What We Can Learn from a Bad Book

I have been reading Cami's blog about the new Twilight book, Breaking Dawn, and made a long comment which I copied here.

Cami, you are right, and do not back down to any degree. I know it's exhausting and discouraging when people you trust and admire try to whitewash something truly bad. But this is your chance to be steadfast.

Like Flannery O'Connor said, "I am not afraid that this book will be controversial. I am afraid that it will not be controversial." She also wrote, "The two worst sins of bad taste in fiction are pornography and sentimentality. One is too much sex and the other too much sentiment. You have to have enough of either to prove your point but no more . . . it's when sex is used for its own sake that it is in bad taste.'

G. K. Chesterson wrote, "Good literature tells us the mind of one man; but bad literature may tell us the mind of many men.A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author. It does much more than that, it tells us the truth about its readers and oddly enough, it tells us this all the more the more cynical and immoral be the motive of its manufacture. The more dishonest a book is as a book the more honest it is as a public document."

This book and the various reactions it is getting serve as a public document showing the mind of our culture. It is way out of bounds when it comes to sex and sexuality and lots of Mormons are at the front of the bandwagon, sorry to say. I am dismayed at positive reactions to this book and that people do not put it down at the first suggestion of something cheap or kinky. We seem to have forgotten the 13th Article of Faith. And I am even more dismayed that people are letting their children read it. According to what I've heard from here, there, and everywhere, and actual quotes from the book, it's trash, meant to incite lust whether it succeeds or not. Shame on the author. You can be sure she is not innocent and enjoyed plenty of meaningless and lustful feelings while creating it. She had to think it up, write, and rewrite it who knows how many times. People who are preoccupied with sex, including kinky sex, often feel the need to recruit others into their obsession. I think the author could use professional help. I think she might not even know she has a problem or that she is harming others. When people are sick they don't know it. And the book is not just regular porn. It also promotes sado-masochism, a popular pastime among sad souls addicted to sex. S & M is defined as inflicting pain and receiving pain for additional sexual kicks. It is violent. The most extreme pornography ends in blood, torture, and death. There are people who get sexually turned on by watching or writing or reading or doing such things. Perhaps the author stumbled on to this without meaning to. But there it is.

Given the conditions of our culture, I think we are all in danger of being conditioned into thinking unhealthy, extreme, and bizarre ideas about sex are okay. This book is a good example of being very cleverly taken in bit by bit, author included. THESE IDEAS ARE NOT HARMLESS. Anything other than kind, loving, wholesome, relations between husband and wife is UNCHASTE and harmful, to put it mildly.

I have a book coming out called Chased by an Elephant, the Gospel Truth about Today's Stampeding Sexuality for LDS youth 12 and up which includes a much-needed parents' guide. Sad to say, Meyer's book series is a made-to-order representation of that stampede.