Posted on 06/24/2010 11:10:11 AM PDT by Colofornian
Los Angeles • Ever since Bram Stoker’s Dracula began haunting the imagination in 1897, popular culture has identified Christian symbols — crucifixes, holy water, communion wafers — as weapons to ward off a blood-thirsty vampire.
The Twilight novels and film franchise have religious associations, too — most of them from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
As the film’s “Twi-hard” fans get ready for the third “Twilight” installment, “Eclipse,” to open in theaters Wednesday, few are likely to recognize the religious references in the film based on the novels by Stephenie Meyer, herself a Mormon.
“People make up all these Mormon references just so they can publish ‘Twilight’ articles in respectable publications like The New York Times,” actor Robert Pattinson (Edward, the film’s central vampire character), told Entertainment Weekly. “Even Stephenie said it doesn’t mean any of that.”
It’s possible that Meyer never set out to weave LDS imagery into the ‘Twilight’ background. Yet intentional or otherwise, it’s hard to ignore:
• The story’s teenage heroine, Bella, avoids coffee, tea, alcohol and tobacco — not unlike the Mormons’ “Word of Wisdom” health code. Bella also advises her father to “cut back on steak,” much like the LDS teaching to eat meat and poultry “sparingly.”
• Feminists have questioned Bella’s frequent cooking and cleaning — household chores that reflect a strong Mormon work ethic and traditional roles for women. The official motto for mostly Mormon Utah is “Industry,” and its symbol is the beehive.
• A crucial Mormon belief is that humans can become divine. In the “Twilight” series, the Cullen family of vampires once was human but now lives without death in a resurrected condition. Meyer describes the Cullens, particularly Edward, as “godlike” and “inhumanly beautiful.”
• Mormons believe angels are resurrected beings of flesh and bone. The most familiar is Moroni, who stands high atop LDS temples, trumpet in hand. The Book of Mormon, the faith’s trademark Scripture, says Moroni was a fifth-century prophet who visited church founder Joseph Smith. Smith described Moroni as radiating light and “glorious beyond description.”
Bella describes her vampire boyfriend, Edward, as an angel whom she cannot imagine “any more glorious.” Edward’s skin sparkles in the sunlight, and he visits Bella’s bedroom at night. But Mormon angels don’t have wings; in the “Twilight” film, Edward sits in the science lab, the outstretched wings of a stuffed white owl just over his shoulders.
• A unique LDS teaching is that marriages are “sealed” for eternity; spouses are referred to as eternal companions. Bella describes her relationship with Edward as “forever.”
• Bella and Edward’s marriage, and her quick pregnancy, underscore the Mormon emphasis on the family. But Bella’s half human/vampire fetus nearly destroys her, so her distraught husband suggests an abortion and artificial insemination. Mormons permit abortions if the mother’s life is in danger, and artificial insemination is an option for married couples.
Bella quickly vetoes abortion and artificial insemination, reinforcing the essential Mormon teaching of individual choice, or “agency.” Meyer has said that the apple on the cover of the first Twilight novel represents Eve’s choice in the Garden of Eden. The poster for “Eclipse” includes the line: “It all begins ... with a choice.” The patriarch of the vampire family, Carlisle Cullen, supports Bella when he explains that “it wouldn’t be right to make such a choice for her, to force her.”
Bram Stoker probably never imagined that vampires would represent a religious doctrine. But more than a century later, Twilight shows that these nocturnal creatures can accommodate just about anything.
Angela Aleiss teaches film and religion at the University of California, Los Angeles.
LOL
(Well, I'm just glad we're not trusting in your omniscience:
JWs
More JWs
and: Still More JWs)
...& that doesn't count a December '09 thread and anything pre-'09...
get a life
(Are you dictating how I should live on a Web site called "Free" Republic? My, good job showing irony)
Beyond that, have you given this "sage" advice to the billion of man-hours wasted by Mormons trying to track down dead people to baptize? Have you told the Lds church it should "cut back" on its 52,000 missionaries so that these 18 and 19 yo and 20 yo young men can actually have "a life" beyond spending 70-hour weeks for two years knocking on doors? (No?)
...you are putting out false info...
(Didn't your parents or school teachers ever teach you that if you're going to criticize to be specific? Otherwise, if you ever become a parent, were you ever to try to "rein in" an erring child in need of discipline, if you simply accused the child of deception and lying -- but never expressed the exact nature of that accusation...you might have a befuddled, confused "Jr." who never knew exactly what if anything he was being disciplined for).
Only three posts since you joined in 2008. All three defending Mormonims (poorly).
Did they teach you to read and write in Primary Angrymanatlibs?
“All vampire mythology has vampires living forever with incredible beauty.”
I would say that is true with most modern versions of vampires in the media. But Max Schreck as Nosferatu isn’t exactly a heart throb. And if you look at the eastern europe myths about vampires I think you will find a lot of variance with the modern vampire ideal.
As far as the incredible looks of the twilight vamps, I reckon it has more to do with attracting young girl readers in volume than any LDS stuff. Just like they made the aliens in the movie Avatar graceful cool looking cat people instead of ugly tentacled blob-beasts.
