Looking back on Twilight

You might remember that I reviewed Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series not too long ago. Well, I thought I was well and done with it, until our church went camping this last weekend in Olympic Rainforest National Park. We'd been there before, on the eastern side of the penninsula, but this time we were on the western side...right outside La Push and only 12 miles from Forks.

Yes, Forks. Forks, the tiny town of 3175 people that was unheard of until Stephenie Meyer set her books there. Thousands of preteen and teenage girls want to move there now. So, even though I didn't care too much for the books, how could I resist seeing the real setting?

The first thing I noticed about the town was that they were banking on the popularity of the books. Everywhere you looked there were signs with cute Twilight puns or directions to where you could get Twilight merchandise or tours of landmarks from the book.

Secondly, it's obvious that Meyer didn't live in Forks for very long and not right before writing the book. In fact, you can also tell she didn't grow up in the Pacific Northwest. I could sort of tell this before going to Forks, but definitely now. The books make Forks seem both quite a bit larger and quite a bit closer to "real" civilisation such as Port Angeles and Seattle. All those teens who wanted to move to Forks would very quickly change their mind when they realized that it's 5 hours from SeaTac airport and a good hour drive from any store/restaurant they might recognize.

Thirdly, there were no vampires! And I don't think it was just that I missed them, because no one that distinctive could remain inconspicuous in the real Forks. Now maybe Meyer based the Cullens off of the mosquitoes, who certainly had a great hunger for human blood, but other than that—no vampires. I feel cheated.

And that's about it. I'm not a big fan of the Twilight books, but there was something thrilling about seeing signs with names from a book you've read, and getting your picture taken outside of a contemporary literary landmark. You don't get to do that everyday, that's for sure!