1,850 words
Twilight: Breaking Dawn, Part 1, is the fourth and penultimate movie of The Twilight Saga, based on Stephenie Meyer’s phenomenally popular series of novels. Worldwide, the Twilight novels have now sold more than 100 million copies; they have been translated into 37 languages; The Twilight Saga movies have grossed more than $2 billion.
Meyer, I am sorry to say, is a terrible writer who nevertheless conceived a rather original and well-plotted take on the vampire and werewolf genres. Meyer, a Mormon mother of three, has also managed a master-stroke of conservative subversion of leftist cultural hegemony by packaging an essentially traditional (and biological) outlook on male and female psychology, sex, chastity, marriage, and now pregnancy, abortion, and childbirth in the form of Gothic horror novels and tricking the publishing industry and now Hollywood into marketing this message to millions of young and overwhelmingly white females.
The Twilight code is basically simple. Traditional sexual morals (which are rooted in biology) have been thoroughly corrupted by feminism and allied anti-natural attitudes, as well as the easy availability of birth-control and abortion. But, as Horace observed, you may drive nature out with a pitchfork, but she will find her way back. In this case, nature has returned in the guise of the supernatural.
By nature, males are stronger on average than females. Modern society seeks equality by psychologically feminizing men and masculinizing women. In the first two Twilight novels/movies, Twilight and New Moon, the heroine Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) thinks of herself as a strong, independent woman. And by comparison to the emasculated boys in her high school, that is true. But none of these boys particularly appeal to her, either.
Then she meets Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson). There is something different about Edward. It turns out that he is a vampire. He is immensely fast and strong; he can read everybody’s mind except Bella’s (her inscrutability is a source of attraction); and he has an overpowering desire to drink her blood, which he resists because he is in love with her. She is willing to take the risk, because she is in love with him. Bella also develops a close friendship with Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner), an American Indian from the nearby reservation. It turns out that Jacob is a werewolf.
So Bella has a thing for bad boys. She is attracted to strong bodies and strong desires and the dangers that come with them—and the noble virtues that keep them in check. Jealousy is also a danger: Jacob is in love with Bella and wants to win her for himself.
Both Edward and Jacob are afraid that their strength will hurt Bella, so both of them break off their relationships with her in order to protect her. But the lesson of the first two movies is that male strength is not a bad thing, for the very strength that could hurt Bella is necessary to save her from harm.
The subversive message to young men doped up on Ritalin and bombarded with emasculating messages is that manliness is a good thing: women are attracted to primal strength and aggression. They want a gentleman with a bit of Neanderthal. And if overly-socialized but otherwise good men suppress these traits out of the chivalrous desire to avoid any possibility of hurting the women they love, they will lose their women to bad men with no such scruples and repressions. Beneath the monster makeup, Edward and Jacob turn out to be what healthier generations knew merely as “men.” So let’s hope more young women drag their boyfriends to these “chick flicks” enough for the message to sink in.
In the third movie, Eclipse, another dimension of traditional/biological sexual mores is explored quite explicitly. Traditional ideas about the value of female modesty, chastity, fidelity, and virginity have a basis in biology, namely in the unequal consequences of sex for men and women. For men, the sole consequence of sex (omitting STDs) is a brief but intense pleasure. For women, sex can lead to nine months of pregnancy, with its attendant dangers, followed by years of caring for a child.
Because of these consequences, women needed to be choosy about their sexual partners (hence the values of modesty and virginity). They needed to find men who would be willing to stick around and protect and provide for them and their offspring. And to find such men, they needed to offer reasonable assurances of paternity (hence the value of fidelity).
All of these values have, of course, been undermined at their root by birth-control and abortion as well as feminism, the welfare state, and a general culture of hedonism.
The Twilight Saga provides a new mythical foundation for these virtues by restoring the danger of sex. Bella could just “hook up” with any of the normal guys in her high school. Her father simply advises her to use birth control. But she can’t make love so casually to Edward. With his immense strength he might simply crush the life out of her if he gets carried away. (Note to guys: this is a thought that, apparently, titillates millions of young women.)
Bella’s solution to the problem of her physical vulnerability (the girl is constantly being menaced by other vampires) is to ask Edward to turn her into a vampire too. This is not merely a metaphor for losing her virginity. It is a practical necessity of doing so. At the end of the second movie, he tells her that he will do so under one condition: that she marry him.
Bella has a head full of modern ideas scorning marriage (she is an only child of divorced parents), especially marrying right out of high school, which of course gets in the way of lots of “partying” and “fun” not to mention the “fulfillment” of college and a career. But Edward will have none of it. He is old-fashioned. (He has been 17 for a very long time.) In an amusing role reversal, it is the man who insists that the woman save her virginity for marriage (just as in the earlier films, it is the woman who teaches the men the value of their strength). At the end of the third film, Bella accepts.
In healthy societies, marriage is a momentous decision. It is a lifetime commitment. Traditional marriage, moreover, is more than the joining of two individuals; it is the joining of two families. This was especially the case when extended families lived under the same roof (as the Cullens do). Thus it is natural that the whole family get involved with a member’s decision to marry. They all have a strong stake in the outcome. In more dangerous times, family solidarity can often mean the difference between life and death.
The seriousness of marriage has been destroyed by easy divorce, family breakdown, psychological and social atomization, the welfare state, and the punitive child support system. But all of those momentous concerns come back when you are a clan of vampires contemplating taking a human into your midst.
Edward Cullen’s family takes a strong interest in Bella from the very beginning. They want to be absolutely sure that she is right for Edward. My first instinct was that they were prying, and he should tell them all to shove it. But that was just another bit of modernity that I had not managed to purge from my thinking. (It looks like it will take a lifetime.) But the Cullens are right to be concerned with maintaining the solidarity of their clan, and Bella learns that she would not want it any other way, for the world they inhabit is dangerous, and the whole family needs to be united to survive. Although the Cullens live in a huge modern mansion, in the end, it is really just another log cabin in the American woods where settlers hold off marauding Indians (and werewolves).
Breaking Dawn, Part 1, begins with Edward and Bella’s wedding. At this point, I will say a bit more about the film than can be gathered from the trailers, so consider yourself warned. Edward and Bella go to Brazil on their honeymoon. Edward does not transform her into a vampire, because she does not want to spend her honeymoon writhing in pain. She also convinces him to make love to her. In spite of the dangers, he gives in. The next morning, the bedroom looks like the Tasmanian Devil has blown through. But Bella is quite content. She has just a few bruises. Edward is totally contrite, and Bella has to teach him again that she loves him, including his strength, even if it hurts her.
Vampires, apparently, cannot have babies. But that is something that Bella was willing to give up to spend an eternity with Edward. To everyone’s surprise, however, vampires can make babies. Bella finds herself pregnant. Then the movie takes a Rosemary’s Baby turn. The baby grows at a phenomenal rate, draining Bella’s life, cracking her ribs with its super-strong kicks. Edward wants his father, Carlyle (a doctor), to get “that thing” out of her. It is a dangerous pregnancy in a world where medical science has virtually eliminated such dangers. But Bella refuses. It is a “baby,” not a “fetus,” not a “thing.” And she is going to carry it to term, no matter what.
Most people think abortion is immoral, but they can accept it in circumstances when the mother’s life is at stake. Feminists, however, regard abortion as a virtual sacrament, and in the case where the life of the mother is threatened, they are not pro-“choice”; they are pro-abortion.
Now I ask: where else in this culture, dominated by feminism and the imperative of white race-replacement, are millions of young white women going to be exposed to the example of a young white mother who refuses an abortion because she decides she is willing to risk her life bringing a new child into the world?
I will say no more about the plot, save that it gets quite brutally intense near the end—really too intense for kids.
Breaking Dawn, Part 1, is a beautifully filmed movie, with a generally languid pace like the first Twilight movie. I liked the pace, but I imagine it might be disconcerting to people raised on MTV and its successors. (There isn’t even a music video break, like Twilight’s immortal vampire baseball scene.) There is a great deal of gentle humor. The wedding and honeymoon are bridal magazine porn of the highest order. (Although there were interracial couples fore-grounded in a scene in Brazil. See my review of Eclipse for my take on the Jacob Black question.) The digital werewolves look as fake as ever. (More imaginative filmmakers could have made analog werewolves work much better.) There are some annoying “transformation” special effects.
But there are also moments of pure poetry: when a young man falls to his knees in awe, and when a mother, father, and newborn child wave to the camera. Honest to God, I blinked back a couple of tears. This is not the best Twilight movie, but it is definitely worth seeing.
8 comments
I’m certainly glad I now know enough about this ‘pop culture phenomenon’ I’ve seen around for a while now to ignore it further. Thanks!
I’m sure you’re alluding to, I think, Gloria Steinem, regarding the “sacrament of abortion” but it should be noted that Ginette Paris, an “archetypal psychologist” and author of several volumes of “pagan meditations” is also the author of “The Sacrament of Abortion” which emphasizes the role of women, under the archetype of Minerva, as arbiters of who lives and dies for the benefit of society if not necessarily themselves. [http://tinyurl.com/7de39f3]
Abortion and birth control were ineffective enough in the past to be simply a non-issue [abortion was forbidden in the Hippocratic Oath, and made illegal in the 19th US, not for “moral” reasons but because physicians didn’t want to be forced into performing almost certainly fatal operations]. The willingness of the Greeks to practice infanticide, which in today’s world of “safe abortions” is considered the ultimate evil [well, after anti-Semitism] suggests that abortion, in the appropriate circumstances [which may not be those favored by ‘feminists’] would be quite ‘traditional.’
It’s interesting how societies conceptualize ‘heroism.’ The Victorians professed to be horrified by sati, the heroic sacrifice of a widow on her husband’s funeral pyre [‘sati’ describes the woman, not the act, and means ‘noble’] but had no problem with compelling women to die in childbirth, or ‘expecting every man to do his duty’ and volunteer to be slaughtered in imperial wars, even when “someone had blundered” [The Light Brigade].
