Let's Talk Twilight

Quite a bit of attention has been paid toStephenie Meyer's best-selling series. Teenage girls—and let's be honest, even quite a few mom's I know—love it. Academics and professors scoff and turn up their noses. My unofficial survey has turned up very few lukewarm fans. Most readers either love it and believe that Meyer can do no wrong, or they hate it. Let's take a look at both sides, shall we?

To be perfectly honest, Meyer's prose is somewhat less than appealing. When read aloud, it becomes laughable. If the book were Meyer's attempt to enter the literary cannon, I would agree wholeheartedly with those snide academics who see no value whatsoever with her work. But, take a look at her intentions.

Meyer fully and wholeheartedly admits that the first book in the series was nothing more than a personal exercise for her imagination. She had no original intention to publish. And to those who criticize her grammar and typos, well, those criticisms should be aimed at her editors rather than the author herself. This admission also negates the criticisms that she should have been more aware of her young adult audience by making the messages her readers took from her books more positive. Again, she did not originally intend for the book to be published and the reason her book is categorized in the young adult section is simply because the protagonist is a high school student.

Now, about the teenage fan base. I will readily admit that the cultish following that the series has produced has grown to disgusting and unhealthy levels. However, such levels are encouraged and promoted within our consumeristic culture (another discussion for another day). When there is an entire industry based on the invasion of celebrities' privacy rights and the goals of our citizens, as individuals, usually revolve around emulating certain aspects of celebrity lifestyle (be it cosmetics, clothing, what have you), it is only natural that the economic powers that be would capitalize on the idealization of fictional characters. We see it with Harry Potter, High School Musical, and Hannah Montana. (Personally, I believe all of these fascinations to be unhealthy, but give props where they are due. If Meyer had been a failure as a character writer, such phenomena would not be seen.

Stephenie Meyer's greatest strength is her ability as a character writer. She posted on her website various exercises in characterization that she started, one of which evolved into her newest "novel" Midnight Sun (part of the first novel from Edward's perspective).

So what does this mean for the upcoming film? Well, since the greatest strength of the books is the characterization—which is almost impossible to develop on screen to the same extent as in a novel—the film will probably not appeal to any broader of an audience than the already existing fanbase. Secondly, because a film is an artistic venture in its own right and adaptations cannot simply be "the novel on screen," there will be a great many variations from the novel itself. Because of the fanatic level of devotion most fans have, I cannot foresee them being very forgiving about variations.

My prediction is that the film will do outstandingly well in the first week or two, then drop very suddenly in popularity and quickly go soon to DVD to be forgotten within a few years.