Twilight Rabbit Hole

Sometimes, I fall into rabbit holes and I end up finding out information I want to share with others, so these days, I usually bother my friends and family with random stuff. I guess if I had enough time, I would create videos for TikTok, YouTube, or Instagram, but editing videos takes so long that writing is faster and easier (for me 😅).

Today's rabbit hole is not that deep. It is mostly about the Twilight series, Mormons and fantasy literature.

Firstly, did you know that Twilight's author Stephanie Meyer is part of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons)? It explains so much! Why do you think Edward and Bella have such a pure, clean relationship while dating but become so passionate after marriage? Also, none of the good characters drink alcohol or indulge in profanity or other vices. In this context, the next fact is hilarious for me.

Did you know that Fifty Shades of Grey was originally written as fanfiction of Twilight 😂 E.L. James wrote Master of the Universe on fanfiction.net under the nickname 'Snowqueen Icedragon' after seeing the movie Twilight. She later published Fifty Shades of Grey, which is heavily based on her original fan fiction. I still remember when I first heard about Fifty Shades of Grey, I was like: "Wait a moment, this story sounds exactly like Twilight. Wtf?" But it is so ironic that Stephanie Meyer wanted to push for "pure, teen love" and E.L. James made it into this weird middle-aged woman BDSM fantasy 😂 If you're wondering, Meyer is aware of the inspiration: "I haven't read it. I mean, that's really not my genre, not my thing," she said with a laugh. "I've heard about it; I haven't really gotten into it that much. Good on her — she's doing well. That's great!" Pretty diplomatic answer I have to say.

Secondly, I have watched a video from Alyssa Grenfell (ex-mormon YouTuber) about why Mormonism (the sci-fi version of Christianity) "produced" some of the most well-known authors in the fantasy genre. She mentions that Mormons are very encouraged to write personal journals. Interesting fact! It made me realise that as far as I know, I was the only kid in our family who was writing personal journals over multiple years. Coincidently, I was also the only one in our family with any writing ambitions - I used to write fanfiction, and even this blog has over 50 posts. 😊 My siblings were more into drawing, programming, mathematics and physics. Nevermind.

In her video, she notes that the "Mormon university" Brigham Young University (BYU) boasts professors who are successful fantasy writers. Specifically, she mentioned Brandon Sanderson, who has taught Creative Writing at BYU. He is also the author of the Mistborn series. Then Orson Scott Card (author of Ender's Game) and Dave Wolverton are other notable BYU alumni, and they all are pretty hardcore Mormons. I was shocked to find out that Dave Wolverton wrote a few Star Wars books! He wrote The Courtship of Princess Leia which I read in high school and it is an amazing book (crying considering where the Star Wars universe was in the ''80s-'90s compared to after Disney took over)! And who else has also graduated from BYU? 😁 Yeah, you have guessed it correctly, none other than Stephanie Meyer!

So to conclude, I wanna mention the thesis by Karen Elizabeth Smyth: "What's a Nice Mormon Girl Like You Doing Writing about Vampires?": Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight" Saga and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I will eventually probably read the whole thesis because it looks super interesting (me crying because the only people who probably read my master/bachelor thesis are my mum, my supervisors and my opponents 😭), but here let me mention just this one thing from her thesis. Do you remember the super ancient vampire family Volturi from Italy? Do you have a hunch? 😀 I had no idea until now, even though as a Catholic, I usually notice these anti-Catholic references in media (looking at you Golden Compass or Da Vinci Code 👀).

From chapter Anti-Catholicism: An American and Mormon Issue (pages 19-22): Volturi are described as the “ruling class” and “royalty” of all vampires, human-blood-drinking, merciless creatures who have a large coven of follower vampires who slavishly listen to the orders of their leaders, a single, master vampire and his two powerful partners. Volturi function as the (obviously Catholic) opponent to the (Mormon) Cullens. In the final battle of Breaking Dawn, the Cullens are ready to fight for their lives against the Volturi who have come to destroy them in front of hundreds of vampire witnesses. The Cullens have assured many of their vampire peers that they are not asking them to fight on their side but to serve as “witnesses” to the altercation with the Volturi. These bystanders distinctly evoke the first few pages of the Book of Mormon where the affidavits signed by many “witnesses” claiming to have seen Joseph Smith translate the Book of Mormon from golden plates are still displayed to authenticate the work over a century later.

And there you have it - one rabbit hole solved, with many more waiting to be explored.

P.S. After I wrote this whole essay, the next day FB algorithm showed me this short video about other fan fiction stories which got published as proper books. They are mostly Twilight-inspired, but there are a few Harry Potter fan fiction favourite coupling like Ginny/Draco or Hermione/Draco 😲

Reference:

[1] interview with Stephanie Meyer with her reaction on Fifty Shades of Grey 

[2] The Bizarre Reason So Many Fantasy Authors Are Mormon ✏️ 📖 from Alyssa Grenfell

[3] Thesis by Karen Elizabeth Smyth: "What's a Nice Mormon Girl Like You Doing Writing about Vampires?": Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight" Saga and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints