The Willing Hostage of Adolescent Culture

The Time: Today. 11:15 am

The Place: Fandango.com

The News: Tickets already sold out for 12:01 am showing of the Twilight movie

The Reaction: Text Amanda, brace myself for onslaught of panic from numerous female friends, plan to buy ticket for 12:05 am showing.


Grad-school snobbery aside, the Twilight series has been a great guilty pleasure for me over the past year, and I’m looking forward to the late-night premier event filled with squealing teenagers and hunky vampires. How can anyone who truly loves literature be dismayed about this much frenzy over a book? It may not be Shakespeare, but it may also be paving the way to a lifetime of literary exploration for thousands of students. Every time I’ve stepped into my local Barnes & Noble in the past year, I’ve witnessed the exact same scene and couldn’t help smiling: a person or group of persons walking away from the massive red and black Twilight display is stopped by a person or group of persons walking towards the Twilight display.

“Is that the latest Twilight book?”

“Yeah, it’s awesome! I already read my school library’s copy (or a friend’s copy, or the local library’s copy), but I wanted one for myself. You’re going to love it!”

“I still think the first book was the best.”

“Wait till you try this one. It’s even better!”

“Oh, sweet!”

So, when I’m standing in line next week, surrounded by teens dressed as vampires and clutching their black and red tomes, I’ll remember that this is a display of the power of the English language, and keep the sarcasm to a minimum.

Amanda has taken great pride in passing the books along to all her neighbors, friends, and relatives, and started planning this evening several months ago. We’re getting together tonight to buy our tickets online, and to plan some pre-movie activities. I’m not sure what the others have in mind; I just hope it doesn’t involve costumes.