Twilight... Buying Into The Madness

Finally at the dollar theater, I saw the movie "Twilight" based on the famous book by Stephanie Meyer. I had incredibly low expectations and found myself pleasantly surprised. I'm one of those people who tease and make fun of giddy girls swooning over a fictitious perfect man/vampire and I would like to be able to back up my rather harsh claims with evidence. This lead me to purchasing the book and re-reading it.

I started with a thoroughly objective perspective. I wanted to critique and analyze, dissect and criticize the author's writing style and figure out exactly why this book has become so huge. While I maintained this perspective, I placed a corner piece in the puzzle of why this borders on a point of obsession for many, specifically girls. This is my theory: Bella exhibits every teenage awkwardness, self-consciousness, and flaw. She embodies mediocrity, and readers, although often annoyed, nevertheless sympathize with her because they too see imperfections in themselves. Edward on the other hand, is portrayed as the perfect man: smart, charming, thoughtful, romantic, athletic, incredibly attractive. It is this idea that enchants readers: that someone so bloody perfect could see past mediocrity into 'true character' and desire them. Admit it, there was at least one time in your life where you were OBSESSED with someone. Now wouldn't it have been amazing if that person were just as madly in love with you as you were with them? I have several other theories, but this encompasses my main argument pertaining to the allurement of "Twilight."

It's pathetic... yet I must include myself in this crowd of blinded and delighted readers. I want to say that I'm more mature than those ridiculous giggling Twilight-obsessed teenage girls, but I can't. I recognize the lie, but still I buy into it. It gives me hope that there is someone out there who will see my problems and still adore me. Perhaps I should take it for what it's worth to me and leave it at that.

My dreams tell me I'm secretly insane... or not so secretly :)

I hardly ever remember my dreams, so when I do it's noteworthy.

I found myself at Lagoon (a local amusement park) with a steak knife I had just retrieved from a secret hiding place. I remembered that I brought the steak knife there earlier because I was meeting friends and making fajitas and consequently needed a steak knife to cut the meat. I remembered though that in the insane world we live in (or my reflection of it in the dream), a steak knife could be used as a weapon rather than for the innocent use of cutting, hmm, STEAK to make delicious fajitas. So I was trying to hide it and sneak it out without getting caught. I finally gave up and waved to a police officer that happened to be leaning against a fence nearby, waving and pointing to the knife in my hand. He pointed a gun at me but somehow I convinced him that I wasn't a threat, so he came over to me. He took the steak knife and gave me a butter knife in return. I was upset because that was my dad's favorite steak knife and obviously a butter knife wouldn't do the job. Seeing my innocence, he gave the steak knife back to me and escorted me to the nearest ride. I got in and went on the ride, then tried to leave. I sat at what I thought was the edge, then the ride started going and I realized I was still on it. We went and I got safely back. Again I tried to get off, but ended up in another compartment and was stuck on the ride one last time. I realized that I still had my steak knife on me, so I threw it to the side, thinking that I did not want to accidentally injure someone while riding. After my third round, I left and retrieved the steak knife. I met up with my friends Heather and Laura and we proceeded to cross a swampish area to a haunted house walkthrough. I went in, and it was fun but this haunted house had a new twist: we were to search for clues that would lead us to an object we were supposed to find. The haunted house was really crowded and there were a bunch of witches guiding us through, but finally I escaped into an empty room full of books. The clues lead me to believe that I was searching for a book, so I started looking on the shelves when something caught my eye. It was a little statue of two cherubs, and it hit me that it fit all the clues and this must be what everyone was searching for. I quickly lumped it in my robes (because somewhere down the line I had acquired robes) and raced back to the entrance. A witch discovered my concealed treasure and beckoned me to hurry to the finish line. I got to the finish line with a friend and they gave us gorgeous blue dresses with purple-ish metallic-y beads in our sizes. We got dressed in them, and I woke up.