In Defense of TWILIGHT & the oh so dreamy Edward...

Hey folks, Harry here... I recently read a piece over at CHUD.com titled 'Fuck This Face' and being all about the mania and increasing tsunami of estrogen aimed in the general direction of TWILIGHT, the upcoming film from Summit Entertainment based upon the first of the books by Stephenie Meyer. Now - I haven't read the books, but they are in the room I'm writing to you from. My wife, Yoko, has read them - the first one, multiple times. 2 ex-girlfriends of mine love them and an additional... about 20 girls I know are also a part of the cult of TWILIGHT. I remember where it all started for my wife. We were in TARGET, I was picking up a few BluRays I wanted, when - as we were passing the book section she says, loudly, "I want to check this out!" Now, I know - she married me, she must be a hardcore geek, but she really isn't... not for this sort of thing. For the last two years she's been addicted to books on the Music Industry - regarding the business of the Music Industry - from way back, to the current state of affairs. It's her primary interest. She asked me what I thought about her reading the book, and I told her my honest feelings. "If you buy it, you're going to become an addict." She laughed at me, and became a Twilight Addict. Now I know what you think, you think that I'm defending TWILIGHT because of YOKO, but frankly... she really has nothing to do with it. In fact, right now she's watching our Blu-Ray of Poltergeist and thinks I'm working on the DVD column. No, I'm writing about this because I find it fascinating how threatening a segment of Male fan culture gets over something that they simply assign the term, "gay" or "tween". Let's see if I can explain why this is so good for all of us. Think of TWILIGHT as a "Gateway Geek Experience" for an audience that was previously, not necessarily devout geeks. I witnessed this at a FANGORIA CONVENTION earlier this year with the series SUPERNATURAL - I've seen it before with BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, FIREFLY, BEAUTY & THE BEAST, THE BIONIC WOMAN, WONDER WOMAN, LORD OF THE RINGS and many more. All of these phenoms led women to de-flower a geek. TWILIGHT will lead young ladies and their MILFS and Older Sisters not only to TWILIGHT, NEW MOON, ECLIPSE and the odd BREAKING DAWN... but perhaps to LOST BOYS, EVIL DEAD 2, DEAD ALIVE and on and on and on. Fandom needs franchises and phenomenons like TWILIGHT, it brings people to the wider world of fandom. It leads them into FAN ORIENTATED STORES like Comic Shops, it takes them to the Action Figure aisles, into the video stores and... Maybe, just maybe, to you. THEN THERE'S THIS... TWILIGHT might be a whole helluvalot of fun. I trust Catherine Hardwicke, her first film THIRTEEN was an incredibly honest and vital work of cinema - and having a director that comes at film from a real and emotional honesty. Yes, this is less HORROR and more FANTASY ROMANCE, but show a girl that loves TWILIGHT, HELLBOY - and you might suddenly have a connection. Acting like a jealous prick, just because of the "pretty boy" nature of it. Well, hope that keeps you warm at night. How do I discuss TWILIGHT with my wife? Playfully. I bring up, "What if it sucks?" and she's completely prepared that there's no way it'll be as good as the book. And if I don't like the film, I'll give the book a read, just so I can see what it is that's missing between the two. If you haven't read the book, you might want to give the film a chance. Sure, it looks like it is going to be crazy at the theaters, but I guarantee - good or bad, it'll be an experience worth experiencing.