My inspiration for creating twi-lit.com was pretty straightforward. During my undergraduate studies, I began to explore older works of vampire fiction, as well as the growing amount of literary criticism that exists on the subject. Believe it or not, vampire fiction has been studied by scholars for decades. I became interested in this field, and began researching a thesis project on the subject. Around the same time, I was introduced to Stephenie Meyer’s books.

After reading the Twilight series, I was admittedly intrigued. I found the books to be a fresh interpretation of the vampire myth, as well as a source of personal enjoyment. In the following months, I became a lurker within the Twilight fandom. (This is a fancy way of saying I started checking all the popular fan sites with obsessive regularity, without contributing much more than an occasional comment.) I’ve been active in other fandoms before, but given the enormous size of the Twilight fandom, I wasn’t sure how to get involved. I was also beginning my last year of college, so I lacked the time to commit to any fandom-related projects. Because of this, I was content to stay a lurker until I graduated.

When I did graduate, however, I decided that I wanted to create a site dedicated to Twilight-related scholarship. In my opinion, the literary analysis of vampire fiction is a fascinating field of study, one which deserves more recognition and contributions. So I couldn’t help thinking that an analysis of Twilight as vampire fiction would be interesting both for myself and others, since it’s the most popular vampire series in decades. But I had another reason for starting this site: I wanted to provide my own point of view about the books, which is unabashedly positive.

I’m an Internet-exploring kind of girl. I may not be up to date on all the latest memes or be a member of every single social networking site, but I frequent several different Internet communities in my spare time. So I’m aware of the fact that the general opinion of Twilight on the Internet isn’t 100% positive. Many of my online friends make a point of telling me (and others) that Twilight is an over-hyped piece of trash that isn’t “real” vampire fiction. Obviously, they’re entitled to their opinion. Twilight may have millions of fans, but that doesn’t mean that everyone will appreciate it. Frankly, there’s no such thing as a book that everyone in the universe likes. Books aren’t meant to work that way: some books appeal to certain people, while others don’t. There’s nothing wrong with that; it’s just the way it is.

Still, I was a bit surprised to discover that, in many online communities, making fun of Twilight has become rather like taking a pot shot at Britney Spears or George W. Bush or the “emo” scene. Such people love to chime in and say how much Twilight “sucks,” just to prove how cool and unique and sophisticated they are. (Yes, there’s some irony in that, but hey, there’s always irony when social conformity is involved.)

Of course, Twilight is an unapologetically romantic book, which makes it an easy target for jokes. These days, sarcasm and “snark” are valued much more than sentiment or anything serious, especially online. And I’m not going to lie: I enjoy most Twilight-related humor, even when it isn’t 100% positive in its analysis of the book. Many of the jokes about the “impossibly handsome and sparkly vampires” are funny, and I’m not going to deny it just because I enjoyed the series. There’s nothing wrong with satire, and many of Twilight’s detractors are undeniably clever as well as genuinely funny.

However, anti-Twilight rhetoric often goes deeper than humor. Besides the occasional serious comment on the subject, I was able to find several anti-Twilight web sites that argued passionately (and sometimes incorrectly) about the downsides of the series. So, I couldn’t help thinking that it would be worthwhile to provide an equally thoughtful yet positive opinion about the books, in order to refute some of those arguments.

Of course, the issue of whether Twilight is a worthwhile series is a matter of opinion, so there’s no way to “win” such a debate. In fact, it’s fundamentally impossible. But I believe that it’s still important and worthwhile to provide an alternate viewpoint for those who are interested. Since this site is dedicated to in-depth discussion about Twilight rather than just being a fan site, I believe it’s a perfect venue to discuss some of these topics.

However, I’m not attempting to force everyone to agree with me, or squash any objections that have been raised by those who didn’t like the book. Far from it: I welcome all discussion and debate on this site, and if you leave here and still hate the Twilight series, that doesn’t offend me at all! I’ll just be happy that you took the time to consider an alternate view, as well as grateful for your contribution to the discussions, especially if you bring up a point that I haven’t considered.

The final reason that I decided to make this site was because I discovered that many other Twilight fans enjoy writing essays about the books, and I hope that it will become an archive for some of these essays. Many of the featured panels at Twilight-related events involve literary topics and essay contributions, so it’s obvious that I’m not the only one who enjoys analyzing Twilight as literature. With any luck, this site will soon become a helpful (and entertaining!) resource for anyone who’s interested in exploring Twilight as a work of fiction, as well as fans who want to examine the series they love on a deeper level.

If all goes well, I will begin to look for contributions from other Twilight fans soon (details to be announced later). Ideally, I would like this site to be a complete archive of Twilight-related essays by various contributors, not just myself. But that depends on whether there is a demand for that kind of site, so we’ll see how it goes!

In the meantime, I’m gearing up to attend at least two (HUGE!) Twilight fan events, so updates may be sporadic until mid-August. Here’s where I’ll be in the coming days:

July 22-24: COMIC CON! (Yes, I will be at the Summit panel, just like I was last year. It’s going to be AWESOME. Exclusive New Moon footage!)

July 30- August 2: Twi-Con @ Dallas, TX (I’m really looking forward to this one! It’s the first ever Twi-Con, which promises to be the biggest Twilight-related convention anywhere.)

I am also tentatively planning to be at the Twi-Tours convention in Phoenix, Arizona on August 14-16, sponsored by Creation Entertainment. (Like Stephenie Meyer herself, I am a proud AZ native. So I hope to make it there, especially since it’s so close by!)

Obviously, this is a pretty full Twilight-related schedule, but I’ll be working on the site in between events. I’ll also be blogging about my experiences here, so stay tuned for up-to-date commentary on two of the biggest Twilight events of the summer.

Now I’m going to get back to work on the site itself. Remember, all comments to my entries are welcome, except for spam and links to non-related websites. Thanks! -Kat