Philosophie in Twilight

Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture #15

by Rebecca Housel (Editor), J. Jeremy Wisnewski (Herausgeber), William Irwin (Series Editor)

Erfahren Sie, wieso Stephenie Meyers Liebesgeschichte zwischen der sterblichen Bella Swan und dem "vegetarischen" Vampir Edward Cullen so viele Menschen fasziniert und warum es sich dabei um so viel mehr als oberflächliche Jugendliteratur handelt.

Einleitung: Die Weisheit der Untoten
1. Du siehst zum Anbeißen aus: Liebe, Wahnsinn und die Essens-Analogie (George A. Dunn)
2. Vor Hunger sterben: Die vegetarische Ethik von Twilight (Jean Kazez)
3. Carlisle: Was bei Superman die Schnelligkeit, ist bei ihm das Mitgefühl (Andrew Terjesen und Jenny Terjesen)
4. Vampir-Dämmerung: Was kann Twilight uns über Gott sagen? (Peter S. Fosl und Eli Fosl)
5. Beißen oder nicht beißen: Twilight, Unsterblichkeit und der Sinn des Lebens (Brendan Shea)
6. Gedanken lesen und Moral: Edwards moralisches Dilemma (Eric Silverman)
7. Untotes Patriarchat und die Möglichkeit von Liebe (Leah McClimans und J. Jeremy Wisnewski)
8. Liebe und Autorität unter Wölfen (Sara Worley)
9. Ein Idol im Zwielicht: Die fatale Anziehungskraft von Vampiren (Jennifer L. McMahon)
10. Bellas Vampir-Semiotik (Dennis Knepp)
11. Raum, Zeit und Vampir-Ontologie (Philip Puszczalowski)
12. Für eine starke Bella? Meyer, Vampire und Mormonentum (Marc E. Shaw)
13. Das Tao von Jacob (Rebecca Housel)

Genres: Nonfiction, Philosophy, Vampires, Essays, Paranormal, Contemporary, Psychology

187 pages, Paperback

Published June 8, 2010

Reviews

[Manny · Rating 2 out of 5]

(From the introduction I offered to write for them, which they inexplicably turned down. Honestly, what's wrong with these people?)

The idea that everything is crap was familiar even to the Pre-Socratics. Anaximander's ομνικοπρος outlined the initial form of a theory eagerly embraced by so many of his contemporaries that Sophocles saw fit to satirize it in The Turds: our choice is between being a "worm", burrowing through the world's shit, or a "fly", perching precariously on top of it. But, at the end of the renowned Dialogue with Scato from the Phaedrus, the greatest philosopher of antiquity shows us a possible escape route. The metaphor of the lily growing from the dung-heap famously encapsulates Plato's counterargument.

In just the same way, the Cullen family also succeed in transcending "this crappy world".

The rest of this review is in my book What Pooh Might Have Said to Dante and Other Futile Speculations

[Joedian · Rating 3 out of 5]

So I can't remember why exactly I was pulled into wanting to read this book since it was so long ago. It's not that I'm a slow reader (because I am definitely not) but the fact the book could be so boring. It was like reading a textbook for English class. Some things sparked genuine interest and were easy to breeze through but the other 75% percent of the book is as appealing as gritting my teeth for more than a hour.

I loved the topics that really analysed and compare Bella and Edward relationship to the real world. It made come to the realization that even though at first glance Edward seems as if the perfect boyfriend, but he's actually quite the opposite. The guy is the definition of a controlling, abusive boyfriend.It's really sad to know a whole bunch of youth girls admire him and wish to find someone like him. Seriously! The guy's a douche.

Then, moving on to Bella, I always thought she was a little stupid but I think after reading this book and seeing it analysed, I have lost all respect for her. She's really just girl that is dependent on her relationship with Edward. Without him, she is nothing. She seems like she independent in the beginning of the series but as the books continues, she really loses that quality to Edward. I guess, I would just rather that she could hold her own without making Edward her every reason to live. There's more to life than a man.

Honestly, let's face it. In real life a relationship of this nature could never survive. At some point and time Bella would realize Edward controls her every movement and see she longer has a mind of her own or Edward would get use to controlling Bella and like a plague take more control of her.

So anyways, I liked certain aspects of the book but more or less the topics could get a little mundane and just completely boring.

[Ro Nowak · Rating 2 out of 5]

sadly, this turned out to be my least favorite of books on twilight i read so far. (check out my welcome to forks shelf if you are interested in more!)
maybe i misread what the intended audience is supposed to be - i read it as a graduate of literature and media studies who reads both philosophy and literary analysis quite regularly. i felt this book is more likely intended for middle school / high school twilight fans who want to learn a little about philosophy. but even considering this, i don't think this is a very good collection. both the philosophy and the analysis of twilight are quite superficial & often informed by (wilful?) misreadings of the series. working more closely with the text would have helped with this. all in all the book gives me the vibes of having been put together quite hastily and without the sufficient editing work & an actual effort of a lot of the authors to substantiate their claims by citing Stephenie Meyer's books.

three essays i enjoyed & which are worth reading, though, are:
-"undead patriarchy and the possibility of love" by Leah McClimans and J. Jeremy Wisnewski
-"twilight of an idol : our fatal attraction to vampires" by Jennifer L. McMahon
-"space, time, and vampire ontology" by Philip Puszczalowski

[Gillian Hagenus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a half bad bedtime read I've got to say

[kory. · Rating 1 out of 5]

a lot of these essays are boring, look a little too much into things, ignore facts of the series and reality in order to make a point, are just hot garbage, and seem to showcase a thinly veiled disdain for the topic at hand.

content/trigger warnings; sex, blood, racism, abuse, rape, stalking, violence against women, murder, death,

the essay on vegetarianism bugs me and i was going to rant, but honestly the issue was just the author simply ignoring everything that complicates their flawed argument or inventing scenarios in which they wouldn’t complicate their argument. if you have to go to such lengths to defend your point, is it really worth defending?

but the essays that truly bother me are the ones pertaining to feminism. now i’m not someone who believes fiction has no impact or influence on real life, but some of these essays truly warrant the response “it’s not that deep”. such as the essay questioning whether bella swan is a role model or twilight is worth emulating. aside from the fact that i can’t take anyone seriously who is genuinely arguing why people shouldn’t model their relationships after twilight, as if it’s not already a given that a teen romance book about vampires isn’t the yardstick of love, i’m over the scrutiny of bella and fictional women under the guise of feminist concerns about role models.

who said bella is a role model? who said bella has to be role model? why does a girl/woman character have to be Good and Responsible and Inspiring and Moral in order to be worthy of reading about or enjoying? why do girls/women in fiction have to live up to some check list of perfection and goodness otherwise they’re setting women back? who said twilight should emulated? who says a book has to be worthy of emulation in order to be worthy of reading or enjoying? why does a teen fantasy romance series about vampires have to fit the modern feminist ideals of the real world? why does it have to be a morally good story with characters and relationships people should want in their real lives order to be read and enjoyed? why can’t it just be taken for what it is?

and if you’re concerned about your daughters reading twilight (which very much has “think of the children” pearl clutching vibes. seriously, one author said she read the series when her daughter became obsessed with it and was horrified upon reading it and feels its message to girls is a “cause for despair”.), why don’t you have a conversation with them about it? why don’t you do your job as a parent to teach them what healthy love and relationships look like? instead of getting mad at a vampire book for not doing it for you? this idea that every young girl who reads twilight is going to end up romanticizing abuse is just fucking bizarre.

