The Mormonocity of Meyer’s Vampires

My contact with Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series — a cultural phenomenon of truly staggering proportions — has been blessedly limited.

Other than a quick sampling of a few pages from the first book (which left me semi-horrified at the level of prose on display) and a brief brush with most-amusing-if-still-not-entirely-appropriate RiffTrax ever, I am essentially unTwilighted. Even Matthew Lickona’s intriguing review on the first film could not sway my implacable indifference.

I hasten to add that I have not rejected the phenomenon’s temptations through some resistance to the dangers of popular culture or through some principled stance against the sympathetic portrayal of vampires; goodness knows I am (sometimes sadly) lacking in either of those virtues. Rather, I find that I have never been even remotely tempted to explore Meyer’s fantasy world.

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However, there have been a number of interesting articles dealing both with the phenomenon itself and with the ideas behind it that I have discovered while lurking safely on the outskirts of TwilightLand. And Taylor Marshall’s “Twilight, Vampires, and the Holy Eucharist” is definitely one of them.

Marshall, a former Episcopal priest who converted to Catholicism in 2006, focuses particularly on the way in which Meyer’s vampires and the world in which she sets them differs dramatically from the “traditional vampirism” of such writers as Stoker. And interestingly, it has a lot to do with her religion:

Here’s my brutally honest assessment. I’m ready for criticism, so let if fly. The problem is that Stephanie Meyer is a Mormon. There, I said it. She does not think in terms of sacramentality. Instead, she thinks of spirituality in terms of the Mormon doctrine of “eternal marriage.” The story is about achieving an eternal marriage between Bella Swan and Edward Cullen. This is Mormonism 101.

Marshall’s examination of the Eucharisitic (or, should I say, “anti-Eucharistic”) roots of the vampire story is an interesting one, and rings true to me despite my mostly-uneducated views on vampires and their literary permutations. His assessment of Meyer’s departure from tradition seems mostly true, as well, which gives me yet more ammunition for my continued indifference.

Yet the still, small, nagging voice in the back of my mind continues to correctly (and loudly) point out that “You haven’t even read a single book!” Anyone out there more familiar than I both with the mythological underpinning of vampires and with Meyer’s re-imaginings who could cast some light on the situation?

Author

  • Joseph Susanka

    Joseph Susanka has been doing development work for institutions of Catholic higher education since his graduation from Thomas Aquinas College in 1999. Currently residing in Lander, Wyoming — “where Stetsons meet Birkenstocks” — he is a columnist for Crisis Magazine and the Patheos Catholic portal.

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