Twilight: turning our kids into (gasp!) MORMONS!

Ok, maybe it's not that bad, Mormons are no more or less evil than any other heretical Protestant sect but, I found this article interesting and thought I would share it with the ATS community.

I found this ineresting article about how the author of the incredibly boring (IMO) Twilight book/movie series incorporated many parts of her Mormon faith into the books.

Twilight Breakdown: 'Girl Porn' and the Books of Mormon

Twilight author Stephenie Meyer is widely known to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS), and openly acknowledges that her faith has had an impact on the books. “Unconsciously, I put a lot of my basic beliefs into the story," she has said.

However, some of those familiar with the LDS faith have found other elements in the books that may not necessarily align with Christian sensibilities. Laura Stone, an ex-Mormon who claims to be "from one of the older Mormon families," published an analysis of the books from her perspective in 2008, one that she told LifeSiteNews.com she continues to stand by.

To begin with, Stone pointed out several superficial elements in Twilight that she says clearly correspond to the LDS faith. These include the description of Edward Cullen, which she said matches the mythical description of church founder Joseph Smith "down to his nose and hair color," as well as the series' overarching juxtaposition of a "dark" race of werewolves ("Lamanites" in Mormon legend) that fight an epic battle with the "white" race of vampires ("Nephites"). Bella's journey of "conversion" to vampirism corresponds to the goal of winning "eternal life" by embracing the Mormon faith and overcoming - in a sense - the "natural man" that stands in the way of heavenly perfection.

In addition, Stone even points to the presence of an authoritarian, hierarchical race of enemy vampires who are based in Italy and "enforce the code of conduct that pass for the morals of their world" - the Volturi - as closely corresponding to the Mormon attitude toward Catholics. Thematically, Stone points to the series' emphasis on personal "perfection," and the predestination of couples as having pre-selected each other for a literally eternal bond, as two themes directly correlating with Mormon sensibilities.

This latter element is carried to a somewhat disturbing degree in the case of the werewolves' "imprinting," whereby one detects and essentially becomes obsessed with a future spouse no matter the age difference - resulting in grown men "imprinting" on the smallest of children. The predestination theme also appears to serve as justification for a relationship between the two lead characters that, in real life, would amount to a case of a very jealous man absorbing the life of his willing love interest. This glorification of jealousy could prove very dangerous to young girls who have not been strongly warned against such obsessions in real-life men.

But perhaps the most salient critique is that, according to Stone, the books’ treatment of the subject of sexuality and romance corresponds to a sort of false chastity or obsessive attitude towards sex that she claims exists in the LDS community: an undercurrent to the overly puritanical standards of modesty adhered to by LDS members.

Thus this false idea of chastity contributes significantly to the series' "girl porn" effect, despite the lack of actual sex - something that might not be apparent to men, but is all too clear to women. Touted for promoting chastity, the books in fact offer a combo of emotional titillation and steamy sexual near-misses, all bound together with a steady undercurrent of rape fantasy, that is deadly for women. These elements, as in sex-laden romantic novels, are geared toward over-stimulating female emotions and sending women hurtling towards an unhealthy escapism. Instead of the selfish male ideal of regular pornography, i.e., the perfect-bodied female delivering the ultimate sexual climax, women reading Twilight can find themselves craving a different and equally selfish fantasy: the perfectly "intense" male delivering the ultimate emotional climax.

Read more: Life Site News

I love that last part about how the promotion of chastity in the movie is really girl porn designed to bring women to the "ultimate emotional climax."


My wife brought home the movie and I sat through about 20 minutes of it before I got so dang bored, I went and found a book to read in the other room (No, it was NOT a Twilight book).

I can't really comment on this article so I was wondering what some of you ATSers out there who may have more experience with these books/movies have to say about this analysis.



[edit on 7/22/10 by FortAnthem]

Everyone knows the books are better than the movies. I read the article and it is ridiculous. It paints young Mormons as constantly on the brink of sexual frenzy. Good grief. Also, from my experience the subject of sex is not "constantly talked about" in church and church-related classes and activities.

I enjoyed the books, and if Stephenie Meyer put a lot of her basic beliefs into the story, then she certainly isn't the first one.

I knew there was a reason I dislike this series.

I used to be Mormon, yikes!

I usually can smell their fish, this was an exceptional case! I give the author +5 internets for being able to hide LDSism from me!

(I still say the stories stink though. )

(I prefer Narnia for my Christian fix.)

