Twilight, the 12th

You know, there's a fascinating moral dilemmna at the heart of this shitshow of a book. Vampires are very, very dangerous. Edward wants to penetrate (we'll come back to this word) Bella's neck with razored fangs. His sissie worries that the budding relationship will "end badly." So, naturally, he arranges to be alone with her in the woods for hours on end. Oh, right, because that's exactly what you should do with someone you care about, whose neck you're perpetually tempted to shred. Pardon me while I bash my head against a wall.

Now, that penetration thing…. Vampirism, in the literary / fictional sense, has all sorts of sexual overtones and connotations. Dracula, the Bram Stoker original, is essentially about the spread of sexually transmitted plagues throughout Europe. The metaphor works. An intimate encounter, taking place at night and generally in the bedroom. Removal of clothing. The climactic act of penetration, followed by a slow, creepy descent into madness, monstrosity, and disease. Normal Friday night, basically.

Twilight is a book of sex. Actually, scratch that, it's a book about wanting sex. Drinking blood takes the place of making sexytimes. Edward wants it, clearly, and is struggling to resist his temptations. Bella also wants it, although she's kind of dancing around the issue because she's incapable of making up her mind on any issue more complex than tonight's dinner selection. Does anyone else see the issue? There's no conflict here. They want the same thing, it'll happen eventually, and there's gonna be much making of icily-perfect babies and riding off into the sun… er…. moonset together.

Considering this book's progenitor makes its' flaws all the more readily apparent. The bloodline has become weak, diluted. Dracula, for all that it's a relic reflecting an older mindset, is actually the more enlightenened, interesting work. It features strong female characters with control of their own agency, who fight to protect their bodies and sexuality with the ferocity that those things deserve. I've said before that I'm not one to judge an author's mindset from her work. But, it bears pointing out just how little say or even interest Bella has in her own destiny. She's an observer, a bored and boring voyeur. Dracula is apocalyptic in stakes and tone. It occurs to me that Twilight is a rather brilliant title for a book that lacks the conviction to choose the brightness of love or darkness of fear.