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Back in 2008, Twilight fans knew that author Stephenie Meyer was interested in publishing the series' fifth novel, Midnight Sun. At that time, parts of the manuscript of the new novel were accidentally leaked online, leading her to decide to terminate the book's publication plans. The "Breaking Dawn" published that year became the "last part" of the "Twilight Zone", but time passed, and Meier decided to finish the manuscript on the shelf and give the Twilight fans an explanation. In August 2020, Midnight Sun came out, and in May this year, the Chinese edition of the book met readers.
Bella, a 17-year-old girl, moved to FoxTown, Washington, to live with her father, and in high school met Edward, an 18-year-old vampire boy who was nearly 100 years old. "Midnight Sun" tells the story of Edward and Bella, only this time from Edward's point of view to tell the process of the two people's acquaintance and love—he rescues Bella before slipping out of control of the car, confesses his identity to Bella in the wooded grass, fights the evil vampire who is also attracted to Bella's blood, and tries to persuade Bella to attend the school ball—to provide richer details to a story that readers are already very familiar with, explaining his inner activities in this extraordinary relationship. While publishing a new book in a pandemic year may not seem like a good idea, this point in time has an unexpected echo with the story itself: Edward "died" from the 1918 flu pandemic to become a vampire.
From 2005 to 2008, the "Twilight" quadrilogy was published, with cumulative sales of more than 100 million copies worldwide, five films based on the novel grossing $3.3 billion, and the emergence of another popular IP, Fifty Shades of Grey ("Fifty Shades of Grey" was originally a fan fiction of "Twilight"). All of this makes the "Twilight" trilogy enough to be called a phenomenon in global pop culture in the first decade of the 21st century. Judging from the performance of the British and American book markets, Twilight fans are still full of expectations for the sequel, and in August 2020, "Midnight Sun" sold more than 1 million copies quickly after being listed in the United States, reaching the top of the Best Seller List of Books in the United Kingdom and the United States, which gave Mel a lot of confidence. According to her, she plans to produce two more "Twilight" novels, and has already prepared an outline and the first chapter of the first book.
It has been 12 years since the first part of the series, Twilight, was published and Midnight Sun came on the market. Many of the things that happened — such as the global anti-sexual harassment campaign that has lasted since 2017 — have been enough to give people a different perspective on intimacy, gender power structures, and even some long-beloved works of art. So, more than a decade later, revisiting the story of "Twilight" through "Midnight Sun", how do we view the male image and love ideals in it?
<h3>01 When the Vampire Becomes the Male Lead: The Past and Present of the Ideal Male Figure in Romance Novels</h3>
"I don't know what to do, how to pursue her like a normal, modern, human man in 2005." - "Midnight Sun"
Entertainment Weekly book reviewer Mary Sollosi believes that the "Twilight" trilogy is not outstanding in terms of writing itself, but before the series falls into the trap of "True Love Waits", the reason why the first part of the quadrilogy, "Twilight", has caused a global sensation is that it combines vampire legends full of danger and desire with teenage love stories. The effect of maximizing amplification of tension is obtained.
Yet through the essence of this pop culture phenomenon, the "Twilight" trilogy is still an orthodox, stylized romance novel production. In 1984, Janice M. Thompson, professor emeritus of the Department of Literature and History at Duke University, said that she would not be able to do so. Janice A. Radway published Reading Romance Novels. In this innovative study of popular literature, she elaborates on the conventions of the popular literature genre, the romance novel, and the motivation and emotional structure of female readers to read romance novels.
It is not difficult to find that the "Twilight" trilogy, although it was created in the early 2000s, did not jump out of Radway's definition of romance novel: a romance novel is a story about a woman, and there is a slow but continuous love between the male and female protagonists - the heroine is treated in a gentle, considerate, caring and wholehearted way, and the male protagonist has a strong attachment to the heroine - and the story ends with a happy ending. According to Rudway, most romance novels that are considered excellent works have these elements because female readers want to be told, "Even in the worst case, the ideal love can still exist, and women will eventually receive the care and care of men, even if he looks rough and cold on the surface." ”
In that sense, the Twilight Trilogy gives the worst-case scenario (Bella falls in love with a vampire who threatens her life at any moment, bringing her life and relationship to an instant end), but they overcome this insurmountable identity barrier to come together. All the struggles, hesitations, and pains in between are nothing more than prolonging the process of the male and female protagonists falling in love—or, as Sollosi puts it, amplifying some kind of blood-curdling sexual tension between the two.
