Harry Potter News and Commentary
Interview with John Granger about his book, Spotlight: A Close-Up Look at the Artistry and Meaning of Stephenie Meyers’ Twilight Saga.
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Thank you Travis for the pubcast on Twilight. It was interesting to hear about the Mormon connection. As well as Edward being God and Bella being Man.
Mr. Granger – I was wondering if you’ve gotten the chance to interview Ms. Meyers personally with regards to Spotlight. And did she bring up the God/Man connection and other Mormon observations that are in your book? I have only read one interview with her – and I didn’t hear her articulate much on this and other observations in your brief analysis on the pubcast. Or is this perhaps subconscious symbolism on her part and you are revealing that to us? If you have not interviewed her regarding your analysis – I was wondering why. Sometimes I like to hear the author’s intent from the author, if you know what I mean. But I certainly realize authors sometimes don’t even know the symbolism placed in their own works. Thank you so much for sharing information about your book. It was an interesting pubcast!
No, I haven’t spoken with Mrs. Meyer and don’t expect to. The Twilight canon is closed and, as a Solus Textus kind of guy (who reads interviews certainly, but only for lines of sight into the text, not for interpretation), she doesn’t have the authority to affirm or deny interpretations of her work. Especially as she said once, to affirm what you pointed out, she only discovers her themes, symbolism, and meaning after she has written the story.
More on this here: http://www.hogwartsprofessor.com/tolkien-and-rowling-a-case-for-text-only/#comment-37347
A great pubcast. John is brilliant as always. I still fail to be fully convinced, though.
As for interpretation, I’m a text first kind of guy but not necessarily text only. One small correction: The Twilight canon is not closed; it’s only temporarily suspended unless & until Ms. Meyer writes anymore Twilight stories.
A door can be closed and still be reopened, no? So with literary canon…
She can expand on what she has written, either with new stories or telling the old one from different perspectives (the Orson Scott Card ace), but she cannot change the Saga in print.
Just sayin.’
John, grateful for the kind comments
I really enjoyed this bit. The parallel between Edward/God-Bella/Man is fantastic- once you said that I felt like a light-bulb went off. It actually made me appreciate the story more. The prose annoyed me, but I finished the series anyway and enjoyed some of her devices and plot lines. Personally, the shapeshifter/wolves I thought were a great invention and that tension really helped drive the story forward. SO thanks, as always, Mr. Granger, for your insights. Now I may have to start visiting ForksPrf as well.
You made my day! Thank you for this, especially if you buy a copy of Spotlight.
Grateful John
John said, “…but she cannot change the Saga in print.”
True. But I didn’t mean to imply that she could. Your original comment, read in light of your latter comment, makes more sense to me now. That is, the canon is closed for what has already been written.
But what if she could or tried to change the Saga in print? Like Spielberg going into ET and changing things around. Or Lucas continually mucking with the Star Wars films. And then trying to wipe out the previous versions of the works.
I enjoyed this podcast. I am going to buy this book and see if I can’t convince myself to read the Twilight series. I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormon) and am interested to see the Professor’s view on how it connects to the series.
I have read a bit about The Mountain Meadows Massacre and watched a documentary on it. I can’t say (living outside what I call the Utah Mormon Bubble ; I’m from Calfornia) how the year 2003 affected other Mormons other than to say that it is part of our history as a church. It happened. Whom to blame- every author I read seems to disagree. It is tragic that it happened and I guess that it might weigh more heavily on the mind of someone from the area.
I should say that I differ from most Mormons, I know, in many ways (prop 8 specifically-and I’m still active-and intellectually-in other ways). I say that to explain that individuals within a church harbor different views on many aspects of belief (I’m sure this is true in any church).
I have a degree in English literature and love this website and others of the sort. I crave literary analysis on popular literature. The pundits are my favorite part of pottercast. I also want to mention that the author of The Dragonlance Chrinicles, Tracy Hickman, is also Mormon and is part of (or was) farpointe media. He has stated his views on Meyer’s novels and I encourage everyone to check it out.
I should say that I never wanted to read the books and was skeptical until this podcast. The merit I gave them is that they are big books that get a lot of people to read, and that is a very good thing.
Thank you
Vinny
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