Rescue You or Rescue Me?

As I lay into approximately the 5th straight day of reading non stop Vampire lore, I am beginning to wonder about my reasons and my mental state.

As someone who loves fantasy and loves to escape, I am prone to becoming a bit obsessed when I find something I can really, pardon the pun, sink my teeth into. I have become a recent fan of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Series and am now half-way through the third and penultimate book in the series. The irony of my choice to start reading this series NOW, when I have seen the enigmatic high-gloss black novels on the stands next to my beloved HP series for the last couple of years is laughable.

I too started dabbling in the occult at exactly the same point in the Harry Potter series. I started in the summer, just after school was released for the year (although I laugh at that considering I am WAY beyond graduation age,) when there were only 3 HPs at the time, and the 4th was due out in merely a month....odd. However, Stephenie Meyer's choice to only have 4 novels instead of lucky number seven will bring on my impending depression that much sooner. However, one could argue that HP #4, The Goblet of Fire was the beginning of the end of the series, so there are more similarities again...another time another place.

So, I began to wonder...why am I so drawn to Twilight just as I was to HP? I know other people are obsessed too--I am by no means THAT vain to think that I alone share my obsession. Once I put down the Deathly Hallows I honestly didn't think I would ever find anything else ever again to pique my interest even a fraction of what I held in my heart for the Trio.

When I read something, I escape into it's aura and the mileu that is surrounding the story...to a degree. However, when I started reading Sorcerer's Stone all those many years ago, I had a feeling of just not escape, but of actual jealousy that this was a world that I would never belong to--no matter how ambitious I chose to be. I love books, I read as much as I can. I love Jane Green, Chuck Klosterman, David Sedaris--they help me escape my mundane existance...but nothing enchanted me the way Hogwarts did. Until now. When I say I enchant--I mean I actually bleed into the books that enthrall me. I can't stop thinking them--when I have to answer the phone, I get angry--when I have to eat I read while I chew. When I shower I am thinking about what I have just read. I dream about it--I actually want to be a part of it. When I picked up Twilight four days ago...I got the same rush of adrenaline and the inability to put it down. However, this was not some hidden magic kingdom in the middle of England...this was Washington State--WHAT? For arguments sake however, the same hidden world inside our mortal boring world holds the same for both the former and the latter.

In Twilight, I was introduced to Bella Swan--a boring, somewhat nondescript 17 year old who moved away from her mother to live with her father in the small town of Forks, Washington. However, I didn't really care that much until I met Edward Cullen (insert sigh) The uncharacteristically beautiful "vegetarian" vampire who was bewitched by Bella's every move. He was attracted to her scent (she would have been the ideal victim--my beef fajitas and cheese enchiladas) if he still hunted humans. But it was the idea that this perfect man could fall for such a boring female that was so mesmerizing: every woman's fantasy.

However, HP has a love story--but it is a far third place thematically as compared to Good vs. Evil and the power of friendship. So, what made it so similar in my desire? I started mulling out comparisons in my head (THIS is why it is difficult to be my friend.) There are quite a few similarities in the fantasy aspect--but that is just a section in a bookstore in my opinion. So, let my wax Carrie Bradshaw for a moment and ponder what made my head spin so much...I think it was the dark romantic notion of being rescued.

In a normal world, ie the one that we are all a part of--unless JK Rowling, Stephenie Meyer, Philip Pullman, et al truely know something we dont...man and woman or in some instances, man and man or woman and woman, meet, have dinner, see a movie, have sex eventually, and fall in love--in no particular order....They get married, have babies and cease to exist as enigmatic beings and just become "mom and dad", or again, my two mommies." There generically is not a knight on a white horse whisking away his immortal beloved and living in pure entrancement of eachother for the rest of their lives.

But this is not a typical story of rescue--no Rapunzel (sp?) or hooker with a heart of gold pulled of Hollywood and Vine in a Lotus. These are both stories where two typically normal characters (Harry and Bella) are torn from monotony--yes, Harry's life was much worse, being tormented by the Dursley's, but he was in for a few more years of indentured servitude before he would start living off the Dole like the rest of Great Britain. I am begining to think that there is an innate, deep desire in all of us that all we want to be is rescued from whatever life we may lead and be drawn into a new one. Harry was rescued into wizardry, Bella was rescued by her ideal mate (albeit the bloodsucking part) into a life of pure true love. Although Harry's rescue is more desireable on the forefront--Bellas's is so enticing because she is being fought for, wanted, lusted-after and adored. Even Edward's fatal flaw--the fact that his deep carnal desire is to kill her actually makes it that much more interesting and, well...hot. Can any human relationship compete? Will any of us be happy knowing that some people are happier than us?

I guess since I live on Earth in 2008, I will just have to rescue myself--and go back to reading again.