October - Wingspan

October 12, 2009lccc.wy.edu/wingspanWingspan 15books progress, sheends up with a hecticand complicatedrelationship involvinglove and a vampire.Although in thisseries vampires havenot revealed theirexistence, it did nottake Swan too longto discover her loveinterest’s true identity.While the bookseries started outmore relatable toteens, by the third andfourth books moreadult concepts wereintroduced as theyfollowed the couple’slives.Like other vampirestories, in “Twilight”the main vampirecharacter, EdwardCullen, and his familyare beautiful creatureswith a lot of money.The Cullens—likeBill Compton on “TrueBlood”—wanted toremain somewhat“humane,” so insteadof hunting humans,they chose to get theirblood supply fromwild animals.Despite the commitmentnever to feedfrom humans, thatwas one of Swan’s biggestchallenges withhis relationship—theslightest form ofintimacy resulted inhis instincts kickingin and his wanting todrink her blood.And if love triangleswere not dramaticenough, after a badbreakup in the secondbook, a werewolf,(which are enemies ofvampires) Jacob Black,was thrown into thepicture after he fell forSwan. Needless to say,after that the tensionrose.With a hot youngcast, including KristenStewart, who playsBella Swan; RobertPattinson, who playsEdward Cullen; andTaylor Lautner, whoplays Jacob Black,the “Twilight” moviereceived a lot of attention.The movie followedfairly closely tothe book series, withsome minor differencesbecause of condensingand ensuringconcepts are obviousto people who had notread the books.While all the booksare out, only the firstmovie “Twilight” hasbeen released, but itssequel “New Moon”(which involves a lotof werewolf drama)will hit theaters Nov.20.With yet anothersimilar plot, “TheVampire Diaries,”based off the novelseries by L.J. Penn,takes viewers throughthe struggles of abeautiful high schoolgirl, Elena Gilbert(played by NinaDobrev)—who is tornbetween the good andevil vampire brothers,Stephan and DamonSalvatore (played byPaul Wesley and IanSomerhalder).However, thebrand-new televisionseries just started onSept. 10, so Gilbert isnot yet aware of thebrothers’ real identities.With a high schoolplot, it’s clear thisshow is geared towardteens—even if the“teens” in this showare played by peopleconsiderably olderthan 17.If you can getthrough the cheesyacting, there arebenefits for this showfor vampire fans: It’splaying now on regularcable; there is noreading involved, andthe “model” is casteasy to look at.So whether it’s amore graphic adultvampire love showwith synthetic blood,a mild vampire storywith werewolves or avampire love trianglewith an attractive cast,this year has proventhere’s a vampire storyline for everyone.Vampire-themedmedia• Twilight—2008($191.5 million)• Van Helsing—2004($120.2 million)• Interview with aVampire—1994($105.3 million)• Bram Stoker’sDracula—1994($82.5 million)Courtesy of Little, Brown andCompany books for young readersCourtesy of the CW• Blade II—2002($82.3 million)