You know a book is popular when a parody is written about it. It’s like a rite of passage, the true mark of a novel’s significance. It’s even more impressive when the parody isn’t written by some closet-obsessive-fan, who uses humour to express their love of the book in question, but is instead, written by a reputable humour magazine, well known for producing a high calibre of LOLZ.
Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series received such an honour when The Harvard Lampoon – Harvard University’s famous comedic magazine – wrote the parody novel, Nightlight.
Nightlight follows the familiar story of Belle Goose, who moves from Arizona to live with her father in the dead-end town of Switchblade, and finds herself drawn to the mysterious loner boy at her school, Edwart Mullen. Of course, in true parody form, the novel diverges strongly from the plot of Twilight and instead, offers a packed plot full of social faux pas, mistaken vampire identities, and many a reference to sparkly skin.
The style of Nightlight can best be seen in the following, iconic segment:
“About three things I was absolutely certain.
First, that Edwart was most likely my soul mate, maybe.
Second, there was a vampire part of him – which I assumed was wildly out of his control- that wanted me dead.
And third, I unconditionally, irrevocably, impenetrably, heterogeneously, gynaecologically, and disreputably wished he had kissed me.” (88)
This section also shows where the genius of Nightlight lies. Whilst the novel is relatively funny, the parts that actually make the reader laugh out loud are not Harvard Lampoon’s original jokes, but rather the bits that are almost identical to scenes from the Twilight films or novels.
Written from a new perspective, things that seemed ‘normal’ or, dare I say it, romantic in the novels, suddenly seem ridiculous and completely unrealistic. For example, the scene from the first novel, when Bella discovers that Edward is a vampire, pans out quite differently for Belle and Edwart. When Edwart discovers that Belle is not appropriately afraid of him, he shouts:
‘”Still? You’re still not afraid of me? I assure you- I am a very scary guy!” He stood there for a minute thinking, then jogged across the field.
“As if you could outrun me!” he shouted.
“As if you could outfight me!” He punched the air.
“As if you could out climb me!” He hugged a tree and wrapped his legs around it, before tumbling to the ground.’ (86)
This could be a direct quote from the film and yet, it isn’t until you read it in Nightlight that it suddenly seems hilarious for a teenage vampire to be threatening his would-be girlfriend with his predatory prowess.
Add some sparkly skin, and you’ve got yourself quite the comedy. Nightlight might not have all the bite of a real vampire novel but it will certainly have you chortling into your blood pudding.
And if that isn’t enough to satisfy your tickle bone, you could always just read the original series again. I guarantee it’ll give you a giggle.
NIghtlight: A Parody is published by Vintage, (3rd November, 2009)
I like this book. The cover just killed me! I knew i had to read it!This book sent me LOLZ all over the place!! belle goose, bella swan! OMG its soooo funny!