Twilight Deemed Too Risqué For Mormon ReadersApril 23rd, 2009
Deseret Book decides not to carry the popular LDS book by an LDS Writer
by Rebecca Edwards
It's not quite book burning, but Deseret Book's decision to place the overwhelmingly popular Twilight series on "special order status" is creating a stir in local news and online. The story hit The Trib on Wednesday and was featured on KSL and Fox13 that evening, and the internet is already abuzz with comments, blogs, and outrage.
Doug Gibson, on his blog "Political Surf," states, "This recent effort to criticize Meyer's novels from a moral perspective is despicable. It was stupid that evangelical extremists trashed the Harry Potter series and it's equally stupid that Utah will be tainted by this moralistic, asinine movement against Twilight."
with crowds lining up to puchase
the new DVD
Since the release of Breaking Dawn, the final book in the series and the one that features semi-hot, post-marital sex between a vampire and his teenage bride and the consequential gory birth of their first-born half-breed, speculation about how appropriate these books really are for young readers has been a hot topic. Speaking of young readers, even though the entire series has been pulled from the shelves and Deseret Book's main website, all three books are still available at deseretkids.com.
The current controversy is fueled by the fact that Stephanie Meyer, author of the series, is LDS and a BYU graduate. Since Deseret Book is owned by the LDS church, many assume that the store would be happy to peddle the wares of one of their own--regardless of the fact that the books have nothing to do with the church.
Meyer is not the first LDS author to be banned from this retailer's shelves. Richard Paul Evans, author of several feel-good, life lesson, romantic novels is a member of the LDS church, and his books have also taken their turn being pulled from Deseret Book's shelves. It seems that the retailer has more criteria in place to determine its merchandise than a temple recommend in good standing.
A spokesperson for Deseret Book released this official statement, "Our purpose is to offer products that are embraced and expected by our customers. When we find products that are met with mixed review, we typically move them to special order status."
A former employee of Deseret Book had this to say on the "A Paperback Writer" blog, "They have something called 'Inventory Action.' Employees or customers could fill out a form to have books removed from the shelves. I got a book removed while working there and it was fairly easy." They went on to say that the process is not the "normal book banning spearheaded by those who have not read a book." Specific reasons with examples would have to be provided to Deseret Book to make the case that a book should be removed.
Regardless of the real reasons behind Deseret Book's change of heart, the decision has to be making other retailers happy as they now have one less store to compete with when it comes to providing rabid Twilight fans with the novels that reportedly made up 16% of ALL books sold last quarter.
The trend to label Twlight as porn is not a just a Mormon trend, but mainstream Christian trend as well. These Christian bloggers find Twilight too full of "unrealistic expectations" which could lead to girl's minds becoming polluted with unclean thoughts:
And just as visual porn pollutes a guy's mind, Twilight pollutes a girl's mind with unrealistic expectations of love and what sort of fulfilment can be experienced in a relationship. So she becomes a Bella waiting for her Edward, as one of the T-shirts you can buy says. - Cyberpunk Arthur and Tammie
