Did Stephanie Meyer support Proposition 8?

Stephanie Meyer's 'Twilight' saga has been wildly successful - especially amongst an audience that embraces romance, the supernatural and the concept of 'true love will out.'

Which is why Stephanie Meyer's publicity hounds are scrambling desperately to cover up accusations that Meyer, a devout Mormon who attended Brigham Young university in Salt Lake City*, donated a 'substantial' amount of money in support of 'Proposition 8.'

Prop 8, as I'm sure you already know, was the controversial voter referendum in California, which amended the constitution to redefine marriage as 'between a man and a woman' - thus rendering 18,000 same-sex unions null and void and banning gay marriage for the foreseeable future.

(The California supreme court upheld the amendment on appeal, but legitimized the 18,000 existing marriages.)

This isn't exactly surprising. 45% of out-of-state donations in support of Proposition 8 came from Utah, while 80% to 90% of all door-to-door campaigning against Gay Marriage was carried out by Mormons and members of the Church of Latter Day Saints**.

In all, Mormons donated approximately $20 million dollars to ban same-sex unions in California (some families donated their life savings and their kid's college funds.)

At the very least, a significant amount of money from Meyer's 10% 'tithe' she pays to the Mormon church would have been used to support Proposition 8.

However, accusations still abound that she donated more money directly to the campaign.

In any event, I know this would upset many fans of the 'Twilight' saga.

Most of the ones I know were avid opponents of Proposition 8 and would be very disappointed to learn that Meyer's romanticized version of 'true love' only extends to those of different genders.

NB - Bob, of the blog The Mormons Are Coming! refuted my claim in his blog post 'Did Twilight Fans Help Pass Prop 8?' He points out that no cash contributions were made to the 'Yes on Prop 8' campaign by the church. That being said, over $190,000 of 'in-kind' services were donated in direct support of Proposition 8 - which still leaves their members (including Meyer) culpable.

* ...actually Provo, Utah, an hour south of Salt Lake City, as corrected by the lovely Ashley - Kitty Copy Editor
** ...actually the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as corrected by Ashley - Kitty Copy Editor

'New Moon' trailer snaps teenage knicker-elastic all across America

Today, fans of Stephanie Meyer's 'Twilight' saga were in official 'fan squeeee!' mode.

(For the benefit of Siger - a 'fan squeee' is the high pitched 'squeee' that emerges from a fan's mouth upon discovery of new or exciting material pertinent to their particular obsession.)

The reason for their excitement? The trailer of the latest adaptation of the Twilight books - New Moon - hit the Intertubes with a vengeance.

Read my dissection of the Twilight saga here.

In many ways, New Moon is both the best and the worst of the Twilight books. It's terrible because it sees snotty schoolgirl Bella Swan disintegrate into utter patheticness when she's dumped by pallid, prissy boyfriend Edward. (Apparently, vampire Edward doesn't trust himself or his family not to drain Bella of blood like a carton of Ribena.)

But while Bella is moping about, the book steps up a notch by following the saga of cheerful Native American 'Jacob,' played in the movie by a surprisingly buffed-out Taylor Lautner.

A love triangle, werewolves, motor cycles and cliff-diving make Jacob's antics far more exciting than the dreary romance between Bella and Edward - which is why New Moon promises to be even better than entertaining adaptation of the original Twilight.

Twilight, the DVD

Editorial Bear Recommends: "Dissecting Twilight by Militant Ginger"

Like Harry Potter before it, it seemed like the incredibly hyped Twilight saga could never be translated to the movie screen without a cacophony of criticism - but director Catherine Hardwicke actually does a very respectable job.

Just as in the novel by Stephanie Meyer, the movie of Twilight opens with transplanted teen Bella adjusting to her new life in rainy Forks, Wa. It's a long way from the blazing sunshine of Arizona that she's used to.

Bella, played rather morosely by Kristen Stewart, seems like an intensely unlikeable girl - rude, dismissive and practically monosyllabic. Yet she effortlessly attracts the friendship of the school's cool 'clique,' plus the eye of sullen, solitary Edward Cullen - the high school heart-throb who all the girls in Forks are lusting after.

