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Of This & That
By: Iffat Rashed
I was visiting my elder daughter last summer, and was intrigued to see her totally immersed in the novel “Twilight” by Stephanie Meyers. As I too was looking for some reading material in her bookshelf, she suggested that I read “Twilight” after her. I looked at her askance, because I thought I was beyond the age of enjoying a novel about teenage love and, that too revolving around a human, a vampire and a werewolf! When I was much younger, tales of the vampire Count Dracula held a chilling and frightening fascination; the image of sharp teeth, bloodshot red eyes, a black engulfing cloak, the surrounding eerie darkness of the night, when the vampire would rise from the coffin to venture forth, hunting for prey sent a thousand shivers up our spines. Watching Christopher Lee play the role of Count Dracula to perfection in the movies was hypnotic, as we sat wide-eyed, horror filled and taut with anticipation. Another film I remember, “The American Werewolf in London”, kept us transfixed, with sweaty palms, dilated pupils and hearts thumping at the horrifying suspense.
This blood-dripping, claws and teeth material was not what I was looking for, but not finding anything else of much interest I picked up “Twilight” for perusal. Wonder of wonders! I found myself completely involved by this charming tale, depicting a unique ‘human-ness’ of the vampires and werewolves, a tender love story, fantasy filled yet spellbinding. Fear of vampires and werewolves of yesteryears depicting evil and antagonism was replaced by empathy for the ‘human, vampire and werewolf’ triangle set in a sensitive tale of love, loyalty and sacrifice.
The story revolves around a young girl Bella, who is visiting her father in a small town where she meets and is drawn to Edward, who belongs to a coven of vampires that has evolved enough to resist drinking human blood; she also befriends Jacob, belonging to a tribe members of which can metamorphose into wolves. Although the vampire coven and tribe of werewolves are enemies, yet they have developed a code of conduct not to encroach on each others’ territory, thus keeping peace in the community. Moreover, instead of being the antagonists threatening the human protagonist Bella, these two forces combine their efforts to protect her from any evil or harm that might befall her.
At a time when the world seems to be in turmoil, intolerance and selfishness are on the rise and in certain instances bestiality triumphs, I found this novel of ‘selfless love’ to be attractive and spellbinding. In spite of it being a fantasy novel, there was a willing ‘suspension of disbelief’ because of the ‘humanity’ enveloping the unfolding saga, where willpower reigns supreme over animal instincts and good triumphs over evil. A scenario that I would love to see prevail in this tormented world we live in.
“In an empire of evil
Let beauty be veiled
And if it be truth
And truth naïveté
Let it bloom
Between the eyes
Like a desert rose…”
—— Broken Lines by Shahryar Rashed
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported.
