Love & Vampires

I recently read a book that I would never have thought of reading. First of all, it’s a young adult book. Second, it’s about vampires. Both aspects are unappealing to me. However, to the average teenage girl, these two combinations equal success. I was given the book as a gift by my student-teacher, Julie, and I decided to give the book a try and it was surprisingly entertaining. The book is called Twilight and it is written by Stephanie Meyer. Our freshmen students, specifically the girls, are head over heals about this book and the entire series, which includes a total of four books. They bring the books to class and cannot put it down. Even my teenage ESL students, who mostly read at a 6th grade English level and consider English to be a major difficulty, are engrossed in these books. At the very least, this series allows teenagers to be excited about reading.

So, what are these teenage girls so excited about? This fast and easy read is a love story- handsome teen falls for klutzy, average girl. In a nutshell, Bella and Edward, who in addition to being gorgeous happens to be a vampire, deeply love each other despite all the dangers involved in such a mismatched love. The love is mostly mismatched because vampires eat humans. In other words, Edward has two feelings towards Bella- one is the feeling of love and the other is the feeling of hunger because, according to Edward, Bella smells like really good vampire food. The writing itself is nothing to be excited about. I find it to be on the same level as a Nicholas Sparks’ novel, such as The Notebook. The Notebook is a novel that I read in one day when I was in college. Did I gain any deep insight? No, but it is a good love story for those days when you just want to feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Perhaps I relived my feelings of teenage unrequited love through this book.

One interesting fact I learned about the author is that Stephanie Meyer is Mormon. I found out about this information from a fellow high school teacher, Nina, who happens to be an English teacher and avid reader. After discovering this information, so much about the holes in the book make sense to me. In the novel, there is a lot of excitement over the two main characters’ love for each other. However, the love scenes do not go beyond a mere hug or kiss. There is not even an explicit thought about sex from the main characters…and we’re talking about teens here. On the other hand, there is a lot of drama, some pent up emotions, that may be allusions to sex. A columnist for Time Magazine, Lev Grossman, phrased Meyer’s work as the “the erotics of abstinence.” There is so much sexual tension without there ever being sex. (The article is actually very interesting. Click on the title to go to the article- Stephanie Meyer: A New J.K. Rowling?) The author at one point expresses that she was pressured into including sex scenes, but was totally against it. As a result, she toys with the idea of sex without ever unambiguously saying so. In addition to the lack of sex, all aggressive fighting- the images of vampires eating humans or the one major fight scene that occurs between rival vampires- are all briefly mentioned or just assumed. The author never explicitly writes about these battles. In fact, the reader never learns how the evil vampire that is disposed of by the good vampires.

Now that I've mentioned that this is a young adult vampire book with no sex or fighting, I'm sure you are interested in reading the book. Here's my suggestion: read the book after an especially depressing or difficult novel. Twilight will be fresh. There are three more books in the series beyond Twilight. Will I read them? Perhaps after I read The Road, which I feel I have to pump myself up for, I'll eventually come back to Bella and Edward. For now, I’m happy with moving on and maybe will drag a girlfriend to go see the film while on winter break.

After-post: Three weeks after originally reading Twilight and also watching the movie, I must say that my initial hesitation and indifference toward the series has totally changed. I am totally engrossed in Twilight and cannot wait to read the next book. I'm not sure how my feelings changed- I just kept thinking about the story, the love, the infatuation. However, I promised myself that I would read at least one novel, maybe two, in between each book so that I don't go overboard in Edward Cullen mania. As an acquaintance told my husband one night, "Once your wife reads Twilight, you're f**ked."

The Lost Boys of Sudan

Every year in Social Science class, I teach a large unit on Africa. The topics included in the curriculum are obvious- colonialism, religion, war, AIDS, poverty, etc. It's almost impossible to give justice to all the important topics to cover in this region of the world in the amount of time given. I try to make these topics relevant to the students. In the past, I've invited Gabriel Dut, a Lost Boy from Sudan and representative of the Lost Boys Chapter of Chicago, to come in and speak to the entire freshman class. Through Gabriel, I get an idea of his past and current struggles in life. He is a very nice and upbeat person despite the fact that he has bloodshot eyes from working long shifts as a taxi driver. Last I heard, he had to defer his enrollment to U of I's law school because he didn't have enough money to pay for the tuition. I also show my students clips of the Lost Boys of Sudan documentary that highlight a group of Lost Boys and their difficult transition to America. There's one scene in which the new arrivals are in their first apartment and they are being taught how to use the stove, oven, and disposal because they have never encountered these seemingly mundane appliances before. In the freshmen classes, we learn about these things and try to put idealism into action. A component of the unit is to learn about compassion. What little we are able to fundraise in class goes to the Chicago chapter to, hopefully, help those like Gabriel in need.

Despite all these experiences, I now realize that I haven't truly understood the plight of the Lost Boys. It is true that books bring a reader into a new world or a whole new level. The book, What is the What, gave me a greater understanding of Sudan's history and present.
The memoir is written by Dave Eggers, but is the life story of Valentino Achak Deng. This book is shocking, disturbing, and extremely sad. It is not an easy book to read. Nevertheless, it is a necessary book to read. It is necessary for the sake of understanding history, for celebrating the resilience of humans, for knowing the presence of evil, and for verifying that there is compassion in the world.

There are so many awful and shocking stories in the book that they are truly overbearing at times. It is unbelievable that Deng survived all the atrocities and hardships. There are airplane bombings, kidnappings, lion eatings, random shootings- how did he continue to live? All these stories show me that the person I invite every year to speak, Gabriel, is an incredibly fortunate man. He survived incredible odds and it is an honor to know him. These stories also confirm that what I do for a living, teaching youth, despite how idealistic as it sounds, is a worthy profession.

This post is a rather difficult one to write because I'm not a sensational writer. I'm unable to give the book literary justice. Just take my word for it- read the book when you're ready to read something heavy. Nick and Heidi gave this book to me as a birthday present. I kept putting off reading it because I knew the subject would be grave. Now, I am more than grateful that it was given to me and that I took time to read it.