Introduction

THE PURPOSE

In my internet adventures, I've come across several blogs where intelligent, well-intentioned people read Twilight and riff on it mercilessly, and while, over the course of this blog, riffing will probably be involved (if only for the sake of my sanity), I'm not as interested in why Twilight sucks, why it's anti-feminist, why it's stupid, or why it fails. Because it hasn't failed. It's been PHENOMENALLY successful. I know smart people, educated adults, who really enjoy this book, or else hate on it obsessively and yet still find themselves helplessly enthralled with it. Why? No one has sufficiently explained to me the quality that this book has that makes people hail it as a young woman's Catcher in the Rye (really?) or the romantic equivalent to the works of Jane Austen or the Bronte sisters. What sort of mesmerizing superpowers would a book with so many narrative problems have to have in order for someone, ANYONE, to make these statements? I want to know. I mean, I really want to know. So I'm going to read it. The whole thing.

THE PERSON

I’m a 23-year-old writer currently getting my masters in fiction and I’ll graduate this coming May. I’m very much into writing. I take it seriously. I have Dictionary.com set as my homepage. Right now, I’m fiction editor of The Greensboro Review, a literary journal that publishes poetry and short stories. I’ve read a great deal of good and bad fiction, but I have never read Twilight (though I have seen the Rifftrax version of the first movie) and this will be my first honest attempt to do so. I’m also interested in going into the editing field, so it’s important for me to investigate what’s going on in the publishing world, what’s getting published, and WHY it’s getting published.

THE PROCESS

I’m borrowing a copy of the book (not purchasing it), and I plan to read a chapter every week and post a summary with commentary. I’ll divide my commentary into five basic categories:

CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT: People have told me that the selling point to Twilight is its characters. So I plan on getting to know these characters. Really. Really. Well.

PLOT DEVELOPMENT: Or whatever semblance of a plot there happens to be.

LANGAUGE: Mrs. Meyer is an English major. So am I. I’m assuming that all English majors love and respect language as much as I do. (This category will also deal with issues of editing.)

SUBTEXT: Subtext IS there, whether the author intends it or not. That’s why we write fiction. A fictional world is always one person’s reflection of the actual one.

WHAT’S WORKING? This category, I have a feeling, will mostly revolve around potential emotional reactions to the story. It’s not necessarily my “Say something nice about the story” category. More my, “Come back to reality” category. As in, the “I’m aware that not everybody reads into things the way that I do, and so I have to be more objective” category.

Twilight is twenty-four chapters long. If I start this week, it means that this project will go on well into August, if I’m religious about it. So. Here’s to that. ::drinks a shot::

THE POTENTIAL NAYSAYERS

Twilight has fans. I’m aware of this. It has rabid fans. It has fans that may very well see what I’m doing as a kind of desecration. I want to make clear that my purpose here isn’t to make fun of Twilight or its fans, really (even if that ends up happening). My purpose is to understand. Here’s what I have to say to potential naysayers.

IT’S OBVIOUS WHY TWILIGHT WORKS! IT’S JUST AWESOME! YOU’RE WASTING YOUR TIME!

It’s not obvious to me. It’s not obvious to a lot of people. Unless you’ve been living in a box, Twilight is pretty divisive. Plenty of people hate it.

YOU’RE NOT IN THE TWILIGHT DEMOGRAPHIC, SO OF COURSE YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND IT!

I’m 23. I may be a little bit older than the typical fan, but this doesn’t explain the many mothers and college educated young women in their twenties I know who enjoy the books as well. EVEN SO, I’m going to try to withdraw myself as I’m reading. I’m going to try to ask: “If I read this book at thirteen, would I like or not like it?” I mean, that makes a big difference. I was not a very mature thirteen-year-old. I’ve watched my share of Pokemon cartoons. So I’ll consider that as I’m reading.

Someone may also argue that I’m not part of the demographic because I don’t typically read fantasy/romance/YA/vampire fiction. This shouldn’t matter. Good books are good books, regardless of genre. I’m totally on board with the Harry Potter series (it has its flaws, sure, but I can still see the talent and care that goes into it). I love Phillip Pullman, Terry Pratchett, Lewis Carroll, Madeline L’Engle, Robin McKinley, etc. So I think I “understand” the YA genre.

ANALYZING TWILIGHT RUINS THE EXPERIENCE OF READING IT! YOU’RE JUST A CYNICAL, BITTER PERSON!

Nonsense. I get great enjoyment out of picking things apart to see how they work, so I plan on having a great time doing this blog. Let me enjoy books in my way, and I’ll let you enjoy books in your way. Besides, it’s not really a selling point for a novel if the only way to enjoy it is by shutting your brain off.

YOU’RE JUST PICKING ON TWILIGHT BECAUSE IT’S POPULAR!

Um. Yeah. I mean, it’s important to look closely at a phenomenon like Twilight, since it’s having a huge influence on popular culture right now, and on the writing world…which happens to affect me personally. The fact that it is so popular is the reason why it needs to be analyzed.

YOU’RE JUST JEALOUS OF STEPHANIE MEYER!

Sure. She’s a billionaire. Doesn’t mean I’m jealous of her talent.

YOU HAVE NO LIFE!

All right, person who does extensive searches for blogs he/she doesn’t agree with to post “you have no life” on every single one of them.

OMG, EDWARD IZ REEL AND HES GONNA FUKING KILL U!! EDWARD + BELLA LUV EACH OTHER! THEIR LUV IS PURE & TRUUUUUU!

Get the hell off my blog.

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IN CONCLUSION!

Everything I post in subsequent months will be my own personal opinion. I’m not a genius by any stretch of the imagination. But I’m pretty sharp. I like to understand things, so that’s what I’m going to do. By the end of it, I’m going to figure out why Twilight works. Either that or I’ll spiral into a madness from which I will never escape.

Wish me luck,

-Jenchilla