For all the Buffys efforts, vampires have been

sinking their teeth ever deeper into Generation Ws pop culture.

To a spate of hugely profitable books and HBs True Blood, add this
months T!ilight, a movie based on "tephenie #eyers blockbuster saga,
!hich has sold millions of copies in the $.". alone. %s starlet &risten
"te!art plays the mortal innocent to 'obert (attinsons undead rebel,
)%#*" W+,TT e-plores the buried messages
of this bloodsucking invasion.
.ts as if Buffy the /ampire "layers valiant afterschool activities !ent for naught.
For seven seasons 01223456678, "arah #ichelle Gellars girl po!er prodigy 9Baffy
"ummers: stalked and staked nearly every bulbous head !ith bared incisors menacing
the graveyard mists and nightclub shado!s of "unnydale, a mission climating in the
series finale !ith an %rmageddon sho!do!n !here the outnumbered forces of light
faced off against pale legions of darkness and emerged torn and scraped, but victorious.
;et here !e are, only a fe! years after Buffy retired her pointy stick, up to out gla<ed
eyeballs !ith the children of =racula. (erhaps this fresh profusion of vampires is
representative of a pop culture that is sucking itself dry > draining the last drops out of a
pulp genre, having e-hausted its creative resources > or perhaps it testifies to the
procreative po!er of gothic sensibility to regenerate fear and eros and reclaim the night.
% batch of vampire serials are running concurrently in the publishing !orld, such as the
Baffy noveli<ations, /ampire %cademy, The #organville /ampires, /ampire &isses,
The /ampire =iaries, %nita Blake, /ampire Hunter and ,harlaine Harriss 9"outhern
/ampire #ysteries,: the last being the sultry inspiration for the ne! HB series True
Blood, adapted by %lan Ball 0!hose previous HB sho!, "i- Feet $nder, established his
bona fides in the ?ueasy4mortality department8. But the undisputed golden calf of the
vampire cotillion is "tephenie #eyers 9The T!ilight "aga: a blockbuster bloodsucker
series that has helped fill the yearing void left by the boarding up of ). &. 'o!lings
Harry (otter !i<ard shop. ,ommercially, 9The T!ilight "aga: has given book publishing
a blood transfusion, !ith sales topping seven million copies !orld!ide@ its also a global
sensation, translated into 56 languages. The physical properties of the books themselves
may e-plain their popularity. Theyre thick, chunky, promising a fat read > you dont so
much curl up !ith them as gulp them do!n.
Where True Blood is steamed in the s!eat, milde!, and cheap s!ill of its neon4pit4
stop, honky4tonk +ouisiana locale 0everyone e-cept %nna (a?uins Buffyes?ue heroine
and her black B.F.F looks a little lank8, 9The T!ilight "aga: shivers under the cloud
canopy of rainy north!est Washington "tate, !here the gray4green and damp ha<e make
it hard to tell the people from the mushrooms. % teenage 9adult child: of divorce, .sabella
"!an > everybody calls her Bella > migrates from the glassy spra!l of (hoeni-, %ri<ona,
to move in !ith her father, a police chief !ho !atches a lot of sports on T/ in lieu of
having a personality. n her first day at a ne! high school, al!ays an a!k!ard initiation
rite, Bella discovers an ethereal cli?ue occupying a corner table in cafeteria, ready for
their photo shoot. 90Their8 faces, so different, so similar, !ere all devastatingly,
inhumanly beautiful. They !ere faces you never e-pected to see e-ept perhaps on the
airbrushed pages of a fashion maga<ine.: (erhaps the most beautiful, fashion4modelly of
the lunch bunch is *d!ard, Bellas future and forever vampire lover, a highcheekboned
cross bet!een 'udolf Aureyev and ,hris .saak in their princely prime, !hose irises
change color according to his moody moods 09%nger flashed in his ta!ny eyes:8.
