Twilight

As an elementary school teacher and a sort-of-aunt to a young teenager, I am very familiar with the phenomenally popular "Twilight" series. Though the book shot to national acclaim very quickly, it wasn't until the Pine Ridge 1st-12th graders were sporting Twilight bookbags and "I love a Vampire" t-shirts that I became very curious about the franchise.

For those of you who are not familiar with the premise of the story, I will briefly summarize it: A 16 year-old beauty named Bella moves to some po-dunk town in Washington to live with her dad. Soon after enrolling in school, she falls for the strange, but overwhelmingly alluring Edward Cullen. You soon learns that Edward is a vampire who though deeply in love with Bella, also wishes to suck her blood. However, as a 'vegetarian' vampire--meaning he and his family only drink animal blood--he is able to restrain himself. But, not all vampires in the area are so human friendly and soon Bella finds herself being tracked by a group of very-hungry human eating vampires. Can Edward save her? Can Edward's love overcome his desire to devour her? Only time (and three more books) will tell.
(If you read an actual book or movie review about Twilight, it is much more romantic and alluring, but I don't have time to polish this.)

Over the past few months I have become more and more interested and curious about Twilight. However, it wasn't until the last few weeks that I began to realize that there was actually a war going on inside of me. You see, part of me already loved Edward Cullen. As depicted in the previews of the movie, he is ridiculously handsome and clearly devoted to his girl. And I have to admit, his dark, bad-boy edge only ads to the attraction. But another part of me sensed something much, much darker about this series. In fact, over the last few weeks I have become increasingly reminded of another time when I felt a conflict in my soul over a seemingly harmless book. Allow me to share a bit of my past which I think relates to this whole issue.

When I was in grade school, the first Harry Potter book was released. Initially, there was little public backlash, but by the time I had entered by teens, there was a full-scale culture war over the books. This war actually leaked into my home. You could probably guess on which side I fell. My parents initially discouraged me from reading the books, but it wasn't until I was sixteen that that outright forbade me from reading them or having any Harry Potter paraphernalia in the house. Normally, I would have screamed and cried, but ultimately complied. But there was something different about the Potter books. You see, I was addicted. Please understand that I do not use that word lightly. You see, I would stay up in the early hours of the morning reading and re-reading those books. During the day, I was increasingly wishing for the sort of powers that the Potter characters possessed. When my parents banned Potter from the house, I got desperate--really desperate. It was almost as if they had denied me my drugs or cigarettes. That night, I snuck into the room that had the computer. With the lights off and careful not to make a sound, I downloaded the entire Harry Potter audio book onto the computer--no small feet considering that we had dial-up. For the next few nights, I would sneak into the room and listen to bits of the audio. You must understand--I had already read the book multiple times. There was absolutely no natural reason why I should go to such great lengths for a book. However, this sneaking in the dark didn't last very long because that summer I took a two-month long trip to Botswana, Africa. Ironically, on the sands of the Kalhari desert, God brought my Harry Potter addiction to my doorstep. It was there that I realized how much of a hold this book--and the spirits that I believe are behind it--had on me. And so, I made a vow to never again pick up a Harry Potter book or watch any of the movies. Once I returned to the US, honoring that promise was initially extremely difficult, but as time passed, I was released from its bond.

The same war within my soul that occurred seven years ago with the release of the Potter series was resurrected when I watched Twilight for the first time two nights ago. Actually, it started before that because I knew that I shouldn't even buy it, but I did. Within the first five minutes I was hooked. I found the film to be extremely alluring. It was dark--but I liked the darkness. When the movie ended, I literally had to fight the temptation to immediately watch again. Startled by the allure to the movie, I shut my computer down and tried not to think of Twilight again. That was 48 hours ago.

An hour ago, I found myself in the following scenario. My eyes were glued to the computer screen and I was just staring at the file name "Twilight." I knew I shouldn't click it-I had watched it just the night before last, after all. But I seemingly couldn't help myself. I watched ten second clips for about a minute before I shut it off. It was then that I knew I had to get a copy of the book--now. I glanced at the clock and noted that it was 8:00pm. By the time I got myself presentable and left for the nearest bookstore--Rapid--it would be 10:30pm. But the bookstores would be closed...Wal-Mart! Never have been so glad for a 24-hour Wal-Mart!

I went so far as to calculate my return time--probably close to 1:00am--before I nearly shook with shock. What in blazes was I thinking? Was I really going to drive a total of four hours, on a deer-infested-road in the Badlands for a book that I would no doubt read into the early hours of the morning? Perhaps I could rationalize this if it were the Bible or a book that would offer life-saving tips on how to save my neighbor from his deadly rattlesnake bite. But you see, my desire to get my hands on this book was truly unnatural. Indeed, I will go so far as to say that it was evil.

I threw Twilight away. I also found this article that talks about how the author got the inspiration to write the book. Though I don't agree with parts of the article, I was chilled by how the author "received" her ideas. Check it out: http://www.prophezine.com/PZArticles/TheTwilightPhenomena/tabid/800/Default.aspx


Anyway, I am using my little blog-soap-box to suggest that you learn from my experiences and be wary about this book and these movies.

Yours,

B