In which something just struck me, about Twilight.
So I was just commenting with this, to someone, pinning down one of the things that interests me about Twilight:
the stubborn desire in the face of everyone's rationalisations to become the Other no matter what
--and did a doubletake. Because it had never, quite, clicked with me that the series could be seen as a metaphor for that.
It's fresh in my mind, from having RPed it a lot recently. The plot of Twilight and Iris' plot, in many ways, are eerily alike-- and it was entirely unintentional. Girl meets Other, girl decides she feels more like that Other than she does like a human, girl seeks to become Other in body as well as internal self. The well-meaning adults around her try to cajole her with tales of how her human life is so wonderful, and the Other tries to convince her things aren't so great on this side of the fence, but she knows what she desires, and eventually goes through with it. And it's painful, life-threatening even, but she's happy, in the end.
(It also strikes me, suddenly, that this is also the plot of The Little Mermaid, almost exactly.)
But you know what else this is like? It's a lot like-- well, it's like otherkin. But it's also like transgender/genderqueer people. And it's also like people with BIID. It's like people who want and need to take any kind of unpopular risk to feel whole, whether that's undergoing expensive transitional surgery or amputating a limb or getting a ton of bodymods or. Or. Any of it. It's the same thing so many people go through, who know they need something that society as a whole doesn't sanction. The concerned parents and friends will wring their hands from the sidelines, telling them how you'd just be happier if only you'd give up these silly dreams and live a normal life, like everybody else.
But it never works, because no one is such a fool as to pursue these dreams unless they're truly real. There's something stronger within these people than the desire to be socially normative, to not go through terrible surgical pain and emotional exclusion, to not be looked at all their lives as an imitation member of their class, and it will out.
In a sense, even geeks, regular ol' nerds, go through this. "Why can't you just grow up and have normal hobbies? Learn to be happy with the real world, because your fantasies are just that, silly fantasies, and they won't support you forever. You'll only be unpopular, and people will mock you and think you're silly; you'll never have the fun other people do, you'll never fit in-- but if you could just shape up and forget about it...."
And what you have to realise is that for these people, their driving need to write, to create, to whatever, is so intensely overwhelming that they cannot forget.
In a way, Twilight can work as a metaphor for that too. It's about an unpopular kid who finds a wonder that the world warns her away from, that everyone else thinks is an unacceptably dangerous risk to take. But for some people, it's unacceptable danger or bust. Who they are is intrinsically tied up within it.
From what little I know of Twilight, I don't think Bella's desire to be vamped is born of anything so deep. But the series does speak to that stubborn determination to leave your birth-status behind, no matter what others think of it, and that could be resonating with more people than we know.
Maybe that's just one more reason why Twilight's so popular. One that most people haven't even thought of. And judging by the reviews ("omg why doesn't Bella listen to her family?!1?!"), one that's still pretty poorly understood.
...You know, if I'm going to be actually using this journal more often (and I think I might, if only for babbling at the increasing number of Riftpeeps adding me), I should probably get some more icons. Yeah.
the stubborn desire in the face of everyone's rationalisations to become the Other no matter what
--and did a doubletake. Because it had never, quite, clicked with me that the series could be seen as a metaphor for that.
It's fresh in my mind, from having RPed it a lot recently. The plot of Twilight and Iris' plot, in many ways, are eerily alike-- and it was entirely unintentional. Girl meets Other, girl decides she feels more like that Other than she does like a human, girl seeks to become Other in body as well as internal self. The well-meaning adults around her try to cajole her with tales of how her human life is so wonderful, and the Other tries to convince her things aren't so great on this side of the fence, but she knows what she desires, and eventually goes through with it. And it's painful, life-threatening even, but she's happy, in the end.
(It also strikes me, suddenly, that this is also the plot of The Little Mermaid, almost exactly.)
But you know what else this is like? It's a lot like-- well, it's like otherkin. But it's also like transgender/genderqueer people. And it's also like people with BIID. It's like people who want and need to take any kind of unpopular risk to feel whole, whether that's undergoing expensive transitional surgery or amputating a limb or getting a ton of bodymods or. Or. Any of it. It's the same thing so many people go through, who know they need something that society as a whole doesn't sanction. The concerned parents and friends will wring their hands from the sidelines, telling them how you'd just be happier if only you'd give up these silly dreams and live a normal life, like everybody else.
But it never works, because no one is such a fool as to pursue these dreams unless they're truly real. There's something stronger within these people than the desire to be socially normative, to not go through terrible surgical pain and emotional exclusion, to not be looked at all their lives as an imitation member of their class, and it will out.
In a sense, even geeks, regular ol' nerds, go through this. "Why can't you just grow up and have normal hobbies? Learn to be happy with the real world, because your fantasies are just that, silly fantasies, and they won't support you forever. You'll only be unpopular, and people will mock you and think you're silly; you'll never have the fun other people do, you'll never fit in-- but if you could just shape up and forget about it...."
And what you have to realise is that for these people, their driving need to write, to create, to whatever, is so intensely overwhelming that they cannot forget.
In a way, Twilight can work as a metaphor for that too. It's about an unpopular kid who finds a wonder that the world warns her away from, that everyone else thinks is an unacceptably dangerous risk to take. But for some people, it's unacceptable danger or bust. Who they are is intrinsically tied up within it.
From what little I know of Twilight, I don't think Bella's desire to be vamped is born of anything so deep. But the series does speak to that stubborn determination to leave your birth-status behind, no matter what others think of it, and that could be resonating with more people than we know.
Maybe that's just one more reason why Twilight's so popular. One that most people haven't even thought of. And judging by the reviews ("omg why doesn't Bella listen to her family?!1?!"), one that's still pretty poorly understood.
...You know, if I'm going to be actually using this journal more often (and I think I might, if only for babbling at the increasing number of Riftpeeps adding me), I should probably get some more icons. Yeah.