Twilight: A Worrying Obsession?

Some things worry me, but few things actually frighten me. There is a series of four teen-horror-chick-fiction books (doesn’t it sound ghastly already?!) called Twilight (also a dire movie, apparently) that teenage girls in the USA seem to swoon over obsessively. Way more obsessively then the Harry Potter whackos that we all know about.

I then found a bulletin board full of stories of people who had been attacked for not liking the books or otherwise criticising them. I’ll link to a few choice stories below:

• Girl has acid thrown in her face for daring to tell a Twilight fan to put the book down to listen to instructions to perform a chemistry class experiment.
• A group of Twilight cynics who had a flare fired at them causing burns (this was considered by law-enforcement as attempted murder).
• A fan who tried to slit a cynic’s throat.
• A disgruntled Twilight fan who deleted the contents of the hard drive of someone who was not a fan of the series.
• Twilight fans who tried to drown a “non-believer”.

Update: this story has to be the most brutal attack.

Full list of stories here.

What really worries me is that people will inflict physical harm or be otherwise downright disgusting towards those who do not share their opinion on a series of books. Everyone, I believe, should be entitled to say “I don’t like this” or “I think this isn’t great because…” and these quite worrying people who attack others need to re-evaluate their lives. It’s a series of books. It’s not the be-all and end-all of life. It is no excuse to blind people or otherwise ruin their lives just because they do not like the series of books you like. These people need to be respectful and tolerant of opinions differing to their own, and not strike down ridiculously on those who do not share the view about the books.

This though probably isn’t that uncommon. Sure, there are fan sects devoted to everything. But under no circumstances should these people attack or defame those who actually have their own opinions as to what they do and do not like. We have bigger problems in this world then obsessive teenagers; it’ sad that these people don’t realise this themselves.

I, for one, though, really don’t like the premise of these books if they are able to mesmerise young people to the extent that they take the action they do against people who differ in opinion. We’re talking extremes like attempted murder, people. Worrying.