Burger King has come out with a series of ads of late that has two hosts of crazed pre-pubescent girls descending on one of their stores, battling for the allegiance of hapless Burger King customers. Both sides fanatically devoted to Stephanie Meyer's Twilight Series, but one side are ardent supporters of Edward, the other, zealous proponents of Jacob. Edward being the vampire and Jacob being the werewolf.
Now, I love this ad. I love this ad because these girls are so clearly out of their minds. Their passion for their side sweeping through any trace of reason in their not yet fully developed brains in a holocaust of unfamiliar hormones. Add to that the general confusion of the customers who have no idea what the hell these squeaky voiced idiots are talking about or why they seem so desperate to make their case and you have commercial gold. Honestly the commercial should win some sort of award for awesomeness.
Anyway, I was watching this commercial and it got me thinking (who knew a commercial could make you think?) What is it about Edward and Jacob that has these girls so out of their heads?
Perhaps it is just clever marketing with untold millions of dollars behind it that has pushed these characters onto the phsyche of every girl between the ages of 10-15, I am not sure that is true. At one point, before it was a movie Twilight was just a book. Albeit not a very well written book, but a book nonetheless. A book of words and no pictures. And at some point previous to this it wasn't even a book. It was just a manuscript looking to be published.
As I am unaware of any publishing company that lets 12 year old girls give the green light for publication (I have yet to see "Why Betsy Thomas who sits in the Third Row of Mrs. Applebuam's 4th period history Doesn't Deserve the Bead Necklace She Got For Christmas" hit the shelves of my local chain bookstore) I am forced to presume that there was a day where some adult read the story and liked it. If events followed the standard chain this adult then passed it on to the next adult in the chain and next thing you know people all over America are reading this damn thing.
Thus, it seems one cannot wholly attribute this phenomenon to a savvy marketing scheme. Nor, more surprisingly to me, can one chalk it up to girls alone, because as previously mentioned adults read this thing and took it to publishing.
Clearly Stephanie Meyers has tapped into something here. Which brings me back around to the part where the commercial got me thinking, what the hell is it about these vampire and werewolf characters that has girls will to descend on unsuspecting Burger King patrons to sway them in the favor of their choosen good looking monster character?
Now, I have only read the first one, which predates Jacobs entrance onto the scene so I really can not speak to that, and I don't actually own the thing so I'm going to do this analysis completely from memory. This excuse I find sufficiently large as to encompass any faults which may be found with my subsequent argument.
Let us start by stripping Edward of his good looks. Honestly, I would think the movie version would be enough to drive women fleeing from vampires like their was set aflame as the whole emaciated hollow cheeked combined with a paleness that is downright painful to look upon image of the on screen Edward comes off to me as sickly. If I saw a guy looking like that on the street I'd think they were doing some seriously hardcore drugs and were maybe three steps away from hospitalization.
But again, let us set all that aside as I think it accounts for relatively little of Edwards appeal. This is not to say that his looks are irrelevant, it helps to be easy on the eyes even if I can't see what they see, but rather that it is not Edward's looks that inspire his fans loyalty but something about him.
When Bella looks on Edwards her thoughts explode into hot shards of chaste puppy love. It is this that women love about Edward, not his appearance per se. His fans make this mistake of conflating his appearance with the effect of looking upon him has on them. They long for the man who will treat them as the focal point of the world, the sole point upon which the universe turns.
Not only that but Meyer's constructs Edward in such a way as to assure her audience that Edward cannot manifest his devotion to Bella in the traditional physical forms most of us are familiar with. This move has two desire intensifying principles to it.
The first of these is that it assures the audience that Edward is not simply captivated by Bella's appearance. Bella is the center of Edward's universe regardless of her looks. She could get acid thrown in her face and it wouldn't matter a bit to Edward. Bella feels truly seen by Edward for what she is, and what she wishes to be, for every facet of her personality. Honestly, who wouldn't be swayed by that kind of attention?
Secondly the chastity of Edward coupled with his metaphorical need and desire to suck the blood out of Bella's veins sets up that sweet tension of lovers parted. Romeo and Juliet wouldn't really be a story were it not for the fact that they were kept separated. The lust to be together present, Meyer's erects seemingly un-scalable walls to keep them apart. After that all Meyer's has to do is sit back and watch the tension and frustration build. Like sealing a lid to the top of a pot of water and then putting it on the stove and cranking up the heat, eventually there is an explosion. In essence it all boils down to we want what we can't have. Edward repeatedly telling Bella how much they can't be together only serves to make Bella want him all the more.
Of course Bella is described by Meyer's so vaguely that she could be anyone and is, in the minds of her readers. Where Meyer's has written Bella, Meyer's readers insert their own name, confused by how the story could be written any other way.
And now the world cup game is about to start so I am going to have to bring this musing to a close for now. Who knows, maybe someday I'll read the other books and be able to contrast Jacob and Edward and their relative merits. Though I wouldn't count on it.
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