Twilight

I wrote this in response to a friend asking for opinions of Twilight.

I have no problems with Christians reading books that delve into the realm of the fantastical or supernatural. I read the Harry Potter books, the Eragon books, the Middle Earth books, and the Narnia books. I have read parts of the Twilight books, but couldn't stand the obsessive behavior of Bella so I put it down.

Obsession and blood, two key elements of Twilight that I have a problem with.

Problem #1: The Role of Blood.
I see your point in the comparison of elves and vampires, (She pointed out the similarities of agility, beauty, human traits, feline traits, and magical capabilities) but you did not mention the greatest difference between the two races: elves do not have a desire for human blood (in fact in the Inheritance Cycle, elves do not even eat animal flesh) vampires on the other hand(though they may be "vegetarians" as Edward Cullen is in Twilight) still have a longing for and an urge to taste blood.

Now I am a girl who likes weapons of all kinds and enjoys movies containing battles, martial arts, swordplay, murder, or just plain old fist fighting, all of which typically contain varying amounts of blood. However I do not enjoy or watch horror films, where it often seems the whole premise is to focus on a lunatic's obsession with someone and then to release this obsession in a torrent of blood. I see a link here with Edward's innate desire to sink his teeth into Bella's skin.

Problem #2: Bella's Obsession with Edward or Edward's Seemingly Perfection.
Bella starts out infatuated. We have all been infatuated at least once and know there is no harm, but Bella becomes so entangled with Edward that she starts risking her safety. Edward has become a god for her and in turn he has become such to many girls and women. So many have said that Twilight is their escape. I like to escape into books as well, I try to do it as often as possible, but so many people are allowing their "escape" to enter their lives. I realized this happening when I overheard a young woman comparing her husband to Edward, wishing that her husband were more like him, and wishing she could find a real man like that. Edward is first of all a fictional character and even then he is not a man! This obsession with a figment of someone else's imagination can not be good for us, can it?

"Maybe elves, at least those of the Tolkien variety, embody our yearning after purer, more angelic duplicates of ourselves while vampires are their darker shadow," you said. This basically sums it up I think. In our imagination we create better pictures of ourselves and when we tire of that we create darker pictures of ourselves. We find a strange beauty in this darkness. I believe this beauty comes from our knowledge that there is redemption from darkness. Redemption is the most beautiful thing I know of and it subconsciously enters our thoughts when we see something sad or dark. Some people mistake the beauty of redemption they see in darkness as being the darkness itself. That is where the danger lies, not in our imagination of dark things, but in our saying that this darkness is beautiful even if it can't be redeemed. After all Edward himself believes he is damned for eternity, but Bella still thinks it is all beautiful.