Twilight

As you may be aware, it's Twilight day.

Now, there are two primary types of people, it seems- those that think that Twilight is shallow, and then there are the rabid, drooling fangirls. I believe I can safely ascertain that I belong to neither. Let's call this being a reluctant appreciator of the story. For some time, I'd been seeing people, many of whom I had never before seen with a book in their hands, buried in the Twilight series. As the number increased exponentially, it became evident something had to be drawing all these readers in.

One can infer much about any given piece of pop culture based solely on its fanbase. The fact that nearly all Twilight readers, as far as I could tell, were teenage girls, made me yet more resolute in resisting (Overlooking the fact that I technically do demographically fit under abovementioned category). Anything like that must be superficial, silly, and a bit self-indulgent. But alas, I eventually succumbed. I have to admit that I don't regret having caved in. Obsessed, no. But addicted? Well... yes. I recognize that the later books and the film are catering very much to the fanbase, to appeal to the masses. I don't usually latch on to blind crowd-following, so it shouldn't be some sort of terrible vice if I do it. Once, that is.

So today I went to see the movie. Before we turned into the theater from the street it was already evident that the size of the crowd was going to be just as ridiculous as predicted. Inside, it was packed nearly from wall to wall. There was a slightly disturbing amount of squealing and screaming going on, and even the normal levels of anticipation in the atmosphere was palpable. Fortunately, the film turned out to be much like the books, so I walked out without being disappointed. Many a decent book has been ruined by its film adaptation, but here's an exception.