A Blazing New Moon Erupts

[dr_phil_physics]

Twilight Of The Sparkly Midnight New Moon

Say what you will about Stephenie Meyer and her Twilight books, but they are popular. And the two movies? Huge.

To give you some idea, let's point out that the Grand Rapids area biggest line this week was not at the Barnes & Noble bookstore at Woodland Mall. No, we're talking about the midnight showings for Twilight: New Moon.

Long considered the staple of SF/F and Star Wars and Star Trek geeks, the midnight showings locally were taken over by a largely female crowd of all ages. Only a teen phenomenon? Oh, puh-leese. Pictures on the local news and in the Grand Rapids Press showed many middle-aged women who were not all mothers chaperoning their teens or pre-teens.

When Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace opened on 19 May 1999, Studio 28 had a midnight showing in Theatre 1, then had it running in 3 other theatres for the first 24 hours. Fast forward to 2009 and while Studio 28 is gone, the same chain's Celebration North mulitiplex opened New Moon in all 17 non-IMAX theatres at midnight -- over 3500 seats -- and sold out. Systemwide, they sold something like 14,200 midnight tickets, exceeded only by one of the Harry Potter's at 14,600 (and Celebration North opened it in 14 theatres at midnight).

While some of this is marketing and choosing to open extra theatres and offer more seats for the midnight showings, one needs to point out another set of interesting factoids about West Michigan: (1) this was on a school night and (2) with (most?) West Michigan schools on trimesters, final exams start like on Friday. And still the teens contributed to the surge.

The Inevitable Complaints

Last Sunday, I showed up for part of a 10am panel at WindyCon 36 on "Rowling and Meyer" and what young readers are reading. J.K. Rowling's writing poor and predictable? Stephenie Meyer can't write either and her vampires aren't (sniff) canonical? Does not seem to be hurting the sales, folks. Even the NPR news quiz show Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me on Saturday tried to argue that all these Twilight fans are going to be unprepared to go up against real vampires. (grin)

Look, I haven't read any of the Twilight novels or seen the movies. And I know some people who have and their heads didn't explode -- some of them really like them. But they are successful and I won't begrudge either writer, stars or studio their success. Did I mention that Mister Werewolf in New Moon is a local boy from Michigan? (grin) While not all these readers and moviegoers are going to become lifelong SF/F fans of all genres, there will be some who go on to read more books and see more movies.

A rising tide raises all boats. Wrestling a tsunami is a little harder. (grin)

Dr. Phil

Comments

Rowling and Meyer

[shouldersofgiantmidgets.blogspot.com (from livejournal.com)]

I've never quite understood the bad rap Rowling gets as a writer. Okay, she's not exactly Nabokov, but how many genre and YA writers are? Which isn't to say people should put up with bad writing in genre fiction, the point really is that Rowling is more than adequate to getting her job done and generally is an excellent plotter. She's a decent enough storyteller, and since what she's trying to do is tell a story, fair enough. She wrote herself into a corner in the last two books and flailed about a bit, but I think that's really the worst a reasonable person would say.

Can't speak to Meyer's writing, since I haven't read the Twilight books either, but I will point out that there's no such thing as "canonical" vampires (and I realize you're not necessarily saying there is, Dr. Phil, but are just repeating a criticism--I'm just ranting a little), and the complaints about such are spurious. Which canon? The Greek version, who (if I recall correctly) becomes a vampire because he has the temerity to be born on Christmas, just like Jesus? Or are we talking about Bram Stoker's Dracula, in which case you probably should ask "which one?" since the character has somewhat different attributes in the novel, stage version, and various films--variously walking around by day or being confined during it, transferring his curse by demonic ritual or just by biting people, etc. The truth about vampires and "canon" is that every modern (by which, in this case, I mean for the past two hundred years, roughly) vampire writer has given the monster whatever qualities it needed to possess for his or her story. Which shouldn't actually be surprising.

Now, a criticism that Meyer's sparkly, sexless vampires might be lame and that they may reflect a whole bunch of bizarre hang-ups about sexuality--that would be something different, and (at least from what I've read online) probably accurate.

Re: Rowling and Meyer

[dr-phil-physics.livejournal.com]

I think some of the objection is derived from the whine of sour grapes. If she makes THAT much money, can't she have proper grammar and better stories? OR if she can get published, why isn't my novel bought up, too? And none of that matters.

As far as canonical vampires, you've hit it on the head. Whose canon? On the one hand, write a vampire story and people will complain it is derivative of Stoker, et al. Decide to reinvent vampires and Ur Not Doing It Rite.

In the final analysis, (a) you can't win, (b) the YA market is going to read what they want to read and (c) it's silly to diss YA novels and/or YA success because It Isn't Something Else.

Now, if you want to argue that it isn't your cup of tea, i.e. lame or whatever, then that's fine. Trying to make it more profound gets you back into the vineyards of those sour grapes, methinks.

Dr. Phil

[wendyb-09.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking maybe the modern day vampire writer has modernized their vamps while paying homage to the origins. While I haven't read the Twilight books either, several people I know that have enjoyed them thoroughly but probably won't go see the movies.

Plus, I'm a fan of the more recent vampires, Buffy, Angel and their crews, a few others I can't think of at this second. I'll also note that the current TV series, The Vampire Diaries, is partially shot in and around Atlanta, so our economy is benefitting directly from the current vampire empire! We're always getting star sightings when their shooting on location in the area.

[dr-phil-physics.livejournal.com]

Well sure. But apparently being sparkly vampires is too terrible to contemplate. (grin) Personally I like the vampires in the one Marjorie Liu Crimson City series where they use sunscreen to get around town. Did something similar in one of the Blade movies.

Dr. Phil

Then again, the latest Applegeeks may have a point...

[shouldersofgiantmidgets.blogspot.com (from livejournal.com)]

http://www.applegeeks.com/comics/viewcomic.php?issue=552

Re: Then again, the latest Applegeeks may have a point...

[dr-phil-physics.livejournal.com]

Oooh, the hatred... it burns, it does. (grin)

Dr. Phil

[steve-buchheit.livejournal.com]

YEt another person to put on the list of, "Oh Lord, won't you make me a hack like..."

[dr-phil-physics.livejournal.com]

WOOD radio 1300 this morning on their talk show was discussing that 40% of those going to see New Moon were age 40+. And the hosts, also in 40-50 range, were trying to figure out "why". A number of people called in saying that they tried to read the books but had to put them down. (grin)

I've also seen an LJ icon that says something like "I Love Stephenie Meyer - She Proves Anything Can Sell". (double-edged-grin)

But hey, it takes all kinds.

Dr. Phil