An extremely well-written and completely clean expression of anger.

Well this has been an awful week.

On Monday I got back my artifact review, complete with a big fat C. This was obviously upsetting. I haven't gotten a C on an English paper (or any paper, for that matter) since...well...ever. Writing has always been "my thing", and I have always sort of taken for granted my ability to pull A-plus papers out of thin air. And the truth is, I worked hard on that paper. So getting a C honestly sucked.

The week went downhill from there. I've been really sick lately, and staying up late working hasn't done much to help out. On top of that, I feel like I've hit a dead end on my research. All of the sources I'm finding are confirming what I already believe - that Twilight is an anti-feminist piece of abstinence propaganda. There's nothing new in the sources I'm finding, and I still haven't been able to find out why this anti-feminist piece of abstinence propaganda is so successful. There hasn't been any extensive research into the psychology of fandom; at least, not any that I can find. So I'm stuck running in circles, chasing my own tail, and it's really frustrating.

Artifact Reviews, etc.

So the assignment for this week was to complete a "review" of our cultural artifact - in my case, Stephenie Meyer's Twilight. Overall, it wasn't a difficult assignment for me, as I had already expressed the majority of my Twilight-related opinions in the first post of this blog. I did a brief amount of research about the context of the novel's release (I was not, unfortunately, cool enough to know about Twilight the second it was published, although I do have a first edition) then re-worded my opinions about the novel, and figured I was done. I wasn't, of course. The hard part of this assignment came when, upon reviewing the rubric, I remembered I needed to include a discussion of the issues surrounding the novel. I realized that, while I had a vague understanding of the most common criticisms of Twilight, I had no idea how deep those criticisms ran. Faced with a lack of information and a hundred different questions, I did what most people my age do: I got on the Internet.

Type the words "Twilight novel" into a Google search page, and the results are astounding. Nearly 12 MILLION results are available; unfortunately, while the majority are extremely entertaining, very few of them are what could be considered "academic". From fan pages to Wikipedia, information abounds, but not in trolling through the Google results, only a select handful of sites were actually useful.

One thing I never anticipated about this project was how difficult it would be to find scholarly opinions on a novel that was released only four years ago. This is definitely going to be one of the most difficult parts of the assignment. While the Twilight Phenomenon is a huge part of modern pop culture, it is an undeniably young part, and very little research has been done. In order for this project to be successful, I am going to have to think outside of the box, and base my research on the connections I can make between the present and the past. So far, those connections include:

• the similiarities/differences between the current Twilight obsession, and past pop-culture fads (Beatlemania, Elvis, etc.)
• any relevant similarities between the Edward/Bella relationship, and the romances Meyers references in Twilight (Heathcliffe/Catherine, Romeo/Juliet, Elizabeth/Mr. Darcy)
• the vast differences between the vampires of Bram Stoker, Anne Rice, any other relevant pop culture vampires, and the vampires of Twilight

This project is not going to be anywhere as easy as I thought. And, surprisingly, I'm okay with that.

Full Disclosure

I have a confession to make. Somewhere in the dark recesses of my mind, I thought I could keep this a secret, but the first step to recovery is admitting that you have a problem, and this - this is definitely a problem. So here goes.

I've read Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Saga. Not just the first book, mind you, but all four of them - Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn. I even read the illegally leaked chapters of Midnight Sun, the now-shelved fifth novel, which is (was?) essentially Twilight told from Edward Cullen's point of view.

It gets worse.

I enjoyed them. All of them. Honestly. Except for the last hundred pages or so of Breaking Dawn (you know what you did, Stephenie), I enjoyed every word on every page. I wouldn't say I'm a die-hard Twilighter (or Twitard, if we're being mean), but I would be lying if I said that I didn't buy Breaking Dawn at midnight the day it was released. And I would really be lying if I said that I wouldn't let Edward Cullen do just about anything he wanted to me. (Although, to be fair, that particular obsession does have something to do with the painfully gorgeous Robert Pattinson, the actor who portrays Edward in the movie.)

Here's the thing - I know I shouldn't enjoy the novels. I know I shouldn't even call them novels. Meyer's writing style is simplistic at best, and at times, incredibly immature. Edward is described as "beautiful" no less than 70 billion times (citation needed), and the saga's heroine, Bella, is little more than an empty mold that every female reader "can, like, totally relate to". The relationship between the two protagonists is anything but healthy: Bella is essentially dependent on Edward, who is controlling to the point of obsession. The books are riddled with confusing and at times contradictory abstinence propaganda Twilight, to put it simply, is just not a good book.

So what's wrong with me? What's wrong with us? Twilight has sold about 17 million copies worldwide, with the series as a whole selling over 70 million. The movie adaptation of Twilight grossed $7 million for midnight showings alone, and almost $36 million on opening day. The series has spawned a plethora of websites and fan-fiction; it is nothing less than a cultural phenomenon.

My goal for this project is to figure out why. Why do we care so desperately about the goings-on of the Cullen clan? Why are we projecting the label of a "perfect relationship" onto a couple that is anything but? Why has Twilight made the societal impact that it has?

And who, in the name of all that is holy, thought that this would be a good idea?

Let's find out together.