CJ: You’ve written The Twilight Gospel, as a sort
of response to Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight Saga
series. For those who don’t know about Stephanie
Meyer and the Twilight series why is it important?
DR: Well the books have sold approximately 85
million copies around the world, which puts it up
there with Harry Potter in terms of impact. It’s aimed
at young adults; there are four books published and
another one to come, supported
by a series of films – the latest
of which New Moon came
out last November. It’s
one of those book/film/
clothing franchises
that will be helping to
shape and influence
youth culture and
youth consumption.
The essential
thrust is that a young
girl, Bella, moves
to a remote town in
Washington, to live with
her Dad because her
mum has a new husband.
When she gets there she finds it difficult to settle into
school but she experiences both attraction to, and
hostility from, one of the pupils, Edward. Slowly they
get drawn together but she suspects that all is not
quite straightforward, there are some unusual things
happening and there is no way that she can account
for it other than some kind of supernatural ability.
Eventually she discovers that Edward is a vampire
and doesn’t quite know what to do with that.
The series progresses with her and Edward,
and another guy called Jacob, being the romantic
triangle at the heart of the story. Towards the end
of the third book she marries Edward and they
conceive a child. While the child is being born
Edward has to save her life, he has to make her
a vampire. Towards the end of the fourth book
she discovers that the power she had to exclude
Edward and others from her thoughts she can use
that much more powerfully. So she’s got a latent
psychic gift that the vampire gives her and she uses
that to protect the family and others.
CJ: Now that all sounds a bit scary so why is it
so popular with young adults?
DR: Well there are a couple of things. The
vampire family at the centre of it don’t drink blood
from humans, which partly relates to the fact that
the patriarch of the family was a Vicar’s son and
the values of his upbringing have rubbed off on
him; he doesn’t want to pursue a life of violence,
preying on people.
The romantic interest between Edward and Bella
isn’t consummated sexually until the fourth book
when they are married. So on one level people say
‘Isn’t that good’. But the other side of the coin is that
from Book One Bella is trying to get Edward to go all
the way with her. So there’s this kind of running sexual
tension all the way through. On paper it is moral but
when you read the books it becomes clear that her
[sexual] morals leave something to be desired.
CJ: Clearly some confusing messages
coming through then. So in terms of your book
if you haven’t done a ‘knife and fork job’ on
it what is your approach in terms of putting
another view across?
DR: I think I am deeply wary of two things. One
extreme is the kind of Christian commentary on
popular culture which says ‘think of these stories
as just stories, as secular parables. See if there is
any spiritual insight you can draw from them’. The
technical term is ‘redemptive analogies’. And I think
sometimes in doing that we can miss the power or the
influence that some of the themes might be wielding
in young people’s lives, despite the fact that there
may be storylines within the story that are positive.
The other extreme is that there are Christians
who just see anything remotely to do with sex or the
occult as a no-go area and ban their children from
reading the books. This was the sort of reaction
which Harry Potter brought about. When I was a
publisher I got John Houghton to write about Harry
Potter and whilst he dwelt on the occult for quite
a while he also asked what the books were saying
about human nature, about life. So I’ve taken that
approach with Twilight Gospel and am asking ‘what
is the Twilight Saga saying about life?’
Do we think about what the books say about
money, sex and power? In the back of my mind I
also remember John Stott talking about reading the
papers with the Bible in one hand and so I try to take
the approach where I say there are good things in
this series that you would affirm but there are several
others that you wouldn’t affirm. How can we help
younger readers, many of whom are Christians,
discern the good and also reject the bad.
CJ: If a Christian retailer has someone coming
in and saying ‘I’m a bit concerned about my son/
daughter reading the Twilight series, what could
they say to that customer about how this book
might help them?
DR: Well I think it will help on two levels. It’s very
readable by a parent or youth leader but I’ve also been
quite careful with the language and the concepts and
it could also be read quite easily by a teenager or a
young adult. There are theological issues that I touch
on and could have written about in more depth but
I’ve always felt that parents and youth leaders want
a 108 to 150 pages of information, not 350.
CJ: If you’ve never read any of Meyer’s books
is this going to make any sense at all?
DR: Yes there is a detail plot summary near the
beginning which will give people the broad contours
of the story. Another way into it for some people
might be to see the films which are not totally true
to the books but they’ll give you the essence. The
books are so big – the whole series is 2,500 pages.
The other thing I’ve touched on in the book is
the view of power in terms of spiritual power. It’s
interesting that there’s room for God in the Twilight
Saga but there’s no room for Jesus or the Holy Spirit.
God’s always lurking around in the
background. Edward is always worrying
about the fate of his soul but the closest
you get to a mention of Jesus is a cross
in a hallway somewhere. And there’s no
room for the Holy Spirit because the
spiritual power that they have is coming
from their minds.
One of the things that’s very
damaging about the Twilight Saga is
Bella’s obsession with beauty. When
she finally becomes a vampire she
is looking in the mirror and she says
something like ‘At least I’m pretty now’
and the material I’ve been reading by
social scientists says that 95% of
women have body image problems.
Do we need 2,500 pages of Bella at
various points fulminating about how
she is not very pretty? What message
is that sending to the girls who read
these books?
