I asked the wife of the Mormon guy I go to school with about what's Mormon in "Twilight", and she said this struck her when she was reading the series -
1) Sex is forbidden.
2) High school is very innocent, esp. the out-of-school activities that never involve drugs or drinking (a date at an Italian restaurant, going to a movie, a bonfire on the beach).
3) The heroine grew up in Phoenix (where a lot of Mormons live).
What struck me was one metaphor where her vampire boyfriend resembled "an avenging angel" (I think that's somewhere in Mormon lore or the Book of Mormon).
Two nights ago I stayed up till 1:30am reading "New Moon"... You can tell that Stephenie Meyer loves to be dominated. There's this scene where the heroine is drowning and she's thinking about her lover as she dies, and the way she writes about water invading her lungs and choking her and the way everything is black and the waves toss her around, I couldn't put it down, the writing seared my eyes.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Yep, I found that scene you comment very disturbing (I'm squeamish about anything that deals with drowning) ... And yes, I've read the series. As it happens, my god-daughter is a big fan and she gave me a copy of the first so we could discuss it after (which we did). As to the thought that Meyer "loves to be dominated" -- there may be something to it as well in the fact that, unlike any other vampire tale or novel I know, humans in her world are absolutely vulnerable at their hands. There is not a single thing a human can do to protect himself / herself against vampires, which weighs heavily on her love scenes. Anyway, enjoy reading! L.
What did you guys talk about? Did you nicely try to clue her in how fucked up some of the relationship dynamics are?
Yes, we did talk about it and she was already attuned to how messed up the relationships were, all the subsumed violence and asymmetry (she is smart and attentive to such things, although, to be fair, it didn't seem to lessen that much how smitten she still was by whatever image of Edward she had conjured in her mind prior to the movies)....
That's assuring. She probably sees him as the typical hair gel ad or underwear model (all descriptions that Stephenie Meyer uses, as you well know).
Post a Comment