If you've read any of her author interviews, or just about anything else she's said, it's clear that she really is 100% sincere. She honestly believes that Edward is the single most wonderful romantic interest in all of literature, and that everyone should wish that they were Bella.

The book's details are even well-documented. It began from a dream she had, about a girl in a meadow talking to the most beautiful boy in the world, who sparkled. He was telling her that they couldn't be together because he was dangerous. Meyer was immediately captivated, and felt she had to write their story.

It's unfortunately very earnest, and that's the biggest problem with it. Were it a parody, it would be far more accepted, because that implies a self-awareness and acknowledgement that this stuff is super screwed up. Even if it had been written differently, the story of a girl deluded into thinking that a creepy monster stalker was her True Love could be an effective meta-horror story, and a very deep, cutting commentary on romanticism and naïveté. But it's presented as the most perfect happy romance ever, and that's the problem.

As much as I love the idea- and I do sorely wish it was true- I honestly can't see the woman who told her husband that if Edward came to her door, she'd run off with him in seconds as someone who'd pull off this kind of parody. Sorry.

I am rereading the series for the purposes of real-life MSTing it with my friends. Now that you mention it, things ARE pretty ridiculous - most notably the constant presence of vampires in town without anyone noticing. Sure, they take precautions, but at least A FEW people have to be suspicious by Eclipse. They were already muttering about the Cullens in New Moon, but suddenly Eclipse starts and POOF! No more suspicions, until Bella gets married at eighteen.

As I hail from a(n admittedly elitist) small town myself, I can tell you everyone would be actively discussing the Cullens immediately following the car accident in Twilight and asking some tough questions by the end of New Moon.

Also, if we're comparing Twilight to Beauty and the Beast - which I'm going to, because pudding - I think Seth Clearwater is like a shape-shifter version of Chip. I like Seth~

Let's break it down, then:

-Bella is, obviously enough, the Fairytale Princess. She's that character who bemoans her tragic state while at the same time getting everything she wants - and, big hint, ends up using The Power Of Love. Shades of Disney's Sleeping Beauty here, I suppose, or Little Mermaid, only less the 'I want to do more' and more, um, 'My boyfriend is a carnivorous predator'. To paraphrase Jay, there's never been a Disney film about /that/.

(I'm not counting Beauty and the Beast. Because I don't want to)

-Edward is Prince Charming if he were a real member of the nobility. 'I am so luscious and I want to kill you and drink your blood'. He (along with the werewolves) has that Love At First Sight (actually Sniff) thing going on, so yeah, Sparkleboy is definitely a parody. He also has shades of Peter Pan - Never Grows Up.

-Jacob is the Big Bad Wolf in his purest form - a character (wolf, in fact) who exists solely to get in the way of Twu Wuv. He's almost a thematic reversal of the Wolf, though, since rather than being unambiguously evil, he's, er, pretty much the most sympathetic character in there. If Edward is the Unattainable Noble, Jacob is the Down-to-earth Type. Edward lounges around in forests, Jacob'll help you build a motorbike.

And that is essentially how it would actually be in several Disney films. Beauty and the Beast actually works really well here - in that, bookish Belle is fascinated by the reclusive, standoffish noble Beast, while shunning the townsman Gaston. Okay, sure, Gaston is shown as a Very Bad Chap - but that's the Disney Filter in operation. He is less rich, he does not have a castle, therefore he must be bad. Jacob is poorer, lives in the woods, does not sparkle, and therefore must be Not The One.

As to the rest of the vamp!cast... well, Alice is both good and wicked fairy (think Sleeping Beauty - the good ones make prophecies, Maleficent is insane... Alice is both. Classical Seeress), Esme and Carlisle are fairly generic King and Queen characters (with which, shades of Aragorn in the Doctor-Ruler?), and the others... you've got the Wicked (or at least Grumpy) Stepsister in Rosalie, and, er, I honestly can't remember enough about Emmett and Jasper to comment.

And, you have to take The Host into account. It was written before Twilight, and it's actually not all that bad. Romance, yes (which puts it outside my usual genres), but reasonably realistic characters. Even if it is pro-Yeerk propaganda.

hS thinks too much