Twilight and Philosophy, Vampires, Vegetarians and the Pursuit of Happiness - (ed.) Rebecca Housel & J Jeremy Wisnewski

I've always been interested in philosophy, not in an academic way, but the broad ethics and ideas involved; so this book certainly looked of interest.

Part of a series of philosophy and popular culture books, this volume draws together 18 articles from leading academics around the world to look at the philosophical themes within the Twilight series of books.

The articles are short and easy to read, and they certainly added depth to my reading of the Twilight series and their characters.

Themes such as whether immortality is something to be desired, what can the books tell us about god, is Carlisle really compassionate and the morality of Edward.

A number of the articles explore the theme of feminism in the Twilight books, even going so far as to discuss the similiarities between Bella Swan and Sarah Palin!

Actually when I stop to think about it Bella is very much not an empowered young woman; she moves to Forks so that her mother's new husband can move in, she has few interests or hobbies (other than Edward), she is able to walk away from her life both in Pheonix and Forks with no-one appearing to be bothered (friends?), and the only things she seems capable of doing are the laundry and cooking for her father - for everything else she asks a man (vampire or werewolf). It is as if Bella has no purpose or meaning except for that bestowed on her by the men who surround her.

As the article points out; her mother on seeing Bella and Edward together comments - 'the way you move - you orient yourself around him without even thinking about it ..... You're like a .... Satellite'.

I've never really been one to read 'notes' about books, or to study the stories in much depth, but these articles were really interesting and in my opinion added to my enjoyment and understanding of the series. I certainly came away from this book with a changed view of the characters that Stephanie Meyer's book - many of them not very flattering!

There are a number of philosophy and pop culture books available, I will be ordering some more (House, Alice in Wonderland, and possibly The Simpsons!).

Bought in Blackwells
12 - 26th January 2010