What I know about romance

"I was nauseous and tingly all over. I was either in love or I had smallpox."
~Woody Allen

I'm certainly not the most romantic person out there, so there may be some things I don't understand about love and romance, especially in what seems to be the more modern concepts amongst young girls about what true love is. And where I'm going with this are some thoughts on Stephenie Meyer's book series Twilight.

In a society where our "greatest love story" is one where 17-somethings fall in love at first sight, spend one night of glorious love, then commit suicide because they can't be together, I am not surprised that Edward and Bella's story is so popular. From the beginning, there's attraction (she thinks he looks like a model; he likes the way she smells) and this attraction is insatiable and undeniable throughout. Now I want the person I'm in love with to love me back just as much, but there is one flaw in this initial attraction: it's her smell.

Bella can't help the way she smells. It's something that is purely hers. She could be a jerk, an idiot, selfish and passionless (which, hey, she kind of is) but Edward will love her regardless because she has something innate to her that he just cannot resist. And girls, it seems, love that, but I would rather be loved for all the other things that don't seem to be important to Edward, and that is my intelligence, humor and talents. In this sense, her scent, while primal and animalistic (which might be its own attraction) is the largest cop-0ut for "true love." How true is it when it has nothing to do with who you really are as a person, rather than your genetic make-up as a living being that has a smell?

Still, under the Adonis physique and pale complection (when did that become a desirable trait?) Edward is a rather frightening wish for a boyfriend (and a far cry from the perfect boyfriend,) because he is so obsessive and protective. And if he hurts her or kills her, it's not his fault, it's just who he is. And if anything, it's her fault he hurt her, for getting close to him. Now if that doesn't sound like something the Dixie Chicks would sing about, I don't know what is. For you non-Dixie Chicks fans, that's a reference to their early hit, Earl.

So, mostly I just don't get it, and I have these thoughts as to why it doesn't connect with me, but of course that doesn't mean that the book isn't successful. It totally is. It sells a lot and gets young girls to read. But is it something we should want them to read?

And, to close, a quote on love:
"They spoil every romance by trying to make it last forever." ~Oscar Wilde