Vampirism has served any number of allegorical purposes before, from bloodsucking capitalists to undead drug addicts, and vampire romances have become their own sub-category in the decades since Anne Rice began her saga. When they’ve flown/raced/piggybacked through the forest in a very Peter-and-Wendy sort of way, they lie down in an enchanted glade and talk about their feelings – and he isn’t even holding her hand! Later, he bites her wrist – but only to draw out the venom left by a snakelike bad vampire boy. Maybe vampires are just naturally sexier than werewolves – though the specific appeal of Meyer’s undead hero Edward Cullen (he’s been seventeen ‘for a while’) is that he’s a devoted, romantic swain who desperately wants to drink the heroine’s blood (ie: have sex with her) but keeps a respectful distance, holding back because he is mindful of the consequences (not pregnancy or VD but death or turning into a vampire) even as she’s absolutely begging him to bite her. ![]() In contrast to the girls’ rising excitement, I wondered why Twilight drew a bigger opening weekend than Quantum of Solace while the similar Blood and Chocolate slunk out unpreviewed, unnoticed and unloved last year. As someone well outside the demographic, I was struck that the tweenage, totally female crowd were as dizzyingly excited as similar audiences might have been before a concert by any boy band. ![]() ‘This is like the best day of my life,’ said one of the thirteen-year-old girls sitting in the row in front of me in the audience for the preview of the film version of the first novel in Stephanie Meyer’s best-selling YAPR (young adult paranormal romance – yes, it’s a recognised publishing category).
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