Depois de muita relutância lá decidi experimentar fazer compras online. E que melhor maneira de começar senão com livros? Fui então à amazon.co.uk e fiz a bela da compra, Ted Hughes, Selected Poems. Serviço ultra-rápido (como pedido) e ultra-profissional (como esperado). E só depois de uma viagem à livraria Britânica fiquei a saber que o serviço também tinha sido ultra-barato. O mesmo livro estava à venda por mais do dobro do preço que paguei na amazon (e não vamos esquecer que pedi entrega-express). Este mês encomendei Anna Maxted, a minha musa da chick lit, e, claro, não resisti ao Twilight … eu tinha que ter um só meu.

Já agora, aqui ficam algumas das minhas preciosidades.

What is it that sometimes gets people stuck on somebody or something? What is it that some things have, to hold such alluring capacity on so many. Does it have a logical reason? Is it like a recipe? – You take a little bit of this and and whole lot of that and you got yourself a big beautiful fluffy cake bound to have everyone begging for more.

Hardly!

What I’m trying to do here is to excuse myself for being back in my teenage years. So I read this book, and within a week I have all the four books that constitute the saga already read. The next thing I know, I have a picture of Edward and Bella ( aka Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart) ‘embellishing’ my desktop and have marked the trailer for the upcoming movie Twilight in the ‘my favorites’ part on Youtube. How worse can it get? Well, a lot! I actually have enthusiastic conversations with my teenage cousin about everything Twilight-related. I’m this close to actually start hanging posters on the walls of my bedroom. Well, if I usually bought magazines I probably would have done it by now. I’m that shameless. But pimples … you stay away from me!

So what is it these books have that makes me feel the need to exorcise myself and reveal my darkest secrets on some place just about everyone can read them (they won’t but they could; that’s the point)?

So today I sit here trying to analyse this drama of mine so that tomorrow I can go buy the books I’ve already read just to put them on my private collection and be happy about it.

I have read good books and loved them. I do have good taste, most of the times at least. OK, controversial as the idea might be to some people I DO read good books and DO see good movies and DO like them. Isn’t Harry Potter a good book? Just because it is not on the canon doesn’t mean it’s not a piece of art! Right, but The Catcher In The Rye, Atonement, Wuthering Heights are on the canon so I’ve got my defense all built up right there.

Concentrate … the book. What about that first book, Twilight? Come to think about it, it hardly has any real action. Bella, the cliché girl-next-door, moves to her father’s house in the small town of Forks where everyday is a rainy one. She really is a low-profile kind of person and I guess I can relate to that! First day of school, high-school, and she catches the attention of everyone for the simple fact that in such a tiny place a new ‘asset’ is always welcome. On the other hand, her own attention gets caught by the beauty of a family of students who don’t get along with anyone else. They are beautiful, super-intelligent, extremely white, so it’s quite plain they’re the vampires. One of the vampires, Edward Cullen, described by Bella as The perfect man, gets lost in the mystery that she represents (he can read people’s minds but not hers). So the rest of the book is just them getting to know each other and testing the limits of a relationship bound to be tragic. Let’s not forget that being a vampire makes Edward want to kill Bella every single minute he spends with her.

So it all comes down to the endless love between Romeo and Juliet, Catherine and Heathcliff, Jack and Rose, that is, the love between people from different worlds. A killer vampire gets in the way and sets out on a chase for Bella’s blood. But Edward, the knight in shining armor, rescues Bella, his damsel in distress. Ultimately, it is the eternal battle between life and death, between good and evil.

All in all, this book represents fairly well the commonplace in literature.

However, no matter how many times we’ve seen them repeated on movies or the countless times we read them in books, some stories demand to be written. I believe this is one of them. The author, Stephenie Meyer, who had never written before, claims that she had the most beautiful dream one night and being furious for waking up in the middle of it she decided to write it down. She then continued writing the story so spontaneously that it only took her one summer to complete the first book(which is pretty good taking into consideration Meyer has got three small kids and a husband (and probably another job at the time) to take care of).

