Saturday, October 3, 2009

THE TWILIGHT SAGA.....



You know how it is sometimes.....

A friend recommends a book very highly and you feel you already know that the book isn't so good but since your friend likes it soooo much, you decide that you must give it a try atleast. Something like that happened to me........

Twilight, by Stephanie Meyer, has been considered as a book for teenagers and so I ASSUMED that it won't be my type. But then two of my friends had gone crazy about it. So I started to think..what the hell can be so special about a love story between a human and a vampire. But I had a bit of free time, so why not read it and find out myself and this is what I found......

There is no end to how beautiful and profound love can be, there are no limits, the only limits are the ones we set ourselves, there is no end to how much we can love somebody and to what lengths we can go to protect them and the Twilight Saga has just shown me all this and much more.

Our imagination, left unexplored for too long starts to rot and dies a silent death, but what about the people who dare to imagine, who dare to explore the inner recesses of their minds, what about them? They are the ones who experience the joy of their minds,the joy of being free, they are the ones who produce brilliant works while the rest of us can only sit and admire. But do you know what the truth is? All of us have it in us. We either don't pay attention to it or simply don't have time.
Twilight is a love story between a Vampire (Edward Cullen) and a normal human being (Isabella Swan). The author has captured the pain, the agony and the beauty of such love. How can a vampire fall in love with a human and not end up killing it? Especially when her blood is exactly the type of blood he has always thirsted for? This is why...

First of all, the Cullen family is different than normal vampires. They choose to live like humans rather than monsters guided by their instincts. They live on animal blood although they have learned self control after centuries of practice and determined efforts. They did kill humans at one point of time, but that changed once they became a part of Carlisle Cullen's family. Carlisle was the head of the family and an amazing doctor to fellow human beings. He was the lone person who chose this way of life. His self control was such that the sight and smell of human blood could not tempt him in the least. He had a choice and he chose to protect humans rather than thinking of them as his food. He was the one who added the rest of the members to the Cullen family, actually he was the one who MADE them. Keep this in mind that he never changed a human being into a vampire if he had the choice. He led a lonely life for centuries and was plagued by loneliness. Could he change someone into a vampire? How would he do it? Was it the right thing to do? He himself was bitten by a vampire and the pain was excruciating, did he have the heart to put someone through the same pain again and what if that person didn't survive? But all these questions were answered in one go when in 1918, Edward (17 years old) was dying of the Spanish Influenza. His father had died and his mother implored Carlisle ,in her death bed ,to save Edward at any cost and he did what he had to. And thus came Edward, the vampire, frozen at the age of 17 years for eternity

Isabella Swan, 17 years of age wanted to leave Arizona to give her mother and his new husband some time alone. So she decided to do the noble thing and that was to simply get away. Even if it meant going to the place she hated the most...Forks ,where her Dad lived, where there was incessant rain, where the sun would rarely make an appearance from behind the dark clouds. That's Isabella Swan for you, the one ready to sacrifice her happiness for the ones she loved.

Little did she know what fate was awaiting her in the small town of Forks. Little did she know that she would fall in love with the boy she met in her school, the boy who always stared at her and kept his distance from her. Little did she know how much pain she was causing Edward.
Edward, torn between his thirst and his love for her, was always fighting. A battle which required tremendous self control and determination on his part. But he did it and so did his family.

The love story between them is a dream come true for every romantic. But it isn't always rosy. There has to be some villain, someone who would want to burst their bubble of happiness and guess who can it be? Vampires ofcourse, vampires who come across the Cullen family and are stunned to find a human among them. And then begins the hunt, the hunt for Bella's blood.

This is what happens in the first book. Although she is relatively safe by end of this book, there are many more threats just waiting for her. The Twilight Saga, ie, New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn are works of a great mind and lovely imagination.
I am sure that at least few of you must have watched the movie. Most of the times, movies don't do justice to the books but believe me, this movie has done a fantastic job. I loved the movie. It was shot beautifully although Bella's (Kristen Stewart) acting needs a bit of work. No one could have fit the role of Edward as beautifully as Robert Pattinson did. He was literally Edward come true. The chemistry between Edward and Bella has done justice to the book. I am anxiously awaiting New Moon's release for I know it will be amazing too.

The Twilight Saga is a journey, a journey which shows what love is and what it can make one do. Love is not just happiness, but a multi faceted emotion which requires tremendous courage and faith.

For the first time I read a book which went beyond the love affair. The author actually takes us on a journey where not many authors can take us, ie, the journey of what happens AFTER the love affair.

I would like to thank Stephanie Meyer for producing such a great work which speaks volumes about her creativity and imagination. This is the type of work which can be produced when one lets their imagination take the front seat and reason the back seat. Hats off to her.

3 comments:

John said...

Well, at least you liked it in the end :)

I would have read the book, regardless if anyone recommended it, or not, since I read almost any book that gets in my hands, or any movie, if no better movies are available :)

But it's not on my list of books to buy or read, and neither is the movie. So we'll see :)

Nancy said...

Well, I can tell you like it! I think we have a copy somewhere...

John said...

Guess what? I just watched the movie... and think that it's good! :p