Sunday, November 30, 2008

Passionate Vampires

My reading lately has consisted mostly of school material, though I did take the time recently to read a recommendation from my wife. I had been wanting to and just had not taken the time to read Twilight by Stephanie Meyer. I was amazed by my reaction. I must admit that even with the glowing praise from my wife, I was still expecting to find a semi-immature piece of teenage literature. What I did find was a passionate work that made me think twice about all things normal in my life.
The story centers around teenager Bella, who moves to the small town of Forks, Washington and meets the mysterious Cullen family. She is particularly taken with Edward, a strangely pale and yet charming individual who no one seems to know anything about. As Bella and Edward strike up their friendship, she discovers that he is more than a normal 17 year old boy. He is in fact a vampire. Suddenly what Bella knew as normal is turned upside down. Most of all she is confronted with the passion of living a life distinct from any she has ever known.
The reason this makes it onto my list is that this book is filled with Passion. The relationship between the two main characters is intense, though not in the immature high-school manner that most assume. Bella is not your normal teenager and Edward is obviously not in the slightest bit normal. This book challenges everyday life and causes the reader to look at things differently than they normally would.
Along with this book, the movie has now come out and while it is not as good as the book, though only slightly, it still does a fantastic job of portraying the passion. At one point Edward is showing Bella the world from his point of view. Bella says, "This isn't real, This kind of stuff just doesn't exist." To this Edward replies, "It does in my world." The reality is that they live in the same world just with differing perspectives on that world.
This is the difference between those who live a passionate life and those who live normal, boring lives. It is all about perspective and the walls that we construct so that we aren't able to move beyond what we have told ourselves are the acceptable boundaries of normalcy. Everyone should take the opportunity to change their point of view from time to time to stretch the boundaries of the mind.