Welcome to "a penny for your thoughts"
My hope for this blog is to bring a new perspective to a variety of topics,
from movie and book reviews to recent news stories in order to reveal beauty, truth, and goodness within each.
The topic I would like to start with is the book series of Twilight by Stephenie Meyer.
Twilight follows the life of a teenage girl named Bella and her romance with vampire Edward. When I first heard about the series, I thought to myself that I would not read it.
But then a friend of mine brought it up months later, and before I could state my ill feelings and assumptions, he began to pitch the novel as a parallel to practicing chastity.
I was caught off guard. This book which was allegdely a teenage girl romance tale was now being proponed by a college guy as a good example of virtue. Hmmm.
The way my friend explained it is that Edward, the vampire, has to protect Bella from himself, from his desires. She is literally endangered by him, and so he must exercise great self control. My friend suggested that it reveals the "vampire in us all" - how we must approach our desires with self mastery and prudence.
Now, after having read the series, I have a few responses.
1. Meyer is Mormon, and this is important because many of the themes are depicted in the Morman thought- something to be aware of.
2. There are some great themes of chastity as well as sacrifice, society, and free will to name a few.
3. It is not well written. The style seems unedited, with much superfluous details and redundancies. Meyer settles for being sensational instead of profound; she didn't take many risks. Many of the scenes read like a soap opera: very dramatic and emotional vs. reasonable. Being in the fantasy genre, it's important to respect the suspence of belief.
4. But the content, the idea of the Twilight series, was the compelling force behind my continued reading. I was hopeful and curious as to where Meyer would take her story, though as of right now, I cannot say she left me satisfied.
So now is your turn. What do you think? What have you heard? What makes a book worth while?
Very good! Although the beginning was rather mechanical, the total article was appealing. Before, I thought Twilight was just a “chick flick,” but now I am somewhat interested. I liked the points you made and how you honestly critiqued the book. Nicely done.
ReplyDeleteFirst off, I'd like to say that I appreciate what you're trying to do...it can be tough to find beauty in everything, especially in Hollywood, Bestsellers, and biased media stories. That's not to say that it's not present, but it is almost always mixed and twisted, especially in the more popular examples from these genres. Distilling and untwisting requires both intelligence and purity to see both clearly and charitably. I defintely couldn't do it.
ReplyDeleteIf I want to learn about chastity, sacrifice, society, and free will, I don't want to waste my time seeking for the truth and beauty within the book--I would much rather spend my time seeking a book that only presents a clear and distilled truth. The opportunity cost of reading all the fantasy is too high because the more I read, the longer my "to read" list gets...not shorter.
This is not to say that fantasy, or fiction for that matter, holds no value for someone seeking virtue. On the contrary, books on the whole--even fantasies--are more valuable than most movies and TV shows because they are merely entertainment, not requiring thought.
Back to the point though, fiction is still valuable because it influences the way people think and can be a springboard for a good conversation, (as evidenced by this book) which I believe is the defining factor for a good book. Worth while books spur worth while conversations. They force the reader and those people they converse with to think abstractly, if only to imagine how the scenario actually took place--movies and the TV tend to eliminate even this function of our rational brains.
However, in my experience, nonfiction books do the same and oftentimes to an even greater extent. I also think there is a certain beauty in knowledge of actual events rather than just a familiarity with the wanderings of another's imagination.
But the very best books are those that explain these very important topics from a point of faith. Not only can these instigate conversations with others, they have also been known to give rise to conversations with God. Since prayer is the height of man's existence, reflections of beauty and truth come best from these sources. Fortunately, books such as these are in abundance thanks to the great saints and spiritual writers who came before us.
So, if you want to examine subjects such as those you proposed, look to books that truly contemplate them in light of your faith because your time truly is valuable. If you want to tackle non-religious subjects, choose non-fiction or fiction. And if you truly desire base and thoughtless entertainment, buy a bigger plasma TV.
Which Mormon views did you find in Twilight?
ReplyDeleteI definitely found the article interesting and very good to know. I agree with what you’re saying because I read the first book and I want to know the rest of the story. The best thing that this author did was finish the book at a point were I wanted to know more. I wish I could have felt satisfied at the end of the book. Maybe she should have condensed all for books into one good one.
ReplyDeleteI do want more in a book that book gave me to work with. I tried to dig deeper to find the "hidden meaning," but I couldn't find one. What I was really thrown by the quote just before the start of the book. It said, “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” Genesis 2:17. I read that quote and I assumed that the book had a basic religious meaning, but I couldn’t find one. Was I missing it, or is it Mormon theology that I didn’t catch?
The Mormon docterine that I found most evident is their concept of eternity. First they believe that Men will become like gods of their own universe after death and their wife (wives) will only find salvation through their marrige to a man. Bella's attachment to Edward, and the way the series ends "happily ever after" with no real conclusion, just with everyone together, forever, reveals threads throughout the books. There is no transcendent good. Christian marriage looks beyond as a personal metaphor to Christ, to God. There is no greater good beyond Edward or beyond Bella. Not to say that there are no good themes. The Genesis quote, I would suggest, reflect the tension between our instincts and our hearts, man's tendency to sin (which the Cullans fight by retaining a "vegetarian" diet, and Edward fights as he protects Bella from himself).
ReplyDelete