Stephanie Meyers, author of the Twilight series, likes her book covers to really speak to you. The first one had an apple, which along with the quote from Genesis established the love of Edward Cullen and Bella Swan as one that was forbidden. Then there was ‘New Moon’, a reference to the darkest part of the lunar cycle and an indication of what lay ahead for Bella. ‘Eclipse’ and ‘Breaking Dawn’ follow, but this week, millions of pounding hearts are anticipating their reunion with Edward, Bella and Jacob in the film adaptation of the second novel – ‘The Twilight Series: New Moon.’
One of them is 17-year-old Shamara Karunaratne. She admits to being a little in love with Edward Cullen, a character literally born of a dream. Meyers has said that what would become Chapter 13 of Twilight came to her in a dream about an ordinary girl and a boy who was “fantastically beautiful, sparkly and a vampire”.
It was a bit of a surprise to this Mormon mother of three, who in obedience to the dictates of her church had never read a horror story or watched an R-rated movie. Still, she was compelled to continue the story of the young couple. She named the boy Edward, after Charlotte Bronte’s Mr. Rochester and Jane Austen’s Mr. Ferrars and the girl Isabella – a name she had reserved for the daughter she never had. She placed her characters in the town of “Forks” – a place she had never visited and had only seen on Google maps. Three months of writing, 14 rejection letters and one interested publisher later, Twilight hit the bookshelves.
It was only when the third book in the series, Eclipse, knocked Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows off the top of U.S Best Seller Lists, that Meyer’s reputation as the heir to J.K Rowling was cemented. Movie deals followed and with seven million book sales under its belt, the franchise seemed to target a very specific demographic - namely young girls. But that’s slowly changing as more men are drawn in, lured by the chance to come to study their girlfriend’s ideal man or simply by the epic clash between werewolves and vampires.
Many are disappointed to find that this is basically a vampire meets girl plot. In the film, Bella is thrown into emotional turmoil when Edward abandons her. She turns to her friend, Jacob, now a fully fledged member of a clan of territorial werewolves. There’s also the Volturi, essentially Meyer’s take on a Italian vampire mafia, added to the mix. Shamara is not sure the movies will live up to the books – and she would know, she’s read each book 25 times.
Played by Kristen Stewart, Bella is a shy but pretty teenager. “It’s easy for me to relate to her,” she says. Shannon Jacob (21) feels the same – “she’s actually clumsy. She’s normal, I like that.”
‘Normal’ might be stretching it a bit. Through 500-plus pages, Bella never seems to stop fainting, gasping, swooning or screaming herself awake from nightmares. Her heart has two default states: pounding or stopping. Still, Amrik Wilson (26) is sympathetic. Amrik is a fan of vampires in general. Though he prefers Underworld and Buffy to Twilight, both of which have strong female leads, he still understands Bella. “For someone in her shoes, she behaves quite normally,” he says. But Kushlani Perera (23) disagrees - “she’s really annoying – a whiny little baby,” she says, loosely paraphrasing feminist criticism of the novels. And it’s true that Bella doesn’t seem the ideal role model for young women – she’d rather marry Edward than complete college and spends most of her time meditating on how impossibly beautiful he is and how unworthy she is. Still, Meyer says she’s far from anti-feminist, “If anything I am anti-human,” she declares.
But where Bella trips and falls, Edward soars.
Superstrong, superfast and psychic, Edward does not breathe or sleep or age. His pale, cold skin does not burn when it is exposed to the sun – instead it glitters. Plus, he’s vegetarian, or at least what passes for vegetarianism among vampires – he feeds solely on wild animals. His role as Edward has won Robert Pattinson legions of female fans. Though the actor doesn’t quite live up to his fictional counterpart, almost sighing, Shamara declares - “Edward, he’s like this perfect guy.”
It’s not a sentiment that her friend, 18-year-old Yazdan Sameer shares. Yazdan has read all four books, plus a partial draft of the fifth ‘Midnight Sun’ which Meyers has posted on her website. He’s more of a fan of Jacob, the werewolf who is Bella’s best friend and a sworn enemy of the vampires. Jacob is a guy’s guy - Taylor Lautner who plays Jacob gained 26 pounds of pure muscle to play the role. Edward on the other hand is old enough to be Bella’s grandfather, says Yazdan.
Yazdan is looking forward to New Moon. With the release date for 20.11.09, New Moon is already garnering rave previews. Having Dakota Fanning and Michael Sheen join the cast as Volturi vampires has certainly helped. Dramatic special effects that include the smooth transformations from man into werewolf mid-leap, plus there are motorcycle stunts, dives of cliff tops, murderous vampire clans, an intensification of the werewolf-vampire-girl triangle and a trip to the Italian underground. Is it going to be better than Twilight the movie? I’m betting the fans, especially the boys, will think so. |
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