Edward is a vampire, but he can be said to be the typical romantic hero defined by Radway: he is strong, masculine, but at the same time has some extraordinary characteristics. In a survey of female readers, Ladwig found that of the nine qualities that readers most want to see in the hero, the top three qualities are "learning", "thoughtfulness" and "protection". According to Ladwich Analysis, the importance that female readers attach to talent reflects their focus on books, education and their own upward mobility, while thoughtfulness, gentleness and protection reveal their "long-cherished wish to be able to receive a specific form of care, pampering and recognition".
The identity of the vampire amplifies the qualities of the ideal male protagonist in Edward's romance novels. Immortal and sleepless, the character gives him unlimited time to acquire new knowledge and refine skills, and the reader sees through Bella's eyes an omnipotent male protagonist: knowledgeable, good at playing the piano, and aesthetic. At the same time, fearing that he would not be able to restrain his bloodthirsty desires, Edward extended his desire to protect Bella to a level that was unmatched by other romance novel male protagonists—in his own words, "She's too fragile, and she needs a protector to face the world." Under the influence of twisted fate, I became the closest person to that role. ”
In Midnight Sun, Mel retelles the story of Twilight from the perspective of Edward, where Edward's mind-reading skills become a particularly useful tool, giving the reader an omniscient perspective on the mental activity of even the most inconspicuous supporting characters. Edward's jealous attention and evaluation of Mike, another of Bella's suitors, provides us with a perspective on the comparison of vampire male protagonists and human males, and the author also uses his mouth to point out the difference between ideal males and mediocre males:
"He didn't know her at all, he just created in his head a Bella that didn't exist... The possessive look he looked at Bella—as if she were a commodity to be bought—and his wild fantasies about her all stirred up my anger. ”
"I don't like his (Mike's) opinion, as if Bella doesn't have her own will."
So Midnight Sun opens a window into what our time demands on the ideal heterosexual man. After experiencing the reflection of the anti-sexual harassment movement on intimacy and gender power structures, we have reason to believe that Meier also kept pace with Edward's design of people, that is, respecting women's will and subjectivity, knowing how to appreciate women's individual uniqueness, and listening to women's thoughts and feelings - Edward's mind-reading technique only fails in Bella, and one clue throughout the book is how Edward is troubled by this and pays every effort to pay attention to Bella's every move, "for fear of missing any details." ”
Recognizing the prevalence and diversity of gender-based violence, we may also appreciate Edward's "gentle" qualities, which have more meaning than simply caring for others, that is, restraining the destructive power of men. In The Decline of Men, Grayson Perry, chancellor of the University of the Arts London, cites psychotherapist Jerry Hyde as pointing out that true masculinity in the new age is gentleness, "a man with a gentlemanly demeanor who is powerful and powerful, who has the power to physically or psychologically destroy things and people, but chooses not to do so, but to choose love and gentleness." Thus, although Edward was constantly inferior and self-defeating, feeling less entitled to love than the average human man, he seemed to the reader to know better than any other human man how to "pursue her like a normal, modern, human man in 2005."
Ironically, Edward's vampire status on the one hand makes him the perfect male protagonist, and on the other hand, it also gives some legitimacy to his anachronistic performance. Mind reading gives him a strong empathy that men who usually tend to ignore emotions and expressions of emotion; introspection about the potential of violence keeps him awake to the temptation to commit violence; "only learned the customs of my time" allows him to treat the heroine with the old-school love model of "once in a lifetime", which brings comfort to readers in the era of emotional decay.
