This morning's MAD insanity

Froggie · **Posted:** Thu Jun 11, 2009 3:35 pm

There is a discussion about why Stephanie Myer's Twilight series were pulled from Deseret Book. Many feel it is "porn." Someone just posted an email response from a stake YW president and my eyes are in permanent :shock:

status:

To parents of Young Women and pre-teen girls,

Quote:

There are a series of novels, the first called "Twilight", which are written by an LDS author Stephenie Meyer. The books are about a romance based around the fantasy world of vampires and werewolves. Many Young women in our stake have read the 4 books and some are just starting. I have listened to the audio-books for all 4 novels and was shocked to think that the YW were reading what I was hearing. I am NOT concerned about the vampires and werewolves, it is not satanic. Rather I am concerned by the sexual references and the intense sensuality of the literary style. It starts off mild in the first novel, but gets progressively worse as the characters' relationship intensifies. Although the characters "wait" till they are married, their desire is often discussed descriptively. Book 3 and 4 are the worst, with the characters marrying in book 4 where the adult themes are not withheld. The Yw from [ward name withheld] ward who have read the series agree with me that parts of the book are inappropriate and would not assist them in "letting virtue garnish their thoughts unceasingly". As I said it starts off mild so by book 4 they would've been hooked.

I felt the need to share my view as I believe parents may be misled as the author is apparently LDS, and I have heard of girls as young as 10yrs old reading the books.

There are lds yw bookclubs that the girls can look up on the net to find appropriate books. As a parent you can also check on the net on the appropriateness of novels by just entering keywords and see what comes up.
Feel free to fwd this email to parents of YW to make them aware.

Thank You
[name withheld]
[Stake name withheld] Stk YW President

There you have it folks. Twilight is intense sexuality.

Big green hugs,

Froggie

circus watcher · **Posted:** Thu Jun 11, 2009 3:44 pm

Can't have the lesser sex have feelings and expectations can they?

The YW President thinks she is protecting her flock, driving a wedge between the YW and immorality. All she is doing is driving a wedge between TSCC and the YW. This will create a gulf that cannot be bridged.

I hope they keep this nonsense up, it will drive away the youth. When the YW go, so goes TSCC.

tibber · **Posted:** Thu Jun 11, 2009 3:50 pm

Reminds me of that scene in "Footloose" where the crazy assed followers of the crazy assed reverend start burning books.

Mercury · **Posted:** Thu Jun 11, 2009 3:52 pm

So obviously, a Stake YW's president gets to make a call as to what is right and true, yet

fuckitidonthavetheenergyidontgiveashitanymore

aerin · **Posted:** Thu Jun 11, 2009 3:52 pm

brillant. The only appropriate thing for YW to read is the BOM. And the only thing to listen to is the Mo Tab...

I'm sure it will work out so well! :wink:

Goldarn · **Posted:** Thu Jun 11, 2009 5:02 pm

Everything is about making the YW's lives smaller, not bigger. What happened to "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly?" It's been replaced by "the less of life you experience, the better."

That being said, without even reading an entire Twilight novel, I think they're crap. But, if you want to read them, go ahead. Lord knows I've read some crappy books in my life, and enjoyed them. Heck, just ask Red Shoe about some of the silly movies I watch.

the funniest review of Twilight I've seen wrote:

Every time SMeyers would write about Edward, I would just boggle. She was drawing from everything we Mormons were taught about Good Ol' Joe - he was handsome, shockingly so, he could draw you in with just his presence, let alone when he spoke, down to his freaking nose and hair color. HI THERE CREEPY AUTHOR WANTING TO BONE YOUR PROPHET. (I have no problem with bible slash, etc. Just... I don't think she knows she's doing it.)

My North Star · **Joined:** Wed Jan 24, 2007 10:59 pm **Posts:** 131

If Twilight is too sensual, the YW will have to stick with Song of Solomon, I guess.

Nurse in Black · **Joined:** Sat Aug 26, 2006 2:50 am **Posts:** 1448

I am VERY thankful for Twilight pulling my DD into reading. She simply loved the books, read each of them multiple times then moved on to other authors. She has devored Nicholas Sparks books as fast as I can locate them, and she reads everyday now.

I can't think of a better gift for a teen to develop than reading, as it will open the entire world and every culture to them. I am thrilled my DD has grasped that. If only I could find a fabulous series that would hook my DS in. He hates reading, though he is a good reader.

As a teen I read saucy books. It would arouse some sexual thoughts, but not in anyway I wasn't already thinking by myself. I think as teens we absorb sexual messages from all avenues; books, music, films, TV, history of JSmith....oh, wait, that last one is approved. Nevermind.
I don't care if Twilight has sexual overtones in it. The kids wait until they are married, despite their sexual desires towards each other. Completely realistic in an LDS view.

