Book Reviews Cold, Sparkly, and Dangerous to Know: The Vampire Boyfriends of True Blood & Twilight by Pamela O’Donnell

Brigid Cherry, TRUE BLOOD: INVESTIGATING VAMPIRES AND SOUTHERN GOTHIC. London: I.B.Tauris, 2012. (Investigating Cult TV Series.) 288p. index. pap., $18.00, ISBN 978-1848859401.

Maggie Parke & Natalie Wilson, THEORIZING TWILIGHT: CRITICAL ESSAYS ON WHAT’S AT STAKE IN A POST-VAMPIRE WORLD. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co., 2010. (Critical Explorations in Science Fiction and Fantasy Series.) 253p. pap., $29.95, ISBN 978-0786449989.

So, why the undead? At first in bringing to the fore insights on extended description of True Blood’s glance it would seem that feminists how the fantastic and paranormal can title sequence. and vampires have little in common. illuminate often-hidden undercurrents What some might see as the signifiers in contemporary society, letting us The first section of the book of feminism, at least of the Second “see” our prejudices, our motivations, covers genre and style, opening with Wave sort — earnestness, herbal tea, ourselves. an essay by Stacey Abbott that decodes and Birkenstocks — could never be HBO’s use of the vampire to maintain confused with those of the vampire — Edited by Brigid Cherry, a senior its reputation for extra-ordinary televi- amorality, blood, and black leather. As lecturer in film and popular culture at sion. Along the way, Abbott reveals, good critical theorists, however, we are St. Mary’s University, London, True “Vampires become sympathetic in True taught to challenge false binaries, wher- Blood: Investigating Vampires and South- Blood, not because they are struggling ever they occur. In this instance we can ern Gothic brings together twelve essays against their condition and resisting recognize that feminists and vampires on the HBO series, which is produced the thirst…but because they are vic- have more in common than originally by Alan Ball and based on the Southern tims of prejudice” (p. 34). The explora- assumed. (An aversion to suntans, for Vampire Mysteries of Charlaine Har- tion of genre continues with a chapter example, or the uncomfortable role of ris. As contributor Mikel Koven notes, by Caroline Ruddell and editor Cherry outsider in a patriarchal, capitalistic “What makes True Blood more interest- on the Southern Gothic milieu of True society.) As Margot Adler noted in her ing than any of the other vampire- Blood — with its heated climate and recently published Vampires Are Us, an oriented television series in recent years even more heated relationships (p. 41). exploration of our “love affair with the (beyond the sex and gore in the show) American readers will, on occasion, immortal dark side,” vampires have is what the series appears to say about be forced to translate the accurate but a lot to say about “issues of power, racial and sexual integration. It is not a anomalous vocabulary employed by sensuality, identity, spirituality, and the hard stretch to read the television series the British authors. For example, in the environment” (preface). as Southern-born Ball’s fantasy South sentence, “Jason is bare-chested under For the authors and editors of where racial and sexual differences are his fluorescent road crew waistcoat,” these two books, fantastical creatures displaced onto the living-impaired the reader has to step out of the text also serve as a window into the psyche community” (pp. 64–65). long enough to convert that mental of people in the twenty-first century Cherry provides a context for this image into a “safety vest” (p. 42). — their hopes, desires, anxieties, and investigation of the first four seasons The second section of the book, fears. What better way to explore how of the series in the book’s introduction, covering myths and meanings, features one defines humanity than by com- offering background information on essays by Mikel Koven, who traces paring and contrasting it with the in/ the channel, the show, the actors, and the folklore and fairytale tropes of the unhuman? These texts play a vital role both Ball and Harris, in addition to an series and proposes that “vampires