(resumably flossing after every forest kill 0ecologically correct, *d!ard feeds in the !ild
only on four4legged predators not on the endangered4species list8, this immortal vial of
pure mysti?ue is a dental hygienists delight B 9He smiled !idely, flashing a set of
perfect, ultra!hite teeth.: Which complement his perfect, ultra4!hite skin, *d!ards
immaculate physi?ue resembling an ice statue carved out of fro<en milk by #ichelangelo
and irradiated !ith moonlight, putting nature itself in the shadeB 9The meado!, so
spectacular to me at first, paled ne-t to his magnificence.: *d!ard offers more than
splendor in the grass. %n ace driver and aerial gymnast, he also e-cels as a composer and
pianist, emos ans!er to ,hopin. 9%nd then his fingers flo!ed s!iftly across the ivory,
and the room !as filled !ith a composition so comple-, so lu-uriant, it !as impossible to
believe only one set of hands played.: Ao portrait in fine4fingered elegance 09Finished
!ith the last bite of lasagna, . lifted a glass and chugged the remains of my milk:8, Bella
rues the disparity bet!een his spectral aura and her clay form. 9He looked like a god. .
looked very average, even for a human, almost shamefully plain.: ;et *d!ard is
captivated by Bellas heavenly scent 09;ou smell so good in the rain:8 and craves her
company 09. crave your company:8, his 9cold, marble lips: intended only for her hot little
pucker.
,ompared !ith the pop medievalism of the Buffyverse, the secret order of occult
society in %nne 'ices +estat series, and the evolving se-ual mores of %nita BlakeB
/ampire Hunter 0are !ere!olves suitable bedmatesC8, #eyers 9T!ilight "aga: is light
on bloodsucking lore, heavy on highschool humdrum. 9#y fourth hour class got out late,
and the lunch table . al!ays sat at !as full by the time . arrived. #ike !as there, )essica
and %ngela, ,onner, Tyler, *ric and +auren, &atie #arshall, the redheaded Dunior !ho
lived around the corner from me, !as sitting !ith *ric, and %ustin #arks > older brother
to the boy !ith the motorcycles > !as ne-t to her.: Glad !e got those seating
arrangements sorted outE /ampires aside, 9The T!ilight "aga: is primarly young4adult
fiction for unDaded palates, another rendition of the classic courtship tale about a modest
duckling 0!ith strenght of character that sets her apart from the shallo! and silly8 !ho
falls under the spell of a black s!an of a man and, after much sparring, melts his
'ochesterF#r. =arcy reserve. Here it is not a haughty man !ith the secret hurt that makes
him vulnerable and attainable, but a beautiful boy at the peak of his slender translucence,
!hich gives 9The T!ilight "aga: a gay crossover appeal. *verything a girl could !ant in
one dreamy envelope, *d!ard is the ans!er to a princesss prayers > doting, fiercely
protective, carrying his beloved great distances in his arms like a groom forever crossing
the honeymoon threshold. .n the novels it gets monotonous having Bella sigh over ho!
breathtaking *d!ard is every time he materiali<es, subDecting the reader to dumb4bunny
clunkers such as this beautB 9*d!ard stood in the halo of the porch light, looking like a
male model in an advertisement for raincoats.: Happily, the forthcoming film of T!ilight
0based on a sample tasting8 s!eeps a!ay the trite chatter of Bellas interior monologue
and the clumpy pace of #ayers storytelling !ith one s!oop of the camera across the
mist4!reathed pine forests of the (acific Aorth!est, the forsaken terrain of =avid
+ynchs T!in (eaks. The desaturated colors create an instant emotional climate of
hooded intentions, muffled instincts. =irected by ,atherine Hard!icke, !hose Thirteen
displayed an intimate feel for the loose4limbed, tense4nerved clamor of teenage
hormones, T!ilight is engulfed in sidelong looks and tentative touches, leaving the rough
se- and parody of identity politics to True Blood 0!here the vampires 9come out of the
coffin: to demand citi<enship rights8 and going for the full unabashed primal
romanticism of first love. Watching the footage made me feel like a 1G4year4old girl
again. +et me repharse that. h, forget it. =espite the predictable s?ualling on some of
the T!ilight fanblogs, the t!o leads are impeccably cast. &risten "te!art, !ho e-celled
in "ean (enns .nto the Wild, is ?uietly pretty and believably guarded4yet4intrigued, more
sympathetic and relatable4to than the spoiled vamps of The Hills and Gossip Girl. %nd
she has that #ary4+ouise (arker tipped4upper4lip thing going !hich is never harmful.