# Another Twilight discussion: is Edward a metaphor? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 3, 2008, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-twilight-discussion-is-edward-a-metaphor/475496 "2008-12-03T12:36:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Helena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c68b51/32.png) [@Helena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helena)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-twilight-discussion-is-edward-a-metaphor/475496/21 "2008-12-04T19:58:11Z")
Several years ago (before Twilight came out) I ran across this article about [Famous Mormon Vampires](http://www.adherents.com/lit/famous_lds_vampires.html). I was bemused. ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-twilight-discussion-is-edward-a-metaphor/475496/22 "2008-12-04T20:03:30Z")
That’s funny, in a really bizarre kind of way. I enjoyed Occupation: Girl’s [snarky synopses and commentary on Twilight](http://cleoland.pbwiki.com/Twilight#Bookdiscussionentries), myself. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f07891/32.png) [@Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Plastic_Ninja)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-twilight-discussion-is-edward-a-metaphor/475496/23 "2008-12-04T20:34:53Z")
I’m sort of darkly impressed with this series: I did see the movie, and though I have not read the books, the plot has been explained to me in bits. I think it’s positively brilliant… …because the author seems to have read piles of teen-girl-written fanfic and plumbed the inner fourteen-year-old for what is basically puberty’s crack cocaine. I can tell you that I would have loved the heck out of these books at that age. I mean, holy cow. Angsty hurting strong obsessive boyfriend who sparkles? A beautiful-but-nobody-knows-it-yet-somehow-everyone-loves-her main character who happens to be horribly clumsy? In fifteen years of online RP I have seen ten thousand Bellas. I have seen a fair few Edwards, and they were mostly played by girls (girls of all ages, to be fair, from fourteen to forty-something). Some of them were played by guys who learned the secret: playing Edward snags allllll the girls you can perv on. :rolleyes: For what it is – and that is a series of delightful candy designed to make girls sigh – it is excellent. It is not trying to be literature. It is trying to be delicious sugary cake. ---
**Author:** ![freekalette](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/50afbb/32.png) [@freekalette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freekalette)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-twilight-discussion-is-edward-a-metaphor/475496/24 "2008-12-04T21:26:21Z")
> [@Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](#): > > I’m sort of darkly impressed with this series: I did see the movie, and though I have not read the books, the plot has been explained to me in bits. I think it’s positively brilliant… > > …because the author seems to have read piles of teen-girl-written fanfic and plumbed the inner fourteen-year-old for what is basically puberty’s crack cocaine. I can tell you that I would have loved the heck out of these books at that age. I mean, holy cow. Angsty hurting strong obsessive boyfriend who sparkles? A beautiful-but-nobody-knows-it-yet-somehow-everyone-loves-her main character who happens to be horribly clumsy? > > In fifteen years of online RP I have seen ten thousand Bellas. I have seen a fair few Edwards, and they were mostly played by girls (girls of all ages, to be fair, from fourteen to forty-something). Some of them were played by guys who learned the secret: playing Edward snags allllll the girls you can perv on. :rolleyes: > > For what it is – and that is a series of delightful candy designed to make girls sigh – it is excellent. It is not trying to be literature. It is trying to be delicious sugary cake. Well said. ---
**Author:** ![Rubystreak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Rubystreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rubystreak)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-twilight-discussion-is-edward-a-metaphor/475496/25 "2008-12-04T21:42:49Z")
What bothers me about these books is the utter lack of any rational adult perspective anywhere. None of the parents object to the teenage wedding, or Bella’s utter lack of ambition to do anything but be with Edward. She has no friends from Phoenix, no real non-dead girlfriends, and no hobbies or interests outside reading 19th century novels. She actually gets angry when people suggest she might like to go to college after high school instead of… DYING. Her life revolves around Edward, and secondarily, Jacob. You’d think someone, somewhere in these books would mention that this is not healthy for her and not even particularly normal. But no, it’s portrayed as the epitome of perfect romantic love, when any sane person could see it’s creepy, obsessive, and in any real scenario would be self-destructive. The fourth book is downright vomit-inducing as Bella is literally broken in half and ripped to shreds by her child and husband. But, of course, she rises, phoenix-like from her bloody bed, reincarnated into the perfect woman. Just gross and wrong. But… sigh! Edward is so sparkly! There’s a metaphor there somewhere, I can feel it, but I’m not sure what it is, if not some creepy anti-feminist “your man and your baby are your life” bullshit. ---
**Author:** ![Incensed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Incensed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Incensed)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-twilight-discussion-is-edward-a-metaphor/475496/26 "2008-12-04T23:32:58Z")
> [@GythaOgg](#): > > For a beautiful set of snarky commentary on the books, I suggest [LDS Sparkledammerung](http://stoney321.livejournal.com/317176.html) > . > > The commentator has her own ideas about the supposedly Mormon undertext in the books…and sums them up rather nicely. With pictures, yet! > > It’s hilarious reading and I highly recommend it. Holy Shit, I just read all of that random stream of consciousness, and the following was worth the price of admission- [QUOTE=Stoney321] I say! Do go on about this pleasure! Could it be that slipping the canoe to Mrs. Tolliver is as pleasurable as a fine glass of scotch after a hunt? I say! Who should have ever guessed that a trip to the Lake District could be as scrummy as Mother’s scones with clotted cream. I never did know that a little rumpy pumpy could get the old ticker tocking again, ho ho! _point to trouser fronts_ And look at this! What a stonker!" [/QUOTE] [Redheaded kid from Ricky Bobby]_I don’t know what it means, but I love it!_[/RHKFRB] ---
**Author:** ![Rubystreak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Rubystreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rubystreak)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2008, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-twilight-discussion-is-edward-a-metaphor/475496/27 "2008-12-05T03:38:04Z")
> [@dangermom](#): > > If we can stop with the dumb insults to a religion you guys don’t actually seem to know much about, you might be interested in reading this essay on Twilight: [What Girls Want](http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/print/200812/twilight-vampires). Although the beginning of the essay really annoyed me (“I hate YA novels–they bore me.” So why are you writing about them? “Twilight is fantastic.” What?) when she gets into the story and sex and teen girls, I think she makes a lot of really good points. I particularly like the line “the books constitute a thousand-page treatise on the art of foreplay.” Yeah, pretty much. There are not enough :rolleyes:s for that article. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-twilight-discussion-is-edward-a-metaphor/475496.md?page=1)