Now don't get me wrong here. I'm not trying to criticize, though I can't say I haven't criticized it, openly, vocally, and energetically in the past week. But I just don't understand the obsession with Twilight. I logged on to facebook this morning to the astonishing news that one of my friends had become a fan of Edward Cullen. If you don't know (and I don't know how you can't) that is the male romantic lead from Stephanie Meyer's ridiculously popular novel. He's attractive, charming, chivalrous, and drinks blood. Yes, he's a vampire folks. Enter drama, and most of all, angst angst angst.
Wasn't it Poe who said that adding a little tragedy made something even more beautiful? I'm paraphrasing, but it seems to hold true, at least in this case. You can look at any of the timeless classics and see that star-crossed lovers is a story that sells. Better yet, make it teenagers, and we have the added bonus of the novelty of discovering these things anew. High school romance is a pretty shallow pool to play in, but add a little eternal damnation to the mix and you have yourself a story, and a strangely compelling one, at that.
But what is it exactly that makes it so every woman between 13-30 is attracted to this character of Edward Cullen? As I scrolled through the pictures (241 of them posted at the time of this writing) I noticed a certain theme. Many people had superimposed themselves into the picture with him. One person had been so bold as to admit, in textual format, that she was in love with a fictional character. How is such a thing even possible? Can you really love someone you've never interacted with; find kinship with someone who has never (and will never) exist? What is it that these people are looking for?
And then I saw it: eternity.
Eternity is a fucking long span of time. And when you really think about it, it's frightening. They say that no matter who is with you, you come into this world and you leave it alone. If you think too long or too hard about starting on either one of those journeys, it can be terrifying. And we've been trying, for as long as we've existed, to alleviate that fear. There is an obsession on the part of humanity to find permanance in a world that is anything but.
It's difficult to find love, and even more difficult to find love that lasts. The concept of a vampire, an immortal being, in love with you is intoxicating. Think about it: a person who has existed for hundreds of years, met thousands of people, and never fallen in love. And then he meets one person, one clumsy, imperfect, everywoman (and here's where we all can relate) and he's in love. And not just any kind of love, but the kind we know will last. He knows all about eternity; he's had that long and longer to think about it. And he loves me--I mean her-- how amazing is that?
It's incredibly amazing. Especially now, in a time where cheating is expected if not condoned by much of society. I'm not religious by any definition of the term but I do find the degredation of the sanctity of relationships extremely disturbing. It's as if the entire human race is afraid to believe in permanance anymore. The closer we get to answers about the universe, the farther we get from believing we are an important part of it. We are tiny, we are inconsequential, and our actions don't matter. But this is where we're wrong.
This is why people (and women in particular) reach out to these characters and fantasies that they find in books and movies. They crave this kind of love, need it as badly as breathing or eating. They are waiting for the great sweeping romance that will change their lives and make everything different. They want permanance, even if it's not for the world. Permanance for them is good enough.
Women want an Edward Cullen to make them believe that love can last for eternity. They want to be the most important part of someone else's world. The problem with though is when they finally do encounter someone who possesses the ability to love like that, they run away from it. Society programs you to think that these kinds of feelings are silly and inspid. Obsessiveness is frightening. So herein lies the problem: the very thing they desire is the thing they are made to find fearful.
It's interesting to me that we live in a society full of such contradiction that someone could "love" a character in a fantasy novel but look down on a man who loves someone with the same kind of ardor as "suffocating" or "boring."
We love you Edward Cullen. As long you remain a fantasy.
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