and i find it a little insulting that people, mothers, seem to think teenage girls don’t have the ability to objectively or critically engage with fiction. that they will see nothing but a sparkly vampire and then run happily into the arms of evil but pretty men, that your worst fears about what they could interpret from fiction is what they’re going to mindlessly interpret. maybe given them a little more credit than that. maybe be a little more concerned about the idolized, misogynistic literature that your daughters will be forced to read in school.

one author summarized the twilight series but completely removed the context to frame it as a true crime story about humans; “in reality this book would be a horrific account of violence against women” and “if edward were real, he’d be jailed” but it’s not reality, he’s not real, and they’re vampires. the author makes several questionable statements, such as implying the cullens aren’t truly a family because they’re not blood related, which is blatantly offensive to all the different ways of being family; and stating “there’s no love in bruises” referencing bella being bruised after sex with edward, which makes me wonder about where the author is coming from, because a bruise does not equal abuse, nor does rough sex equal abuse, and plenty of regular old real life humans engage in loving (or otherwise trusting) consensual sex that leaves marks.

the author goes on to list out statistics on violence against women, the signs of abusive relationships, how different types of abuse are technically defined, and even the number of women murdered by intimate partners the year twilight was released (???????). and i’m struggling to wrap my mind around it. the author mentions she was in an abusive relationship and i just feel like the entire essay was just projection that amounts to a warning against the book and a psa about abuse all masquerading as thoughtful philosophical analysis. (and let’s not talk about the sudden shift from condemning abuse to randomly and ironically proclaiming jacob, not edward, is the “ideal boyfriend”.)

there are plenty of issues with bella and edward’s relationship, which i go into in my review of twilight (and midnight sun), but projecting the worst of real-life statistics of abused, raped, and murdered women onto a fictional relationship that has nothing to do with those statistics is a weird fucking choice and feels disrespectful to those women. ignoring the actual canonical issues in favor of completely stripping away the context in order to mold them into something worse and wildly different through a lens of “but what if they were real” is also a weird fucking choice.

(btw don’t let my 5-star rating of twilight fool you. it was just a fun reread.)

[An · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poor cover photo aside, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. While I didn't agree with everything said in all the essays, it gave me a lot to ponder and made some excellent points. The reason I gave this book only four stars is because throughout the series, several false statements are made, a fairly common (and maddening) phenomenon in books about books. Some examples of these falsities:

---Saying Bella "attempts suicide by Harley" p. 158. Actually, she was just into "extreme sports", as Alice explains when Bella and Alice meet up with Edward in Italy at the end of New Moon.

---Saying it "doesn't cross Edward's mind" that Bella was "better off without him". p. 160 LOL! The entire reason Edward left Bella in New Moon was thinking Bella was better off without him, and he tells both Bella and Jacob as much.

---Saying Jacob is the only one who tells Bella not to become a vampire. Rosalie and Edward both do as well, and Edward does everything possible to convince her to stay human p. 188

---Saying Jacob "never threatens" Bella and is "the ideal boyfriend-lover". I'm not team-Jacob, so I'm biased, but I found it kind of ironic the chapter making the case Edward was a dangerous, abusive man girls shouldn't dream about, calls an assaulting, hot-tempered werewolf "ideal". p. 188.

--- Saying Edward kills Bella, and drains her blood in Breaking Dawn. p. 178 Actually, Bella's medical cause of death is not stated, but she dies as a complication of the birth (probably blood loss), and Edward transforms her into a vampire after her heart has already stopped.

---Describing the Cullen family as a "cult" and challenging whether they are truly a family, because they are not biologically related. (That really ticked me off.) p. 177

---Saying Bella is "ALWAYS focusing on herself". p. 184. Like anyone, Bella has her moments of selfishness. The time she asks Edward to skip the battle in Eclipse comes to mind. But ultimately, I think she is a fairly self-sacrificing character. She risks everything to give Renesmee life. She stabs herself to distract Victoria and protect Edward. She goes to Italy, knowing how much trouble it will mean for her, to rescue Edward. And Edward certainly sees her as selfless. This scene from Eclipse comes to mind:

"Can't you guess which character Bella would identify with?" (Edward)

It took Jacob a minute. "Oh. Ugh. The third wife. Okay, I see your point."

