Twilight fans and fan-fiction writers, get ready!
I’m sure by now many of you have heard about the new 10th anniversary edition of Stephenie Meyer’s "Twilight" novel- "Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined."
If you haven’t, welcome to the new role-reversed "Twilight," complete with new names and genders for every character except for two.
Don't fret, this is not a book review (though I think it’s fascinating so far) and if you like "Twilight," you’ll like this. But this article is simply to articulate how awesome Stephenie Meyer is for doing this because role reversal is something amazing. Now, you might be thinking this is stupid, "Twilight" is a teen novel and sooooo 10 years ago- but prepare yourselves while I geek out, because from a literary standpoint, THIS IS SO FREAKING COOL. Fan-fiction writers- you have finally been heard! This is the first time an author has done something like this and taken their original work and re-written it. This is Stephenie Meyer acknowledging fan fiction and basically partaking in it herself.The whole concept of gender swap roles is something that has blown up Pinterest in the recent years, as people re-imagine everything from Disney classics, to super hero films. People love gender-bending roles because it adds a fresh, new twist on classics. But being able to read a gender swap story by the original author- is something totally new.
The simplest reason this is so cool, is because it is literary genius. It is innovative and artistic and for writers it is like a crazy writing exercise.
Now, before I get any more amped up about how awesome gender swap stories are, let’s look more at Twilight Re-Imagined the story of Beaufort and Edythe.
Beau and Edythe are not the only ones who get gender swapped in this special edition, but as I mentioned- every single character (minus Bella’s parents) change genders. So you get to see every personality that was in Twilight reversed into the opposite sex.
It is amazing because by simply changing Bella and Edwards’s gender- the whole tone of the book changed.
Meyer stated in the foreword of the novel, “He’s totally missing the chip Bella carries around on her shoulder all the time.”
This new edition gave Meyer the opportunity to revisit her novel that made her so famous. This gave her the chance to put a modern spin on the novel (complete with a man bun mention) and put a whole new voice to her own work. How amazing is that?!
This is not something that just benefits the world of fiction readers either, but esteemed authors too! It is giving them the opportunity to do something that has never been done.
And I promise you, this won't be the last work of this kind. You read it here first folks, but I have a feeling this theme of role reversal novel re-writes is going to become a new trend. And I for one am so excited about it.
Check out these articles if you are interested in this novel and want to find out more:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/alexisnedd/but-what-does-beaufort-smell-like#.le1AwlOJZ
