Monday, December 1st - Twihard: With a Vengence

In my dream, I am pursued by a nameless hunter...

When I viewed those first few celluloid moments, I thought I could withstand the onslaught of this powerful, all encompassing beast, but as I sat and sifted through the enormous amount of history and lore, I could feel the floor beginning to fall away at the periphery of my consciousness, and I knew then, that I would succumb to the beast.

I stared without breathing across the long room, into the dark eyes of the hunter, and he looked pleasantly back at me....and without a modicum of resistance, I picked up my copy of Twilight...

Yes folks...it happened. I'm a Twihard.

Remember when I said I was fascinated with the Edward point of view, but I didn't think I would read the almost 300 pages of the leaked version of Midnight Sun? Well, since Friday, I am more than 100 pages into that (read on my iPhone, mind you), and I picked up Twilight on Saturday evening. It is a 500 page book, and I am well past 350 already. Obviously, this isn't exactly Proust, but considering that I've probably only been reading for a few hours total, I would have to say I have devoured this much quicker than I anticipated. It is funny that fellow Twihards refer to this as a Textually Transmitted Disease, because, yes...it is!

Having seen the movie before reading the book, I obviously have the benefit of being able to use the imagery of the movie instead of coming up with my own mind's eye view of these characters, and this is probably why I'm not one of the screaming tweens who doesn't think Robert Pattinson is hot enough to play Edward. He's really not all that hot really, but he certainly has the ethereal side of things down. However, just like the movie, when Edward and his family were absent, I often found myself wondering what was going on in the much more interesting Cullen family. Bella, the narrator, is kind of...hmmm...annoying.

In a lot of ways, the movie is a better edited version of the book, which isn't always the case in Hollywood. One of the most annoying literary conceits for me when it comes to suspense/mystery novels is that the ending feels rushed, and since I am 350 pages into the novel and "the hunter" (that is referenced in the one sentence I feebly stole from the Twilight prologue above) hasn't even shown his face yet, I have a feeling that I'm going to feel rushed by what is about to happen. At least in the movie, they introduced him earlier by at least referencing weird killings by "animals" moving towards Forks. Also, the movie does a much better job dealing with Bella's awakening to what exactly Edward is, and the big reveal in the movie, which you've seen in commercials, is downright breathtaking, but in the book, it is simply a question and answer session in the car heading back from Port Angeles.

The one thing the movie got massively wrong is to neglect the story of Carlisle and Edward. I was about ready to go to bed last night, when I got to the chapter when Edward explains all of this. I couldn't stop reading, and it is by far the most fascinating part of the book for me so far. If they had just addressed a little of what makes the Cullen clan tick in the movie, I think I wouldn't have felt at such a loss for the subtext, and I must re-iterate again, if Stephenie Meyer wants to write books about the Cullen clan, I'll be there like a crack addict.

So, here I sit at work, wishing I was at home finishing the book. It doesn't help that today is one of those grey rainy/snowy days that are often the weather pattern in the book. The big trouble is that as soon as I finish, I'm going to want to start on New Moon.

AiYiYi....I'm weak!