Who wants to do the Bible study based on Twilight?

[BravaAmica]

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/11/1 ... ?hpt=hp_c2

Yes, there's a Bible study based on poorly written YA paranormal romance. I wonder if the author of the study paid for the use of the copyrighted material?

[alba]

There are a lot of Christian themes in Twilight, in fairness (ETA: I mean, the author's Mormon, and it really shows). The one I never understood was that Edward refused to turn Bella into a vampire before marrying her, and was afraid to have sex with her before then because it could be dangerous. OK, so far it kind of makes sense. He doesn't want to turn her before they marry, which might seem weird to some modern readers who don't place a high value on marriage, but then he was born in 1900 so the traditional view of marriage fits.

They then proceed to have lots of hot vampire sex on their honeymoon, when Bella's still a human. Apparently sex with a vampire is only life-threatening if you're not already married. But wait! Bella gets lots of bruises and a pregnancy that nearly kills her.

[xDreamerx]

Also, the cover art to the first novel kind of alludes to Eve and the apple story (Thanks Milton ;)). Bella is a fairly passive character who centers her entirely life around Edward and when he leaves her she nearly kills herself. If you ask me Bella is very antifeminist.

[mirele]

Bella's life, I hate to say it, is the one that is presented as normative to Mormon girls. That life is: "I am nothing without a man." (Actually, it's worse than that, it's "I can't get to the highest level of heaven without a man.") And so she puts up with all sorts of stalkerish shit, and even getting the crap beaten out of her during *sex* on her *honeymoon*, because Edward is her eternal intended. The whole thing just makes me want to barf. I don't have children, but if I did, I'd be saying, let's have a looong chat about these books and how they don't reflect reality. Except for the abuse part. That is all too true.

[Kitty]

Oh great, more sexual purity bullshit aimed at teenage girls. Is this what Christianity is all about? Holy fucking shit.

/big reason I'm not Christian anymore, and haven't been since age 14

[alba]

Also, the cover art to the first novel kind of alludes to Eve and the apple story (Thanks Milton ;)). Bella is a fairly passive character who centers her entirely life around Edward and when he leaves her she nearly kills herself. If you ask me Bella is very antifeminist.

Yeah. I don't even know what she sees in Edward. He's controlling and infantilises her.

[buddingmedievalist]

A big part of the reason I hate these books is because I feel like they set up the impressionable girls that read them to be victims of abuse (the other part is the crappy writing). If you think Edward's creepy stalker-ness is cute/normal/healthy, you're more likely to be OK with guys that mistreat you because of believing that's normal, no?

[emmiedahl]

I never really thought about it, but Twilight does send a bad message to girls. My 9 yo has not read them yet, so maybe I will avoid them altogether.

I really like all the strong women in Harry Potter.

[xDreamerx]

Bella's life, I hate to say it, is the one that is presented as normative to Mormon girls. That life is: "I am nothing without a man." (Actually, it's worse than that, it's "I can't get to the highest level of heaven without a man.") And so she puts up with all sorts of stalkerish shit, and even getting the crap beaten out of her during *sex* on her *honeymoon*, because Edward is her eternal intended. The whole thing just makes me want to barf. I don't have children, but if I did, I'd be saying, let's have a looong chat about these books and how they don't reflect reality. Except for the abuse part. That is all too true.

I may have this wrong, so feel free to correct me if I do, but doesn't Mormonism basically teach that a woman's way to salvation (or the celestial kingdom or whatever) is through marriage and her husband and that without his leadership she can't grow spiritually to be accepted into the highest level (especially in fundamentalist Mormonism). Basically the woman is not a whole person with a capable soul without her husband. (Though I would argue that conservative Christianity teaches this as well except that its concept of the afterlife is slightly different than that of Mormonism).

[emmiedahl]

I know that your afterlife is tied to that of your husband, and that you only get into heaven if he calls your secret name--chooses to bring you. I am actually a bit confused about the whole deal. I read somewhere that women only go to the "good" Mormon heaven if they are sealed to a priesthood holder.

[SunnyAndrsn]

I don't disagree with anything anyone has said, but just wanted to point out that at the end of the last book, it's Bella's special power (insert eye rolling at all the super special sparkling vampire powers) that protects her vampire family.

I still think she should have picked Jacob.

I'll admit it, there was something about the series that appealed to the dysfunctional teenage girl that's inside of me. Even with all of the bad writing.

[AlexIsAwake]

I never really thought about it, but Twilight does send a bad message to girls. My 9 yo has not read them yet, so maybe I will avoid them altogether.

I really like all the strong women in Harry Potter.

Agreed, the women in Harry Potter are amazing, including the author. What a story of picking yourself up by your bootstraps, being persistent, and working hard to forge a better life for you and your kid. I recently read this really fantastic article on Huffington Post called "Hermione Granger: The Heroine Women Have Been Waiting For." Was a great read!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/laura-hib ... =fb&src=sp

I think Stephen King summed up the discrepancies between HP/Twilight pretty well: "Harry Potter is about doing what's right in the face of adversity. Twilight is about how important it is to have a boyfriend." And you know what? I don't even understand why Edward and Jacob (the werewolf) are so enthralled with Bella. That part is NEVER explained, which only serves to make the story even more illogical and unbelievable. Bella is the most blah female character! She doesn't do anything noteworthy or heroic. She just sits around pining after her crush, moping, and feeling sorry for herself. And in the movies, the only "acting" Kristen Stewart has to do is portray this moping, blah, angst-ridden character. And IMO, angst can be done well (think Clare Danes in My So Called Life), but Bella just.....sucks. And yet we are supposed to believe that the 2 hottest boys in town are willing to lay down their lives to win her love every time you turn around.

I'll pass on that Twilight "Bible" study, thanks.

[alba]

I don't disagree with anything anyone has said, but just wanted to point out that at the end of the last book, it's Bella's special power (insert eye rolling at all the super special sparkling vampire powers) that protects her vampire family.

I still think she should have picked Jacob.

I'll admit it, there was something about the series that appealed to the dysfunctional teenage girl that's inside of me. Even with all of the bad writing.

Yup, I was always in the Jacob camp, too. I think he has some sketchy overprotective traits, too, but he's got nothing on Edward.

I liked them as a teen, too. Then I did an English degree.

I don't think they harmed me in any way, but I was older than what the target audience seems to be (15 when I read the first one; now they're being marketed to 11-12-year-olds), I read a lot of other books, and I didn't even realise that the romance was meant to be the main plot.

[bananacat]

I don't know that much about Twilight, but I also thought she should have picked Jacob, simply because he is so much more attractive than Edward. I mean, Edward is attractive enough, but he's so pale because he's a vampire, he never takes off his shirt, and he needs to tame those eyebrows. But Jacob makes me drool. I know it's so shallow, but this is a teen movie after all.

[FemaleScientist]

I always hated the whole damsel-in-distress type of heroine. Bella is a mary-sue. She has two hot guys pining over her while her personality's boring (so is Edward's) and according to the books, she's average in appearance. She's passive, she tries to kill herself when Edward leaves, and her life revolves around him. Also, from what I've read of the last book, Edward wanted her to have an abortion to save her life, but she was all "I have a special bond with this baby, I don't care if I die giving birth!". Way to be anti-feminist, Stephanie Meyer.

Jacob was at least interesting, but I still despise the series as a whole. I don't hate any of the actors or actresses, though.

[Boogalou]

As long as we are posting about Harry Potter...

[Soldier of the One]

Love that pic!

Twilight was my 'guilty pleasure'. I found the books strangely gripping and morally problematic at the same time. I also never got what the guys saw in Bella. She really is blah. And the whole anti-feminist thing? Totally. But I don't think they were poorly written (*ducks for cover!*)

But yeah. Clearly not a good role model for teenage girls.

[Bookworm]

Never read the books because I'm not a fan of vampires in general, but a while back I read Mark Reads Twilight, which made me loathe the Twilight books but be grateful to them as well for introducing me to the funny that is Mark.

