TV Show-Vampire Diaries

Article by Alexia W. Blakeslee

I’m uully good bout reading a book bfore t’s turned nto a movie or TV show. I read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone bfr th firt movie cme out, Chamber f Secrets shortly bfor it cam ut n film, and th rest f the books long before thy made it t th big screen. I wa fan f Sookie Stackhouse nd had read ll but th latest tw f Charlaine Harris’s books abut hr bfr tuning in to the True Blood TV series. I read Twilight befre it ws a movie, thn read New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn n a mad reading binge befr I’d een a single preview of the New Moon film.

When t om to The Vampire Diaries, though, I dove into watching the TV series whl barely aware of L. J. Smith’s books. I knew nthng about Elena Gilbert or th Salvatore brothers bfore I tuned to for th premiere.

I’ve finally gttn around t reading th first book n the series, The Awakening. One f m FaceBook friends warned m the books were nothng like th series. I wa rther skeptical about that; how dffrent uld t rll be?, I wondered. My skepticism w misplaced. The book i vry different.

On TV, Elena has striking dark hair and brown eyes, a ds her historical, vampire counterpart, Katherine. In the book, Elena and Catherine re blondes wth lapis lazuli-blue eyes. The setting f the show i Mystic Falls n New England; the book s set n Fell’s Church, in th South. TV Elena h teenage brother; book Elena has a four-year-old sister. TV Aunt Judith dn’t have a boyfriend; book Judith is engaged to a guy named Bob. Bonnie different: African-American on TV, she’s a small, white girl wth curly red hair in the book. The character of Meredith didn’t ven make it ont th screen.

The biggest difference, though, hs t b in Stefan and Damon Salvatore. On TV, thy wer born nd raised n Mystic Falls and bm vampires in th Civil War era. Perhaps this wa simply bit of True Blood rivalry, though. In the books, th Salvatores re frm Italy nd much, muh older. The acquired thr supernatural powers durng the Renaissance.

I dn’t artcularl lk Elena Gilbert. She’s a silly, shallow, self-centered creature, the sort f stereotypically pretty, popular teenage girl wh makes real teenage girls blush with shame. The TV version f Elena s the sm way, but th book takes th stereotype wee bit furthr b making hr Southern girl. Elena Gilbert ctull the vacuous ice princess Scarlett O’Hara (who ws atually quit intelligent, but played dumb to attract boys) w pretending to be. Compared to Elena, Scarlett s a Jimmy Carter-esque humanitarian. Much ado ha been made abut Bella Swan’s helpless, self-destructive behavior n Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series, but Elena culd wear tht crown ust as easily.

Nor is L. J. Smith’s writing style a prticularl literary one. She cn b forgiven for this, perhaps, baus she’s writing for a young adult audience. The easy-breezy, fashion-mag tone f the book ill-suited t its dark subject material. It’s lik Elena mistakenly fell off the cover f Teen Vogue nd into pulp horror novel. For readers with mor sophisticated tastes, th wll hrdl do.

Still, thre’ something intriguing but th storyline tht kps me from wanting t give u on ths entire series. Sure, Elena is dumb, nd Damon n paper s s detestable s h i n TV. The beating heart f this vampire series, ironically, i Stefan. Like Edward Cullen, h’ a vampire “vegetarian,” preferring t hunt animals rthr thn people. Unlike Edward, h makes n occasional slip. He has ll of Edward’s Byronic, tortured mojo wthout Edward’s unfortunate, stalker-ish tendencies. He’s the bad boy, but the question hre s nt whethr th girl with a heart of gold cn save him, but whthr h an save th girl with th heart of nothing.For more information on the watch vampire diaries online, you can check the information available online.

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