my favorite WA lady

Well my favorite Pullman, WA old lady writes a weekly column for the local newspaper. Jean and I used to swear and eat pizza and paint her house. I love her! And this weeks' column cracked me up:

"It has been hard for me to understand the popularity of the “Twilight” series of books. I mean they are about vampires and werewolves. Let’s get real here. It’s the 21st century. I have had a hard time keeping Edward and Jacob apart.

Then I did a little Wikipedia research. It was I, who was misinformed. Werewolves and Vampires are part of the mythological or folkloric legends of every culture. One historian, Brian Frost believes that “belief in blood sucking creatures is as old as man himself.” Here I thought that Bram Stoker had invented them with his Dracula, the “quintessential vampire novel” until now. Poor Count Vad is not unique. Nor apparently are castles in Transylvania.

I had forgot that Herodotus in his Histories wrote about the Neuri tribe, living somewhere northeast of Scythia, who transform into wolves every 9 years. A vase was found in ancient Persia showing a man fight with a wolfish looking figure. I could go on and on about all the historical references to “blood sucking” creatures but I won’t bore you.

Stephenie Meyer has certainly tapped into the culture memory with her Twilight series. Every one I know who has read the books assures me they are very well written. That’s what young men used to say about Playboy when it first came out. Actually they were right, I read some of the articles in my late husband’s copies. I loved their interviews. Based on this personal experience, without doing further research into this by reading a novel or two, I am reasonably sure these books are also well written.

These novels that have captured the popular imagination are just the latest in a series of fantasy books. Mostly the Twilight series are read by young women of any age. They have replaced the Harry Potter books. Children a soon as they were at the proper reading level had their heads buried in the Potter books.

For those few of you not familiar with the books they are fictionally placed in Forks, WA. Our Forks WA! In our celebrity culture, Forks has become a cult tourist site. Further there are two male heroes. First is Edward Cullen, the Vampire and second Jacob Black, the werewolf. Mr. Black is a member of the Qiuleute tribe. Apparently Native American’s have all kinds of legends about werewolves. Now in the stories Edward is the cold aloof one and Jacob is the “hottie.” There are Edward people and Jacob people.

Are these books any different than the Lord of the Rings trilogy? Maybe in that movies adapted from them have appeared on the screen while they were still being written. My husband and I read to our son every night before he went to bed, a down time from television. As he grew the books got bigger and longer. When he was in the sixth grade we started with The Hobbit and read through to the Restoration of the King. He read every third chapter. Then so that he would understand the cultural memory that they came from, we read Beowulf. He claimed that Tolkien had stolen the story line. Try arguing with a thirteen year old, Tolkien stole the story line! One more time Beowulf lost.

All of these popular series show is that in our tech-driven society there is greater and greater need for fantasy. Where “real” isn’t hard wired. We have a greater need for play. J. K. Rowling and Stephenie Meyer have certainly filled a need for us. "