The+Twilight+Phenomenon

= **The Twilight Phenomenon**=

[|Stephenie Meyer’s] work has been translated into 37 different languages, has sold over 85 million copies, and been made into movies that have grossed over 1 billion dollars worldwide. Meyer’s vampires are household names. Never before have vampires been so accepted in mainstream culture. Before diving into the Twilight phenomena, let’s take a quick look at the history of vampires in popular culture.

Where Do Vampires Come From?
Vampire tales are found all over the world and one of the first literary references is found in a 1748 poem by [|Heinrich Augusto Ossenfelder entitled The Vampire]. In 1847 readers were introduced to vampires that could eat, drink, and go out in daylight without harm in James Malcolm Rymer’s [|Varney the Vampire]. Bram Stroker’s 1897 classic [|Dracula] is perhaps the most well known of the earlier works and the novel has facets of both werewolf myths and vampires in the storyline. The [|1954 novel I Am Legend] by Richard Matheson has been made into 3 movies and in the 1960s there was a popular TV series entitled [|Dark Shadows] which had both vampires and werewolves in the cast. Before Stephenie Meyers there was Anne Rice with her popular series the [|Vampire Chronicles]. Lestat and Lois did not rocket into public culture the same way that Edward, Bella, and Jacob have done, but like Rice’s vampires, Meyer’s are unharmed by garlic or crosses and like Rymer’s vampires they are unharmed by sunlight. The popular television series [|Buffy the Vampire Slayer] created an entire generation of vampire lovers and is perhaps Ms. Meyer’s biggest inspiration.

When examining the Twilight phenomena, we are focusing on the movies which have been made from Stephenie Meyer’s novels. This is a text based in fantasy. There is nothing logical or rational about vampires and werewolves and so for the movie viewer or text reader to get the most enjoyment and satisfaction from their experience with the text, they must suspend their disbelief and embrace the fantasy. Some of the building blocks which make up the text are the story, the actors who play the characters, the music, and the beautiful landscapes where the movie was filmed. When comparing this film to other films in this genre, it is similar in terms of target audience, unrequited love, and teenage angst. Computers and special effects are used extensively to help the reader suspend disbelief and invest in the characters. It took hundreds of people to create this message. Writers, technicians of all types including computer, lighting, and video, producers, actors, special effects wizards, and a director are just a few of the many who came together to create the text.

At First Glance
When Stephenie Meyer wrote the [|Twilight Saga], her choice of book covers are not the ones that are used on the popular novels. Publishers decided that they needed to be more creative to attract readers. According to [|Wikipedia], the apple on the cover of Twilight represents the Biblical forbidden fruit from Genesis. It symbolizes Bella and Edward's forbidden love, which is similar to the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, as is implied by the quote from Genesis 2:17 at the beginning of the book. It also represents Bella's knowledge of what good and evil are, and the choice that she has in partaking of the "forbidden fruit", Edward, or choosing not to see him as a vampire.  When creating the [|Twilight movie], the director wanted to make sure that the apple was in one of the scenes. In the cafeteria at Forks High School, Bella drops an apple but because of Edward’s quick vampire reflexes, he catches it and hands it back to her. The director also wanted all of the special effects to be real, without using a green screen. They used bungee cords, wire, and pulleys when making the Cullen vampire coven baseball game scene. They also used a long sheet of metal being pulled underneath the feet of the other vampires to create the effect of them walking faster than possible for humans. All of these scenes, while unrealistic in life, come across as convincing.

Why Should We Relate?
In the opening scene of each of the movies, we first hear Bella speaking of her thoughts and feelings. It immediately pulls the viewer in to feel her emotions and to be able to relate to her in some way, in addition to her being a simple, clumsy, and introverted teen finding her way. While the plot of vampires and werewolves are unreal, Bella’s emotions and experiences of teenage love are something that is realistic to the majority of audiences. Not only are teenagers huge “Twi-fans”, but mothers are just as enthusiastic about the Twilight phenomenon calling themselves “Twi-moms”. Fan clubs including “Team Edward” and “Team Jacob” fanatics have been established worldwide, [|websites] devoted to the movies, and even [|Oprah] has a page devoted to the phenomenon, including video clips, interviews with the actors, and quizzes on Twilight knowledge. And while the books written by Meyer have started an international phenomenon sparking [|stores] selling the movies, dolls, posters, clothing, bags, and more, not all are fans of the popular vampire saga.