[bananacat]

As much I dislike Twilight, I don't like the implication that suicide is a sign of weakness. Shaming people who have suicidal thoughts doesn't help them.

[bananacat]

But just for fun, a lolcats version of Twilight:

http://microsuede.blogspot.com/2009/11/ ... -moon.html

[fundiefan]

I generally find it funny when fundies take some element of secular / pop culture life that they themselves love and go to extremes to justify it as 'biblical'. Why can't you just enjoy the Twilight books/movies because, you know, you enjoy them? What does a biblical (in your interpretation) justification do other than make you feel like a special Christian?

Twilight is a poorly written series of book that is popular with the teen set, for reasons I don't understand, but I don't have to understand. I don't have to make it right or wrong in any sense in order to say I like it or don't. I don't like the message it sends girls and think Edward is controlling and manipulative but that is presented as 'love' by the author...bad, bad message to send young girls that love means your boyfriend telling you who you can see and when and following you around and telling you what is best for you.

I am as much of a Harry Potter fan as most anyone else who makes the same claim. I love the story line, the details, the characters, the lessons, the good versus evil concept that goes far beyond Harry vs Voldemort. They're fun to read, engaging and hold my attention and imagination. I think Rowling is amazingly talented and envy her imagination and ability to create such a complete world from it.

See, it's not hard to say you like something, or don't, and why. And I didn't even praise satan in the process.

[Kitty]

As much I dislike Twilight, I don't like the implication that suicide is a sign of weakness. Shaming people who have suicidal thoughts doesn't help them.

It's not that Bella was suicidal, it's just what she was suicidal over, and how the whole thing was treated in the books, like it was good thing she was suicidal, and that it's romantic and

[samithemage]

I honestly tried to give Twilight a fair chance. I love the Harry Potter books and also enjoyed the Percy Jackson books. I started reading the Twilight books with every intention of loving them. I got about 16ish pages into the first book. At that point I realized that the all powerful totally cool vampire heroes of the story had decided that the best way to life their lives was to pretend that they were high school students. You couldn't pay me enough to pretend to be back in high school, but somehow, these totally amazing people spent their immortal lives in high school? No offense but if I was forever 18ish, I would get a kick ass "fake" ID and spend my life doing anything but reliving high school. At that point, I was just all done.

[Kitty]

I honestly tried to give Twilight a fair chance. I love the Harry Potter books and also enjoyed the Percy Jackson books. I started reading the Twilight books with every intention of loving them. I got about 16ish pages into the first book. At that point I realized that the all powerful totally cool vampire heroes of the story had decided that the best way to life their lives was to pretend that they were high school students. You couldn't pay me enough to pretend to be back in high school, but somehow, these totally amazing people spent their immortal lives in high school? No offense but if I was forever 18ish, I would get a kick ass "fake" ID and spend my life doing anything but reliving high school. At that point, I was just all done.

I tried to give it a fair chance too. The first day I got it, I could only get like, 12 pages in, and it was so boring and stupid that I tossed it aside and moved on. Untill about 2 weeks later when I had to hand it in to the library, so I slogged through it as best I could. Holy shit. I'm a huge HP fan, and I'll admit Sorcerer's/Philosopher's Stone starts off a bit slow, but holy shit. 200 pages of wangst. 200 pages of the only interesting thing being Edward acting like a creepy douche canoe. I really didn't get the appeal.

I kind of scanned through a lot of the stuff immediately after the baseball game (really?), so it wasn't until Bella got to Phoenix where things actually got interesting. I read the rest of the series, hoping that was par for the course, but noooo. 200-300 pages of Edward being a creepy douche canoe, and then 50-100 pages of action.

Don't even get me started on Breaking Dawn. I'm still trying to figure out how the fuck the film adaptation got split into 2 parts. Because it's wedding, honeymoon, knocked up, vampire c-section, OH SHIT THEY THINK HALF-VAMPIRE BABY IS ILLEGAL VAMPIRE TODDLER, and then... absolutely fucking nothing. All of that can be covered in one 2.5 hour film. It's not Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, for damn sure.

[Effie]