I’ll admit; no one was more skeptical than me. Sure, I’ve watched some “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and secretly enjoyed it, I loved watching Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt play vampires back in 1994, but I would never under any circumstance think of myself as a vampire-fanatic. This was of course before I bought a hardcover edition of Twilight at the airport back in 2008 when my plane was delayed and its black cover with the glossed red apple jumped out at me from its display in the window and said audibly: “buy me, read me, you know you want me.” Something about that apple—I had to have it. And so I tossed it up on the counter with my pack of cinnamon flavored gum—the first hardcover book I have ever purchased in my adult life. On my nearly seven hour cross country trip from Boston to San Francisco I read all 512 pages of Twilight, and it was love at chapter two.
I was embarrassed at first, my shame coming over me even on the plane as people noticed what I was reading and scoffed slightly; I too was openly put off by this whole new world of vampire fandom. That was until Edward swept me off my feet and took me off that plane and into the simple love story that all started in a sparkling meadow in Forks, Washington—only 100 miles from where I grew up. The next day I went to four stores to find all three of the other books, and I read each of them slowly, savoring each chapter, hiding in my room, loving every minute.
The vampire, much like many styles of clothing, seems to evolve and return every decade or so—new and improved, hotter than ever. Just like those neon pink eighties tights in the back of your lingerie drawer that are suddenly back on the mannequins in store windows. As much back in fashion is the new wave of vampire—Edward Cullen in the Twilight saga. Edward has replaced the last decade of decadent night prowlers like” Buffy’s” boy toy Angel and Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise in “Interview with the Vampire.” What makes each new wave so interesting is how they are becoming more and more human.
It started with the scary movie, the bump in the night, the fang marks on her neck—all images that made our skin crawl and make known there was something to be feared. But now, we want to invite him in, Edward that is, he is the man we dream about, the love we hope to find. So he happens to feed off of blood and not come out in the sunlight; face it ladies, you could do worse! Women and girls everywhere have fallen fast for the lovely and handsome Edward Cullen, who protects young Bella and loves her unconditionally. He romances her with his old worldly charms and sweeps her off her feet with his mysterious ways. Edward Cullen is the most humane vampire we have seen thus far, who overcomes his thirst for human blood and settles for animal blood, he is the vegetarian of the vampire world, a true saint it seems.
But underneath the cool, human esque exterior, we seem to forget that he lives not in reality, but in the magical world of a four book series that has overwhelmed in popularity with the female crowd. It seems that since the vampire was introduced in America in 1819 as a scary monster to be terrified of and shunned he has now evolved and overcome that stigma to be Mr. Sexy, circa Twilight 2005. Edward Cullen, or the actor who portrays him: Rob Pattinson, have become common household names—exhausted to the point that even the general population of men are in on him, even if they don’t know him like I do. And is it really fair to compare mere mortal men to the immortal Edward Cullen?
It’s not so much the fantasy of Edward that attracted me, but rather the reality of his love for Bella. It’s romantic—a modern day Cinderella, with more blood and less singing animals but still, we want to believe it will happen to us. Vampires are the prince charming for adults, in a much less hokey sense with the acknowledgement that we may be bitten and bleed at any time. But isn’t that true in every relationship? We enter with the risk of getting hurt? We are all waiting to be carried away not on horseback, but rather in a five speed Audi, with Edward Cullen’s cold crisp hand cooling our warm one, while he stares over at us with his bedroom eyes.
I was embarrassed at first, my shame coming over me even on the plane as people noticed what I was reading and scoffed slightly; I too was openly put off by this whole new world of vampire fandom. That was until Edward swept me off my feet and took me off that plane and into the simple love story that all started in a sparkling meadow in Forks, Washington—only 100 miles from where I grew up. The next day I went to four stores to find all three of the other books, and I read each of them slowly, savoring each chapter, hiding in my room, loving every minute.
The vampire, much like many styles of clothing, seems to evolve and return every decade or so—new and improved, hotter than ever. Just like those neon pink eighties tights in the back of your lingerie drawer that are suddenly back on the mannequins in store windows. As much back in fashion is the new wave of vampire—Edward Cullen in the Twilight saga. Edward has replaced the last decade of decadent night prowlers like” Buffy’s” boy toy Angel and Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise in “Interview with the Vampire.” What makes each new wave so interesting is how they are becoming more and more human.
It started with the scary movie, the bump in the night, the fang marks on her neck—all images that made our skin crawl and make known there was something to be feared. But now, we want to invite him in, Edward that is, he is the man we dream about, the love we hope to find. So he happens to feed off of blood and not come out in the sunlight; face it ladies, you could do worse! Women and girls everywhere have fallen fast for the lovely and handsome Edward Cullen, who protects young Bella and loves her unconditionally. He romances her with his old worldly charms and sweeps her off her feet with his mysterious ways. Edward Cullen is the most humane vampire we have seen thus far, who overcomes his thirst for human blood and settles for animal blood, he is the vegetarian of the vampire world, a true saint it seems.
But underneath the cool, human esque exterior, we seem to forget that he lives not in reality, but in the magical world of a four book series that has overwhelmed in popularity with the female crowd. It seems that since the vampire was introduced in America in 1819 as a scary monster to be terrified of and shunned he has now evolved and overcome that stigma to be Mr. Sexy, circa Twilight 2005. Edward Cullen, or the actor who portrays him: Rob Pattinson, have become common household names—exhausted to the point that even the general population of men are in on him, even if they don’t know him like I do. And is it really fair to compare mere mortal men to the immortal Edward Cullen?
It’s not so much the fantasy of Edward that attracted me, but rather the reality of his love for Bella. It’s romantic—a modern day Cinderella, with more blood and less singing animals but still, we want to believe it will happen to us. Vampires are the prince charming for adults, in a much less hokey sense with the acknowledgement that we may be bitten and bleed at any time. But isn’t that true in every relationship? We enter with the risk of getting hurt? We are all waiting to be carried away not on horseback, but rather in a five speed Audi, with Edward Cullen’s cold crisp hand cooling our warm one, while he stares over at us with his bedroom eyes.
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