[The third wife being referenced here is a woman who stabs herself, dying to save her tribe from a vengeful vampire, intent on destroying the village.]

In summary, this book is a great read if you're looking for a variety of perspectives and cool concepts on the Twilight Saga, given you are able to overlook a variety of untrue statements used to back up the authors' personal opinions.

[Srividya Venkataraman · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit boring to learn the philosophies

[Mell · Rating 2 out of 5]

At first I was skeptical of a book that's obviously hoping to cash-in on Twi-mania. But I could not resist some critical analysis of this book series, which is sometimes good and other times problematic.

There is a great essay (and the high point of the book, imho) by Bonnie Mann addressing Bella's lack of life interest outside of Edward--comparing her domesticity and identity through men to Simone de Beauvoire's The Second Sex. But some of the essays are less interesting and others barely make a point. The Sarah Palin chapter was a big disappointment. Another essay looks at Edward and Bella vs Rochester and Jane as Byronic hero and feminist, but it feels like the Bella and Edward are just thrown in to make a Jane Eyre analysis more "current."

[Andrea Manzanilla · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25

Research for my thesis.

[Ivan Loginov · Rating 4 out of 5]

Twilight and Philosophy is a surprisingly good collection of essays covering many different philosophical questions from various perespectives. I especially loved those focused on feminist issues like Undead Patriarchy and the Possibility of Love or The “Real” Danger: Fact vs. Fiction for the Girl Audience. I'd recommend those to anyone interested in feminist critique of pop culture. On the other hand, some texts, like Bella's vampire semiotics by Dennis Knepp could have been left out.

[Michael Barros · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ok so seems like we’re all in agreement that team Jacob is the only team that doesn’t promote emotional abuse.

[Kathleen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Warning: contains Twilight bashing.

I have never completed reading the Twilight series. I got about ten pages into Book 1 when it was first released in a genuine attempt to give the new book a shot (sidenote: I'd originally had misgivings when the Harry Potter series first launched, and was pleasantly surprised to find that I loved the series). I was profoundly disappointed, and the best description I could think of for it was "narcissistic abstinence porn." I still hold to that opinion.

I picked up Twilight and Philosophy because I have wanted to better understand the phenomenon of vampires and escape fiction in modern culture—just because I don't care for it doesn't mean that it is meaningless—and I reasoned that a book of such widespread popularity must have struck some chord of universal human or undead experience. In that I may have been right: many of the essays contained in the book focus on "teaching philosophy through Twilight, as many of the other books in the series do. To a Twihard who has never studied philosophy before, this could undoubtedly be useful. By the same token, the book reads much more like a Cliff's notes for a philosophy class, and is much more focused on explaining philosophy through than on analyzing the philosophical implications of the novel. This, to me, de-legitimized the book. I picked it up with the hope that I would find some meaning (and some serious discussion) about the series on a level that was not, "OMG, Jacob or Edward, I can't decide?!"

I appreciate the consideration that the Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture series has extended to include Twilight in their series, but I hope that the next time they do it (say, with Fifty Shades of Grey) they will remember to include a little more philosophy between the covers.

[Dann · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fans of the Twilight Saga should steer clear of this schlock; never has a Blackwell Philosophy book shown as much disdain for its subject as this one does. Twilight and Philosophy: Vampires, Vegetarians, and the Pursuit of Immortality holds the Twilight Saga up to philosophical scrutiny, but not in any kind of fun or intriguing way. Many of the essays compare the Bella/Edward relationship (and Bella in particular) to standards that no teen romance novel could live up to. Other essays are overly focused on the philosophical ideas, and only have the slightest tangential connection to Twilight. Among all this tripe there are a couple of interesting essays, but they’re not worth reading the whole book for. Twilight and Philosophy: Vampires, Vegetarians, and the Pursuit of Immortality reads more as a slam book than an intellectual look at one of the most influential young adult book series of the last decade.

[Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's one of the most comprehensive collection of essays based on the saga. I bought it because as a literature student it's nice to combine the literary philosophies with something as popular and widely read as Twilight. Whether you love Twilight Saga or hate it, this book provides essays that are fairly objective and assess a popular book with classical means. I enjoyed this a lot.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've read a few of these essays and find the book interesting. I'm a closeted Twilight fan and progressing into a theory/criticism junkie, so this is a pleasing combination for me.

[Daniel G · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gdy fani przeczytali w zapowiedzi książki "[..]i filozofia", popadli w spazmy. Na forach pojawiły się komentarze, że to wyciąganie pieniędzy, że książka z góry będzie beznadziejna, że w tytule jest oksymoron, że nic nowego na pewno tam się nie pojawi, że... No właśnie, problem w tym, że wszystkie te komentarze nie potwierdziły się. Tytuł jest jak najbardziej trafny - saga "Zmierzch" omawiana jest w kontekście filozofii. I tej filozofii wcale nie jest mało. Znajdziemy tam odwołania, do (wszystkim dobrze znanych) starożytnych filozofów takich jak Platon, Sokrates, Arystoteles; głównych myślicieli oświecenia jak Immanuel Kant czy Spinoza. Pojawi się też Nietzsche, a nawet taoizmu z teorią yin i yang! Poza tym zacnym gronem autorzy sięgają po myśli mniej znanych, współczesnych filozofów jak Michael Slote czy Nussbaum. Całe szczęście w książce tej nie znajdziemy paplaniny w stylu "Edward, kocham Cię - Bella w tym fragmencie wyznaje swoje uczucia". Nie są analizowane dokładnie fragmenty każdego tomu. Autorzy raczej wyłapywali kolejne idee, jak wegetarianizm wampirów, konsekwencje nieśmiertelności, psychologiczne relacje w związku Belli i Edwarda etc. Mnie osobiście bardzo spodobała się analiza wieczności wampirów i przedstawiona koncepcja miłości (która kategorycznie wymaga istnienia śmierci). Zapewne wielu czytelników zakochanych w powieści Stephenie Meyer zmieni swój stosunek do postaci po tej lekturze. Co prawda stwierdzenie: "Poszukując idealnego Edwarda, narazicie się tylko na podbite oczy, gwałt, tortury [...]" (s. 206) jest mocno przesadzone, ale jednak ma coś z prawdy. Jakby się obiektywnie przyjrzeć, to książkowy Edward faktycznie zdradzał jakieś psychopatyczne skłonności (widać to również w adaptacji filmowej). Dzieło tej zbiorowej orgii filozoficznej bardzo przypadło mi do gustu - i myślę, że nie tylko mnie, gdyż jest napisane w bardzo przystępny sposób (dzięki czemu szerokie grono odbiorców może wszystko zrozumieć). Jedynie co mnie trochę irytowało to myśli "feministyczne" przewijające się przez kilka rozdziałów. Mam wrażenie, że autorka tych fragmentów bardzo na siłę i dobitnie chciała skierować uwagę na feminizm, gdyż to słowo pojawiło się w książce kilkadziesiąt razy w każdych odmianach i rodzajach, co po pewnym czasie stało się nużące. Od strony technicznej też mam kilka zarzutów - nie ma żadnego spisu treści, a bibliografia na końcu zawiera liczne odnośniki do sagi "Zmierzch", ale, niestety, tylko do angielskich odpowiedników. Mimo to serdecznie zachęcam do kupna tej książki i na koniec dodam, że z tej samej serii dostępne są też: "Dr House i filozofia" oraz "X-men i filozofia".