After a tedious courtship, Bella discovers the truth about Edward - he and his family are vampires, living in seclusion and surviving off a 'vegetarian' diet of woodland animals. Bella worms her way into the affections of Edward's family and they're the ones she turns too when a roguish trio of bloodthirsty bloodsuckers roll up in town with Bella on the top of their 'to bite' list.

The Cullen Clan - Hitler's Aryan ambitions finally find fruition.

Twilight is a fun, flimsy fantasy. It's a fairly faithful adaptation of the novel, but because the book was so emotive and introspective, it leaves the final script feeling a little lightweight. Some of the plotting is jiggled about to make the arrival of the 'bad' vampires more ominous, but the ending still feels like a bit of an anti-climax. The bad vampire, James, is grossly outnumbered by Edward's family and that deflates the dramatic tension.

Bad vampire 'James' makes a very bad decision picking a fight against all five Cullens

Much better is the cinematography - Hardwicke makes use of Washington's rainswept beauty almost reverentially. The screen comes alive with green and grey and you can almost smell the fresh rain and pine needles as you watch it.

Washington State - very pretty (but don't forget your umbrella)

Robert Pattinson, the quintessential teen-throb playing Edward, is also excellent. Despite being a British actor, best known for playing ill-fated student Cedric Diggory in the Harry Potter saga, Pattinson's American accent is flawless and he broods with sizzling intensity.

Catherine Hardwicke's loyalty to the source material actually highlights some of the flaws in the Twilight saga. Bella and Edward's love affair seems trite and inconsequential, while the emphasis on physical beauty and material possessions seems rather shallow (Edward drives a sexy Volvo C30 and his family live in a gorgeous Skylab Architecture house.)

The 'Hoke' house by Skylab Architecture. Don't give them a hard time about the landscaping (or lack of it.) If all seven Cullens live in this two bedroom, they're obviously not that well off.

Nevertheless, fans of the saga will have already made peace with its more debatable details and will probably be thrilled that the entire movie sticks so closely to the story.

Nobody can deny that Stephanie Meyer's novel resonated with an immense audience - I believe much of what made it popular has been translated into the movie adaptation, too.

Twilight, starring Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson, is available from Amazon for $17.99

Dissecting Twilight

I hadn't even heard of the Twilight series of books until I wound up at the midnight launch party of Breaking Dawn (amidst countless teenage girls in prom dresses.)

However, Twilighters now seem to be everywhere and it seems like everybody's discussing them.

Stephanie Meyer's Twilight saga certainly has its detractors - Stephen King remarked that: "Stephenie Meyer can't write worth a darn. She's not very good."

However, that hasn't stopped the books being wildly popular. Now they're not my cup of tea (I find any books featuring vampires to be incredibly dreary) but I can see why they've become so successful. Say what you want about Stephanie Meyer as a writer, but you can't deny that she delivers very good 'product.'

I've heard accusations that the Twilight saga is nothing more than a teenage girl's wish fulfillment. Stephanie Meyer has certainly tapped into the eroticism and fantasies of that target audience - delivering a package that spoke directly to their subconscious desires.

However, on a deeper level, Meyer has written something about the nature of love and romance itself, which resonates with more than just the 'teeny Twilighters.'

Just like Harry Potter, to which the Twilight saga is often compared, Meyer's books have an appeal far beyond teenagers- although you wouldn't have thought that at the launch I went to.

In Twilight, Stephanie Meyer has done what every successful writer needs to, and focused on a specific audience when she created the characters, situations and emotions of the Twilight books.

As a result, that target audience of teenage girls love Twilight, because it speaks directly to them and their experiences. However, older women love Twilight too, because (to quote an old marketing manager of mine) "At heart, all grown-ups are aspiring teenagers."

But what specific elements make the Twilight books so popular?

Character Elements that make Twilight so successful:

Bella: The heroine of the Twilight saga is a blank slate, left deliberately devoid of distinguishing characteristics so the reader can more easily step into her shoes.

Second only to books written in the first person perspective, this is the easiest way for authors to suck readers into the world they have created.

