The rip-off?

This is actually a short essay I wrote in summer of 2010 on a course in vampire literature (I have here translated it into English). We could chose any subject we wanted, and I decided I was going to study whether the Twilight-series is innovative, or if they are just a rip off of great vampire stories. Once again, even though I do not particularly like Twilight, I will try and keep an open mind.

Is Twilight a rip-off?

Background and aim

Stephanie Meyers books on the humane vampires in the Cullen family seems at first glance like a new thing in the vampire world. In her books there are two kinds of vampires, the more traditional vampires which drink human blood, and there are the humane vampires which are the Cullen family.

Meyer's vampires have developed from the vampires which have an involvement with humans, like Dracula (and his equal in Murnau's version of Bram Stoker's novel). Meyer's storyline on the other hand are not very innovative. She is writing a story which contains well-known elements from books, TV-series, films and other media which have had a vampire story. The aim of this analyse is to find and specify what elements can be found elsewhere and what new ideas Meyer has brought into the vampire world.

Analyse

The vampire Edward Cullen is very frustrated that he can not read his human girlfriend Bella's mind. This is not a new subject in vampire stories. That vampires can read mind can be found in many stories, but this specific situation can be found in the Sookie Stackhouse novels by Charlaine Harris, even though the situation is reversed and the human (Sookie) can not read her vampire boyfriend Bill's mind. In this case, the novels about Sookie was published four years before the first Twilight novel was published.

The theme of the forbidden love between human and vampire is not either a very uncommon trait in vampire stories. Examples can be in Francis Ford Coppola's version of Dracula where Count Dracula and Mina has an erotic attraction. It is also found in Buffy The Vampire Slayer where Buffy falls in love with two vampires (and we also find love between humans and other demons and werewolves, the latter also found in Twilight). It is also in Buffy the question whether a vampire has a soul is brought up an questioned more strongly than in other vampire works. Though we can find traces of it in Anne Rice book Interview with a Vampire where Louis in parts of the books refuses to drink human blood as he thinks hes a devils spawn.

The more vampire stories one read, the less innovative Meyer's vampires seems, but she does never really bring the dark parts of a vampires nature into light.

That Meyer has been influenced by the Sookie Stackhouse novels, there is no doubt. There can be no coincidence that both stories involve a person who can not read his lovers mind. Also the question whether a vampire could really love one as they have no soul is brought up time after time in Buffy, and the spin-off Angel, but also in Interview with a Vampire where Louis is sure that when he became a vampire he lost his soul. This is things found in the character of Edward Cullen, whom is sure he has no soul as he is a dangerous creature who wants to drink the blood of the one he loves.

Meyer also brings up the question on a "royal" vampire family, but that is not something completely new either. In True Blood we have the Sheriffs and the Magisters, and in Underworld we can find the Elders which can be related to Caius, Marcus and Aro from the Volturis in Twilight.

Another one of the most debatable things in Twilight are the fact that Edward Cullen can actually reproduce in a natural way, even though he is dead. This is not either something new, in Angel's spin-off series of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, we can see that vampires can reproduce in a natural way, and not only by siring people. In Twilight we also get to know another family of "vegetarian" vampires, and they created vampire children in the same was as Louis and Lestat made in Interview with a Vampire (through siring them as young children, so they get stuck in the body of a young child). The child talked about in Twilight does on the other hand not have the same role as Claudia have in Anne Rice's book, but still we can see the similarities between the two stories. Also we find the hybrid between two different creatures in the Underworld series, where Michael Corvin is a vampire/werewolf hybrid, while Renesmee from Twilight is a human/vampire hybrid.

The settings story-wise in Twilight are similar to those in Buffy, where we start out at High School, and follows the development of the protagonist trough their High School years. Both the females (Buffy and Bella) are in doubt whether they should go through and go to college, as they both know they can never have a normal future. Here on the other hand the stories differs, Bella becomes pregnant and Edward has to make her a vampire to survive, while Buffy goes to college but drops out to take care of her sister and start working. Another similarity in the story between Twilight and other vampire stories are the question about stalking. In Buffy, Buffy gets stalked both by Angel, where she even says "[y]ou know, being stalked isn't really a big turn on for girls" (Episode 1, Season 2). Even the book series The Vampire Diaries (the first parts being published between 1991-1992) brings up the theme with a High School girl getting in touch with vampires and becoming stalked by the one who has feelings for her.

As I mentioned earlier, the werewolves in Meyer's book are not new either, we find similar werewolves falling in love with humans in Buffy (Willow and Oz). In the first books Meyers werewolves seems to be something new, but when we find out they are shape shifters, and that it was just a coincidence that they became wolves the similarities with Sam Merlotte from Charlaine Harris books become prominent. We also find the use of regular wolves in Bram Stoker's Dracula.

What Meyers has brought into the vampire world as new would be that vampires does not die or burn in the sunlight, and that that have no fangs (at least they never mention they have). This on the other hand feels more like a development backwards or making vampires more like humans, than evolving them further. One could ask if the Twilight vampires are not zombies as they have no know vampire traits except for drinking blood, but zombies also eat and drink of humans.

The fact that vampires will not die of sunlight are found in very few vampire stories or myths, but that they sparkle is something completely new. They have been described as shimmering (Anne Rice once explains Louis skin as shimmering in the light), but never as sparkling. This is also one of the aspects of the Stephanie Meyer vampires that has created the most debate among vampire lovers, but even if a majority thinks that vampires should not sparkle, there is no question that it is something new, and never seen before. The friend ship between vampires and shape shifters or werewolves are not an empty source of inspiration either. It can be found, but the idea has not really developed further, not even between Oz and Angel in Buffy. Stephanie Meyer also bring the word "imprinting" into the world of paranormal love, even though it can be found in the animal world, but it is not so common in this area, used as a method of bringing the story further.

Conclusion

Twilight might not be a rip-off, but the influence from Buffy, Sookie Stackhouse novels and Anne Rice books are very obvious. She has changed the traditional vampire into something looking more like us, and that make it lose lot's of it's appeal it has when being dangerous and unreachable for humans. The Twilight saga should not be read or defined as a vampire book, but as a romance story. She has taken the vampires one step closer to being humans and other humane vampires (Angel, Bill Compton and so one) still have some of their vampire traits left, so that there is a difference between humans and vampires, they for example have their fangs left, and they burn or die in the sun light. Many of the things Meyer brings up in her books are not new and are seen in vampire stories publish long before her books, and she seems to have brought more or just as much into world of the werewolves.

Saying that her books are creative are not really the truth either. She has used many different kinds of know elements from vampires stories and carefully chosen the parts that made these other stories successful. Calling it a rip-off is maybe to exaggerate, this "stealing" is used by many directors, and authors and they use inspiration from different places. Meyer just seems like she has taken this a bit further than others in the business. The expression "Twilight is like Buffy, but without the good bits!" seems like a good way to finish this essay.

(The books and stories analysed for this essay are all published before 2005, therefore, they are publish before the first Twilight book was).