I Can't Live Without You....PART ONE!

Twilight.

Considered a love story for the ages, a Romeo and Juliet crossed with Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy tale for teens, Twilight has takes the world by storm. Easily ninety percent of young adult novels now contain vampires or werewolves in a love triangle, with the occasional ghost, demon, angel, or mermaid thrown in for 'variety'. But if we think for a minuet about the relationship being portrayed between the teenaged mortal and her vampire beloved, does the love story played out in the pages honestly measure up to some of the greatest love stories of all time?

Lets first consider the whole age matter. Bella Swan, our intrepid heroine who we are meant to emulate, is a mere seventeen years old at the opening of the novel. And while to a little 13 year old reader, 17 might seem very mature and grown up, it really isn't. Seventeen is so young! It's certainly no age to be falling in 'eternal' love with someone who was alive at the turn of the century! At seventeen who you are is still changing, you haven't seen much of the world yet, but according to this book we are meant to believe that this vapid girl is mature enough to be ready to marry?! We can take our brains out for a minute and try to forget that Edward is a vampire and that vampires don't age. But when you realize that, in linear time (read: real world time), he was born in 1901, changed in 1918, and has spent 90 years as a vampire when the books take place, things get creepy. Thus, using the magical powers of MATH, we can realize that Edward has been on this earth for just over a hundred years...ummm, does anyone else think this is a little skeezy? Its like extreme pedophilia!

Bella truly will do anything to be with Edward. In the 'New Moon', the second book in the series, Edward realizes that being with Bella isn't safe for her cause...well, it isn't. One of his vampire 'siblings' nearly kills her and Edward decides to up and leave with his family. From the minute Edward leaves her in the forest (which we later find is rife with monsters) Bella becomes a hollow empty shell of a person. Literally. She does nothing but sit and cry and freak out and worry everyone around her because EVERYONE NEEDS TO KNOW HOW MISERABLE SHE IS. Like many teenaged girls, she sees herself as imperfect and flawed while he is marble-like and perfect. Great chunks of the novels are dedicated to Bella moaning over how she can never attain Edwards level of perfection. He is so much more beautiful then she is, so much more immortal, so much more...glittery! I don't pretend to be much of a fan of teenagers, but a whole series of books dedicated to a relationship that preys on every single teenage girls insecurities, seems so very not ok.

I definitely have more to say on this subject, but considering how many long posts I've put up lately, this will be enough...for now.