The full interview is available at The Twilight Saga (which involves a fairly involved registration process!) and excerpts from the interview have been published at USA Today. On the eve of the book being on sale in book stores and posted online at the author’s site, Mrs. Meyer expands on what she has told her readers previously about the novella’s origins and the influence of the Twilight movies on its composition.

I was most intrigued by this question and comment: [Read more…]

Last week’s issue of Inside Higher Education features a very interesting article about the scholarly attention being paid to Twilight. There is considerable mention of Twilight and History and comments from editor Nancy Reagin and contributor Janice Liedl.  It’s a well-written article, though, sadly, no mention of Spotlight and its excellent analysis of the Saga’s worth in critical studies . (Someone please post a comment to that effect. It might look weird coming from me). It’s also a much better article than this one from a local paper in which sentences I never spoke were inserted into my mouth, my name and the book’s title are wrong, and I’m called “co-author” rather than “contributor,” an important distinction.

Still, it is intriguing to notice the way Twilight scholarship is treated here. Though both these articles at least purport to be favorable in their tone, they indicate the two “safe” ways of viewing Twilight studies: [Read more…]

I think what most surprised me about this review of The Lonely Polygamist in Slate was that it succeeded in offering a meaningful discussion of LDS letters and the novel in question without making mention of Orson Scott Card or Stephenie Meyer.

That was a surprise — but still a disappointment. If there has been or will be a ‘Great Mormon Novel,’ it almost certainly will not be a Portnoy’s Complaint set in Salt Lake City or the Utah out-back as Polygamist seems to be. As others less charitable than I (Mark Twain, anyone?) have noted, the faith of these Saints is founded in poorly written fantasy fiction if obviously inspired and I believe their most popular and challenging writers – by which I mean Meyer and Card — create books in the same genre.

I explore the Mormon content of Twilight in the last chapters of Spotlight: A Close-Up Look at the Artistry and Meaning of Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight Saga. Prof. Steve Walker of Brigham Young University, whom Mrs. Meyer has said was the biggest influence on her writing except for the books she has read, said about Spotlight that — [Read more…]

History is full of unexpected turns of events, moments that spin an otherwise directed course onto a completely different path.  Such moments also litter our personal histories. In the spring of 2009, suffering from a cold and just happy to curl up in a chair with my likewise afflicted daughter, I finally gave in to pressure from my students and began reading Twilight. I generally try to stay abreast of what interests my students, which is sometimes a challenge with the wide variety of ages and backgrounds in a community college classroom. On the first day of class, I have them fill out an interest sheet, telling me what movies and books they like. Of course, I often see books that I know were eighth grade reading assignments, giving every indication that the student hasn’t read anything with chapters since then. Sometimes they try to impress me by including War and Peace or the Bible (although I remind them that putting the Bible in the same category with Nicholas Sparks is close to blasphemy, and suggesting that it’s one’s favorite recreational reading is like saying one’s hobby is breathing). Time and again, I saw the Twilight Saga on these sheets, often the sheets of students whom I regarded as thoughtful and sophisticated readers and writers. So, I borrowed the well-worn paperback from the library, snuggled up with my fellow sickie and a big box of tissues, and was, completely against my will and my expectations, enchanted.

[Read more…]