Monday, July 12, 2010

Excursion to Forks... The Twilight Phenomenon Reviewed

So guys,

I know it's a bit early to do an off topic post but there is a dim light out there in the pop-culture spheres that I could not make any sense of for a very long time: I call it The Twilight Phenomenon.

When I was staying in Westwood, LA, I used to go down by foot to Ralph's, Whole Foods, and Trader Joe's to do my regular grocery shopping. I often passed premiers along the way - that was nothing special - but there was this one specific day when everything was different... I experienced an extraordianary premier. The main streets were packed with people, everyone was excited, taking pictures, limousines passing non-stop... there was just this very special atmosphere going on and I wondered what made this premier so different from all the others?! Why can't I just walk straight to my grocery stores?! I asked people on the streets and they said that it's the Twilight premier. The WHAT?! I felt like an alien not to know what Twilight was but I figured it must be similar to Harry Potter and I was content enough with that comparison. So, yes, in fact, I stood there for a little while and saw many of the cast being interviewed one after the other but I had no clue who they were. I just enjoyed the way everyone was having a good time :) (I remember seeing the Edward Cullen character Robert Pattinson on the red carpet and I was just thinking that he had a very unsymmetrical face, which I so not like, and I thought that the actress Kristen Stewart playing Bella Swan looked pretty grumpy and odd...)

Being introduced to the whole scene that way I asked my friends whether they knew Twilight. Of course, they did!! I heard from a couple of great people that they read the books and fell in love with Edward Cullen, which made me so curious and I got geared up with the books, the DVD of the first movie, and even the very own make-up palette of Victoria from Luna Twilight.


So, I was ready to sink into this magical world that everyone seem to love ... but then, oh well, I felt NOTHING! I made it to the second book and I just couldn't continue. I did not feel like being part of the story at all. I thought the characters were designed very badly and that nothing made sense to me. I did not get why this story was being told. Oh boy, I never actually read a book imagining myself reading the book instead of being drawn into the story - if that makes any sense to you. So, my immediate reaction was: I must be strange!! Why does everyone identify with the characters but me?!

Luckily, my friend who writes for the Rolling Stones magazine pointed out a very good article to me that was featured in the magazine. It's written by a professor for literature and explained very well why the story just couldn't work for me (I partly studied Theater, Movie, and TV Science at university, so maybe I'm prone to high expectations when it comes to media...). I was so glad to hear I might be sane after all!!

So here's what Dr. S. Keppler-Tasaki said:
From the psychologist point of view Twilight is a phenomenon mainly for young adolescent people because it deals with suicide (or mortality in general) and the fear of sexual intercourse (you remember the whole fuzz as to why they can't have sex...). Not particularly aiming at that age group, though, it is very typical for vampire literature to tell their story of a female protagonist who is just about to getting married because this is the period of time when desires are least secluded. The clergymen can't prevent that the creature marries the human... this has long been told by numerous vampire "legends". What makes Twilight different is that the horror element seems to be completely missing - and in fact, the vampires inherit the Christian thoughts of salvation and convention. They are altruistic folks, they play baseball, go to the prom, and so forth... Edward is portrayed as an immortal simply to be an über-husband: he is more perfect than any other man could ever be. He looks like a beautiful sculpture, he protects his love with his enormous strength, and he is exceedingly wealthy, too... So, the catch about Twilight is that there is no edge, no twilight zone, whatsoever. Everything's set to go the conventional way. The complex vampire figure seems to be degraded to a decent pop-culture brat.
Wow, I've actually arrived where I started - and I'm seeing a light so dim (a great song by The Black Heart Procession btw.) I know, maybe this is just the opinion of someone who cannot feel the love for this guy (nor the girl)...

But there's still the Luna Twilight make-up and I have to say that I quite like the palette! The slim matte packaging with black shiny trees embedded on the lid make the tiny box look quite elegant and the lip glosses, the eye-shadows, and the blusher have surprisingly good quality! I do find the colors are a bit of a mis-match, though! I would not wear them all at the same time, it could appear too much like some bad Halloween joke. Just leaving the blush and the darker gloss aside would do the trick already. I would save those for other looks.


you see above:
1 + 2 = lip gloss
3 + 4 = eye-shadow
5 = blush

Here's my question to you:
What do you think about Twilight - the books, the movies, the merchandising - the whole hipe?! I'm completely aware that I'm being very controversial here!!

Bless, ur gypsy

official make-up web-page: http://twilightbeauty.com/lunatwilight.aspx

4 comments:

  1. I'm glad that you haven't been taken in with the books. I feel like I live in fear of Twilight fans pelting me with objects if I make a public comment of not liking the books. I didn't end up liking the books, and like you, couldn't identify with any of the characters. And the more I think about it, the more infuriated I get at the characters. But it looks like the makeup is really good!

    It's been great to read your blog, by the way!

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  2. It makes me so happy to read your comment! When I finished the first book I came to the conclusion that the author had no proper concept of how to create characters and that's why the protagonists didn't make sense to me. I was so insecure, though, because I seemed to be the only one who wasn't able to connect to the story.
    Thank you so much for finding and liking my blog, this means a whole lot to me!!
    Sam xx

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  3. This is what the internet is for! You can always find someone else to hates Twilight heh. I wanted to post this for you:

    http://cleolinda.livejournal.com/638712.html

    ENJOY!

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  4. Dearest K, I had the BEST time reading your linked commentary - this girl is genius, funny, and spot-on!! I love the way how she can't stop reading the books while experiencing severe pain, lol!! I SO understand her :-)

    ReplyDelete