I enjoyed the books, though I definitely wouldn't call them a great literary work, just an amusing, easy read. The movies suck compared to the books, and the books got progressively worse. I mean, getting pregnant and having a kid?! With no real fight in the end?! That sucks!!!

Some of Stones observations seem like shes grasping. You could find references to a certain religion in anything. For example, you could find examples that pointed to an Islamic religion in that book too if you wanted to. I'm not worried about there being a sudden influx LDS converts just because of this series.

Ugh! I'll step up and defend the faith, as it were. Not that I am a terribly religious person atm, but hey, I still claim LDS so here goes:

Sooooooooo...Some jaded random woman with no other credential than "once was Mormon somehow got a podium to rail against the LDS church? As for her "old family" connections...what the hell does that have to do with anything?! Old families and young families have good folks and bad folks come from them. That's not a credential, it's well...nothing, presented as a credential.

As for the meat of her critique: 90% ridiculous. She is just shotgunning ideas onto a barn wall. Argh I don't even want to delve into specifics, cause she really is so lame...

Every story has a main character. Just because she chose a young man with brown hair and a big nose in no way means that she modeled the character on Joseph Smith. If she did it on purpose she's retarded too.

Every story has good guys and bad guys. For the record, the Book of Mormon does chronicle two lineages, the Nephites and Lamanites. But throughout the course of the history each society wavered between being the good guy and being the bad guy. In the end...the Nephites became so bad they were destroyed. Hmmm...so much for that whole analogy.

Bella's journey of conversion...WTH? Really? It's a teenie vampire story. So if Adam Sandler was mormon then Happy Gilmore's journey to become a golf pro would correspond to his faith? Again, Ms. Stone is retarded.

The Catholic thing. I really don't know what she is talking about there. I was born and raised, 38yo now, and I have never ever heard negative talk in church about any other religion. Period. It just isn't done. Someone's starting to really make some shizzit up now...

Marriage predestination is obliviously a subject Ms. Stone slept through or something. There's no "Ohhh I just know someday we are destined to be married, it's God's will!" in the LDS church. We believe that there is someone out there we were meant to be with (pretty much like everyone else) but we have our free agency in life...we can easily miss that person for a plethora of reason. So really the imprinting analogy is just whack.

Now for the 10% I might agree with. As for the sexual overtones, yes. Trying to be chaste in a society like ours is really really hard for kids to do. Is it a bad thing to do? No. Do lots of kids fall short? Yes. They're human.
But of course, any good writer targeting teenage girls for an audience will understand the sex/emotion/love web of adolescence, and play it for all it's worth.

That's just my two cents worth, I just think she's looking for stuff to call connections just to yell at the LDS church. Nothing new though, we are used to it

reply to post by blamethegreys


Another Idahoan! Your the second one I've ever seen on ATS (I'm from around Boise)

Since your LDS, I just have a few ?'s for you if you don't mind answering. Have you read the books, and around how old are you? Are you a strict Mormon or a "jack-Mormon" ?(if your from ID you should know what that means! ) And what does the LDS church think about the series? I'm Agnostic, but I have insanely religious relatives that think the Twilight and Harry Potter series are the devil.

Originally posted by FortAnthem
...These include the description of Edward Cullen, which she said matches the mythical description of church founder Joseph Smith "down to his nose and hair color,"

Who needs a "mythical description? There are photos of Smith on Google!

SHAME --------SHAME ------------SHAME ON YOU !

Just like Glenn Beck said, first you will attack us a Racists then you will attack our Religion;

It is so easy to see right through you that I am surprised that you even make an attempt but then why not if you cannot discern right from wrong or good from evil then you most likely cannot stand to see anyone else believing in thoses things and you are soooooooooo jealous.

I feel sorry for you..........KMG

Well, the article does have a point. I can't really say from a LDS perspective because I no very little about it, but its nice to see all the little fanbois come out to defend the book. *rolls eyes*
What I can't understand is how so few people her on ATS can't see straight through the book. Even Robert Pattinson can see the problems with the book. In other interviews he has called Smeyer mad and and sick.

Starting at 1:44

I could do a whole thing on the conspiracy of twilight and why all these fans love a poorly written book, yes it is poorly written, abusive stalker boyfriends and would be rapist wolf friends. Only problem is the fans. They are scary! It makes one wonder what the book has done to these peoples minds.