[Hope · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was an interesting introduction to philosophy and the level of complexity was perfect for someone like me with no prior knowledge. there are a few inaccuracies about what happened in the novels but they don’t detract from the quality of the essays too much. i took a star off because zacks comparison of bella to sarah palin was just egregiously nonsensical and the “generation me” portion didn’t really hold up either.

[Laura Steinert · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVE this book. I read, and sort of enjoyed, the Twilight saga because my students were so enthralled with it. It made me very uncomfortable from start (100-year-old stalker creeping into a teen's bedroom) to finish (child bride promised before marriage to a guy who was almost 20 when she was born). This book supports my conviction that this series was creepy and a little sick.

[Nekkina93/72 · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sinceramente non mi è piaciuto per niente.
Secondo il mio parere questo libro non esprime per niente la filosofia della saga, anzi, sembra mettere tutto in negativo.
Quando secondo me, non hanno capito proprio niente della saga.
Più che un romanzo, sembra un enorme recensione negativa, che sinceramente facevano prima a mettere su un qualsiasi sito di recensioni.

[Maddie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Philosophers are #TeamJacob, btw. Honestly this wasn't as compelling as other philosophy essay books, but I think that's mostly the source material's fault. There's not a lot for these essays to go off of but I did enjoy the in depth takedown of Mormonism in the novels and how feminism can apply to Bella Swan. Tao of Jacob was also very well done.

[M · Rating 5 out of 5]

eine sehr interessante Kombination aus zweier Disziplinen: Fiktion und Philosophie

obwohl ich kein großer Twilight-Fan bin, fand ich die behandelten Themen äußerst interessant und kann es jedem - ja, auch nicht-Fans - weiterempfehlen, sofern man sich gerne mit der Philosophie beschäftigt

am besten hat mir das Kapitel gefallen, in der über Bellas naiven Wunsch unsterblich zu sein diskutiert wurde

hier ein paar meiner Lieblingszitate, die mich zum Denken angeregt haben:

Man kann sich bestens vorstellen, wie die Jahre nach dem Ende des Buches dahinfließen: Bella reist in der Welt herum, besucht eine Vielzahl berühmter Universitäten und schreibt ein Buch. Aber was dann? Was werden Bella und Edward in 200 Jahren tun? (...)
Nach Tausenden von Jahren werden sie vielleicht sogar jegliches Bedürfnis verloren haben, miteinander zu reden - da jeder weiß, was der andere sagen wird, auch ohne dass er den Mund aufmacht.

Bellas Entscheidung, ein Vampir zu sein, ist nicht unbedingt die falsche für sie, aber sie ist keine, auf die wir neidisch sein sollten.

[Samantha Scholl · Rating 2 out of 5]

It posed some interesting questions, but doesn’t seem like it was written by anyone that is a fan of the books or how they ended, other than maybe two contributors. It digs a little too deep into a work of fantasy. It also gets some mythology and plot points wrong.

[pbal+gr2amazon.com · Rating 1 out of 5]

good

[Goaran10additional · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book has characters that attract you with their personality, they attract with their good vibes.

[Sapphire · Rating 5 out of 5]

Entertaining, easy to understand, superb organization.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s like a collection of short essays by various people on each book in the Twilight saga. If you like intellectually stimulating things, this is the book for you.

[Todd C. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some really fun and ridiculous deep dives into Twilight.

[Zaksiaz_kowaana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Książka przy której bawiłam się świetnie, ale dlatego, że treść była dla mnie komiczna. Zastanawiające, że komuś zależało na taak dogłębnej analizie książki pisanej dla rozrywki 🤭

[Victoria · Rating 2 out of 5]

have quite literally been trying to finish this book for over 3 years now—not worth the effort and none of the arguments were convincing enough to warrant the crossing of two very sacred studies.

[Anna Gomes · Rating 2 out of 5]

Se esforçaram muitooooo pra atribuir certos conceitos e valores a série crepúsculo, poucos artigos realmente apontaram os fatores problemáticos da obra