor-the “Twilight” movie came out on DVD last week.
The release was fairly unremarkable, unless you consider utter pandemonium remarkable. Target looked like World War III had swept through with the unthinkable reality of bare shelves in the DVD section, women vociferously crying upon hearing the release had sold out, and life-size stand up advertisements of vampires tipped over like a child’s building blocks.
In case you somehow missed hearing about “Twilight” until this column, the operative word in that last sentence was, “vampires.” Yes, not since Buffy and her ilk walked the Earth-or at least the creepy confines of the ill-fated WB Network-have vampires been so gosh darned cool.
“Twilight” is a film based on a book by Stephanie Meyer that recounts an impassioned tale of teenage love and longing between the utterly ordinary and slightly clumsy Bella Swan-a groan-worthy name if there ever was one-and Edward Cullen, an utterly cool, sexy, brooding, carved-from-marble “vegetarian” vampire who eats animals instead of humans.
If you can’t see why this book and its three follow-ups-”New Moon,” “Eclipse,” and “Breaking Dawn,”-became instant best sellers, you’ve forgotten what high school was like.
The likelihood of a high school crush-and let’s be honest, high school crushes are much more aptly described as secret obsessions-developing into a real relationship is almost non-existent. The idea that a normal girl like Bella could end up with the coolest kid in school - Edward - is incredibly empowering for the sort of teenagers that you would find reading books about vampire romance in the first place, rather than out with a case of cheap beer in an orchard.
The even more amazing part about this whirlwind high school romance-and, warning, spoilers are coming for those of you who’ve yet to finish the saga-is that Bella and Edward don’t have sex until they are married in Book 4, “Breaking Dawn.” In fact, the couple is surprisingly chaste throughout the series, only kissing for a few seconds at a time before things get too intense and Edward has to step back before he gets carried away and accidentally kills Bella.
You see, the book describes Edward as enamored with Bella’s scent, that he finds it somehow intoxicating and delicious. As for Bella, we follow the whole relationship from her perspective and are brought to understand just how important Edward is to her, how strongly she feels about him, and how badly she wants him.
And yet, the two don’t “get jiggy with it,” as Will Smith might say, until they are away on their honeymoon. The entire concept is almost more amazing than the notion of a vampire falling in love with a human in the first place. And, unlike pulp romance rags, the depiction of Edward and Bella’s union is entirely off the page, merely hinted at with the two swimming in the ocean and then waking up the next morning in bed surrounded by torn pillows.
According to a story published in the Salt Lake City Tribune, this implied sex scene between married, consenting adults, has led a junior high library in Utah to unofficially ban the book, keeping it off the shelves and unavailable for checkout. That’s right, the story of a teen couple that managed to keep chaste for years-and thousands of pages, as Meyer is nothing if not verbose-only to consummate their marriage on their honeymoon, is considered too hot for libraries.
Even better, the book immediately points out the potential side effects of sex, as Bella becomes pregnant with a demon-spawn half-vampire, half-human child that comes due in just a few weeks. The difficult pregnancy even kills Bella-only for her to be brought back as a vampire by Edward, of course-making the whole notion of sex seem utterly unappealing.
I find it incredible that, in this day and age, any librarian, parent, or even vampire would turn down a story about a relatively healthy relationship. If you want to ban books in the series based on the violence-which can, admittedly, get a little heated with torn-to-bits vampires set afire screaming-then that’s another discussion, though I still believe that banning books for any reason is a horrible practice.
Books give us a window into other peoples’ lives; they help us to understand things that we otherwise never would. Even Vladimir Nabokov’s “Lolita,” a tale about a pedophile, for all intents and purposes, is ranked among the best literature of all time and belongs on anyone’s bookshelf.
Just because you don’t like something doesn’t mean it isn’t there, and ignoring a problem only makes it worse. A book like “Twilight” opens the discussion into teen romance and sex. Keeping kids from reading about vampires in love isn’t going to stop them from having sex, by any means.
If I ever have teenage daughters, I am certainly going to pass along my copies of the “Twilight” series to my likely nerdy children, assuming people still read books then. The series paints a surprisingly realistic portrait of teen romance with all its joys and perils, showing that anything is possible and that-yes-sex is something you can wait for.
After all, as “Twilight” so wonderfully explains, relationships aren’t about sex, contrary to what MTV might tell us. They’re about love. Which is far more dangerous than vampires, in the grand scheme of things.
To contact Alex Cantatore, e-mail acantatore@turlockjournal.com or call 634-9141 ext. 2005.
Originally published in the Turlock Journal 3/28/2009.
Retrieved from the Turlock Journal Web site.