All about Temptation

Images of a very commercially successful, somewhat teen-oriented, film have been distracting me. I recently saw the cult-phenomenon movie about vampires, Twilight. It was directed by a woman (Catherine Hardwicke), written by a woman, and based on a book by a woman, which is a thing hard to come by in the film industry.

The darkly erotic stylization of the low-brow high school drama was mesmerizing, especially when set against the spectacular grey-green landscape of Washington state. It is a story all about temptation: the pretty/angsty/fragile teenage girl dealing with divorced parents becomes obsessed by her sexy classmate, who is actually a much older man (a 107-year-old vampire). He cannot resist her but is terrified of being near her, because the temptation of sucking her blood is too great. So instead he tries to take care of her, protect her, and restrain himself from going too far and allowing it to become carnal.

Twilight is all about delay and anticipation. There's not enough of that in this day and age. With the wankers of the world, it's all about now now now. In Twilight the girl is willing to risk everything for her vampire-lover. She's even willing to become a vampire herself, which would mean forsaking her life and turning into a social pariah, an outcast, and a demon. It is a loaded metaphor for many romantic relationships: two lovers cannot be together for certain fundamental reasons (circumstantial, emotional, developmental, intellectual, financial, geographical, racial, ethical, all of the above), but they cannot resist their innate, undying, and inexplicable attraction to one another. I don't tend to like the fantasy genre, but when it's this close to reality, and when it involves a beautiful modern glass house, I can't get enough.