MY TY: DYLAN BOURKEof St Catherine's Vocational School is alarmed by the behaviour of hardcore fans of a certain vampire novel
THREE MONTHS ago I saw a friend of mine lend a book to a classmate.
This in itself was not strange. My friend, Natasha, often lends books to her friends. I have borrowed many books from her. The name of the book was Twilight. The title grabbed my attention and I asked about it. I was told it was a vampire romance novel. Memories of Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampirecame flooding back and got me interested.
So I decided to read some reviews. Most I found had negative views. Their reasons for disliking it seemed valid: they thought the storyline was boring, the characters were underdeveloped and that author Stephanie Meyer’s vampires were not believable because they were unaffected by silver, garlic or religious items. In addition to not being hurt by the sun, Twilight’s vampires sparkle when hit by direct sunlight.
The reviewers also mentioned an incident where a 15-year-old girl in the US was severely beaten by a group of Twilight fans after she told them she didn't like the book. I decided to see if this was true and found a news post about it. The girl was attacked in Hartford, Connecticut. This wasn't an isolated incident, though. There are at least 12 confirmed instances where a person who dislikes the Twilight books was openly attacked or threatened by a fanatic, as well as one case of attempted murder and four cases of sexual harassment. What struck me as mildly terrifying was that, in every case I read, the attacking Twilightfanatics didn't regret their actions or even care about the consequences. They didn't seem to think that it was wrong to use violence against someone who disagreed with their views.
Something else that struck me was how these incidents of violence towards people were frighteningly similar to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr and the period known as the second “Red Scare” in the US during the Cold War. While standing on the second floor balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, Martin Luther King was shot and killed by someone whose belief in their own opinions led them to use violence instead of reason against an opposing idea.
The second Red Scare was the period in the US between 1949 and 1960. During this time many thousands of Americans were accused of being communists or communist sympathisers. Suspicions were often given credence despite questionable evidence. Many people suffered loss of employment, destruction of their careers, and even imprisonment.
Although there are many similarities, the actions of these Twilightfanatics are, in a way, much worse. They are worse because they are using violence in the name of a book – a piece of fiction – something that isn't real and has no bearing on how we live our lives. What kind of world is it going to be when people who resort to violence in the name of fiction are the ones running for government? What kind of world will it be when someone willing to resort to murder in the name of a vampire romance novel is in charge of a country's military forces?
