CYNICISM AND ANGST, MEET THY CONQUERER – STEPHANIE MEYER

Vampires, Werewolves, teen interracial (or rather, interspecies) romances, clan wars, first love and painful loss, the innocence of new generations and the cynicism of the old; when you pick up a Stephanie Meyer book you get it all! While her target audience may have been teenagers and young adults, her books have managed to bypass age barriers and connect with all readers. Her writing is fresh with an insistent naiveté that strikes this reader as deeply honest. She is a writer who embraces optimism and deliberately avoids exploiting the dramas and traumas of our teenage years. Rather, she infuses all of her work with the sweetness of possibility. This is not to say she ignores all that can go wrong, but rather she refuses to give in to the ugly that evil does and shows us the possible future found in doing the right thing. Meyer provides her readers with an ideal, albeit somewhat utopian in nature, but none the less a standard to which we may all aspire. Through her Twilight series (Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn) as well as her new release, The Host, Stephanie Meyer leaves us with a very strong sense of hope and possibility. And she does this all with vampires, werewolves, humans and aliens. It is truly fantastic and she is truly a fantastic writer.

So, now that I have established my very real admiration for her work, I’m going to slide into a momentary rant, if you will. One that I’d like to hear your opinion on.

In her Twilight series, Stephanie Meyer tells us of the incredible love story between human and vampire, Bella and Edward, as told from the perspective of Bella. From the moment I cracked the spine of the first book, Twilight, I was spellbound, always looking forward to the next book release. This included her much anticipated fifth installment, called Midnight Sun. Written from the perspective of Edward Cullen, Stephanie Meyer intended to rewrite Twilight so as to offer her readers the magic through another character’s eyes. Much like how Jack Whyte wrote Uther in conjunction with his Dream of Eagles series, Meyer was offering her readers the unique chance of seeing her work from a different perspective. It was brilliant and, as I said, much anticipated not just by myself but, by all her fans. However, on August 28th, 2008, Stephanie Meyer left a statement on her website ( http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/ ) telling of her decision to stop work on Midnight Sun. An excerpt of her statement is below:

As some of you may have heard, my partial draft of Midnight Sun was illegally posted on the Internet and has since been virally distributed without my knowledge or permission or the knowledge or permission of my publisher…I have no comment beyond that as I believe that there was no malicious intent with the initial distribution…I did not want my readers to experience Midnight Sun before it was completed, edited and published. I think it is important for everybody to understand that what happened was a huge violation of my rights as an author, not to mention me as a human being…So where does this leave Midnight Sun? My first feeling was that there was no way to continue. Writing isn't like math; in math, two plus two always equals four no matter what your mood is like. With writing, the way you feel changes everything. If I tried to write Midnight Sun now, in my current frame of mind, James would probably win and all the Cullens would die, which wouldn't dovetail too well with the original story. In any case, I feel too sad about what has happened to continue working on Midnight Sun, and so it is on hold indefinitely… I've decided to make the draft available here (at the end of this post). This way, my readers don't have to feel they have to make a sacrifice to stay honest. I hope this fragment gives you further insight into Edward's head and adds a new dimension to the Twilight story. That's what inspired me to write it in the first place…

I think the word disappointed only weakly describes how I feel about this decision. Sincerely and deeply annoyed disappointment is a much better description. Disappointment not only at the person who “accidently” posted the book online in the first place but also at Stephanie Meyer herself, for having decided to throw in the towel.

I will admit that the majority of my annoyance lies on the keyboard of the Jackass who, honest mistake or not, posted the illegal rough draft. He (or she) brings into focus all the legal debates currently surrounding the publishing and music industry with regards to online activities, downloading and file sharing. Now I really do not want to go into all the facets of this debate, mostly because I have mixed feelings about the topic and not enough real information to form a solid opinion on the matter. Suffice it to say, I am not an innocent when it comes to downloading and while I have paid for most, I do have some files that I downloaded for free. However, what has happened here to Stephanie Meyer is wrong. As ugly as reading your siblings diary without permission, there is no grey area here, folks. This person posted Meyer’s creative work without her permission. What they did was entirely criminal.

However, I am so disappointed in Stephanie Meyer’s response. Why throw in the towel? Why walk away from so many years of work and put down your pen simply because a few people skipped to the end of the book after reading the first page. I would wager a bet that for every person who read the pirated incomplete rough copy, there is an equal number ready to buy a completed published version. In fact, I would not be surprised to see the very people who read the illegal rough draft standing in line for a final version of Midnight Sun should Stephanie Meyer ever publish it. The story is that good. Her writing is that good.

I understand and appreciate that Meyer’s writing “mojo” has experienced a temporary stall. In fact, if I were in the same position, I would likely find my own story flow stunted for quite some time. But to give up entirely; to throw the whole project in the trash and walk away from all that work, well that is just plain silly and I sincerely hope that is not what Meyer has decided to do.

Instead, I hope that she will give herself some time to move forward from this invasion of her work, allow for the possibility of recovering her Twilight spirit, and dare I say it, take a page from Bella and Edward. Persevere despite obstacle and take a higher road towards an ideal.

So, for now, I will attempt to stay on said higher road and aspire to the type of person Stephanie Meyer portrays in her work. While I desperately would love to read the rough draft of Midnight Sun, I am going to stubbornly avoid the link and hope that eventually Meyer will reconnect with the Cullen clan and complete the project she started. It may be a long wait, but quite frankly, I think her work is worth it.

So, that’s it. My rant is over. Thank you for indulging me in my “moment”. And, so as to make your reading dedication worthwhile, here is a review of Stephanie Meyer’s latest book, The Host. I strongly recommend you pick this book up, along with her entire Twilight series, of course, and allow yourself to take a leap into the possibility of humanity.

The Host: A Novel
Author: Stephanie Meyer
Published by Little, Brown and Company, 2008

In The Host, Stephanie Meyer has written a novel about who we can be and put a spotlight on who we sometimes are. Humankind has been invaded and our bodies and minds have been taken over by aliens, Invasion-of-the-Body-Snatcher style. Operating as a collective community the alien forms create their version of a utopian state, absent of individual thought and action. Wanderer is one of the aliens; a soul, slowly adjusting to her new body. However, Melanie, the true owner of that body, refuses to relinquish herself to Wanderer and thus the story begins.

While Wanderer and Melanie struggle for ownership over both body and mind, Stephanie Meyer has offered us the potential for insight into the world we live in. In The Host, we read about what it means to ferociously fight for one’s own existence, while steadfastly refusing to lose any part of who we are. We read how Wanderer and Melanie soon appreciate and understand the qualities of who they are while doing their utmost to respect and find common ground between their opposing cultures. Essentially, while we read about struggle between Wanderer and Melanie, we also read about the modern day struggles which surround us today only naked of biased headlines and political agendas.

While sometimes irritatingly altruistic, and surprisingly rooted in modern conflict, Stephanie Meyer’s The Host is an inspiring and hopeful read where real world issues are swaddled in a fantastic gathering of science and fiction allowing for us, the reader, to see possibility where today we see only war.

Favourite line from the book…

Well, maybe there’s some hope for this planet, after all. (page 619)