Untitled: The TWILIGHT Saga phenomenon - my chronicles

As mentioned previously, I unwittingly succumbed to the power of Twilight based solely on the angst-ridden love between Edward Cullen and Bella Swan - two characters whose best qualities mirror those of my favorites a la Mr. Darcy & Elizabeth Bennett, Mr. Rochester & Jane Eyre, and Heathcliff & Catherine (authors who Stephenie Meyer states as her favorites and influences).

And yet, as I try to recruit newbies to the cult of Twilight, I find myself trying to edge them in slowly by qualifying the books (and the movie when appropriate) with a muted enthusiasm so as not to turn off a potential follower. Why? Because, honestly, unless you're a female somewhere between 10 and 19 years old, it is hard to admit this is the "best thing ever." There are certain movies or books I can fully endorse with my passion, and if they don't like them, I consider them mentally defective. However, I couldn't really knock someone for finding Twilight too pedestrian or too "young" but I do think it has a lot of worthy merits and that is what I want this new reader and potential follower to discover and embrace.

Therefore, I carefully try and retell my own path which wound its way from disinterest to mild amusement to a healthy obsession, because I hope to impart the good while mitigating the bad so it isn't judged too harshly.

That said, here is my little journey who I went from skeptic to believer...

Back in March, while on honeymoon, this trip entailed 4 airplane legs of 5+ hours. Luckily, Delta offered VOD for each passenger (but many other things about Delta blows - but I digress...) so I chose to watch TWILIGHT since I prefer to watch mindless entertainment while flying so I don't feel I need to concentrate very much.

After the first viewing, my immediate thoughts were: Overall it was alright - I liked Kristen Stewart a lot; I wasn't sold on Robert Pattisonas being the ultimate sexy vampire and I disliked his crazy eyes; and I was disappointed by the lack of action and fight sequences.

But then, I started to think about Bella & Edward and their romance started to grow on me. So much so that on our return leg, I decided to watch TWILIGHT again. In fact, I was rather embarassed about it and almost didn't want to because I didn't want my new hubby to judge me as silly (not like he doesn't know me inside out already - for all my good and bad and silly ways through and through). But I was bored and didn't feel like reading my book and I didn't feel like trying out a "good" movie like SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE while being interupted by flight announcements, flight attendants, etc. (At least, this is what I told myself that I believed and would tell my hubby if he asked.) So, I hit Play.

I watched it again and played less attention to its faults and paid more attention to what I did enjoy. I liked the interaction between Edward and Bella. There definitely seemed to be chemistry between Kristen and Rob which helped the characters seem believable. While there were some awkward moments or looks (Rob's crazy eyes which were meant to be fierce or pained but just looked weird), I kind of blame the director for that; Hardwicke should have caught those moments and either done reshots or used other scenes during editting.), the budding romance was magnetic for me.

After getting back to L.A., I decided it was intriguing enough for me to pick up the book, but I refused to pay for it until I knew I would like it enough to read it more than once. I then asked around and found a Twilight loving friend who was willing to initate me into this world that she already loved. She promised it was a fast read and looking at the font and page indentations, I knew it would be quick. I started reading on Sunday night and asked her for the next volume, NEW MOON, by Tuesday morning. I picked up NEW MOON that weekend and finished over the next three nights. I then got ECLIPSE and BREAKING DAWN the following Friday via the Kindle and was finished by Sunday. So, um, yeah... I was kind of hooked.