I’m not a fan of the Twilight series. It’s not written for me, and I understand that. I’m not opposed to the series on any militant level, though I still find a lot of the ideas presented terribly troubling, and have always suspected that these troublesome ideas could potentially really mess up a young, impresionable fan’s view of the world and cause, at best, some seriously warped expectations, and at worst, things I don’t even want to contemplate.

This week I read a two-part series over at the slacktiverse by guest poster Amarie, which describes how the portrayal of certain things in the Twilight series really did mess with her way of looking at the world, how she recognized that fact, and moved beyond that way of looking at those things.

She also comes at this issue from a perspective I hadn’t before. Being a person of color, she also came to notice some interesting racial elements in the story that I, being a middle-aged white guy, likely wouldn’t have picked up on. There are some troubling implications in that interpretation, though she also finds some ideas that are, from a certain perspective, inspiring, although I suspect Meyer didn’t really intend it to be that way.

In any case, this is one of the better pieces of serious, personal writing I’ve seen regarding these popular works, and I encourage you to take a look at “Love at First White: Twilight and Self-Hatred from the Viewpoint of an African American Fan”, parts one and two, as well as the comments on both threads (the slacktiverse is one of the most eclectic, thoughtful, and well-spoken communities on the internet). I made me think, and I hope it’ll engage your brain as well.

Now, if only I could have come up with a more clever title for this post, and a way to work in this particularly disturbing, tangentially related internet “thing”.