Twilight pilgrimage

Twilight pilgrimage
by Barb Allshouse, Louisville Ohio - Contribution to the Forks Forum

I know people think I’m crazy.  I’ve grown accustomed to the bemused glances whenever I start to gush about the Twilight books, and I can only guess what goes through their minds:

“You’re too old to be obsessed with a teen romance!”

“You obviously need to get a life?or at least a date.”

Don’t get me wrong.  I know it’s not healthy to read the same books over and over, as if my life will stop if I stop reading them. Okay, maybe I do need counseling, as my mother has suggested.

Of course, that was before she got hooked on the books, too. Now at least she understands--a little.
But I have come to terms with the idea that these books are so much more than a “teen romance,” or even just a “vampire story.” I might refer to the first three books collectively as a “beautiful, heart-wrenching love story,” but even that doesn’t truly convey the rationale behind the widespread and fanatical attachment to them. Those labels are only very small aspects of the books.

The Twilight books have inspired readers and awakened passions as few books have ever managed to before.  In her teen-aged heroine Bella Swan, author Stephenie Meyer has breathed life into a character that transcends generations.  Reading Bella’s account is what great fiction is supposed to be: pure escapism, a fantastical journey that you want to never end. It is a journey in which readers are convinced that incredible things can happen every day - even to the most ordinary people, and in the most ordinary places.

It gives us hope, and motivates us to live as never before. 

As an adult reader, I admit my perspective may be slightly different than the legions of teen-aged girls who first discovered Twilight and embraced the story as their own. Just as there is a diverse fan base enjoying these books, readers are inspired and motivated with the same diversity. It is a very personal movement, meaning something different--but no less monumental - to each individual fan.

If you haven’t read the books you probably won’t understand when I tell you that my book club is making a pilgrimage to Forks, Washington.  We want to see the ancient forests of the Olympic Northwest and to stand on the dreary, windswept beaches of the Pacific coast because we believe that magic can happen there.

And in believing that, we hope magic can happen in our lives some day, too.