The latter idea reached its reductio ad absurdum in the mindless slaughter of WWI, hardly a recommendation for a policy to preserve the White race. Orwell, in The Road to Wigan Pier, devotes a chapter to how pale, short, scrawny or flabby the nation had become, since the best and bravest had been killed off. Result: loss of Empire to a smelly fraud in a diaper.
A White woman who dies in childbirth [as for the Others, of course, I say, abort them all!] is one White woman less, with only a 50% chance of being replaced with another female, who in turn will not be nubile for almost two decades. Not good policy.
Of course, one other ‘solution’ was polygamy. I wonder if that’s our Mormon author’s agenda? Go ahead and die, I’ve got spares!
Evola devotes an entire chapter of Men among the Ruins [http://tinyurl.com/82xcqqm] to “The Problem of Births” probably due to living in a Catholic country, and especially after Mussolini’s policy of increasing the population. He points out that races dominate, not because they make up the majority, but because they have the will to dominate — e.g., the aforementioned Brits in India.
A general increase in population means, necessarily, a proportionate increase in the lower orders – more White Trash — as well as an increase in the economic domination of society in order to provide for them. Again, perhaps the Mormon agenda — lots of docile, uneducated “citizens” dominated by the “free market,” just like JHVH-1 intended.
But not the way to further the White Race; what we need are not more, but better, people.
He goes on to point out more generally that the truly heroic man is the one who bends nature to his will and controls the sexual impulse, either through asceticism, or else through what the Church condemns as “artificial means.”
“Even a libertine, who elevates pleasure to an art, is undoubtedly superior to those who follow the Catholic line.” [p270].
Actually these messages are common in our pop culture. We have the comic book industry on one side and the stacks of romantic novels on the other. Jonathon Bowden discusses with optimism the right wing messages in pop culture, but I’m less so. Sure, Spiderman doesn’t have to be concerned about being more attentive, but for the American male it’s make yourself useful in the kitchen after you have finished with the diapers. Movies have become merely a therapeutic release valve for masses. While Dirty Harry was cleaning out trash in the city with his hand cannon, most of the wanna be tough guys were getting there adrenalin injection on a lazy-boy in the suburbs. This voyeurism amounts to a false bravado of the American male, and an even more dangerous situation within the female. Bad boy Bill Clinton got the woman’s vote, and their husbands received a “teaching moment”.
THEIR GOAL IS GENOCIDE. OURS. WHAT’S YOURS?
JJ in blockquote:
We at the-spearhead.com have been defining the foundation of the new Masculinity in the context of a Culture that prefers their young men live on the edge of a gelding knife, rather than in hot pursuit of the Medal of Honor.
Mr. Lynch made an astute observation, one we should all pay attention to.
Trever Lynch in blockquote, bold added for emphasis:
Keep this all-important Idea in mind as you review the earlier works of F. Roger Devlin on this topic. Note, as Devlin noted in an essay counter-currents has not published yet, the Civilization needs the Beta males, who women scorn, and hold in open contempt. This is a theme that is implicitly dealt with here; Bella has THE POWER TO CHOOSE between two Alpha males, and the distinguishing difference is…one…two..three:
CLASS.
The vampires are almost always upper class, in all meanings of the term, groomed to lead, groomed to rule. And groomed they are, wearing nice clothes, with perfect, well, everything. The werewolves? Well, they usually spend Saturdays cheering on Ol’ Miss, and other activities of those who have learned helplessness as a lifestyle. The vampires are men of achievement, and success. This is a common theme in contemporary culture. Think of Tesla from “Sanctuary.” The list goes on.
Werewolves are hypermasculine, solely in an animlaistic level. They are Destroyers, and hardly Builders of Civilization.
Bella, like all women, chooses the vampire; power, disciplined, focused strength, in the fulfillment of a metapolitical imperative.
Werewolves live on the reservation, having never developed as tool makers; tools, and their usage and development being one of the hallmarks of Civilization.
Let’s hope the young men learn this lesson, and learn it well.
It would be nice if they had teachers for this. The local pagan priesthoods really seem to be filling a gap on this one.
What’s In YOUR Future? Focus Northwest!
I will not see this movie, but I did hear that at least 2 people suffered epileptic seizures during the scene where Bella gives birth. The strobe lighting or something…
Sounds like an urban legend to me. It is an intense scene, but I don’t recall any “strobe” effects.
Now I ask: where else in this culture, dominated by feminism and the imperative of white race-replacement, are millions of young white women going to be exposed to the example of a young white mother who refuses an abortion because she decides she is willing to risk her life bringing a new child into the world?
There is in fact an episode of House with that very theme. The episode is called “Fetal Position.” Dr. House exhorts the woman to have an abortion because her pregnancy is endangering her life in a very real way, but she staunchly refuses.
You can suggest to those young women to go to the site www. lifesitenews.com. You will read there, from time to time, about women who refuse to have abortions no matter what.
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