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It feels like 2008 has been a year of literary issues and stand-offs. Authors misbehaved on Amazon. Publishers in the the UK discussed age-banding books and adding morality clauses to children's authors contracts. Commentators called books for boys emasculating because girls no longer have to be rescued. And now one popular author is theorizing on her blog that another popular author is racist. Why? Because the accused author is Mormon.
Please note that this post contains spoilers for all books in Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series, including the recently released Breaking Dawn.
Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, the author of the popular novels The Dirty Girls Social Club and Playing with Boys, theorized on her blog that a fellow author might be racist. Following the release of Stephenie Meyer's Breaking Dawn Valdes-Rodriguez posted this question on her blog, Is Stephanie Meyer Racist? It wasn't really so much a question as much as it was an assertion. After complimenting several aspects of Meyer's series Valdes-Rodriguez says that she believes there is an underlying racism in the books.
Of primary concern for me is the treatment of Meyer’s main Native American character, Jacob Black. He is presented initially as a sweet, normal teen boy from the Paiute Reservation, but we soon learn that he is a werewolf, and that werewolves are the enemies of vampires. The vampires, at this point in the story, are shown to be European in origin, and as pale as pale can be – and friends to Bella, our human protagonist.
As many were quick to point out Jacob was not from the Paiute Reservation, but rather he's from the Quileute reservation (this was just one of several errors in her post). She says that Meyer's supposed racism is why Bella chooses Edward over Jacob.
In the first two books, Bella is mildly drawn to Jacob (and even kisses him), particularly when Edward seems to lose interest in her. In the final book, Bella must choose between these two boys.
Naturally, she chooses the (white) vampire over the (brown) werewolf.
I think that many people who read the series knew that Jacob and Bella were not destined to be together for a pretty simple reason. Meyer's werewolves "choose" their mates by imprinting on them. They see someone, it could be someone that they've known all their lives, and then one day they look at them realize that this person is the most important person in the world and they exist to make that person happy. It's kind of love at first sight times a thousand but the individuals don't get to choose with whom they imprint. While Team Jacob held out hope up until Breaking Dawn Jacob never imprinted on Bella. Even if Bella had chosen him over Edward he could have imprinted on someone else. And Jacob did imprint - on Bella and Edward's daughter Renesmee. In Breaking Dawn when Bella, Edward and their coalition of vampires and werewolves face off against the Volturi Bella has an escape plan for her daughter - and Jacob. She plans to sacrifice herself (along with Edward) for Renesmee's safety while sending her off with the one person she trusts more than anyone else - Jacob.
Valdes-Rodriguez also takes issue with the vampire character of Laurent. From another post about the Twilight trailer:
Note that in saying she "knows" what Edward is, Bella mentions...his pale white skin as proof that he is a vampire. Notice, too, that after Edward tells her he's not the most dangerous thing out there, we cut to an image of a menacing black man leading his trio of vampires out of the woods. What? I thought...being pale and white is what told Bella Edward was a vampire. But here's a black vampire. Oh, right. He's the EVIL vampire. I get it. Doh!
In the book Laurent is not black although he is described as olive-skinned. Meyer has repeatedly told fans that she has no input into the casting of the movie. Authors rarely have input when their books are optioned for film or television (which is probably why there are so many horrible book adaptations out there).
One of the more obvious errors in her original post, even to people who have not read the books, is when she calls the white chess piece on the cover of Breaking Dawn a king when it is indeed a queen. It happens right at the beginning of the post and it the point where for some Valdes-Rodriguez's claim that Meyer is racist loses credibility.
Leila at Bookshelves of Doom who