Bella's story is one of a teenage girl's sexual awakening; her desire for Edward to turn her into a vampire is a grand, all encompassing romantic gesture similar to a teenage girl surrendering her virginity to the boy she loves. (It's hardly an original metaphor Meyer's used, but it's an effective one.)

Bella's final transformation, when she becomes a vampire in Breaking Dawn, is another metaphor - this time for the secret desire of every teenage girl to be transformed from an awkward, adolescent bundle of self-esteem issues into a beautiful, 'sparkling' creature full of grace, confidence and strength.

Bella's journey in the Twilight saga reads like a wishlist of teenage fantasies, which is compelling for her audience because Stephanie Meyer was so careful to avoid unnecessary characterization when she wrote about Bella. Therefore, it's blissfully easy for women and girls to see themselves in her stylish (yet affordable) shoes.

Edward: Impossibly beautiful, moody and sullen, yet incredibly seductive; Edward is the living embodiment of every teenage girl's crush.

Edward at first treats Bella abominably (just like kids at school bully the girls or boys they secretly fancy.) Then he reveals his hunger for Bella - in the entirely literal sense (he wants to drink her blood.)

Out of all the characteristics that make Edward every teenage girl's dream date, it's that hunger that's the most important. His desire for her blood is a metaphor for him desiring her - and for the danger that desire poses. Danger is sexy - and what's more exciting and erotic to a teenage girl than a beautiful, mysterious boy who desires her deeply, desperately and dangerously?

and that's not just a teenage girl's fantasy. Even my wife agrees that one of the sexiest things a man can do for her is make her feel beautiful and desirable.

Given that women are assaulted from all angles by unattainable representations of feminine beauty (the skinny girls in posters, the anorexic models on TV) perhaps the most powerful part Edward plays in the Twilight saga is simply making Bella (and, by extension, the reader) feel beautiful, sexy and desirable.

But to a lesser extent, Edward also represents the unattainable boy in high school. In addition to being beautiful and seductive, he's got all of the materialistic possessions teenage girls are supposed to be impressed by. A 'stupid, shiny' Volvo S60R [Yawn - Editorial Bear] and an Aston Martin V12 Vanquish.

Finally, you have to remember that Edward was born and raised in the early 19th century, making him the quintessential gentleman of every girl's fantasy. The fact that he refuses to make love to Bella until they're married is further wish fulfillment - the very opposite of most teenage girl's first experiences of love and sex.

Edward represents respect and romance and appreciation for Bella and for the gift she's honoring him with (her virginity.) That's a sharp contrast to the 'real world', where horny boys, devoid of romance, just want to 'do it' in the backseat of their Pontiac Sunfire.

Jacob: Oh, poor Jacob. He, too, represents a figure that features in most teenage girl's lives - the lovesick best friend - making him (like Edward and Bella) more of an archetype than a real character.

Jacob first appears in Twilight, where he suggests to Bella that Edward is a vampire. Bella likes Jacob enormously and Jacob develops a crush on her. What teenage girl hasn't experienced a male friend having a crush on her, while she's only interested in being friends?

This crush simmers through the book New Moon, but comes to a head in Eclipse, when Jacob (and his feelings for Bella) mature somewhat. In another twist that teenage girls will be familiar with, Bella discovers that she, too, has feelings for her 'just good friend' Jacob and they kiss.

Although the Jacob/Edward/Bella 'love triangle' totally fizzles out in the Twilight saga, it's another succulent situation Stephanie Meyer threw into her story, knowing that her target audience would devour it greedily, murmuring: "Oh, my God. This is just like my situation with [insert boy's name here.]"

Jacob makes the story of Twilight appear directly applicable to the reader's real life.

Jacob also serves as a reminder to Bella that her love for Edward is greater and more all-encompassing than her feelings for him. It validates the idealistic teenage belief that an unconsummated crush is more 'real' than feelings you might have for somebody you already know and care about.

Without Jacob as the 'friend with feelings' to mitigate Bella's romance with Edward, Edward could never ascend to become the archetypal romantic hero.

