Monday, December 26, 2011

Twilight: The Nature of Werewolves Then and Now

I absolutely love the Twilight saga. It's a fascinating story about the modern and supernatural worlds intersecting, of teenage and not-so-teenage high school romance, and the deadly game one plays when throwing oneself into the unknown.

Stephenie Meyer's Twilight features a unique take on vampires, and while this interpretation may be unpopular with some, but considering the most recently released movie of the series, "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn: Part 1", made $588.3 million in ticket sales around the world in about three weeks, it's difficult to honestly say it wasn't effective. (source)

But this is a blog about werewolves, not vampires, so move over Edward Cullen, and say hello Jacob Black.

"Hello there, ladies." (source)

Meyer also introduced a new spin on werewolves that was unfortunately overshadowed by the presence of vampires that sparkle in sunlight. Try running the phrases ""Vampires don't sparkle" and "Jacob is really a shape-shifter" through your favorite search engine. Google gave me about 14,600,000 results for the vampire phrase and a mere 1,250,000 results for the werewolf phrase. A pity, really. I think the spin Twilight has on werewolves, or rather shape-shifters, would make for much more civilized conversation.

Not really a werewolf. Millions of fangirls don't care. (source)
It may be hard to believe, but werewolves being a pack-forming race is relatively new in modern legend. The original mythology describes werewolves as bloodthirsty monsters with little reason to socialize. Werewolf communities like in Twilight would be nigh impossible. On the other hand, Twilight's werewolves can control their transformation, a quality that the original werewolves also possess. The idea of werewolves transforming during the full moon is actually a condition known as "lunacy", or insanity based on the phases of the moon.

The book I'm writing, Behemoth, was partially inspired by Meyer's Twilight. Thank you so much, Stephenie Meyer!

 - Michael Durtschi

Links: http://stepheniemeyer.com/
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7 comments:

  1. Mister_BushidoDecember 26, 2011 at 10:07 PM

    Question: Does it have to be a silver BULLET that kills them, or can it be a silver-tipped katana?

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  2. Michael DurtschiDecember 26, 2011 at 10:10 PM

    @Mister_Bushido: Apparently, silver itself is dangerous to the modern day werewolf. Bullet or katana. Hm, I know what I'm going to write about in my next blog...

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  3. Mister_BushidoDecember 26, 2011 at 10:15 PM

    @Michael Durtschi: Thanks for the info. Also, does it have to be stabbed, or can it be decapitated, eviscerated, and/or bifurcated?

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  4. Michael DurtschiDecember 26, 2011 at 10:20 PM

    @Mister_Bushido: My, what a violent streak you have. Depending on the mythology, anything works. Extreme cases even have silver burn on mere contact.

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  5. Mister_BushidoDecember 26, 2011 at 10:33 PM

    @Michael Durtschi: The violent streak is because I am creating a secret order of 21st-century warriors tasked with protecting the world from the supernatural. I know how they'll fight and what they'll basically look like, but I'm having trouble with the names. I only know that the word "Cleric" will be in their title.

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  6. Michael DurtschiDecember 27, 2011 at 1:28 PM

    @Mister_Bushido: Ah, working on a novel of your own?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Beulah DaviesJanuary 2, 2012 at 12:36 PM

    Very interesting and informative. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete

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