Obviously, for those who are not “Twi-fans,” the popularity of the Twilight series may not be understood. The series does have a target audience: teenage girls. What is so interesting about this series is that with the books and movies, the audience has shifted to now include older women, usually moms of teen girls who are fans. There are even [|blogs] for adult women fans. The draw of the series seems to come from the love story between Edward and Bella. This is perhaps why boys have not shown interest in the phenomenon. The novels have battle scenes between the vampires and the werewolves, and some may argue that this is reason enough for the boys to read/watch the series. That is left up to the boy’s individual preferences, should he choose to watch/read or not. The fans seem to mainly be teenage girls and young women, including the “Twi-moms ” as seen in the [|Oprah] special about the fascination with “Twilight” for older women. For them, the excitement of the love story between Edward and Bella reminds them of the excitement of their first love, before they got married and had children.

The message is fairly universal…a love so strong that only death can tear the lovers apart. There is the idea of Edward saving Bella from harm and her own depressing situation. There is a Montague verses Capulet type of tension between the vampires and werewolves. Bella struggles to choose which one to be a part of. A person with an objective point of view ( someone who hasn’t read or seen the movies) who knows the basic plot should be able to pick up on these themes.

What Is This Phenomenon Really Saying?
Sure the books and films are touted as the ultimate teen romance, but does the ultimate teen romance usually lead to marriage, soul sucking, and pregnancy when the characters are still teens? The problem with marketing these books and movies to teens is that they consist of very adult themes and decisions made by teens. Bella is putting everything on the line for a man who is controlling her, while she almost has no say in their relationship. Even the posters and trailers portray her as helpless to her love of and control by Edward, her dark (or is he?) prince.
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The official trailer for the 2008 Twilight movie begins with Edward saving Bella from a sliding van.

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The official Twilight website describes Edward as having the abilities of [|“mind reading, super speed, extraordinary strength, diamond-hard skin”] while Bella’s abilities are [|“accident prone, attracts bad luck, immune to mind reading.”]Wow, he’s quite the hero and she sure //needs// him. Of course, Meyer wrote Bella’s character to appeal to teenage girls who feel that they don’t have any special abilities or are particularly beautiful, but Bella doesn’t learn about herself as the books go on, she just becomes more dependent on Edward and he becomes more controlling of her under the guise of protecting her.

The movies and books are being marketed to teenage girls, but what messages are lying beneath the surface of undying love? For one, Bella not only needs Edward to protect her, she needs him because he is her purpose for living. When Edward leaves Bella in New Moon (to protect her, of course) she falls into a deep depression that she only comes out of because she figures out a way to manipulate Edward into coming back to her and protecting her (it works). Also, Bella doesn’t have any aspirations beyond loving Edward. Her only goal in life is to be with him. She forsakes her friends and family, puts herself into dangerous situations, and hinges her life on a single person, telling Edward, “I’d rather die than stay away from you."

In his book //[|How to Read Literature Like a Professor]//, [|Thomas C. Foster] explains that literary vampirism, besides being about blood-sucking, is about “selfishness, exploitation, a refusal to respect the autonomy of other people.” He goes on to say that there are works where the vampire is merely a “gothic cheap thrill,” but these works tend to be “short-term commodities without much staying power in readers’ minds or the public arena.” This is certainly not the case with Meyer’s vampire creation. It could be argued that Meyer’s vampires are not traditional, but it seems that despite her attempt to make “good” vampires that eat only animals and protect those they love, she still adheres to the literary reading of a vampire. Edward is selfish (though he claims not to be) in that he takes Bella away from her family and friends, keeping her from her best friend Jacob because he’s a werewolf, the sworn enemy of vampires.

As said before, Bella has no autonomy and Edward makes sure that she stays that way. The series is said to be pro-abstinence, though Edward is the one who makes the decision that they will not have sex. Bella is ready to go, but Edward is bent on protecting her virtue. Bella wants to become a vampire and live forever with the man whom she has fallen in love with, but Edward feels the need to protect her from herself there, too, denying her the bite that will allow them to be together. Bella even has to fight against Edward to keep her baby, though she wins that battle. Bella is written and portrayed as a clumsy, dependent girl who feels she literally cannot live without a handsome, superhuman man to love and protect her. That is the love that young girls (and their moms) are wishing for. Edward is written to be the ultimate man. He may not hunt Bella in the literal sense, taking her blood and her virtue, but he does take her autonomy and slowly sucks away her life.

