Twilight: Emotional porn at its finest

Sorry I haven't written in a while. Between work and my obsessive knitting, I haven't had much of a chance to write. But tonight, I just had to get my thoughts out.

The "Twilight" movie is coming out this Friday, and I am beyond excited. I mean, this is a book I can only read alone and for about a half hour at a time, because it gets me too worked up and I have to get up and walk around for a bit. This is a book I have to stop myself from reading at strategic points because if I don't cut myself off, I know I'm going to be up all night. This is a book where I had to put it down to type out this post, because my hands were shaking... you get the idea.

So, established: I think this is a fantastic book, in a completely teenage-girl giggly way. I'm under no illusions that it's the greatest book ever written, but I'm really into it. And I just have to sit here and wonder: WHY? Why does this story have such power over me? How can it reduce me to an emotional puddle? Even though I know it's partially a long pro-abstinence screed, I ignore that because seriously, he's a vampire! If they ever decide to have sex, he could kill her in the heat of passion! DUH! I learned all this long ago from Buffy.

I think it all just comes down to the fact that I'm a hopeless romantic. I love Pride and Prejudice because deep down, I wish a Mr. Darcy (or an Elizabeth Bennet, for that matter) to stroll into my life so we could live happily ever after. In a world where my social awkwardness tends to foil any attempts to "flirt" with people before they begin, I kind of long for an idealized romantic idea of love at first sight.

Maybe I've been conditioned to connect to these stories because this is what "love" is supposed to be like. That you find someone and instantly fall into a passionate, life-changing affair. That compared to this, a normal relationship, with squabbles and silliness, just seems kind of boring. Not to mention the whole fact that you should not have sex, because your otherwise perfect vampire boyfriend will lose control and try to kill you. (Just like in Buffy!)

Or maybe, just maybe, it's just entertainment, and I'm just a raging mass of hormones who's a sucker for vampire fiction. :)