Twilight Haters Unite!

There's always a flip-side to success and Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Saga isn't immune from the taint. In fact, it's managed to accumulate its own brand of anti-fandom.

For instance, did you know there's a whole website devoted to distaste for the series? I'm sure there's many others, but this one's called TwilightSucks.com. Here's the scoop from their "About" page:

TwilightSucks.com is NOT a hate shrine but rather a place of refuge for those who didn't fall madly in love with Twilight...saw through it's blinding errors, contradictions, and mockery of the English language AND the writing profession as a whole. We are not a fan site, we are not a hate site...we just realize and agree that Twilight sucks discoballs. Oh yeah, I went thar.

Not a "hate shrine"? The folks at Encyclopædia Dramatica beg to differ. Before you click on that link though, be warned that it's not safe for work. Or kids. Despite the offensive content, they make some pretty good points about "hating" on the franchise.

As a side note, I've re-labeled my "Stephenie Meyer" posts under the "Twilight Saga" banner. Usually, I prefer labeling posts about a work under the collective name of the author. But when that work exists almost beyond the author themselves, that is, it achieves a mainstream popularity that goes beyond mere autobiographic details and becomes a phenomena in its own right, then I'll feature it under the name of the work itself.

That's why there's a "Dracula" banner at all.

However, if the post largely does concern the author themselves, then they get their own tag. Just something for future reference, there.

In the Wake of New Moon

Here's a few letters from the mX (Melbourne) concerning the Twilight phenomena.

New Mooner writes ("In the Twilight of Their Opinion", Monday November 23, 2009, p. 24):

Anna Brain (For What It's Worth, mX, Thu) [Brain is one of the paper's pop culture columnists -ed.], a negative review of New Moon? How unoriginal. People of all ages have a real love affair with these books and movies. Surely you felt the atmosphere of opening night? Millions of people can't be wrong...right?

However, G doesn't share this sentiment ("For Real", Monday November 23, 2009, p. 24):

Anna Brain, at last someone who's read and seen Twilight and sees it for what it is. What I also find scary is how some girls might end up in abusive relationships and not do anything about it, because it's what Edward does.

It's also caused some frustration for David ("Twi Not", Monday November 23, 2009, p. 24):

Anyone would think that Twilight New Moon was the second coming of Jesus. If I hear one more thing about it, I'll murder someone. Who cares?

And lastly, B. Stoker chimes in with his two cents ("Gurgling", Friday November 27, 2009, p. 19):

Tsunamis, earthquakes, floods, climate change, Twilight movie and its fans - the world really is going down the drain.

Vampires on Telly

Speaking of localised vampire interest, I was surprised to see vampires featured on Wednesday's The 7pm Project (Channel 10, 7pm-7:30pm) and via a crappy skit on Hungry Beast later that night (Channel 2, 9pm-9:30pm).

It's a lead-up to the cinematic release of New Moon, nationally, today.

On Friday the 13th, I was also sent an e-mail by Allison Bethurem, FutureWorks PR, who notified me about Stephenie Meyer's appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show, the same day. The show was listed as a Facebook event.

I never caught it as a) I was busy that day b) the screening times differ in my country c) Allison notified me by a Gmail account I rarely use.

But, still, it's the principle of the thing. We're talking about a vampire author on Oprah!

How often does that happen?

The world has gone vampire-mad!

Localised Vampire Interest

Looks like there's other kindred spirits haunting the web.

Here's how Amy Gray - author of How to Be a Vampire: A Fangs-On Guide for the Newly Undead (2009) - is described by Candlewick Press:

Amy Gray is a writer, photographer, and amateur vampirologist who has been fascinated with vampires, spooky art and literature, and the supernatural stories.

I had no idea she was a fellow Aussie until I read the rest of the description.

It's great to see such contributions being made by my fellow countrymen. And women. Ahem.

You probably weren't even aware such writings came from here. After all, did you know that Ken Gelder (Reading the Vampire, 1994) and Gordon David Keyworth (Troublesome Corpses: Vampires & Revenants from Antiquity to the Present, 2007) are fellow Australians?

And, just like many other parts of the world, we've been bitten by the Twilight bug.

Martin V. Riccardo forwarded me two interesting articles that discuss the rise of vampire interest in my country, largely off the back of the success of Stephenie Meyer's series and its subsequent movie(s).

The first article talks about its success knocking another popular franchise off its block:

VAMPIRES have killed off boy wizards in the battle for the imaginations of Aussie kids.

The popularity of supernatural bloodsuckers has eclipsed old favourite Harry Potter, with children eagerly awaiting the release next Thursday of the second movie in the wildly successful Twilight series, New Moon.

The second article he sent talks about the rise of "VAMPIRE clubs, covens and lairs".

Now, I'm not saying that vampires have completely taken over our society, but it's interesting to see how much they've caught on. We don't exactly have a huge horror fanbase here. Hallowe'en is still generally regarded as an "American holiday".

That said, I'm not operating under any grand illusions with vampires' current popularity. I know that it's nothing more than a trend that'll pass soon enough, but it's also interesting to see just how deeply vampires have embedded themselves in mainstream popular culture.

I don't think vampires have ever been this popular.

So, for better or worse, hats off to Mrs. Meyer and her sparkly undead.

I can only hope that this current popularity will generate more scholarly writings on vampires in general. After all, there's more to 'em than Edward Cullen!

Gotta Draw the Line Somewhere

Ah, the price of fame.

Or, more importantly, the price of portraying a vampire that girls across the globe (and probably a few blokes, too) swoon over.

Rob Pattinson's concerns are voiced in "Crazed Twilight Fans 'Slice Open Necks'":

"I just don't want someone to have a needle and give me HIV and I don't want to get shot or stabbed."

Pattinson recalled one time where a group of girls approached him bleeding from scratches they had just opened up on their necks.

"They were like, 'We did this for you' … I didn't know what to say — 'Thank you, guys?'"

They do know he's a friggin' actor, right?

Sheesh.

Something They May Live to Regret

Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series seems to have surpassed J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter franchise in terms of hardcore literary-based fandom.

What makes me think that? Check out CelebrityFIX's "Die-Hard Twi-Hards Show Off Their Twilight Tattoos" for a hint.

The article ponders on the possible hastiness in getting such artwork etched into their skin:

Sure, some of them will probably still be die-hard Twi-hards even when they have to zimmer frame it to the video store, but for others we're guessing the teen angst will wear off long before the tattoo ink fades.

It is also accompanied by a gallery of 17 body art tributes to their favourite young adult fiction vampire series.