Why Some Vampires Don't Suck, I Guess!

I found this interesting photo this weekend and thought I would share it with you.  Notice the middle finger on Kristen Stewart's left hand.  It appears to be a good two inches longer than her first finger and an inch and a half longer than her ring finger.  I think I remember some ancient lore that suggested that an extra long middle finger on the left hand was tied to vampirism or lycanthropy or witchcraft or Godzilla, maybe.  Anyway, I bet that finger is what attracted her to playing the part of Bella Swan, which means "beautiful bird," in TWILIGHT.  Get it? Beautiful "bird?"   Or maybe it was just the oodles of money and fawning fans that made her do it.  Whatever the reason, I'll bet she got in trouble a lot in high school just for raising her hand.

After that truly sophomoric opening paragraph, I'd like to say seriously that the printer's ink devoted to NEW MOON this past week was just amazing, as was the number of living, breathing non-vampires who bought tickets to see it.  Here in Cape Cod away from the POST-STANDARD, I happened upon three really interesting articles in the CAPE COD TIMES and USA TODAY.  Maybe the most amazing fact I garnered from those stories was included in one of those little bar graphs the USA TODAY love to use.  The graph revealed that 87% of all tickets were sold to females.  No surprise there.  What was surprising though was the fact that while  35% of the total tickets were sold to the under 25 female age group, the largest percentage, 44%, were sold to the 25 -44 year old lady group.  In several blogs I poked fun at the teenage set sucking up everything TWILIGHT.  I should have been poking fun at their moms and older sisters!

In fact, I probably shouldn't have made fun of the teen TWILIGHT-mania.  Check out this quote from Elizabeth Gruner, an English professor at the University of Richmond.  "Vampire stories appeal to teens because vampires are eternal teens--they stay up late, exchange bodily fluids, engage in illicit practices and live forever, and most teens think they're immortal, too."  (USA TODAY, 11/23/2009)  That kind of says it all.

A 25+ TWILIGHT lover, Jennifer Stevens Aubrey, quoted in the same USA TODAY article said, "Teens perceive Edward as an ideal romantic mate, despite being a vampire and rather controlling and what someone said is the likeliest candidate for a restraining order.  He's so into  (Bella).  The adults compare him to their own partners, who obviously can't match up."  As Valerie Gibson, TV call-in show host put it in the Nov. 23 article, TWILIGHT may be "multi-generational" because it is "a testimony to the emptiness of contemporary relationships."  These critics suggest something far deeper than I ever realized was pumping its way through the blood streams of Edward, Bella, Jacob, and the rest.

I really like it when this blog gets interactive like it did with the 7 Wonders.  It would be great if some ladies in the 25+ demographic reacted to this posting.  But then you might all be too busy, what with school, work, and kids to have had a chance to read any of this vamp. lit.