But as a book review article published in Time points out, one of the major feminist criticisms that the Twilight Trilogy has been facing (especially after the anti-sexual harassment movement) has been Edward's crazy desire for control—he sneaks into Bella's bedroom at night to spy on her sleeping, follows her out of town, and stays away from her in the name of protection, and the couple's mode of getting along is morbid in real life. In an interview with The New York Times, Mel herself responded to the question of how the changing times had led readers to re-examine the values of the Twilight Saga series, defending "Edward is not human":
"I feel like you're going to have to look at things from his point of view, he's not a character who follows human rules. The worst part wasn't— you could say — that he was stalking her. Really, he's just a very curious animal, he doesn't think that way... It's a fantasy story in which there will be non-human characters who will do things that are not allowed in human society. ”
<h3>02 Can Mary Sue narratives still appeal to today's female readers? </h3>
"I don't want to be Louis Lane all the time, I want to be Superman." - "Midnight Sun"
Since the launch of Twilight, Bella has been widely regarded as a classic "Mary Sue" case. Compared with the male protagonist, the image and personality of the female protagonist are much paler and shallower, which is a typical feature of Mary Sue texts, and the character setting of the female protagonist needs to be convenient for female readers to self-project.
The interesting point of Midnight Sun is that because the narrator of the story becomes Edward, she provides the reader with an external perspective to observe the heroine, which makes her image more plump and powerful to a certain extent. To Edward, Bella is the embodiment of goodness, beauty, and self-sacrifice, providing evidence of the kind of keen observation that is unique to vampires ("No one has ever noticed these little things, whether it's her friends or admirers"), and she's determined about what she wants (the love of the most high-profile boy in the school). But even so, in the eyes of today's readers, some of Bella's character settings still make people roll their eyes, such as endlessly emphasizing her clumsiness and vulnerability that urgently needs the protection of the male protagonist.
More importantly, the "Twilight" series portrays an ideal world of traditional heterosexuality, continuing the love ideal of "soul mate". In The Tale of Solitude, author Fay Bound Alberti, comparing Wuthering Heights to Twilight, points out that the similarities between the two works are that they set up a woman who pursues a "soul mate," feels lonely for that person's absence, and contends with social norms and personal desires. At the same time, we can see in these two works a kind of internalization and continuation of a concept that originated in the 19th century, "that is, a strong romantic ideal is one and only desirable form of going to the soup for love." When a person is not satisfied or loses this ideal, emotional sadness and loneliness ensues. ”
Alberti argues that the ill effect of the "soul mate" narrative is that it condones the wanton behavior in intimate relationships, creating an illusion that "being so fervently desired by a soulmate produces a passion that transcends any social norm or standard of behavior." "Given that women have long been expected to value intimacy over everything else, the potential harm of this illusion is also greatest for women." Regrettably, as Twilight shows, this narrative still exists in 21st-century literature that targets young women, disciplining women to prioritize love:
"The cultural success of Twilight renews the notion that soul mates are essential for a person's development, especially for women's personal growth. A woman's worth is defined by the part she puts into the other person, defined by a relationship; and as long as the other person is the right 'person', the relationship can even be sadomasochistic. This context also implies that women who fail to find this kind of love are 'unlucky' or failed. ”
Until the fourth novel, Breaking Dawn, a major conflict between Bella and Edward is whether Edward should transform Bella into a vampire so that the two can be together forever. "Midnight Sun" unsurprisingly focuses on Edward's inner struggles in the face of this conflict. Interestingly, the author provides a reason for Bella's insistence on gender equality. Bella tells Edward that she wants to be a vampire because she wants to change their relationship that is extremely unequal in power:
"Men and women must be equal ... That is, you can't always wait for one to wait for the other to come to the rescue. They must be able to help each other equally. ”
This is certainly in line with the mainstream narrative of "female self-improvement" in the current social environment, but its starting point is still suspicious: women's desire for power is not to establish an independent self, but to not fall behind in an intimate relationship; the premise of a woman's legitimacy to control power is that she is in a relationship. On the other hand, Bella's desire to become a vampire is also suspected of age anxiety (in the first four novels, Bella expresses the fear that her appearance will no longer match Edward's as she grows older). Alberti cites Catherine Harkin, a professor of sociology at the London School of Economics and Political Science, as arguing that women's core assets are stereotypes of sexual attractiveness and/or fertility, are now resurgent in the concept of 'sexy capital', "'sexy capital' believes that young women should have assets that match their beauty, and that this asset will depreciate over time." ”
Radway argues that romance novels are the product of patriarchal cultural and social constructs, compensating for the emotions of female readers. It recognizes the inevitability and desirability of heterosexual institutional structures, and attempts to convince women that under certain ideal conditions, women's desires and needs can be satisfied from the status of lover, wife and mother. This can be said to be the basic starting point for most best-selling romance novels for a long time.