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are, in their genetic make-up, big evil performing a ‘bisexual, sexually exotic, U. Melissa Anyiwo should be com- fairies” (p. 67); Gregory Erickson, who polymorphic and polysemous’… mended for her exceptionally clear writes on the absence of the divine, threat that is no longer exclusive to the prose and useful summation of Henry postulating that “[i]nstead of pre- homosexual subject” (p. 142, citation Jenkins’ theory of convergence in her senting religious themes through the omitted). However, the privileging of study of True Blood’s transmedia sto- Church or Christian belief, True Blood committed, white, male, gay, upper- rytelling. Maria Mellins continues the offers acts of sacramentalism, of ritual class couples in the queer hierarchy of exploration of the fan experience and and of transcendence identity by interviewing club- through sex, violence, goers at London’s Fangtasia, desire and drugs” a “tactile, real-world tribute (p. 75); and Dennis to the True Blood universe” Rothermel, who uses (p. 177). The publication the conceptual tools concludes with Erin Hollis’s of Deleuze, Guattari, chapter on “archontic” fan Nancy, Rancière, and fiction. Drawing on the work Badiou to entomb his of Abigail Derecho, Hollis analysis of “minoritar- investigates the differences be- ian romantic fables” in tween the television series and French theory (p. 90). its source material, Harris’s novels, revealing how these Characters and “dual canons” open up a lim- identities are the focus inal space within which fans of the third section, can create their own reality. which opens with Although none of the authors Ananya Mukherjea’s in this volume incorporate a take on the paranor- strictly feminist reading of the mal, yet Byronic, men text(s), the essays do provide of the show. Victo- illuminating analyses of issues ria Amador tries to of identity (race, class, and untangle depictions of gender) and practice. race and class in the In addition to season series in an essay that synopses of the series and an is more description episode guide through Season than analysis. This 4, the volume includes an section closes with a index. It is a worthy addition compelling chapter by to any collection supporting Darren Elliot-Smith scholars who are interested on the homosexual in what depictions of the vampire as metaphor paranormal reveal about for the…homosexual twenty-first-century Ameri- vampire (p. 139). can culture. Although challenging to condense, Elliot- In Theorizing Twilight, Smith’s basic argument the vampires under discus- is “that in representing an assimilative True Blood underscores the fact that the sion are not the only hybrids. In the homonormativity the show ceases supernatural community of Bon Temps introduction, editors Maggie Parke and to offer the same essentialist threat remains “deeply divided along lines of Natalie Wilson reveal that they “aimed to heteronormativity that the meta- diversity” (p. 152). for a middle-ground between dense phorical vampire-as-homosexual might The final three essays in the book academese and frivolity” in the hope once have done. Rather True Blood is are devoted to marketing and fandom. that the resulting essays “are enter-

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taining but enlightening, thought- provoking but user-friendly” (p. 2). Overlooking the fact that language has devolved to the point where the phrase “user-friendly” can be applied to a book, most of the fifteen essays in Theorizing Twilight successfully straddle both worlds. Fans, critics, and schol- ars of Stephenie Meyer’s work will all find something useful and engaging in these pages, although the fans may be disenchanted by the feminist critique of their favorite vampire clan. What cannot be denied is that the editors force fans and scholars alike to consider these cultural artifacts in a more nu- anced and complicated way.

Part I of the book, “Twilight as Pop Cultural Artifact: Pilgrimages, Fan Culture, and Film Adaptations,” opens with an engaging essay by Tanya Erzen, an associate professor at Ohio State, who takes a field trip (a rare enough occurrence for media scholars) to Forks, Washington, the purported home of the Cullen fam- ily in the Twilight books and films. She describes how “Twilight tourism defies neat boundaries between fantasy and franchise, the supernatural and everyday,” while underscoring the “ongoing negotiation of authenticity and experience” that occurs between fans and residents (pp. 21, 12). Erzen Twilight, noting the “lush exploration” balance against criticisms of the gen- has produced a fascinating study of the of sexual longing in the novel, what dered and heteronormative constructs intersections of teen ardor and capital- Christine Seifert of Bitch magazine in the Twilight franchise (criticisms we ism, of racial disparity and the illusion refers to as “abstinence porn” (p. 47). will find aplenty in later portions of the of authenticity. Anastasiu analyzes the author, the text, book). and the reader (both adolescent and The first section continues with adult) before concluding, rather sim- And speaking of heteronor- an essay by co-editor Maggie Parke, plistically, that the “text dramatically mativity, Colette Murphy’s quirky who dissects the vital role played by reflects humankind’s most basic drives chapter on our “lovesick infatuation fans in creating the Twilight phenom- and the need to negotiate between id with prince-like vampires” explores ena and argues that Hollywood studios desires and super-ego responsibilities” how media has simply re-costumed must cater to fan expectations if their while allowing for “vicarious participa- the vampire as the “heterosexual male films are to achieve blockbuster status. tion in the hero’s journey of self-ac- romantic lead” (pp. 56, 57). While Heather Anastasiu offers a psycho- tualization” (p. 53). She defends her Edward remains a “prince,” Murphy analytic inquiry into the popularity of interpretation as providing a necessary posits that Edward’s love, Bella, serves

