Here’s conclusive proof that Holly and I don’t just podcast about things we like. Here, we take a look at the phenomenon that has grown out of the “Twilight” series, including whether we’d let our hypothetical daughters read it. And it starts with a really embarrassing story about yours truly, followed by a defense of “Twilight” that may surprise you.

Some topics and tangents:

• Southern women and how they (we) are often raised not to make a fuss
• How exhausting it is to grow new bone, making “Twilight” useful reading material for the duration
• “Star Wars” retold by someone who hasn’t seen it
• Vampire lore
• Stephenie Meyer’s ability to capture feelings from an age when most girls can’t often articulate them for themselves
• The “Twilight” series’ portrayal of love and relationships
• “Romeo and Juliet” and its role models for teenagers and the possibly contentious thing I said about that (but go read the whole play if you don’t believe me)
• My blog post on why Edward Cullen is not a good boyfriend
• Whether Edward Cullen is a psychopath (coincidentally, we asked a similar question about Batman a while back)
• How being a teenager isn’t all that fun
• RiffTrax, my recommendation of how to watch the “Twilight” movies
• Media literacy and the panel on the subject  that I attended at GeekGirlCon, which echoed our basic takeaway: It’s good to read (and watch) and enjoy things as long as you’re aware and can think critically about the messages they’re sending.
• Portrayals of victims and aggressors in “Twilight” vs. “Twin Peaks”
• Our quiz “Who Said It: Angel or Edward Cullen?“

There are two thoughts I was simultaneously trying to extract from my (extensive) notes while recording and couldn’t manage to. On the one hand was an article called “Breaking Faith: Disrupted Expectations and Ownership in Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight Saga” by Rachel Hendershot Parkin,  which lists Pamela Regis’ eight narrative elements of the romance novel:

a definition of society, always corrupt, that the romance novel will reform; the meeting between the heroine and the hero; an account of their attraction for each other; the barrier between them; the point of ritual death; the recognition that fells the barrier; the declaration of the heroine and hero that they love each other; and their betrothal

On the other was from the paper “Twilight Is Not Good for Maidens: Gender, Sexuality and the Family in Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight Series” by Anna Silver, which explores how the continuation of “Twilight” beyond the betrothal noted above (to Bella becoming a mother) puts her on a more equal footing with the rest of the Cullens — but that only happens through marriage and motherhood. Without getting married and becoming a mother, Bella had less value and autonomy.

So, basically, that part of the final book, which many fans of the series expressed huge dissatisfaction with, breaks out of the traditional romance novel formula, while simultaneously reinforcing its main theme — that a woman’s main objective is marriage and motherhood.

Holly’s research on this one:

• A three-part series from Psychology Today by Regina Barreca:
  •  ”Why do smart teens love Twilight?”
  • “A Smart Young Woman Adores Twilight,”
  • “Why a Middle-aged Woman Loathes Twilight — An Encore”

My research on this one:

• Davenport, Randi et al. “The Knowing Spectator of Twin Peaks: Culture, Feminism and Family Violence” Literature and Film Quarterly
• Matthew, Kerri L. and Devon Christopher Adams. “I Love Your Book, But I Love My Version More: Fanfiction in the English Language Arts Classroom,” The Alan Review, Vol. 36 no. 3, Summer 2009
• Merskin, Debra. “A Boyfriend to Die For: Edward Cullen as Compensated Psychopath in Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight,” Journal of Communication Inquiry, March 2011.
• Parkin, Rachel Hendershot. “Breaking Faith: Disrupted Expectations and Ownership in Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight Saga,” Jeunesse: Young People, Texts, Cultures. Vol. 2, no. 2, 1020
• Silver, Anna. “Twilight Is Not Good for Maidens: Gender, Sexuality and the Family in Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight Series,” Studies in the Novel, vol. 42, Spring & Summer 2010

Link to the episode: Blah Blah Twilight