Mormon Bookstore Unshelves Twilight Series, Despite Meyer's Sex=Bad Message

io9 ^ | Apr 30 2009 | Meredith Woerner

[Alex Murphy]

Sounds like the Mormons are turning on one of their own. The church-owned Deseret Book Co. has decided to put Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series on "special request."

[snip]

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' own book shop has decided to remove their Twilight goods, unless specifically ordered, according to The Salt Lake Tribune.

When reached for comment Leigh Dethman, Deseret Book spokeswoman, released this statement.

"Like any retailer, 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," the statement read."

Granted Meyer's books aren't actually Mormon literature, but they're not filled with racy prose. All of the main couples are heterosexual, and refrain from having premarital sex, for hundreds and hundreds of pages, until readers get an angst allergy. Oh and if you do have sex [spoiler, I guess] you'll get pregnant and the baby will try to kill you. This shelving decision is especially confusing, considering the praise Meyer's received form the Mormon community. What about Meyer offended the readers at Deseret so much — was it Jacob's imprinting on a baby?

[Alex Murphy]

"Like any retailer, 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"....

.... What about Meyer offended the readers at Deseret so much[?]

Deseret Book, however, has decided that Meyer's best-selling vampire romance books will no longer see the light of day -- at least on the shelves of its chain stores. Customers may instead request Meyer's 2005 novel Twilight -- or its three companion volumes, New Moon , Eclipse and Breaking Dawn -- by special order for either store pick-up or delivery by mail.

"We're never really given a reason for these things," said Steve Hartvigsen, manager of the Deseret Book store at Valley Fair Mall. "We just get a return sheet and send books back."

- from The Salt Lake Tribune's article Deseret Book demotes 'Twilight'

[Lee N. Field]

All of the main couples are heterosexual, and refrain from having premarital sex, for hundreds and hundreds of pages, until readers get an angst allergy. Oh and if you do have sex [spoiler, I guess] you'll get pregnant and the baby will try to kill you.

I'm sorry, that was an LOL moment.

Women's romances, perchance?

[Alex Murphy]

I'm sorry, that was an LOL moment.

Yes, it was! I keep having visions of the baby from the movie series IT's ALIVE!

[azcap]

IT'S ALIVE!

I remember being about 7 and watching that movie on the late late show one Friday night. It's pretty creepy for a little kid. The next Friday when they showed the sequel I was torn between the fear and the desire to laugh at another. Even a little kid can recognize a B movie.

 

   As for the Twilight series, I don't care if you're Mormon or not, Evangelical or not, any bookstore that punts those sappy tomes gets my vote of thanks. I am blessed with a wife who has never read them and has no desire to, but many of my friends wives love them. I think their is an innate desire for soap operas in women, and the ones who are too classy to actually watch a soap opera or read a Harlequin romance find their kicks in novels like Twilight. I credit the huge success of Friends to the fact that the writers and directors managed to bundled a soap opera for women into a SitCom that men could tolerate.

 

[Alex Murphy]

I remember being about 7 and watching that movie on the late late show one Friday night. It's pretty creepy for a little kid. The next Friday when they showed the sequel I was torn between the fear and the desire to laugh at another. Even a little kid can recognize a B movie.

I'd been creeped out by that photo of the baby on the table (and similar ones) for at least a decade, before I ever saw one of the films. Let's just say it lost all its creepiness once I saw the baby in motion. It wiggled like it was made of solid rubber, and made to crawl across the floor by pulling on a string tied around its neck!