Love Stories
Last Saturday a friend loaned me her copies of books 1 – 3 in a growing series by Stephenie Meyer. They are Twilight, New Moon, and Eclipse. The fourth, Breaking Dawn has recently been released and I expect to read it soon.
It’s a gripping story of a girl (Bella) who moves from the big city to a small town and falls for a vampire (Edward). Luckily he practices a “vegetarian” lifestyle and only drinks the blood of animals, how else would he manage to pretend to be a high school student. He needs reminding of that fact when he gets a breeze of her scent. I started reading Sunday or Monday and finished 3 long books in 4 days! To finish books two and three I was up until 5 am! I could not put them down. I started 2 immediately after finishing 1 at 6pmish Tuesday and read through till the end. Tim is away in Norway this week and next and my parents and sister are away this week. My brother is home but I don’t see him much and I get pretty tired of doing the same stuff with Sara Ellen but don’t know what else to do. It’s so lonely without Tim working from home. The readings have been the most exciting thing going on for me this week and I definitley developed a crush on Edward, especially after seeing photos from the upcoming movie. The story is very seductive and addictive.
Read on but beware of potential spoilers –
I have read a lot, well, all the background and extra material from the the author online. The writing is such that I closely relate to Bella and shared her emotions. Sara Ellen was quite tolerant and mostly allowed me to read nonstop. I was quite obsessed and talked about little else in the few adult conversations I have had this week. So today was quite awful because I was bored and lonely and do not have book 4 in my possession. Over the days, and especially today I thought about the romance and how the two can’t live without eachother. During a long separation, supposedly healthy and permenant, both are miserable. When Edward thinks Bella has killed herself, he sets off to do the same. After a century of lonliness, he can no longer live without her in the world, not just out of his. I was considering the health of such a situation, how it basically excluded all other relationships. Aside from the fact that she wants to become a vampire in order to live forever with him at “close” ages, and that he hates the idea because he believes himself to be damned, soulless, and the living dead.
Meyer is Mormon (she never did answer the question “what’s a good Mormon girl doing writing about vampires?”) and I imagine that takes the writing in a clean direction which is refreshing. But this is just a story she saw in a dream and had to write about, it is not intended as a lesson. She does elaborate online the many kinds of love, namely True Love.
With this idea I was lead to consider Tim and I. I married because I want to share my life with him intimately in all ways for all the days God has allotted to us. That is a mature of way of saying I don’t want to be with anyone else. I don’t want to lose, or be lost to Tim but I consider that if we do not grow into old age together because of health or accident that we should be able to find a new companion if one felt the need. What does that say about true love? Does one spouse or the next receive more love than the other?
When Edward has left, Bella develops a close emotionally comfortable relationship with a family friend (Jacob) after months of misery. He brings light back into her life. Meyer shows and says that it is a different way to fall in love – subtle and gradual. Not the exciting, feet-sweeping love Bella has for Edward. She learns that she is in love with Jacob but she has to choose. She chooses the love she cannot live without over the love it hurts not to have, breaking a small piece of her heart.
Were I to lose Tim, I don’t know what I would do. I would have to find a way to continue my life, missing him all the time and remembering his love. I miss him now and look forward to his return in another week.
I looked for any reviews or thoughts on Christianity Today.com and found only this Q&A.
The official movie website.
I welcome your thoughtfulness on the subject.
Please Leave a Comment: