Twilight《platonic love exists only in plato's epoch. huh?》

Platonic love just stay in Plato’s time

A few months ago my U.S. friend spoke of a series of books that was taking our nation's young people by storm named Twilight. I wasn't sure what series he was referring to but knew that my 11-year-old nephew Oliver as well as my auntie in Canada were also reading the book. Curious I ordered a book from abroad and started reading the New York Times Editor’s Choice.

To my disappointment Twilight flows out of the identical tradition of vampire-romance fantasies without anything unique or special. It shares the similar plot development similar lead character even the climax is within our expectation. The less-than-four-centimeter novel didn’t break the tradition this time but turns out to be a repetition of former classics: girl falls in love with good vampire bad vampire comes after girl good vampire saves girl from bad vampire and the two live happily ever after.

Admittedly all vampire-romance stories throughout the history seem to follow the same plot development yet each with a unique to stand out from other similar literature. Like the fantastic characters in The Silence In Heaven in 2001 the clever plot of Bloodlist in 1990 by P.N. Elrod and the amazing climax of Covenant with the Vampire – Diary of the Family Dracul in 1995 by Jeanne Kalogridis. However when it comes to Twilight a vampire-romance novel of the this generation we find to our disappointment that there’s nothing special or unique in itself from other similar classics except for some special effects in the adapted movie. Had the novel been written a generation ago it would have been a blockbuster shocking millions of juveniles even the ***s I suppose. However in a period awash with such romance clichés and similar plots Twilight hardly competes with former vampire-romance novels.

I don’t know why my cousin Oliver was so much crazy about the romance story in Twilight. I simply feel cheated after reading the block. I don’t know whether Stephenie Meyer author of the novel was taking the reader as idiots and fools or something. Doesn’t she feel the plot of Twilight too much reluctant? Simply after several weeks after several glances and escorts to classes Bella the stupid leading actress in Twilight desperately fell in love with the “marble-chested and amazing-looked” vampire Edward a descriptive narration that has been repeated more than seven times in the novel. In Stephenie’s philosophy love is nothing but crush and love is eternal sacred and inviolable for the sake of hormones and adrenalin rush.

In an age when everything including love is awash with and corroded by overflow of material desires love in contemporary society was no longer merely crush and passion. It has to deal with family background monthly income educational degree and all related worldly possessions. Love seems so much weak and fragile in the face of worldly criteria. Despite Twilight’s kind efforts to promote the simple and pure romance and the idea “ love for love’s sake”. The love depicted in the story seems a little bit too idiotic. It’s hardly convincing that the “ivory-skinned” teenage girlie could desperately fell in love with “marble chest frantic voice and brilliant teeth” handsome vampire and makes up her mind to became a vampire simply due to the constant adrenalin rush tomato-red flush and spasm of panic. I feel cheated and angry that the author has degraded the IQ and EQ of her readers down to below zero. Love makes people lose their ration and reading romance novels reaches the same effect. The epoch calls for pure romance and love. Yet we’re no idiots. We allow for fantastic romance. Yet at least there should be some clever development in the plot.

Twilight reminds me of Romeo and Julie and Liang Shanbo and Ju Yingtai the Chinese version of Romeo and Julie. Yet what makes the latter two classics and the initial one kind of garbage is that Romeo and Julie’s story is moving and the plot is reasonable. based on the “smell” of Bella only the romance in twilight is so much ridiculous.

People are practical towards love nowadays. Without worldly possession precondition love is hardly guaranteed in contemporary society. Platonic love may only suit those in Plato’s period.