Feminist Collections (v. 35, nos. 1–2, Winter–Spring 2014) Page 3 Book Reviews as the true hero of the tale, the charac- before concluding with a description 132). While admitting the existence of ter who transitions from mere damsel of the attendees and programming at “Byronic impulses,” Groper delineates to powerful vampire, albeit a vampire TwiCon, the 2009 convention devoted the numerous ways in which Edward wife and mother. Ananya Mukherjea, to all things Twilight. rejects this mantle; he is unselfish, who contributed to the Brigid Cherry Angela Tenga, an assistant profes- chaste, moral, law-abiding, and inte- collection reviewed above, makes an- sor at the Florida Institute of Technol- grated into society. She concludes that other appearance here, with a chapter ogy, also places Twilight in a bookish “Meyer takes the Byronic hero arche- entitled “Team Bella: Fans Navigat- context, but in this case she argues type and instead of warning her readers ing Desire, Security, and Feminism.” that the nineteenth-century novels and away from him, she reforms him into Beginning with her own reading of the fairy tales admired by Stephenie Meyer someone safe and dependable” (pp. Twilight phenomena and “its conserva- “inform not just the imaginary space 144–145). tive and anti-feminist underpinnings,” of the Twilight novels, but the very she then surveys twenty fans of the imagination of their protagonist” and Hila Shachar, investigating novels, fourteen of whom identified as that, as a result, Bella’s “autonomous Twilight as a post-feminist romance, feminist, to try and better understand vision of self is limited by women’s believes the novels “ultimately partici- the appeal of Meyer’s work (pp. 70, roles in these fictions” (pp. 102, 103). pate in a post-feminist backlash that 74). In the course of her investigation, She goes on to apply psychoanalytic recycles traditional notions of love, Mukherjea discovers that “the overt theory to the character of Bella, diag- masculinity and femininity” (p. 148). abstinence-until-marriage message of nosing her with Dependent Personality Refuting the previous author’s percep- the franchise, so disturbing to me, does Disorder (DPD) and an unhealthy tion of Edward as “safe and depend- not necessarily prevent fans from using devotion to the novels of Jane Austen. able,” Shachar implies that he is little the story as an outlet for their own Tenga acknowledges that feminists may more than a rapist, “literally imprinting desires,” and that the security afforded find Bella an inappropriate role model himself upon his victim’s flesh, as if she by Edward is not perceived as control- for young readers, but counters that were an object” (p.158). By the essay’s ling, but rather comforting to young by “the standards of her own fictional end, she encourages readers to question fans who still vividly recall the terrorist models…Bella reaches her goals and essentialist thinking, which does not attacks of 9/11 (pp. 75, 81). Despite receives the classic rewards: marriage, recognize the “naturally desirable” as a her reservations about the books’ anti- motherhood, and upward mobility” (p. cultural construct (p. 160). feminist and homophobic elements, 113). By Part III (“Twilight Through an Mukherjea is persuaded that the series Intersectional Lens”), the editors’ stated does provide a “secure outlet” for fans The comparisons between Twi- goal of creating a “user-friendly” book to “indulge and explore important de- light and nineteenth-century British for fans and scholars alike is all but sires and personal boundaries” (p. 82). fiction continue with Sarah Wakefield’s abandoned, with five dense chapters examination of Wuthering Heights. on such light-hearted [not!] topics as Part II (“Once Upon a Twilight”) Wakefield traces the connections patriarchy, white privilege, and rape focuses on the literary context of the between the two stories, with Edward culture. Melissa Miller, who is writing novels, with contributors debating as a slightly more evolved Edgar Linton her dissertation on Twilight, claims which characters best evoke the roman- and Jacob, the werewolf, replacing the that the saga “promotes a dangerous tic Byronic hero. It opens, however, id-driven Heathcliff. Issues of race and and damaging ideology of patriarchy with an essay by Ashley Benning on class remain, but “by combining the that normalizes and rationalizes the the subject of age in the series. After best of their features into two men who control of women by men” (p. 165). several digressions, Benning gets down can stay in the heroine’s life,” Wake- She goes on to enumerate the ways in to her analysis, noting in particular field argues that in the Twilight series, which Edward exhibits the controlling that adults, both mortal and immor- Meyer successfully resolves Cathy behavior of an abuser, while engaging tal, have a limited ability to serve as Earnshaw’s eternal dilemma (p. 129). with various seminal critics (Mulvey, leaders or protectors of their families In “Rewriting the Byronic Hero,” Gerbner, etc.) to posit that the me- (p. 95). At the end of the essay, she Jessica Groper argues that despite his dia, by offering up Edward Cullen as again changes course and discusses the outward appearance as a brooding the ideal boyfriend, are encouraging multi-generational appeal of the story vampire, Edward Cullen is, in fact, the impressionable consumers to seek out (and young-adult literature in general), exact opposite of a Byronic hero (p. potentially violent mates (p. 174).

