Twilight and the Power of Fiction
Friday night I sat in a sold-out theater to see Twilight, the movie based on the first novel in Stephenie Meyer’s stunningly successful YA vampire series. What I took away from my hours at the cineplex is this: Fiction is as vital as it has ever been. Despite the oft-announced, much bemoaned “fact” that the novel is a dying form, its power to transport and transform is undiminished.
During the half hour we sat there before the movie started, one girl ran to the front of the theater and shouted out to the crowd, “We’re gonna see ‘Twilight!’” and clapped her hands in the air, trying to get the crowd to join her. A trio of girls in the front row tried to start the wave. When the house darkened, squeals of excitement filled the room.
And when the movie started, the girls gave a collective gasp. They greeted favorite characters with cheers. And romantic scenes filled the theater with sighs. My own teenage daughter’s eyes filled with tears at the first sight of her beloved Edward.
Standing in line for the restroom after the movie, I had a chance to overhear the girls discussing among themselves whether the movie lived up to the book. And while they loved–adored!–the movie, they all seemed to agree: the book is even better. More nuance, more backstory, and the power of the imagination to create a world in which a character can run up a tree and, in the mind’s eye, not look foolish.
In the car on the way home from the theater, my daughter, who loved the movie, wanted me to understand all the nuance I had missed because of experiencing the story first on film. She recounted all the characters’ histories. We got home before she was done, so the conversation continued on the family room couch. She even brought out her copy of Twilight and read some passages to me that were, for her, too good to paraphrase.
My daughter blazed through the four books in the Twilight series in a matter of weeks this summer. She’s re-read them several times since. And she’s on the lookout for the next book that will transport her into the realm of imagination. So are her friends.
That’s good news for those of us who write.
And all because I let her borrow that book. Sorry Kris!
No, it’s great that she loved it! In fact, she’s read it so many times that I think we owe you a new copy.
Have you read any of the others? What did you think of the movie?
And guess what audiobook I just downloaded to my MP3 player?
Ha! You really started something!
Love ya, Ru. And your mom, too.