Twilight - Stephanie Meyer

My shoulders are aching from an exercise class I probably shouldn’t have gone to, as I have a cold so I’m feeling a little under power. I knew I would have to go to work tomorrow, no matter how unenthusiastic I was, because we have an event this week, as well as a few mailout lists that need intensive cleaning. I was damned if I was going to pull myself out of bed to go to work, but miss doing something I wanted to so I went to BodyPump where I burned some calories, finally got my continual clean and press in shape, but didn’t come away with the same kind of mood lifting energy rush I usual get from exercising.

Due to tiredness this post on ‘Twilight’ will be more of a collection of thoughts than a fully structured review. I want to get something down because next week is going to be busy, with a work event and getting ready for my holiday…blah, blah – I’ll get to the book now shall I? I’m sure you all know the basic outline of Bella’s relationship with the dashing Edward Cullen so I’ll just jump right in.

I can easily appreciate what generated some of litlove’s comments about Edward being a symbolic, vampiric mother figure. He’s generally over protective because he can’t bear to think of losing Bella, and there are quite a lot of references to him picking her up ‘like a toddler’, or similar. It was all pretty squincky stuff, especially when the entire vampire clan start to treat her like a child, picking her up and carrying her close to their bodies like an infant. So despite being mildly disturbed by that kind of literary analysis, I have to say that psychological criticism once again proves to be convincingly applicable to the vampire genre.

One aspect of the book made me sharpen my analysing claws and that was what happened when Edward and Bella’s relationship started to move towards sex. I’m used to seeing vampires used as a symbol for sexuality, usually sexuality that is deemed unacceptable by the human society the vampires operate in. The vampire is often a tool for releasing this sexuality, for example in ‘Dracula’ Lucy is bitten by the vampire and transformed into a ‘lascivious’ creature, illustrating the release of female sexuality. The men around her find the undead Lucy monstrous and part of their fear of her seems to stem from her new, prominent physicality. Dracula has released the sexuality which was repressed by society. Similarly Anne Rice’s characters become more open to homosexuality and sex with different partners once changed into vampires. In ‘Twilight’ Meyer creates a main vampire who subverts this idea. Edward does not drink blood, an abstinence which translates into and actually necessitates sexual abstinence in his relationship with Bella. He can never become too intimate with her, or it is possible that his excitement will overcome his self control and he will gorge himself on her blood.

Now obviously this is depressing. There’s a thrill to the build up to sex, the anticipation, but if it’s a physical impossibility then all romantic frisson would be crushed out of the book. So Meyer has Edward continually push the boundaries, testing himself by trying out some very sexy experiments in touch and smell that keep the romantic tension alive. However, when Bella makes a move on him everything has to stop. There’s this awful scene where Bella reacts to Edward’s kisses by putting her hand in his hair, which he apparently can’t handle, and the language used to explain how wrong this reaction is actually shocked me with its blatant belief that girls who show any enjoyment with their boyfriends are wicked temptresses. Bella berates herself for her inability to stay perfectly still while Edward kisses her – lie back and think of Forks much? Edward constantly explains to her how tempting she is, not just to him but to the tracker vampire who wants to hunt and kill her. Bella, he implies, is pretty much asking to be eaten. It is only Edward’s strong self-control that keeps her from being devoured. In effect the book endorses the ‘She was asking for it’ school of justification for sexual attacks while distancing itself from any mention of sex by encouraging abstinence. There’s a warped message in the book that links sexual exploration with disastrous consequences, and promotes the repression of full female sexuality while still including enough permissible exploration, like kissing to thrill readers. It’s an interesting hypocrisy to imply that readers should be afraid of the consequences of sex, should avoid sex and yet encourage them to revel in the romance and exploration of the main characters’ relationship.

Some might say Meyer has created a realistic portrayal of how teenage girls feel about sex, both afraid and yet curious but it isn’t Bella who is afraid of what sex might lead to, it’s Edward who feels she must be protected from the possible consequences of sex. Meyer is obviously hoping readers will see this as gentlemanly conduct, or a reasonable overreaction considering that Edward sees humans as frail creatures. I wanted Bella to slap his face every time he told her she was making it hard for him to keep control.

Steven King recently said something to the effect that Meyer is so popular because she has given teenage girls an idealised form of romance where anticipation is all and the scary, physical side is taken away. I’m not sure the majority of teenage girls would be grateful for that, there are plenty of books around already where the girl doesn’t get it on. Don’t curious teenager girls getting bitch slapped by their hormones really want books that encourage them to explore what they’re feeling safely through fictional characters? If Edward is always pulling away then these readers can not work through their feelings about sex, they merely see any fears they have reflected back at them. I think we have to look a little deeper (and a little shallower as well) for reasons behind this book’s popularity.

Despite the massive rant you see above, and despite the seriously overloaded writing style I did like the book. I love the anticipation aspect at the beginning of a love affair so for me this book was full of toe curling, romantic junk food. Edward Cullen is a sexy hero of the Mr Rochester variety (you know he locked his wife in an attic and in real life you wouldn’t touch him, but for many reasons he and Jane work as a couple). Perversely I really liked that Bella didn’t make fantastic friends right away when she moves to Forks, which seemed realistic. Of course as a plot device it means she can devote her every hour to Edward, which I predict will become more annoying in the next book. I enjoyed hanging out in Bellas mind most of the time, although she isn’t the most natural sounding narrator I’ve come across in my very short experience of reading young adult books. I liked the vampire’s backstory and that they were full of energy and personality, despite being undead. As a supernatural romance it had plenty of good elements, as a message book it was problematic.

I’m reasonably sure I’ll read the next one, where I hope to see lots of the supporting characters get bigger parts, particularly Alice and Charlie. I want to see much more of the vampire couples to work out how their relationships fit into Myer’s ideas on sexuality. Oh and I want to see Edward Cullen do that cheek stroking thing again, and again, and again…

So that's the second book completed for 'What's in a Name' (2), one for the vampire challenge and I decided to count this as the third book I've read for the YA Challenge, although it's not on my original list.

Random Areas of Exploration

As much as I love Steven King’s writing his comment about how Edward’s touches are ‘a shorthand for all the feelings that [girls are] not ready to deal with yet.’ may lead to some acid examining at a later date.