Freegards
/src on/Do Mormons believe a thirst for blood is part of being in a “resurrected condition”?/src off/
- - - - - -
Actrually, in a way they do...I’m serious. God requires YOUR blood to pay for certain sins. The Blood of Christ doesn’t cover them...
apostasy....
murder....
adultery...
marrying a negro...
Just sayin...
GMTA, again.
Meyer's characters re: 'where they come from': Mormons claim they always "have been" -- that people are in one sense "uncreated"...Here, I'll let Joey Smith lay it out for himself in Lds "scripture":
"Man was also in the beginning with God.
Intelligence...was not created or made, neither indeed can be...
For man is spirit. The elements are eternal, and spirit and element, inseparably connected..." (Mormon "scripture" -- Doctrine & Covenants 93:29, 33)
There ya go: Mormon intelligences, Mormon spirits go back to eternity past as much as their god does (so they say)...which doesn't explain why then they needed to be born as a spirit by a Mom-goddess in the pre-existence if they already were...but why should anything about Mormonism make sense, knowing its true source?
...and where they are going...
Lds general authorities for decades have been labeling their followers as "gods-in-embryo." So where are they going? Why, they're growin' up to be gods!!!
12th "prophet" of the Mormon church, Spencer W. Kimball: "Brethren, 225,000 of you are here tonight. I suppose that 225,000 of you may become gods" ( The Ensign, November 1975, 1980).
No wonder the Twilight storyline includes a character who's becoming a "god."
Wonderful.
Well, that's just it. Both Hubbard and Joseph Smith learned they could write novels (Hubbard, sci-fi; Smith, psuedo-"historical") in a "reality-TV" kind of way before "Reality TV" was fully launched as a concept.
IOW, all Scientology is -- is established fiction tinged with a religious worldview underneath it all...
Smith did the same thing with Mormonism. Whereas Hubbard's trial run for Scientology was his sci-fi novels, Smith's occurred during his upper teen years as he would use the traditional story-telling route of his day -- tall tales!
If Mormons don't believe me, all they have to do is read this excerpt from Joseph's mother, Lucy Mack Smith, re: what she said about her then 17 yo son, Joseph Smith, Junior:
"During our evening conversations, Joseph would occasionally give us some of the most amusing recitals that could be imagined. He would describe the ancient inhabitants of the continent, their dress, mode of traveling, and the animals upon which they rode; their cities, their buildings, with every particular; their mode of warfare; and also their religious worship. This he would do with as much ease, seemingly, as if he had spent his whole life among them. On the twenty-second of September, 1824, Joseph again visited the place where he found the plates the year previous; and supporting at this time that the only thing required, in order to possess them until the time for their translation, was to be able to keep the commandments of God...he fully expected to carry them home with him. (Lucy Mack Smith, edited by Preston Nibley, History of Joseph Smith, p. 83, Bookcraft, Salt Lake City, 1958)
What Mormons might miss in this account is that Lucy Mack Smith was saying Joseph gave these storied details before he ever even "interpreted" these gold plates! A lot of it was already there -- in his active, imaginitive mind!
Even in today's Mormon Times, a Mormon apologist (Peterson) doesn't frown on this quote from a Mormon author about the potential fictional characters created by Smith in the Book of Mormon:
"It does not matter much to my approach whether these narrators were actual historical figures or whether they were fictional characters created by Joseph Smith; their role in the narrative is the same in either case. After all, narrative is a mode of communication employed by both historians and novelists." Source: Daniel C. Peterson: 'Understanding the Book of Mormon: A Reader's Guide'
So even Lds authors are conceding Smith's work may have been fictional in full or in part...and are saying, "What does it matter?"
Make that two.
(Well, how else will he learn subtraction if only occasional addition is practiced?)
Thanks. There is a time and a place to debate Mormonism vs Christianity or any other religion. I just dont like it when people on this site use logical fallacies and guilt by association to argue religion.
If you could make the viking kitties fight the huge manatee, I would definitely watch your movie.
Pretty much every vampire movie or tv show Ive seen, the vampire lives forever. That is godlike. The author didnt same vampires become gods, but that they become godlike. They have supernatural powers and enhanced physical abilities. Unless you are arguing that the vampie in Twilight is destined to become a god again, then you are not making the point you think you are.
It mattereth not.
Totally missed what I said. I said teen girls talk about how dreamy and gorgeous the QB is. That is part of adolescence, not some mind trick by Mormons.
Oh no, a teenager with no social constraints visits a girl in her bedroom. The only possible reason the writer could have put that in is because she is Mormon. Has nothing to do with real life teenage boys sneaking over to their girlfriends house.
And again, you fail to address my criticism, that a logical fallacy was made in the article.
Your reply doesnt refute what I said. Try again.
But if you look hard enough, with the right glasses, you will see that all bad things have some sort of Mormon influence.
Nice deflection. Youve gotten good at the game dems use with Bush. “I may have stolen, but Bush was slow in Katrina. Therefore, ignore my sins.”
Why are you afraid to answer the accusation of obsession without having some caveat about how bad Mormons are.
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