Two charming men and a teenage vampire

I am taking Fridays off and treating myself. I decided to take off a few months from my book club too and read ... junk. Well, that's unkind. Something light. I wanted to read Twilight which has enthralled my tweenie daughter and many of her friends as well as many women my own age ... hmm what is that about, I wondered. It is a an incredible phenomenon and a little inexplicable at times.

But, hey, I'm as shallow as the next girl, I like a pretty face, such as the one belonging to my future son-in-law Robert Pattison who plays Edward Cullen, the lead, in the film released this year.

So I am sitting in Starbucks blogging away expanding on my theory that Edward Cullen, the young teenage hero of the book, is actually part of a long literary tradition at least dating back two hundred years to Jane Austen and her enchanting depiction of the dark, mysterious stranger (hello Mr. Darcy!) in several of her novels. I just went on Meyer's blog today and saw that Edward was indeed named for Edward Ferrars in Austen's Sense and Sensibility.

Coincidentally, at the coffee shop, I am sitting beside two very well educated men ... obviously academics, articulate, serious. I'm trying not to listen but I hear snippets: Israel, Sharon, blogs, etc ...

As I pack up to leave, one of the men says, "See this young lady has a blog [he had been trying to convince the older man to start one] - what are you blogging about?"

Me: "Uh ... it's about ... the ... image of the dark, mysterious stranger ... as seen in Jane Austen's work ... and in Twilight, you know ... the teenage vampire book and film ..." But they were very gracious about it and didn't make me feel too silly.

Meanwhile I had been talking to this man. Argggh, I felt so foolish ... but the idea (the Austen connection) is interesting to me so I will be expanding on this thought in a future blog. And I urge you to take a look at Jeffrey Dvorkin's blog which raises some interesting issues about the media and journalism.