Comments on: ‘New Moon’: Do Vampires Have Souls? And Other Pressing Questions

By: Fuffy

Fuffy — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 04:02:09 +0000

In buffy the vampire slayer 2 vampires have a soul which was gained

By: Kristi

Kristi — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 04:32:55 +0000

I love this review! It’s pretty funny. I have been reading Twilight and just bought New Moon. As a Christian, I have been debating about continuing. Though so far it has been pretty tame compared to others of its genre and in most pop culture these days, I always tend to ask myself what the message is, if indeed there is a message in Twilight. I have read Meyer commenting about how they are pretty much purely escapist, so maybe she intended them not to convey anything in particular. I guess the main thing which has bothered me is the fact that Bella does indeed tend to put this relationship above and beyond everything, and as I peeked ahead a bit in New Moon, I discovered the whole line about heaven, which I love your response to, by the way “(whatever)”. Does anyone know how they address this specifically later on? Thanks, and great work. BTW, I love Harry and the Deathly Hallows, but I found what you said about shallow Crist figures very interesting. I thought the way Rowling handled it with Harry was awesome, at least until the train station and his choice to come back or go on. Still though- I’m thoroughly glad Deathly Hallows was so Christian in its themes.

By: The Dane

The Dane — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 19:05:20 +0000

Wow. It would be a huge disservice to Murakami to mention in the same breath with that hack Phillip Pullman and not do it in a contrasting manner :) Maybe describing the "soulless" as zombie-like wasn't exactly right (as it does sound pretty similar to those children in The Golden Compass who had their familiars stripped. The characters in Murakami's books are at least competent enough to narrate a story as they sometimes do. It's more just like a piece of them is missing and they don't know what it is but they know it's wrong and so they're kinda broken. Or something. ______________________ Re: HP Maybe it's actually because you love Christ that you don't want your books populated with shallow Christ-figures. That's pretty much how it works for me. The Danes last blog post..20080721

By: Carissa Smith

Carissa Smith — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 17:21:00 +0000

Re: Harry Potter . . . Hee. I’ve been grumbling to people that the second inspiration for Breaking Dawn had better not be the New Testament, because I don’t think I can take any more shallow versions of dying-and-rising again, a la Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. My husband pointed out that vampires are already sort of dead-and-risen again, though, so hopefully she won’t go that route. Though we do already know that the searingly painful transformation from human to vampire takes three days . . . Sigh. Just because I love Christ doesn’t mean I want my books populated with shallow Christ-figures. Hopefully Meyer’s not going that direction.

By: Carissa Smith

Carissa Smith — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 17:13:35 +0000

I’ve heard of Murakami, but haven’t read him. I’m not sure Meyer’s actually being that creative with her concept of the soul. What you say of Murakami actually sounds a little more like Philip Pullman’s (insert requisite hissing noise here) daemons in His Dark Materials. The children who are surgically separated from their daemons sort of become hollow like that. Of course, in some ways, Pullman’s daemons are more like animal familiars than like souls, but . . . yeah.

By: The Dane

The Dane — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 22:41:50 +0000

Interesting take on souls. Have you read any Murakami? In many of his books (notably in Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and Sputnik Sweetheart), there is a sense of soul that is apart from (though perhaps related to) that thing that motivates, drives, and is otherwise responsible for the inner life of a person. In Murakami, the soul of a person seems closer to being that thing (I want to say spark) makes a personality unique. Those who are missing that piece of themselves tend to behave in rather zombie-like fashions, holding only tentative grasp on the world about them. There are characters who are missing this piece of them and feel wrong and there are those who are missing it but in finding this part of themselves absent become so little interested in anything that seeking their missing piece is an activity to which they cannot possibly motivate themselves. And other people notice as well. In the first story in the After the Quake collection, a wife leaves her husband because he is hollow and it's like being in a room with nothing but air. Still other characters either have this soul-thing corrupted or have an additional, corrupted soul-thing forced inside them. It's all pretty fascinating to me, and your discussion of Twilight here reminded me of it. _________________________ p.s. The famous work that the the fifth book reframes is, I have on good authority, Harry potter and the Half-Blood Prince. You can see why she'd want to keep that mum. The Danes last blog post..20080721