Intellectual Conundrum

John Granger who is known as the "Hogwarts Professor" swung by NYC for a lecture-tour of his new book about the Twilight series. As a twilight fan and a former English major, of course I attended this - however, it was also well-attended by older readers who haven't read the books yet and just like to attend everything from the NYPL. So, it wasn't a giggle-fest over Edward's beauty and sparklyness or a fight between Team Jacob and His Sparklyness. This is from the NYPL website:

“It fails every test if you evaluate books the conventional, academic way,” he said. “So I realize we must be missing something. If all of our tools say no one in their right mind should read this, then there’s something wrong with our toolbox. We need better tools.” - John Granger

It was like an English class. What would binghamton name this class you ask? Probably "Religious Implications in the Modern Vampire," or "Supernatural Restructuring in Popular Literature." That game could last for days.

There were three points that fascinated me throughout this talk:

1) the Mormon connection 2) why the books work 3) how those two things are somehow connected.

Cutting straight to the point, Stephenie Meyer was born and educated into the Mormon religion and that's what she knows. When dissecting the novels for their literary worth (surprisingly there is some), Granger discovered numerous Mormon parables for a lot of the plot, characters and background stories throughout the novel. Edward is the Trinity, Bella is the seeker and Jacob is a Native American (no disguise there!). While this initially made me upset, because it's like I was being tricked into going to Mormon Church when I really just intended to read a teen vampire novel, I felt better about Stephenie Meyer's writing in the end. I couldn't understand why I liked the book so much, so now that there are deeper roots to this story, I'm glad I didn't get sucked into reading crap.

So, why do we like the book so much? Well, partly because of these Mormon stories. Turns out human nature always wants to seek out something greater (drug-induced or faith-induced). The one great literary thing Meyer does do is take "suspension of disbelief" to a whole new level - this teenage girl is different and self-sacrificing, vampires don't want to kill humans and sparkle in the sun, werewolves can control themselves and so on. You are willing to almost believe anything at this point, so you get pulled into Bella's nature. You want to know what Edward is and you admire the lifestyle that they lead just as much as she does. You're on the same journey to discover what's out there...to connect with Edward or at least find happiness on earth, with Jacob.

The one caveat Granger gave was: if you don't like Bella, if you cannot connect with her, you won't like Twilight. You won't suspend your disbelief and you won't get drawn into her obsessions. I'm not sure how much I connect with to Bella, but I surely understand a lot of her characteristics and choices.

Like a lot of people, I equated the story's impact to how people felt when they first fell in love (or became obsessed with someone) whether in their youth, or recently. That feeling stays with you and while you're not there anymore, it's lovely to reminisce about and you're OK with all the probable heartache and pain that's happened subsequently. Is that the same with religion? Do people have spiritual experiences throughout their lives and think back on them to regain their faith? Is believing in love similar to believing in God?