Personally, I don't care if my kids wait for marriage. I would like them to wait until they are age 18-19 at least, and use proper birth control. I enjoyed my sexual experiences in life, and I wouldn't presume to dictate theirs.

Maybe this is why I don't get callings like YW Pres.......ya think?

wry catcher · **Joined:** Wed Aug 23, 2006 6:15 am **Posts:** 5632

I believe the genre should be more properly termed "chastity porn."

I have read all the books. I'm horrifyingly fascinated by the author's psyche, which hangs out all over the place in ways I'm sure she never intended. Wow.

ETA: I'm really surprised the church made a move on Meyer -- goes against their pattern of leaving famous/rich mormons totally alone. I realise DB is not "the church," but please...

Goldarn · **Posted:** Thu Jun 11, 2009 5:33 pm

wry catcher wrote:

I believe the genre should be more properly termed "chastity porn."

I have read all the books. I'm horrifyingly fascinated by the author's psyche, which hangs out all over the place in ways I'm sure she never intended. Wow.

ETA: I'm really surprised the church made a move on Meyer -- goes against their pattern of leaving famous/rich mormons totally alone. I realise DB is not "the church," but please...

They still sell Orson Scott Card's books, but none of the good ones.

I still remember picking up "Saintspeak: The Mormon Dictionary" at a Seventy's Bookstore. Remember when Mormons could actually laugh at themselves in a non-correlated way? Yeah, I don't either. When I first bought the book, no one I knew thought it was funny but me.

TheRasmus · **Posted:** Thu Jun 11, 2009 5:54 pm

Froggie wrote:

There you have it folks. Twilight is intense sexuality.

Better not introduce them to the The Southern Vampire Mysteries then. Sookie Stackhouse gets her hooker on.

SillyNut · **Joined:** Mon Aug 13, 2007 4:14 am **Posts:** 3667

I don't want my oldest reading Twilight. Not because of the "sensuality" as I never made it past book 2 so I don't know "how bad it gets." But the LAST thing I want is for her to read those damned books and think that is the type of relationship to aspire to. It's insanely unhealthy and the mania that surrounds this and the girls (and their mothers) who think that type of "love" is awesome nauseate me.

I will say I did offer DD to read the first one so we could talk about how unhealthy it was. I want her to be able to identify behaviors from a suitor that would send up red flags and that book is rife with them.

As an aside, NiB, how old is your DS?

Wonderment · **Joined:** Fri May 02, 2008 7:27 am **Posts:** 1282

Quote:

If Twilight is too sensual, the YW will have to stick with Song of Solomon, I guess.

Too funny ! I agree w/ Silly Nut -- the Twilight series proposes an idealized kind of love that young women in the past were supposed to covet. The heroine lives a quiet, mundane existence as she waits passively for a handsome, rich, daring, prince to come along and sweep her off her feet. He then carries her off into his world, and she leaves her life behind. Twilight is in the tradition of "Cinderella", "Sleeping Beauty", "Snow White", "The Little Mermaid", and many other fairy tales where the man comes to rescue the passive silent woman. The message to females is that they are nothing without a man; and someday he will arrive ( in an expensive sports car) and carry them away into the sunset. Thus, the woman is only a recipient and has no real life of her own. She marries young and immediately bears children-- Twilight's a very Mormony kind of series.

I always thought that the Twilight series was pulled from Deseret book simply because it took a lot of shelf space, the series had been completed, and sales had reached their peak.To me it just seemed that they were making room for new stock. In terms of sensuality, almost any other romance series is more sensual -- and better written-- than Twilight. It should have been only two books long, but the author extended it into four books by writing a great deal of meaningless filler dialog. I wasn't impressed with Meyers' writing skills. The series really lags in parts. JMO -- Wndr.

MagicCicero · **Posted:** Thu Jun 11, 2009 7:23 pm

Goldarn wrote:

Remember when Mormons could actually laugh at themselves in a non-correlated way? Yeah, I don't either.

Goldarn, you are a gold mine of funny one-liners.

MagicCicero · **Posted:** Thu Jun 11, 2009 7:29 pm

SillyNut wrote:

But the LAST thing I want is for her to read those damned books and think that is the type of relationship to aspire to. It's insanely unhealthy and the mania that surrounds this and the girls (and their mothers) who think that type of "love" is awesome nauseate me.

Yeah, that bothers me about the books, too. What's with the obsessive love where some guy is insanely jealous but refuses to communicate, breaks into her room at night to stare at her while she sleeps, etc.? It's pathological, not romantic.

I mean, I get it in part, because I was a teenager once, too, and I had the same weird obsessions and neuroses about love and sex and all. But to see it lionized in mass culture is just disturbing. The whole point of teenage love is that you grow out of it. Stephenie Meyer has created a world in which teenage love is eternal and backed by supernatural powers.

Further Light and Knowledge

This morning's MAD insanity

Who is online