Of course I can see the flaws. Unlike Harry Potter, the Twilight saga is only 100% coherent up to the second book. J. K. Rolling managed, throughout seven books, to keep her story credible, logical and cohesive. Stephanie Meyer seems to have been caught up by the pressure of writing a sure-to-become bestseller. But the core art of Twilight was there through the whole series.

And then we have those little parts that are so sickeningly cheesy, hokey, slushy, corny, mushy (and everything bad that ends in ‘y’) that it makes you wanna throw up! Romanticism is good, to abuse the reader’s patience is unacceptable. I mean, I guess you can put up with reading I love yous all over a book, but to have them explaining exactly what they mean by that! Some things are better left unsaid! I won’t even mention the most terribly cheesy part of the whole saga, which is in book four, because I’m under the impression everytime I remember it I turn into a light shade of green. I can only say it’s not an Edward/ Bella moment, more like an Edward/ Jacob moment. URGHHH

It is, however, very personal and intimate and that might be the key element. It is a 1^st person narrative, written by Bella’s perspective. It is written in such a way that the reader relates to and connects with the characters in such a deep level that to emerge oneself completely in the story is about the easiest thing on earth. It is a very beautiful and engaging love story. The magic of Stephanie Meyer is to get ordinary words to reach within the reader; from the very first chapter to the very last, you just can’t wait to read what’s going to happen next and how much more infatuated this romance can get.

Melissa Rosenberg, the screenwriter describes the upcoming movie: ‘Twilight is about a romance between a girl and the ultimate unavailable boy, a vampire.’

Stephanie Meyer, the author of the book says: ‘Bella and Edwards relationship was always defined by the fact that he is a vampire and she is not.’ ‘She gets a chance to be a teenager for the first time. Everything is brand new to her and that was fun to write because the first time you do anything, the first time you fall in love, the first time you get your heart broken; that’s the one that sticks with you more than the others.’

Robert Pattinson, the actor playing Edward: ‘They can’t see any real future together but they just remain together because they both provide each other exactly what the other one needs.’

Soooo … I did like reading these books. Actually the right thing to say would be: love them, love everything about them. Even the cheesy parts I guess.

Now for this ‘essay’ I had two options. I could write it on a diary. I’m sure I have one (people used to offer me that kind of stuff when I was younger) but am not sure where to find it. The second option was to write it here. Well, if you got to this part (after actually reading through the whole thing) then let me tell you that you sure can pick what to read out of all the junk on the web! Or maybe not!

Existem excepções, mas devem ser só para confirmar a regra: quando sou obrigada a ler não me apetece fazê-lo. Quem sabe se tivesse tido uma cadeira do género Literatura Inglesa – ficção J. K. Rowliana não teria ido comprar Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows no dia (noite) em que saiu dos caixotes selados, acorrentados, com infra-vermelhos à volta e td e td e td. Por exemplo, acho que ia adorar ter lido Wuthering Heights, ou não. Bem, doesn´t reaaly matter. Isto só para dizer que o Fernando Pessoa é um gajo que parece saber das coisas; isso de falar de amores contemplativos e locus amaenus não era a cena dele.

Ai que prazer
Não cumprir um dever,
Ter um livro para ler
E não o fazer!

Ler é maçada,
Estudar é nada.
O Sol doira
Sem literatura.
O rio corre bem ou mal,
sem edição original.

E a brisa, essa,
De tão naturalmente matinal,
Como tem tempo não tem pressa…

Livros são papéis pintados com tinta.
Estudar é uma coisa em que está indistinta
A distinção entre nada e coisa nenhuma.

Quanto é melhor, quando há bruma,
Esperar por D. Sebastião,
Quer venha ou não!

Grande é a poesia, a bondade e as danças…
Mas o melhor do mundo são as crianças,
Flores, música, o luar, e o sol, que peca
Só quando, em vez de criar, seca.

O mais do que isto
É Jesus Cristo,
Que não sabia nada de finanças
Nem consta que tivesse biblioteca…

… diz Fernando Pessoa e eu subscrevo!  Quem me dera  passar os meus dias a esperar por D. Sebastião … quando há bruma claro está. Às vezes a ignorância faz bem à alma.