When our hard copy of Touchstone arrived in the mail, my wife told me that I had to read John Granger’s article on the theology behind the Twilight series. The article is titled “Mormon Vampires in the Garden of Eden,” and it is now online here.
Granger gives us a reading of these books in light of Meyer’s Mormon faith, arguing that she is providing something of an apologetic for Mormonism. Granger explains:
Indeed, I think that resolving her misgivings and interior conflicts as a Mormon woman in a land of non-Mormons was a major impetus of Mrs. Meyer’s writing. In her books, she lays out defenses, often as inversions or compensating reversals (such as one would find in dreams), for at least ten specific Mormon beliefs, practices, and historic events that most outsiders would see as evidence that Mormonism is a fraud and a cult. One example from each category will illustrate this point.
Read the rest of his article to see how he argues for this interpretation and how this subtle message pervades the Twilight books.
