I've been struggling to articulate my thoughts on this subject, because it seems to inspire so many passionate responses from a variety of perspectives. But, as New Moon premieres tomorrow, and my unemployed self actually has people to spend time with and a reason to leave the house more than once this week, I can't help but be excited.
I know people hate Twilight, just as much as people love Twilight. Everyone is entitled to their opinions.
And I know that the books aren't going to win any awards for gramatical correctness or deeply brilliant writing. But, they are books. 70 million books. And people are reading them. People who may not have been inspired to read anything else. And from my standpoint, that is a good thing - because those 13 year old girls (or middle aged women, for that matter) may be further inspired to read other things.
The negativity bothers me, because for all intents and purposes, it is a very innocent obsession. Older women may see Bella as a weak character, a poor role model for growing girls, but there is a lesson to be gleaned from that as well.
I'm somewhat amused by the people who mock me for being *obsessed* with Twilight, simply because they don't really know me. They haven't seen the boxes of Buffy memorabilia sitting in my basement - the collector's dolls and unopened boxes of limited edition fruit snacks. They never saw my room in highschool, my fangirl sanctuary plastered in photos of Gwen Stefani and AFI posters, where I spent all my time studying and reading and avoiding the outside world. My 23 year old self is a much more subdued fan, when you consider that I own nothing of Twilight but the four books my sister gifted me for Christmas last year and a sparkly t-shirt gifted to me by the bff.
I'm enjoying this fangirl experience, because at 16, I was a very serious teenager. I spent my Friday nights in the library, never dated, watched Buffy and geeked out over historical fiction. I wasn't silly, I didn't gush over cute boys, I didn't dress up to see a movie at midnight - I was too focused on school and grades and extracurricular activities. But over the last few years, I've learned to enjoy being young. I immerse myself in a lot of things that make me happy, because life is hard sometimes - I'm unemployed, living at home, with a tiny handful of friends. I don't see people regularly, I rarely leave the house, I have no idea what I want to do with myself. So, when something comes along that can hold my attention, and for a few hours perk me up from the overwhelming solitude and FAIL of my life, then I'm going to embrace it. Sometimes my brain just needs a break from the shelves of Jane Austen, Tolstoy, and Henry Miller that surround me now.
I'm not going to mock people that watch soap operas, because I spend an hour a day reading fanfiction. I'm not going to insult those that read romance novels, because "robsten," "r.pattz," and "k.stew" have become part of my regular vocabulary. Everyone has their guilty pleasures, and that's exactly what Twilight is for most people.
I'm tired of people being rude, implying I'm stupid for liking poorly written teen fiction, or that I'm insane for thinking Kristen Stewart is a good actress (go watch The Cake Eaters and get back to me). Because, right now, it's one of few things keeping my head above water through the very depressing days of unemployment, grad school essays, GRE prep, and dead end job applications.
And on a good day, I can be excited that The Fandom Gives Back raised nearly $17,000 to fight childhood cancer (read more and donate here) in only three days. I can be happy to have spent an evening with (new!) people who get where I'm coming from, decorating tshirts and talking about life. And I can look forward to being silly for a few hours tomorrow night.
So, there's my soapbox, I'm stepping off now.
~RLM
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