Twilight: One Father’s Ramblings On A Phenomenon
I am the father of a teenage girl. Twilight? Yeah, I’ve heard of it. Here are my feelings on the phenomenon. Come with me… if you dare!
Since the dawn of teenage entertainment, what could possibly be described as ‘gothic’ has proved to be popular. What was popular while you were growing up?
Teen Wolf (1985)
OK, so not necessarily gothic, Twilight features werewolves as well as vampires, so I had to find an example of a werewolf other than Lon Chaney, Jr.
Monster Squad (1987)
Before this becomes a list of Halloween flicks of the 80′s, let’s focus on the vampires, shall we?
The Lost Boys (1987)
Joel Schumacher’s attempt at a teen vampire movie. I had no idea it was THAT bad when I watched it back in the day. I watched it again recently with the teenager, who called it lame. Yeah, well, you’re angsty vamps are boring! Moving on…
Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)
Really, after this one, could you really make another vampire movie? Oh yeah, there was that other one…
Interview With the Vampire (1994)
The same year as Gary Oldman was slaying ‘em in ‘Dracula’…
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992)
…Kristy Swanson slayed Pee-Wee Herman. But her legacy didn’t die…
Buffy on TV!!! (1997-2003)
I think you get the point.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that vampires for teens is not such a new thing.
Myself, I have not read the Twilight books. I have seen the movie. I thought it was boring and predictable. People have tried to explain elements in the book that they felt were left out of the movie, but I got it. Maybe because I love science fiction and fantasy already, but I didn’t need the elements of the myth and the Twilight spins on it to get the concepts.
What it boils down to story wise is a forbidden love, which we all can identify with from some part of our lives, which explains the fascination in my eyes. Am I worried that it’s inappropriate for my teen? Not hardly. Only in the sense that she is far more sophisticated than to fall head over heels for this hyped up fad. She liked the book well enough, but is already growing out of it faster than she did Harry Potter. (Incidentally, she watched ‘Dracula’ last night and LOVED it! That’s my girl!)
So to sum up: Vampires and monsters have been marketed to teens for a long time, and I see no cause for alarm. If you are present in your kids’ lives, you have nothing to fear. The only thing that truly bothers me about Twilight is seeing these guys on the covers of the tabloids every single day, with their eyelids drooping like they’re high. They’re together, they broke up, they’re engaged… I don’t care!
And don’t get me started on the merchandising. ‘Forbidden Fruit’ Sweethearts? Edward panties? Stop. Just stop.
It’s my opinion that the only people making this latest wave of vampire mania inappropriate are the fans. Enough, already!
At least ‘New Moon’ looks like the wolves actually get to change…
New Moon Movie and Twilight Movie
This blog post is part of the Twilight Dad Bloggers Experiment. For more, see the links below:
- Twilight – Is It Appropriate For Young Ladies?
- Twilight – New Moon
- “Twilight” For Girls? Dad Bloggers Share Their Thoughts
- Is It Safe? Twilight And Teens
- A Dad of Daughters on the Twilight Phenomenon
- Dad and Mom Bloggers React to “New Moon” & “Twilight” Series
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Tags: Arts, Bram Stoker, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dracula, Gary Oldman, Horror, Lon Chaney, Lost Boys, New Moon, Twilight
I’m a little ashamed to admit that I’m reading the books (almost done with the first one). I think twilight, the book, is pretty good. But, like you, I don’t really get all the hype because they aren’t really THAT good. Oh, well. Like anything else teenager oriented — this too shall pass.
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I like the book myself, but you are right it does feel like a bisic Romeo & Juliete story.
Since we own a DVR and don’t watch anything when it comes on, I rarely get to see the New Moon trailers. From what I’ve seen, SyFy looks to have better production quality
I’m glad my girls are no where near the age of twilight. But in 10 years, they’ll be something else for them I’m sure.
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ok, i had read the twilight saga cos we were getting ready to see twilight and didn’t want to see film w/o reading books first. i went thru all the books in 5 days. breaking dawn was the worst out of the 3. 3 out of those 5 days were spent reading just that book. it got ridiculous and boring….so boring i kept putting it down. here’s the thing, if you’re a high school or jr high student, you’re gonna think this book is well written. but for someone like me, as much as i enjoyed them at the time, as well as the film, these are not brain food. they are written on a jr high/hs level. i’m gonna have to do my own post about this, because it’s not just teens who are affected. some teens get over it while their moms are still swooning like weirdos lol
and gee, stephanie, when might we see new material. and hmmm, your saga reminds me of vampire diaries a bit (written in 1991)
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But am I allowed to make fun of people who read these books and watch the movies even though I haven’t read the books, I haven’t seen the movie, AND I love True Blood? I guess I’m allowed to do it, but as usual, it only proves I have no idea what I’m talking about.
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Okay, I never wanted to be on the Twilight train – but to appease a friend I read the book…then the enxt day I ran to the bookstore (desperately hoping they had the books in english) and bought them all reading them cover to cover back to back. Why? Cause the story was actually fun. Is it amazing writing? Umm, no. But the books are a nice trip down lets play pretend and that part is fun.
I do think they teach a fairly decent message, absitinence (as mentioned over at Clark Kent’s place) and romance. When let my daughter read them or see the movie remains to be seen – she’s 3. I do think the movie really did not live up to the book (though I am optimistic that New Moon will be better, it seems better anyway from what I’ve seen). I think the hype over the actors is insane (Kristin Stewart, eh, I didn’t like her personally). I am not going to go buy Edward Panties or candy or posters.
But then again, I’m 31, married and have two kids. I think teens have a different view on that.
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