Mythos and Bloodsuckers

My former teammate was totally gaga over the book, now a major motion picture about this wisp of a girl who fell in love with a certified eye candy who happens to be a vampire.

Okay, okay. I told her I’ll accompany her to see it at GB3. Since it was an adaptation, I want to read the much-touted “next HP phenom.” Even though I already heard not-so-good reviews from my good friend and former UP Kule resident book critic, L, I still went on and got an ebook to read before watching the film.

So I read it Monday until the wee hours of the following day.

It’s not really my cup of tea. L tried to tell me it’s like reading those saccharine teen novels that proliferated in our youth. Sweet dreams with fangs, said she. I thought I’ll experience epiphanies of kilig moments because Edward was a perceptive, sweet, endearing vampire who doesn’t want to hurt humans.

Maybe his lack of biting moments made him too sappy for my taste and the mushy moments are often a tad too long to be effective. L said had she been the editor of Meyer’s book, she’d delete all the soap and the mush. And I tend to agree with her regardless of the fact the two of us would probably be torched by Meyer’s adoring public. Lol.

I don’t think it’s a bad book. The author had moments of brilliance but it became too convoluted because of all the sentimentality.

Or I may have believed Anne Rice’s literary mythos more and that prevented me to indulge my mind in Meyer’s world which is pulp fiction category compared to the formidable Rice.

Or I simply have seen too much to confidently pronounce that my views on men are more realistic now compared to my views before. And that remark I apply to men in general – vampire and humans alike.

Edward was the crux of Meyer’s romanticism, a creature who can only subsist on that milieu. He’s the most perfect guy I ever read about but sadly, can only live within the pages of a book. Can you just imagine what twisted, bad-boy Lestat would do to him should he stumble into the world of the Vampire Chronicles? Lestat will tear his beautiful form into pieces!

I told this to my former teammate after we watched the film. She said my cynical nature was on the prowl kaya di ako kinikilig while watching. I retorted that it’s ten times harder to wear rose-colored spectacles as one goes through life. She didn’t reply and I didn’t push it. If watching the movie made her happy, I’d be happy for her.

L and I wenbt on and discussed the book over skype a few hours ago and she said that the book is “pure fantasy without backbone”. That’s a bit harsh, I told her. As I mentioned before, Meyer has her moments and overall the book is…well… good. But it’s not great. Nor is Meyer’s prose erotically spellbinding as that of Rice’s or as cutting and brutal as that of Lumley’s.

I told her that maybe we shouldn’t expect too much – Meyer’s demographics are geared towards teens and young adults. We are hardly that. But then again, we both read and collected Rowling’s HP series, didn’t we? What is wrong with us?! I exclaimed. Have we lost our sense of kilig and became jaded women?

I really don’t think so.

The problem with me these days is that very few vampire authors can make me believe, in a space of a few hours’ of reading time, that, yes, vampires really exist in a plane parallel to ours. Very few have that gift of weaving language into a believable, majestic tapestry.

Meyer’s writing is good writing but it’s not great writing.

But then again, great prose doesn’t come that often, like in the case of Tolkien’s Middle Earth. Now, THAT creation was one of the greatest literary works ever imagined and realized. I always read his books from the Silmarillion to the Return of the King every holiday season. But I’m digressing a bit.

Back to the vampires.

So who won hands down for me?

Edward maybe brooding and sensitive but I’d offer my neck to dark, twisted Lestat anytime.

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