I know, who cares? After all, I am 40 years old and perhaps should be a bit too adult to read and enjoy the Twilight series....but I am not. I just eat that stuff up! I do have a viable excuse. I lived 16 miles to the west of Forks for two summers. Stephenie Meyer does a great job of describing the environment in her books. It is grey, most of the time. When the sun comes out it hurts your eyes, simply because they aren't used to it. The air is damp and smells clean. The forests are dark, very green, and deep. The beaches are sublime with areas of rocky coastline, pockets of grey sand, and sea stacks offshore. The variety of wildlife and plantlife is impressive. Forks is a small logging town with one main street, one grocery store (Thriftway), and one coffee shop. The mood is dark and somewhat depressed, reflecting the daily sky. I believe I really enjoyed the remote feeling. I like not having too many options...and Forks definitely catered to that desire. The chainsaw shop carried great gardening shoes, and the Thriftway, well....the Thriftway carried everything else. Forks was the hub of the area, 16 miles from Mora where I lived. Once every two weeks I would drive to the thriving metropolis of Port Angeles (also mentioned in Twilight) to see a movie, or go eat Italian, or go to the bookstore....just like Bella. All of this being said, I can't help but set the record straight. The Twilight movie does a fair job representing Forks aside from one obvious departure from reality. Forks has absolutely NO diversity. You wouldn't see people of different ethnicities attending the high school. Forks is smaller, too...without the nice brick buildings as shown in the movie. I first picked up Twilight as an audiobook from the library...for a driving trip back to Washington. This was prior to the "Twilight explosion." I thought it looked easy to listen to, and caught my eye because it is set in Forks....a place I had lived.....a very obscure place....I was quickly sucked into the story and the characters....annoyed at times by some of it....but enamored of the choice of location. Having lived there, I could easily imagine a story like this taking place in and around Forks...as it is magical and strange and remote.
Monday, October 19, 2009
The REAL Forks
I know, who cares? After all, I am 40 years old and perhaps should be a bit too adult to read and enjoy the Twilight series....but I am not. I just eat that stuff up! I do have a viable excuse. I lived 16 miles to the west of Forks for two summers. Stephenie Meyer does a great job of describing the environment in her books. It is grey, most of the time. When the sun comes out it hurts your eyes, simply because they aren't used to it. The air is damp and smells clean. The forests are dark, very green, and deep. The beaches are sublime with areas of rocky coastline, pockets of grey sand, and sea stacks offshore. The variety of wildlife and plantlife is impressive. Forks is a small logging town with one main street, one grocery store (Thriftway), and one coffee shop. The mood is dark and somewhat depressed, reflecting the daily sky. I believe I really enjoyed the remote feeling. I like not having too many options...and Forks definitely catered to that desire. The chainsaw shop carried great gardening shoes, and the Thriftway, well....the Thriftway carried everything else. Forks was the hub of the area, 16 miles from Mora where I lived. Once every two weeks I would drive to the thriving metropolis of Port Angeles (also mentioned in Twilight) to see a movie, or go eat Italian, or go to the bookstore....just like Bella. All of this being said, I can't help but set the record straight. The Twilight movie does a fair job representing Forks aside from one obvious departure from reality. Forks has absolutely NO diversity. You wouldn't see people of different ethnicities attending the high school. Forks is smaller, too...without the nice brick buildings as shown in the movie. I first picked up Twilight as an audiobook from the library...for a driving trip back to Washington. This was prior to the "Twilight explosion." I thought it looked easy to listen to, and caught my eye because it is set in Forks....a place I had lived.....a very obscure place....I was quickly sucked into the story and the characters....annoyed at times by some of it....but enamored of the choice of location. Having lived there, I could easily imagine a story like this taking place in and around Forks...as it is magical and strange and remote.
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