Are Vampires Taking Over The World?

According to Raymond Williams' Keywords, popular culture can most directly be seen as work that is "well liked by many people" (237). Although, this would support the second definition of work that is "made by the people for themselves", he also mentions that popular works may take power from the people, as creators deliberately set out "to win favour," that is they set out to be popular (237). These definitions of popular culture can be examined using the recent vampire craze.

Stephanie Meyers' Twilight Series is perhaps the root of this craze and the focus of this blog. Being that the first book was written in 3 months and instantly labeled with bestselling potential by its publisher, Twilight was created with the intent to become popular before it even hit bookshelves. Selling 116 million copies worldwide, and second only to Harry Potter in sales, it's safe to say the publisher succeeded. Twilight has become immensely popular, specifically amongst young adults, winning the 2008 Brit Award for "Children's Book of year" and  the 2009 Kids Choice Award for Favourite Book. Translated in to 38 different languages, Twilight has crossed cultural and language barriers to become a worldwide sensation. Finishing 2009 ranked #1-4 on the U.S. and the UK bestselling charts, the Twilight Series has had more staying power on the charts than Harry Potter and is today still listed in the top 100. Girls in particular have responded to this book, often treating the author, Stephanie Meyers like a rock star, screaming and fainting in her presence.

But, while these numbers indicate that the Twilight series can easily be considered a "popular" text, further investigation reveals that there is a very specific target audience. This is supported by the main character of the books, Bella Swan. It is a widely expressed opinion that Bella appears to be created as a "blank slate" on purpose so that the target audience (young girls) can easily relate to and insert themselves into her position. This would explain the strong "connection" that this audience feels with Meyer's books. Indeed, after the first novel, Meyers' books started to attract more adult attention to her series, but still the young adult generation remain the books (and movies) biggest supporters. For example, Letterstotwilight.com is one of the largest websites dedicated to the Twilight series. It was started by two anonymous university students and over half the audience members are between the ages of 18-34. Adding to this, the Twilight series is far more popular in English speaking countries than in others. Initially written and sold in English, it was then translated into 38 different languages. However, these translated versions have never exceeded the popularity of the original English sales.  Thus, upon further examination, the sales figures show that the Twilight targets a specific group of people: young, English-speaking girls with money to buy the book or admission in to the movie.

Although the books and movies fail to cross age, gender and cultural boundaries, Twilight fans have amassed online to share their love in a huge web community. Die-hard fans, "Twihards" as they are referred to, are not shy about their love for the series and have taken to internet chat rooms in a huge way. Beginning with Facebook, the Twilight page has over 24 million followers. FanFiction.net has over 3500 fan forums with approximately 500 members in each group, with forums dedicated to such things as re-enacting scenes from the movie. Websites like "LetterstoTwilight.com" average around 40000-50000 visitors each month; over 40% of these visitors are located outside of the U.S., and 36% of them are male. Other websites even have a huge Twitter following, twilightlexicon.com for example, has over 50000 followers who cling to every word tweeted. This popularity is summed up perfectly by Sarah Clark, buying manager for Waterstone's Books in Australia, when she states, "popular doesn't even begin to describe it - the Twilight Saga is a phenomenon in its own right and like Harry Potter it has generated a global sensation that crosses several media forms."

However, despite its popularity, it has stirred up concerns with many religious groups. Mark Driscoll, a  pastor and author from Seattle, Washington, expresses his concerns with such demonic works, and compares them to Meyers’ series. In a sermon clip of him preaching against Twilight, (http://www.jesusneedsnewpr.net/mark-driscolls-sermon-against-twilight/ ) Driscoll states that he believes “the way Satan works in [this] day and age is he’ll take things from the category of Religion/ Spirituality and put them into the category of entertainment and [people] completely fail to be discerning.” For many this statement may seem like an enormous exaggeration, but for some religious groups, the belief that works of magic, vampires, and sorcery are, in a sense demonic, rings very true. Questions of the authors intent come in to consideration: Is Meyers trying to gain followers? Are subliminal messages being sent to readers? And ultimately, is this work inspired by Satan? Thus, Driscoll would agree with Williams' definition of popularity as an inferior work that sets out to win favour. In this case, Meyers is trying to win favour for a demonic cause: turning humans in to vampires.

Indeed, the popularity of Twilight cannot be refuted...book sales and box office numbers do not lie - Twilight is incredibly popular. However this phenomenon targets a specific group of people and also raises concerns about the authors intent with others. Thus, while incredibly popular worldwide, it is specifically popular with young, english speaking girls with access to books and movies.


Maureen, Mary, Neha