Lower Decks

One of the things you wouldn’t really expect to encounter at this site would be mention of the sensation that has become known simply as the Twilight Saga. Stephenie Meyer’s vampire love story needs no real introduction, as it has become a phenomenon all its own, a completed series of four books and a successful first film with a second well on its way. The fans are rabid, okay.

Working at a bookstore, it’s the closest to appreciating how anxious publishers are in finding the next Harry Potter to actually being in the target audience (but that would be the problem, right, because Harry just kind of happened, right?). The shelves are still littered with all the adventure series attempting to fill the dustjackets J.K. Rowling so memorably brought to life, and the flood of vampire tales now beckoning readers is a testament to Meyer’s success, but again, missing the point. The reason shoppers are so noticeable when they’re coming in for the book they need next, with titles like ‘Twilight,’ ‘New Moon,’ ‘Eclipse,’ and ‘Breaking Dawn’ is because they found what they like reading, and that’s the story of Bella and Edward, as written by Meyer.

The Twilight Saga is unique because it’s a more limited series than Harry Potter, and the author has already written an independent book, ‘The Host,’ that can hope to satiate readers. It’s not as big, the audience can be defined a little more, and even the reception of the film is an idea that it’s not seen to be quite as special. Oh, it’s sacred, but it’s not special. They wanted to recast Jacob almost immediately. Richard Harris had to die before someone even thought to recast in the Potter films. But I mean to compliment Twilight. There can be little doubt that it’s a singular achievement.

The fact that readers seem to split over whether or not Meyer is as good a writer as she is a storyteller (coming to a head with the controversial conclusion in ‘Dawn’) really speaks to how involved they got, because an equal number can’t really imagine reading the other vampire stories that have proliferated, form their own little devoted audiences, but fail to really engage the Twilight set like the Twilight books themselves. That’s because Meyer did something original, in essence update the classic ‘Dracula’ for the modern age, for a more impressionable crowd, one that’s been weaned more on romance than psychology. That is to say, Twilight is a Harry Potter geared specifically toward women.

Again, this isn’t to take anything away from the accomplishment, but to try and put it in some context, and perhaps, to make it safe for people to approach it as something else than what it seems. Clearly it has already attracted a very sizeable, dedicated audience. Now would be the time it either expands that appeal, or begins to retract. I myself have experience only with the film, and certainly with all the hype and certainly real interest. The 2008 film is an excellent way to form an initiation into the phenomenon without making a real commitment, and the reason I’m writing this column now (well, it really was supposed to be timed with the next “event” of the series, the paperback printing of ‘Eclipse,’ but that was delayed to August, no doubt to time better with the next event, ‘New Moon’ in theaters) is because of the film, which does manage to capture the magic and appeal of the story. I don’t think it approaches the scope of Potter, but I don’t think that’s the point, either. It really is just a love story, and a good one at that.

My experience isn’t to find someone or something worth reading and generally stick with that, but the Twilight books and Meyer seem to have done that for readers a little more fickle than I am, and if it has captured the attention of such people for the art of storytelling, no matter the medium, then I find that cause to celebrate, and certainly the odd mention on a site like this. We’re here to offer material for Internet denizens of all types, no matter the level of dedication or to what they may have it for, across the spectrum of sci-fi/fantasy entertainment, and right now, there’s nothing quite as hot as Twilight.