Here is another bit of chatter from Stephenie Meyer when she met with the Twilight Fansites in June. This is from TwiFans and explores "sex" and the morals and positive message from Twilight.
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Waiting for marriage is the condition, you hussy, Bella!
Stephenie Meyer conjured up the morally ethical vampire, Edward Cullen. So who better to ask why? Why is he so good at keeping Bella's virtue intact? Why is it so important - really?
Twifans.com: Stephenie Meyer discusses why Edward Cullen wants to make Bella wait until marriage by twifans
Transcript
Q: I’m curious about Eclipse because at the point where…I love Eclipse because Edward becomes a lot more flirtatious, and you get to kinda see that.
SM: They have some moments, which are hard to do with fiction because everybody wants constant pacing. I tend to slow down. A lot of what my editors did was cut. Because I just wanna sit and “Let’s have a nice moment. Let’s have a happy time.”
Q: One of the most “nice moments” is when they’re in Edward’s room in bed, and he proposes, okay? There are lots of people that have asked questions, I’ve probably had 10 or 20 just within that one scene. But the one I want the answer to the most is: Edward at one point, he kind-of caves. Just a smidge. When he says “no, no, stop, we’re not doing this until we are married” — is it more out of a moral issue, or is it more out of “I want to make sure you keep up your end of the deal”?
SM: They’re equal parts. There are a couple of things. One is, Edward was born in 1901. And in his mind — he understands the world more clearly than we do. He hears everybody’s thoughts. But to him, this is kind of a…for him it’s a very disrespectful… And he can’t get away from the taboos of his youth. It would be wrong to take advantage of her, in his mind. And obviously, she has a completely different viewpoint. Her viewpoint of it is very modern. She knows that she is with him forever, and she doesn’t see his point. But he just comes from a different place. And I really like, every place I could put in, that would really date him. Because I like when he is…..109.
Q: Chivalrous!
SM: When he’s different, because he has a lot of different experiences. Part of it is, he is stalling for time. He wants to string the…..because there is that part of him that knows it would be better if she went with Jacob. For her, in his mind. He never foresees her being a happy vampire. In his mind, it’s all the Rosalie reaction. He just thinks she will be miserable and there will be so much pain, for her. He wants her to be happy, so he thinks “the longer we string this along, maybe she is going to change her mind, maybe she’ll say yeah, I wanna stay human, I’ll do this.” And then there is just absolutely the physical fear. Because he is really worried about that part of it. The pain of becoming a vampire is not a joke! All this timing, the way I envision it, it’s a big deal. Some say “just bite her, just bite her.” Wouldn’t that just give you so much pause? It’s like you want your husband or your loved one — you want him to be like you, but you’re going to have to torture him for three days. It’s a long time for anyone and bad enough that it went on for three days. It’s a huge deal. That’s a big thing for him. Even knowing that she’ll get over it and it will pass…those three days are a gigantic hurdle.
Q: Do you think that the way that she fears…the fact that before she’s going to turn, she thinks “well what if after I turn, I’m not going to love him anymore or I’m not going to feel the same way?” Does he ever fear that at any time?
SM: Oh, he fears that. He does. She doesn’t much, because she feels that, ya know, “I’m gonna love you forever,” and he knows that things change. And after having just gone through this horrible thing, there could be part of her that turns around and says “you did this to me. I just went through all this horrible stuff because of you. Now my family is going to die, and I’m going to have to watch that.” He just only sees the negative. A lot of him becoming an optimist is, her reaction to being a vampire and seeing…she was right.
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Did you sit watching Eclipse thinking, wow Edward Cullen is quite the gallant gentlemen to guard Bella's virtue? Did you feel a lovely dovey after-school-special message when Edward put the kabash on aggressive Bella?
We wanted to know if she saw the same thing we did and what her thoughts were about that.
P.S. We love aggressive Bella. You go girl. No lie, it's nothing we all wouldn't of tried!
Twifans.com asks Stephenie Meyer how she feels about Eclipse sending a good message to girls (PSA) by twifans
Transcript
Alison: We both have teenage girls.
SM: I’m sorry.
(laughter, chatter)
Alison: The virginity talk in Eclipse is one of our favorites; we were rolling. But…Did you….I almost feel like there’s almost a PSA that comes through in the movie.
SM: I wish it didn’t. I do see that.
Alison: That’s what I want to know.
SM: I feel like people take it as a message. When again, this was something that was just….I wanted Edward’s character to feel of that period. Ya know, he is a different character than a modern character. He is not the same. And I wanted that. He had all these motivations. And to top it, that was fun to write. Ya know, I was surprised, actually, that my editors didn’t have more of a problem with it. But it’s something that people actually could say if people were coming from those two mindsets. And there are people of both mindsets in the world right now, and it felt very real to me. It was never meant to be…none of it’s ever meant to be. I hate it when it comes through PSA.
Q: Are you saying that in the movie, it comes across as PSA?
Alison: Yeah. But for my thirteen- and sixteen-year-old daughters to watch it, I was like, “See?? You gotta marry the guy!”
SM: I don’t like for people to feel like this is anything to apply to your life. One thing is I have had letters from people who’ve said that, you know, who had somewhat abusive boyfriends, and after seeing a character like Edward said “love doesn’t do that”. And in that case, take it as a PSA and run with it. Leave the guy. That’s fantastic. I’m glad for that.
Kim: I like that it’s brought back that outdated concept.
SM: I’m an outdated person, I’m LDS as well, so it was…I mean….I am in some ways, from that earlier time period. And to me, that’s real life. And that’s something that can be very realistic. I do think that there are people who haven’t had experience with that in their life, like they aren’t part of that world. They think it’s very crazy, like “This is nothing anyone would say.” But guess what, those conversations really do happen. It isn’t foreign to everyone.
SM: I enjoy the religion philosophy, because it is so many people. And I don’t know the religion of…I know one or two authors that people have told me, “Oh yeah, so this is--” I don’t know that.
Q: I never knew you were Mormon when I read the books.
SM: It does bother me because that never really--
SM: Jon Stewart had, but no one said, “Jewish father of two” …oh well, you have to roll with it, you have to be honest…
(chatter)
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