When analyzing any text, it is important to read not only what it is telling you, but also what it is not telling you. Just because someone is presented as an ideal, it does not mean they should be accepted that way. By allowing students to analyze a phenomenon or text that is familiar to them (whether they are fans or not), they will be more apt to repeat the process personally and academically.



Who Is Creating This Phenomenon?
To fully examine the messages embedded in the Twilight saga we need to examine two major players in the franchise: the author, Stephenie Meyer, and the production company, Summit Entertainment. Prior to writing Twilight, [|Stephenie Meyer] was a stay at home mother of three who graduated with a B.A. in English from Brigham Young University. She claims to have "woken up from a dream" with the idea for Twilight. In an [|interview] with Oprah, she admits that she had settled into the "zombie" role of "mother." The dreams offered an escape from the mundane and she soon began recording them with a passion. At first she merely wanted to document the dreams to keep them fresh in her mind, but she soon decided the story would make a good novel. Stephenie had never written anything prior to Twilight but finished the novel in three months and began marketing it to literary agencies. Eventually Twilight made it to the publishing company Little, Brown.

In an [|interview with Time], Stephenie Meyer claims not to have written Twilight for a young adult audience but rather to have written it for herself. She further asserts that she "never writes messages" but rather writes things that entertain her, specifically the idea of love. However, in a separate question, she acknowledges that because she is [|Mormon] her religion impacts her writing "I do think that because I'm a very religious person, it does tend to come out somewhat in the books, although always unconsciously." This suggests that her claim to "not writing messages" should be changed to "not consciously writing messages." For many readers, the religious undertones are obvious in themes such as chastity before marriage. However, one can argue that less obvious repercussions of subscribing to a male-dominated, orthodox religion are evident, such as Twilight's characterization of plain, helpless, accident prone Bella as opposed to sexy, powerful Edward. In addition, [|Latter Day Saints] believe that only men can "hold the priesthood" and bestow blessings. Women must be blessed through men and thus their salvation is not their own. Similarly, in Meyer's novels, Edward is the one responsible for Bella's virtue, refusing her advances to have sex before marriage. Finally, the notion that Meyer "awoke from a dream" with the Twilight idea rings of divine inspiration commonly found in religion. Specifically, her religion is based on a man named Joseph Smith who founded the Church of Latter Day Saints. He claimed [|an angel visited him] and revealed where to find ancient texts buried near his house about Christianity in North American indigenous peoples.

There is a second important player to examine in order to decode the messages in Twilight: its production company, [|Summit Entertainment]. However unconscious Stephanie Meyer's motives may have been, Summit's objectives are plain and clear. According to an [|New York Times article], Summit paid for the rights to all four books in 2006 after production chief, Mr. Friedman, noticed Mrs. Meyer’s books had an “intense online following." Previously a small studio that sold movies overseas and had produced a few obscure films, Summit stumbled upon its golden ticket. With the explosion of Twilight's popularity, Summit immediately catapulted to notoriety and adopted the goal of proving to larger studios and actors that they were contenders for blockbuster movie production. Summit wanted more than to just produce a successful movie, they wanted to produce a brand. In order broaden Twilight's appeal beyond teenage girls and their mothers, the production company began highlighting action in the films, as seen in their trailer for their newest movie, Eclipse.

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Summit's strategy of wooing male audiences seems to have worked since box office tracking companies say interest among men has increased. The newest release, Eclipse, [|set a record] for biggest midnight opening in US history and biggest Wednesday night opening, generating $68.5 million dollars domestically in one day. With its flashy advertising, "unconscious" and conscious messages, and billions of dollars at stake, the Twilight franchise has become a phenomenon larger than The Beatles and is here, for better or for worse, to stay.


 * Recommendations for Teachers:**

1. There are many opportunities to examine literary concepts such as imagery, symbolism, and metaphors in both the texts and the movies.

2. When studying Romeo and Juliet, the Capulet and Montague dynamics could be compared with the Werewolves and Vampire dynamics of the movies.

3. The class could examine the many current offshoots of this genre (True Blood, The Vampire Diaries, The Gates, Moonlight) and compare / contrast changes made to the original message; how and why are the changes specific to who's creating the message and what's their target audience.

4. To increase media literacy and the ability to deconstruct advertisements, specific posters and movie clips could be examined for their meaning beneath their superficial appeal.

5. Students could construct a research project that investigates tenets of the Mormon religion and how religious undertones may be reflected in the Twilight message.

6. The concept of what it means to be a hero could be discussed using either Jacob or Edward. The class could question the notion that heroes are always good and that the bad guys are always evil.