Vampire & Doctor

The tagline for this post should be something like: why I am going to see Twilight as soon as it hits theaters!

For those of you unfamiliar with the trilogy written by Stephanie Meyers, Twilight is the first in a series that follows a love story between a girl, Bella, and a vampire,Edward. I have already professed my unabashed love and admiration for Buffy many times, so it should come as no surprise that I made a mad dash for these books when I saw them in the library. I won't spoil any of the plot lines or interesting bits for those of you who want to read/watch..but I will note that the doctor, Dr. Cullen, in the story is one of the most interesting characters.

I think I find Dr. Cullen interesting because he is a vampire (with all the vampiric urges..blood lust etc), but he spends his days saving humans and resisting this innate urge to do harm. I'm not sure what the author wanted to show with this character, but this type of struggle somehow brings to mind pedophilia and other socially unacceptable sexual interests. Actually, knowing that Stephanie Meyers is Mormom, I'm sure she'd be horrified that I just compared one of her character to a pedophile, but for me there is a connection. Pedophilia harms others and some law enforcement and health professionals believe that it is not something that can be controlled or changed with medicine and or therapy. This has led to convicted pedophiles serving their jail sentences, and then being remanded to mental institutions/hospitals for the public good. While I am not advocating for a certain correctional approach, I think that Twilight is asking some big questions about the essentialness (is that a word!?) of human nature and our ability to control urges.

Dr. Cullen is a sympathetic character in the book..despite the fact that some part of him, no matter how suppressed, is attracted to human blood. I wonder if he would be so likable if he was interested in small children? By making him a monster somehow his perversions are interesting and he maintains his status as a hero of the book. I've already pre-ordered the fourth book, so I'm certainly not complaining, but definitely worth giving a little more thought!