Kind of retarded and pointless...
A woman who happens to write a couple books about her fetish about having a 3 way with a goth Vampire and a dog werewolf. While the vampire fetish is pretty normal for any girl 13-15 it is kind of strange for a middle aged woman. The only one that comes to mind was Roderick Ferrell's mother but even she was going after a 14 year old boy. But nevermind all that, she is mormon get over it. Im sure if they made the god delusion or the bible into a movie and got Robert Pattinson to star in it (or any current teenage heart throb) it would do equally well and im sure everyone would complain about the authors. OMG Stephen King is a christian, does that mean The Shawshank Redemption is trying to convert people?
I think the scarry thing is that today childrens' books are becoming soooo popular Harry Potter and twilight are the best sellers and it is sad...

[edit on 23-7-2010 by zaiger]

The difference between twilight and harry potter though is that J.K. Rowlings had talent and was written well enough to be understood by children but complex enough for mature thinking minds. Why any intelligent adult could stand reading pat the first chapter of twilight is beyond me.

reply to post by calstorm


JK Rowling stole her harry potter idea from another author whose character is named "Larry Potter" google it, she stole literally everything, so I don't think she's that good.

Then again Twilight reads like a fanfic, a bad bad one

[edit on 23-7-2010 by JJBB22]

reply to post by blamethegreys


Thanks for your reply, it's always good to see someone standing up for their religion.


Like I said in the OP, I don't know much about the Twilight books or movies and I probably know even less about Mormon beliefs. I posted this story to get feedback from those who know something about the subject matter.

I thought the claims in the article were pretty over the top and I'm glad you chimed in to clear those things up.

I still think it's pretty funny how the article makes the whole chastity thing into some type of girl porn.

Have any of you wonder how twilight worked?
theoatmeal.com...

reply to post by Romantic_Rebel


That's awesome!

Here's the video version for the reading impaired:




Edit to add: here's a version ov the movie even guys may be able to stomach (just barely):




And here's the 2nd movie:



[edit on 7/23/10 by FortAnthem]

never read the books but saw the movies and the first one i thought was pretty good, the second one not so much and the third one was the worst of all.

if you told a teen that twilight glorified necrophilia and beastiality they'd be 'like ewwwwww grosss' but really, isn't that basically what it's about?

a dead guy and a dog!

maybe i'm the sick one for seeing it that way.

J. K Rowling is not a great author. Good imagination, maybe. Even then she ripped off:

Well, Blatantly the Wizard's Hall by Jane Yolen.

Yolen has criticized the Harry Potter series. This is based on the similarities of the series with Wizard's Hall, published eight years before the first Harry Potter book.

“ I read the first three. The fourth one stopped me in my tracks, partially because even though the story moves along, I just don't feel like they're well written. Besides, I wrote a book called Wizard's Hall. And there's an awful lot of Wizard's Hall in it. I always tell people that if Ms. Rowling would like to cut me a very large check, I would cash it. [Wizard's Hall] has got a boy named Henry [who] goes to wizard school, doesn't think he has talent. He has a good friend with red hair. There's a wicked wizard who's trying to destroy the school, and the pictures on the wall move and speak and change. I have kids who write to me all the time and say, "I thought you had stolen Harry Potter, but my teacher pointed out that you published it eight years before Harry Potter."

wiki


She blatantly rips off star wars.
The legend of Arthur
The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe



But what makes these books successful? Not because they are well written, or can rate with the classics. Best sellers don't necessarily equate with wonderful writing.

It is about timing, marketing, and selling power. Why do you see so many books to movies these days?

Publishers sell what makes money. They are not worried about what is great writing. hundreds of thousands of books come out each year, how many of you heard of?


So what if she put religious ideals in there. A lot of authors put their own ideals in their books.

what makes the books appealing to readers is that it is about abstinance. Two teens trying to work out forbidden love. Resisting temptations.
Waiting for what is important.

Is that really such a bad message for today's microwave society?

reply to post by State of Mind


Hi! Sorry to not get back sooner, been busy. So no I haven't read the books, and I'm 37. I'm a jack mormon I suppose (I moved to Idaho 6 years ago from California, honestly these retarded Idaho Mormons are what's keeping me away!:lol
I really don't know how the natives here feel about the books, but I think they are cool with em for the most part. The church as a whole rarely ever comments or states positions on cultural news. The one time in particular they did was when The Passion of the Christ came out, and simply stated that the church felt that it was not an uplifting or worthwhile (or something to that extent).

reply to post by calstorm


I hope you weren't calling me a fanboi

I'm old, with kids, and was simply posting a rebuttal to some silly accusations. As for twilight, I think it is a steamy pile of poo. Gimme True Blood any day of the week!

Just to be clear, are you thinking that the author was including Mormon allusions deliberately?

Maybe as an effort to subtly proselytize to a mainstream audience?

Eric