The iPad Mania and the Twilight Saga (Part 1)
Stephenie Meyer Is the CEO Apple Could Have Had
by Aldrin N. on 2012-04-01
Anyone who is well acquainted with the affairs of American Pop Culture knows (or denies knowing) the massive success of Stephenie Meyer’s the Twilight Saga. For those whose fortunate lives have not become miserable yet by watching the movies or reading the material, the Twilight Saga is a story that revolves around a scarily romantic relationship between a vampire and a Muggle (Oops! that’s Harry Potter!). I can’t explain the teaser further because I don’t know all the what-nots of the movies. But the thesis of the Twilight Saga is: It is possible to love a vampire, as long as he sparkles and shines and is not reminiscent of the Halloween costumes we put on while trick-or-treating along the village streets.
But before we go to the crux of this exposition, let’s first delve into some trivia that rocked the world of the ‘glitterati’ and scraped the hard crust of the literary biosphere.
The first issue: You probably don’t know what the IKEA effect is. In Dan Ariely’s book ‘The Upside of Irrationality,’ the author talks about the predictable phenomenon of people overvaluing their own labor compared to other people’s by the same degree of exerted effort. The concept is borrowed from the Scandinavian furniture store IKEA.
IKEA is an international home products company that creates and designs ready-to-build furniture like desks, beds, cabinets and other household accessories.
Experiments reveal conclusive evidence that people tend to put higher value and appreciation on their work more than others’ work- no matter how similar the results and the outputs are.
This is why the selling proposition of the IKEA stores is prominent among people whose narcissism loves to be projected on their personal possessions. To be more euphemistic, the ‘sentimental value’ of their belongings resides not on the essence of the valuable itself, but the imprinted airbrushed image that it was ‘THEM’ who created it and not somebody else.
The second issue: Anne Rice has been vocal about her criticisms towards a juggernaut to her self-made success on the lair of vampire literature. Recently, she propped up her weaponry (her Facebook account) and made jabbing remarks at Stephenie Meyer’s Cullen coven.
She wrote: "Lestat and Louie feel sorry for vampires that sparkle in the sun. They would never hurt immortals who choose to spend eternity going to high school over and over again in a small town ---- anymore than they would hurt the physically disabled or the mentally challenged. My vampires possess gravitas. They can afford to be merciful."
The third issue: Going back to the creator of vampires’ new millennia dossier, Stephenie Meyer expresses her dislike of other authors’ vampire novels. She says that if what she reads is similar to her writing, she gets upset; if it’s too far away, she also gets upset. “It just makes me very neurotic.”- says Stephenie.
I say that’s the prettiest adjective one can use to describe her situation. In fact, the delusion of the ‘IKEA’ effect is an early symptom of severe anxiety disorder.
Aldrin Norwood is a resident blogger for Cash for Smartphones. A certified multimedia geek, he lives and breathes smartphone news and updates. Born from a family of writers- reinforced by his degree in English Studies- his work had been cited Honorable Mention on the Genoveva Edroza-Matute Literary Awards in 2011- Essay Division, and had been the Editor-in-Chief of his university’s official publication. He mostly writes about philosophy, pop culture, movies, literature, and technology, specifically about the smartphone industry.
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