The Twilight of my appreciation

I work in a non-profit, where we raise a good deal of money to help kids find tools of empowerment to make a choice in tough situations. I like to think it’s a good cause. I like to think that people who contribute to our campaigns and fundraisers believe it’s a good cause. That they are inspired to go to their checkbooks because it is something that ignites a piece of their heart to act.  It has let me observe generosity and the belief that people are able to think outside of their greed and personal wants. I respect that, even if it isn’t my cause.

Until… until it is a contribution to something I don’t support, because I believe it causes harm.

So yesterday, I was skulking around the Internet and stumbled on this piece of information about Stephenie Meyer contributing 10% (a tithe) of her income to the Mormon Church. Well… we know what a veritable source the Internet is. I have done a number of searches to validate the figures… but it still is all subject to interpretation. Because, if I’ve learned anything in my idle market research the last several months, there are quite a few rabid Twilight haters out there… who are just as askew as some of the fanatics.

But something about that little sliver of fact resonated. I’ve wrestled with my own dueling affection and disdain for that vampire series. I try to take more of an irreverent attitude than one of dislike. Because… frankly, I don’t entirely dislike it. But something about it… like this little bit of information about her Mormon charity… rubs me the wrong way.

I read the books. They infuriated me. They also enchanted me. I’m not going to say I think she’s a bad writer. Because the best way to draw attention to the chinks in the armor of one’s artistic confidence is to start lambasting the poor quality of another artist. I may not agree with her word choice, her plot construction, or even her character development. But the flaws make her books human, so completely human that millions of people don’t just read them. They devour them. 

 But that… that is kind of the scary thing. By the end of the fourth book, it was the ideas behind all those intoxicating words that made my skin crawl. But it’s a free country. I spend enough time in this blog chanting my view of the world to my ten or so readers. I can’t criticize another writer for doing that. And I know I’ve woven my beliefs into the fabric of my own novel… so I’m not saying it’s a wrong thing to have ideas. I just DON’T like Meyer’s ideas.

So here is my catty rant. 

I don’t like that they call themselves vegetarian, vegan vampires. WTF? Seriously? Those words have the prefix veg. That implies plant material. There is nothing carnivorous about people who choose vegan or vegetarian lifestyles. In fact, they go out of their way to not eat animals. Or wear them. 

Secondly, they are all so materialistic. The vampires. Supposedly, the Cullens care sooo much about humanity. They have such big hearts because they won’t eat people. But they have enough money to run a small country – or some description like that. And they do nothing – NOTHING – in the way of helping other people except by contributing to car dealerships and real estate and clothing manufacturers. I don’t know… if I were a person stuck on this planet FOREVER… I might get bored with stuff after a while. Then again, I’m not a sparkly person.

And finally, the thing that REALLY bothered me about these books was the sex. Not that there was too much or too little. The fact that Edward was on this planet for over a century and felt more compelled to control his libido than his thirst for blood. Um… that’s kind of fucked up, which becomes clear when he stalks Bella. But then he can’t deal with the fact that she wants him and basically tells her that her soul will be lost if they get it on before getting married. Sure, he’ll turn her into a vampire because apparently that does less damage to the soul than premarital sex. But they get married. And they have sex. And it is destructive and violent. Not to mention Bella wears pink negligee. OMG. GAG. Then she becomes a vampire and apparently… only then… is she really beautiful. 

I don’t see the world in that way. I don’t mind that Stephenie Meyer sees the world in that way… really. It does make me unhappy that so many millions (and, okay, yeah, I was one of them) are mesmerized by a story that celebrates those ideas. It’s actually downright depressing.

But it’s just a book … or just a movie. Pop culture. That will be on the return pendulum swing soon enough. Except that… now… I realize any money I have contributed (thank God I didn’t buy all the books)… goes to the Mormon Church. Well, really, it’s a percent of a percent of a percent of my purchase… but at the end of the day this thing is so popular, that’s a hefty chunk of change. And at the end of the day, it was the Mormons who gave a pretty hefty chunk of change to pass Prop 8 in California last year. Now, Meyer did not make that decision. She made the decision to support her church.

But I don’t want to.

I actually wanted to see New Moon. It was the book that least offended me. Mostly because Bella had some emotional depth in that book. But whatever. I’m not going to buy a ticket. I am not going to be part of that trickle down to deny a person his or her basic right.

Art is subjective. So is politics. I get that. I just… there is something very wrong about a mass of people reading or viewing a story to get swept up in the romance, but contribute (however directly or indirectly) to the denial of romance to anyone. Granted, if it is the Twilight definition of marriage and sex, I wouldn’t really wish that on anyone. 

Okay, now back to editing my subversive vampire novel. ;)