#32 by locutus7 » Apr 12, 2010 10:34 pm
Below is one of many articles on Twilight and Mormonism.
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Stephenie Meyer’s Mormonism and the “erotics of abstinence”
By William Morris | 5.02.08
For more on Stephenie Meyer and her work, visit Reading Until Dawn.
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The Time Magazine profile of Stephenie Meyer attempts to explain her work — the three Twilight books and an upcoming novel called The Host — by exploring Meyer’s Mormonism, claiming, in fact that although “the characters in Meyer’s books aren’t Mormons, but her beliefs are key to understanding her singular talent.”
It makes for a fascinating, almost convincing piece of analysis. The problem is that it tends to boil Mormonism down to a set of filters, the thou-shalt-nots, that narrow what can happen in her work.
For example in reference to Meyer’s vampire books, Lev Grossman writes:
What makes Meyer’s books so distinctive is that they’re about the erotics of abstinence. Their tension comes from prolonged, superhuman acts of self-restraint. There’s a scene midway through Twilight in which, for the first time, Edward leans in close and sniffs the aroma of Bella’s exposed neck. “Just because I’m resisting the wine doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate the bouquet,” he says. “You have a very floral smell, like lavender … or freesia.” He barely touches her, but there’s more sex in that one paragraph than in all the snogging in Harry Potter.
"The idea of a "god" creating the Universe is a mechanistic absurdity clearly derived from the making of machines by men." Fred Hoyle
"Your book of myths is about as much use as a fishnet condom is for birth control." Cali