Jacob plays a vital role in making the Twilight saga resonate so successfully with female readers - but many agree with me that he basically got boned.

I was secretly delighted to to find myself discussing the situation with teenage Twilight fans at the launch of Breaking Dawn. Many of them hoped that the conclusion of the Twilight saga would see Bella end up with Jacob instead of Edward. No such luck!

Other Elements that made Twilight so successful:

Vampires: People love vampires. Just look at the success of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter. It was the books of Anne Rice that first invented the concept of 'noble' and misunderstood vampires - and the vamps of Twilight represent the very worst of those vampire clichés. They're beautiful and strong and sexy, rather than decaying corpses who thirst for blood. In Twilight, Stephanie Meyer has successfully tapped into the conventions that make vampire fiction so wildly popular.

High School: Twilight begins with Bella attending a new school in Washington, thousands of miles away from her old home in Arizona. The 'new school' scenario is tried and tested - one almost all of Meyer's readers will be familiar with, which just adds to the ease in which they can relate to Bella's story.

Sex: Stephanie Meyer writes about teenage sexuality with surprising skill and subtlety. Even Stephen King, who eviscerated Twilight in a recent interview, admitted that Meyer's description (and allusion to) teenage sexuality was what made the book resonate so strongly with a female audience:

"She's writing to a whole generation of girls and opening up a kind of 'safe' joining of love and sex. It's exciting and it's thrilling, but it's not particularly threatening because it's not overtly sexual."

"A lot of the physicality is conveyed in ways, for example, like how the vampire will touch [Bella's] forearm or run a hand over her skin, and she just flushes all hot and cold. And for girls, that's a shorthand for all the feelings that they're not ready to deal with yet."

Whatever shall we make of the Twilight Saga?

Stephen King attacked Twilight because is was compared to J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter saga - and it doesn't take a literary genius to spot that Stephanie Meyer is no J.K. Rowling.

However, she's still an immensely talented writer.

Rowling's gift was in her vibrant imagination and the beautiful way she laid her visions out on the page. Stephanie Meyer's talent, on the other hand, is a powerful empathy for her target audience and the ability to transcribe a fantasy that speaks directly to them.

I think the Twilight saga is more 'product' than literature. That probably explains why it was scooped up by Little, Brown and Company just months after completion (whereas it took J.K. Rowling several years and many rejection slips for her bestsellers to find a publisher.)

Because of all the elements described about, Twilight is simply more 'bankable.'

But as I've often said, the proof of a great writer is not the recognition of their peers or the appreciation of the critics. It's not even in the awards the writing has won (and Twilight won the New York Times Editor's Choice, Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year and a place on the American Library Association's "Top Ten Best Book for Young Adults" and "Top Ten Books for Reluctant Readers.”)

A good writer simply writes what people want to read - and what captures their imagination.

The Twilight saga, if its millions of fans are anything to go by, certainly achieved that goal - which makes it a damn good series of books as far as I'm concerned.

Nanowrimo Day 2

Nobody said it would be easy - but surprisingly, it is - thus far (and long may it continue.)

So far, on day two of Nanowrimo, my horror story is being squeezed onto the page at a nice pace. I'm not quite sure where it's going - in fact the story's already veered dramatically off course - but it's going and that's the main thing.

Last year, Nanowrimo was an enormous focus of mine. I used to scurry home from work to diligently work on Bootleg Boys. This year, I'm not quite so passionate or excited about it, but the discipline Nanowrimo encourages is helping me put a story down on paper that had previously only existed in my head.

If I had been writing this without a deadline, I'd have spent so much more time on description, setting and other important foundations - but digging right into the meat of the story is quite compelling. I wonder if it will be as easy to read as it is to write.

But, of course, that kind of thinking is the kiss of death to a Nanowrimo'er. Don't think. Just write. Make the bloody great mess and tidy it up in December.

All I know is that I've got a very confused NHS doctor, a wounded policeman, a terrified nurse and a mysterious priest holed up in an abandoned Royal Hampshire County Hospital - and there's a very dangerous creature lurking in the shadows.

And I'm only on page 14.