Holly Twilightly?

[cyrano]

Had a date with a new person which went very well. But oddly enough that's not what I'm here to ask you about.

I was thinking, on the drive home, and wondering if there's been a similar religious reaction to the Twilight books as there was to Harry Potter. I mean, there's necrophilic themes, paedophilic themes, and bestiality--I don't know if vampires in the Meyer books have souls or not. But I haven't seen that level of concern. Maybe because people feel they're written for twelve year olds rather than eight year olds?

You may consider this an IFIAYAQD! entry.

Comments

[mnarra.livejournal.com]

Why hasn't there been a Christian outcry? I quote almighty Wikipedia:

Meyer says that she does not consciously intend her novels to be Mormon-influenced, or to promote the virtues of sexual abstinence and spiritual purity, but admits that her writing is shaped by her values, saying, "I don't think my books are going to be really graphic or dark, because of who I am. There's always going to be a lot of light in my stories."

You don't burn the witch if she's shilling for your particular sideshow. You do, however, burn the guy mixing his metaphors.

[roseneko.livejournal.com]

That's a very good point. I'd add (from my slightly-bitter-feminist standpoint) that while the Harry Potter series contains a number of female characters who break out of "accepted" norms of storybook femininity (Hermione is, in the books at least, not-classically-pretty as well as intelligent and driven, and even domestically-oriented Molly Weasley shows ferocity in defending her family), Twilight's Bella behaves almost exactly as the more conservative sector would have her do: sitting around passively, constantly cutting herself down mentally, maintaining her 'purity' ('cos that's where her entire value lies, donchaknow), letting her boyfriends simultaneously put her on a pedestal and infantilize her. Which, considering the hilariously dysfunctional relationships that result in the books (I understand that Eclipse, at least, parts ways drastically), should really serve as its own argument against such behavior, and yet somehow taps into some cultural fantasy girls are prone to.

This convoluted and overcomplex posting brought to you by the Parenthesis and his good buddy the Hyphen. (If they're good enough for Virginia Woolf...)

[technocowboy.livejournal.com]

This. This right here. Of course they're not going to object to vampires if those vampires are Mormon. That's why the rest of us are offended.

There was a tweet making the rounds yesterday that made me laugh: Dear Confused Teen Girls: someone who sparkles and won't have sex with you isn't a vampire; it's a gay guy.

[jkusters]

It might also have something to do with what Christians know/believe to be real and what they know/believe to be unreal. Christians believe in witches. They're in the Bible after all. And they believe that witches are naturally evil. The Harry Potter books are full of witches (and, to their mind, the male equivalent: warlocks). Worse, they're full of CHILDREN becoming witches and warlocks, practically teaching spells in the books. Since witches are REAL to their minds, the Harry Potter books are recruitment tools for the devil.

Christians, as far as I can tell, don't generally believe in werewolves and vampires. Those are safely in the realm of fantasy. They aren't mentioned in the Bible, so they can't be real. Since they're not in the Bible, their children are not in mortal danger of becoming one (no matter how much they may wish to). Therefore the books are "safe".

[lil-m-moses.livejournal.com]

That was my thinking. Along with the whole "written by a Mormon so it must be OK" thing.

[technocowboy.livejournal.com]

Christians believe in witches. They're in the Bible after all.

Well, to be fair, they've only been in the Bible since the early 1600s when King James decided to use his red pen and do some editing. Up until then, the line read more along the lines of "Thou shalt not suffer a poisoner to live."

[jkusters]

Oh, totally. But for most of the Christians who make a fuss over Harry Potter, the King James version is the only version, all others are wrong. They're kinda scary that way...

"If English was good enough for Jesus, it’s good enough for Texas schoolchildren” (Attributed to Texas Governor "Ma" Ferguson)

[phillipalden.livejournal.com]

I think the religious crazies came out in protest during the first "Twilight" film, but I suspect they're mostly busy going to Tea Party marches and hating Obama.