"Midnight Sun" has been listed in China for two months, and so far there have only been more than 160 reviews on Douban. The lacklustre popularity goes some way to illustrating the less appeal of the Mary Sue narrative to Chinese readers than it used to, especially the decline in the persuasiveness of traditional romance novels ("romance novels" in the context of Chinese) – that is, it is only in traditional monogamous marriages that women have desires and are satisfied. The deprivation of women by patriarchal marriage has repeatedly sparked a wave of discussion in social networks, and more and more women and men have realized that the "marriage for love" family model is no longer rock solid. As the scholar Liu Qing said, the dependence of men and women on each other in family organizations has changed, with the marketization of housework and women entering the labor market, both sexes are beginning to have the possibility of independent living, and the "post-family era" is coming.
So we can see the limitations of the era of heterosexual romance novels represented by "Twilight": it cannot give female readers any reference in how to break free from the shackles of purely relational fate and envision a future in which women can gain true independence, freedom and respect. In this regard, in recent years, the flow of women to online literary themes on Chinese Internet platforms may be regarded as a bellwether of the times. In an article published in 2018, "Entertainment Hard Candy" sorted out two important trends embodied in the Top 50 of Jinjiang's novel list: First, female readers prefer to watch Tanmei novels (37 of the TOP50) than heterosexual novels that are mixed with complex gender power discourse and are too entangled with real life, and obtain the psychological projection of ideal personality and ideal life in the emotional world of men; second, women's tendency to "male frequency" to content is obvious. That is, the plot driven by career development and personal growth is increasingly valued by female readers.
During the first meeting with Bella's mother, promising her that he would never do anything to hurt Bella, Edward heard the other's inner monologue: "Well, he thought he was telling the truth." But people are heartbroken and then recover, and that's part of life. Perhaps, this is also the inner feeling of readers who have slept and forgotten to read "Twilight" and fantasized about romantic love in their adolescence when they reread the story many years later.
Resources:
[Beauty] Stephanie Mel. Midnight Sun. Relay Press.2021.
Fay Bond Alberti. The Tale of Solitude: A History of Modern Emotions. Yilin Publishing House.2021.
【Beauty】Janice A. Rudwig. Reading Romance Novels: Women, Patriarchy, and Popular Literature. Yilin Publishing House.2020.
Grayson Perry. The Decline of Men. Hunan Literature and Art Publishing House.2020.
“As Midnight Sun hits No 1, Stephenie Meyer plans two more Twilight books,” The Guardian, August 13, 2020.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/aug/13/as-midnight-sun-hits-no-1-stephenie-meyer-plans-two-more-twilight-books
“Don't stare straight into the Midnight Sun: Reviewing the latest Twilight novel," Entertainment Weekly, August 14, 2020.
https://ew.com/books/midnight-sun-review-twilight/
“Midnight Sun Is Better Than Twilight, But Story Still Flawed,” Time, August 19, 2020.
https://time.com/5875255/midnight-sun-vs-twilight/
“In ‘Midnight Sun,’ Stephenie Meyer Tells Edward’s Story,” New York Times, August 3, 2020.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/03/books/midnight-sun-stephenie-meyer-twilight.html
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