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Ashley Donnelly, an assistant Theorizing Twilight closes with professor at Ball State, continues the an essay by Lindsey Issow Averill, of exploration of patriarchal privilege and Keiser University, on Twilight as a re- heteronormativity in the novels. She telling of the story of Adam and Eve, seems to believe that without scholarly but one “where the female body and intervention, “these oppressive ideolo- female fecundity are completely erased, gies [will] engrain themselves in the while male reproduction remains collective unconscious” (p. 192). Co- intact” (p. 225). She argues that for a editor Natalie Wilson’s contribution woman to achieve the ultimate exis- to the volume traces the binaries of tence as a vampire, she must kill her Edward Cullen/Jacob Black, vampire/ womb, commit gynocide (p. 235). werewolf, light/dark, ego/id and how Some of the essays in this final sec- these constructs work to reinforce tion read like an arms race of outrage, white privilege and the “othering” of an opportunity for new scholars to es- the werewolves as noble savages. She tablish their street cred by tearing into provides a brief history of the werewolf a problematic cultural artifact, focusing and a fascinating synopsis of the “ra- on its flaws to justify a righteous in- cialized beliefs” in the Book of Mor- dignation. It remains to be seen if this mon, before concluding, “The ideology tactic proves effective in reaching an of Twilight serves at least in part to audience more interested in debating champion and bolster white privilege the finer points of Team Edward versus and to keep the wolfy Other firmly in Team Jacob. That being said, the edi- his half-naked place” (pp. 202, 206). tors have included a thoughtful selec- In the penultimate chapter, Anne tion of essays on the controversial and Torkelson, another dissertator, this polysemic Twilight saga, and this book time from the University of Minnesota offers much for feminists to ponder. Duluth, casts a critical eye over Twi- Without doubt, the issues raised and light’s normalizing and romanticizing subjects explored make this volume a of violence toward women (p. 210). In worthy addition to any collection. addition to Bella’s self-esteem issues, Torkeson uses the story of every female [Pamela O’Donnell reads a lot of vampire vampire character to support her fiction, an indulgence that only occasion- contention that women are repeatedly ally interferes with her day job as an denied agency in choosing their fate. academic librarian. She holds an M.A. She also mines the message boards and in Library & Information Studies and comment sections of several Twilight- an M.A. in Communications (Media & related websites to reveal how read- Cultural Studies) from the University of ers often accept the myths of a rape Wisconsin–Madison.] culture (p. 213).

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