Ten Things You Need to Know About New Moon

The hype has only been building for the November release of Summit’s film version of New Moon since the surprise success of their relatively low budget Twilight last year. The big change we can expect, I think, consequent to this success being driven by readers of Mrs. Meyer’s books, is that New Moon and subsequent movies will adhere much more closely to the storyline than the Twilight film did. This franchise is a golden and the Goose laying the golden eggs is Mrs. Meyer. For those who have not read the book, then, and for those who have trouble remembering it, here is a quick review of the story along with ten ‘talking points’ about the book for you to have in mind as you watch the new movie. You can also impress your friends with your vampire savvy when the subject of New Moon comes up. No one should be able to one-up you on how the film succeeded or failed in reproducing the novel’s magic when you can tell them about how New Moon is a story about Mormon vampires acting out scenes from Romeo and Juliet! Here is the New Moon story in a nutshell:

The New Moon Story: Romeo-Edward leaves fair Juliet-Bella!

Whoops! Bella Swan, all-too-human girlfriend, paper cuts a finger at her birthday party in the veggie-vampire Cullens’ home and Edward’s ‘brother’ Jasper attacks. Gallant young man that Edward is, at well over 100 years old if forever a teenager boy, he saves Bella’s life but decides he and his family must leave for her long term safety. Bella experiences the world without Edward, however, as the loss of “life, love, and meaning.” She is only rescued from her heart-break by a Native American friend, Jacob Black, who teaches her how to ride a motorcycle and revives her from her inner-Zombie. Turns out, though, that Jacob and his Quileute tribe have their secrets, too; they are werewolves (shape shifters) who transform to protect their reservation from vampires – and the mate of James, the killer vampire who tried to kill Bella in Twilight, is now after Bella to avenge his death. Edward, meanwhile, is told that Bella has committed suicide and on that false report tries to get the ancient vampires in Italy, the Volturi, to kill him to end his grief. Bella gets to Italy in time to save him, they survive a harrowing interview with the Volturi, who let them go on the condition that Bella be made a vampire soon. The Cullens back in Forks agree to Bella’s request that she be transformed – but not right away. Edward proposes marriage at story’s end.

What’s to talk about here? For starters, we need to see how New Moon is a lot like Twilight in order to see the differences and the key story points that made the novel a best-seller. With those cues in mind, you’ll know whether the film is just a CGI trailer for the novel or if it delivers the meaning in a new medium.

1. Son of Twilight: “Give us Twilight again, but with different folks”

Summit is marketing New Moon as ‘Twilight II’ and that’s more than just linkage savvy. New Moon really is Son of Twilight; you can almost imagine the Little, Brown editors saying to Mrs. Meyer after the first book’s success, “Let’s have another one just like that!” and her obliging them with a twin. We have the long revelation of her BFF’s supernatural secret identity, a big vampire scene in the circular meadow, Bella’s life being saved ex machina by boyfriend, her being assimilated into a magical family almost seamlessly, and the thriller rescue-finish featuring rogue vampires, a long trip, and a cheery denouement. What’s not to like? The formula is a winner!

2. Return to Twilight: Cullen/Quileute, Edward/Jacob echoes

Not only do we have a story-formula double in New Moon, we also get character cloning. Carlisle and the Family Cullen have their Native American reflection in Sam Uley’s wolf pack brotherhood. Sam, like Carlisle, is the loving pater familias, who became what he is unwillingly but has “made the best of the hand he was dealt” as Carlisle describes his own situation. Sam’s pack, like the Cullens via Edward and Alice’s ability to read minds and futures, share one mind in which there can be no secrets. These werewolves, like veggie vampires, are misunderstood mythic monsters who are anything but misanthropic. The lupine giants protect Bella at night and have the circles around their eyes to prove it. Jacob goes through the same lying motions for a good part of the book to protect his family’s secrets from Bella just as Edward did in Twilight. This is borderline cut-and-paste story-telling at the surface, in many respects. The differences, though, are worth noting. Twilight and New Moon work together at a different and more profound level than the Rocky original and its six re-makes with different Roman numerals.

3. Jacob, Patriarch of Genesis

If the Twilight Saga were an X-Man comic book (and the author has said their super hero teevee cartoons were influential), Jacob Black would be Wolverine to Edward Cullen’s Cyclops, both in love with Bella’s Marvel Girl. But, because Twilight is an Everyman morality play and God-Man love story (remember the apple on the Twilight cover and Genesis epigraph?), we have to think “Old Testament” when we hear the name “Jacob.” It doesn’t hurt that his sisters are named Rachel and Rebecca, that he has a problematic relationship with Leah in future books, that he is “Ephraim’s heir” (Ephraim is one of the Bible Jacob’s descendants through Rachel), and that he plays the frustrated but heroically patient lover, waiting for Bella-Rachel (‘Rachel’ means “lamb” in Hebrew and you remember that Edward and Bella are the “lion and the lamb,” right? See Twilight, chapter 13) . “Jacob” in Hebrew means “the supplanter” and the Patriarch is remembered because he was equal to wrestling with an Angel-God; as he is New Moon’s Paris hoping to supplant Edward’s absent Romeo in Bella’s heart and Edward is often described as an Angel or god-like, Jacob Black is well named.

4. Jacob, Prophet from Book of Mormon

Mrs. Meyer, though, has said The Book of Mormon is the biggest influence on her life, not the Bible, and, sure enough, Jacob plays a feature role in that book, too. The big hero of BoMor is Nephi, son of Lehi, who becomes the Prophet and leader of the lost tribe of Israel in America, even though he was not Lehi’s oldest son. Nephi has two loyal brothers, Jacob and Sam, who lead the ‘Nephites’ at his death; two brothers, Laman and Lemuel, rebel and their followers become ‘Lamanites,’ whose skin turns dark because of their sins and who eventually destroy their fair-skin cousins, the Nephites. This Jacob and many of his heirs become the keepers of the Bronze Plates eventually revealed to Joseph Smith, Jr., in 1826. New Moon’s Jacob is related to his namesake Mormon Prophet in having a “brother” who is almost his equal in authority named “Sam,” in having a mother named “Sarah” (BoMor “Sariah”), and in being a Native American with a heart of gold. (Mormons historically have believed that all Native Americans descend from the sons of Lehi, which belief genetic studies and anthropological research have found implausible, at best.)

5. Hungry, Empty Heart with Epiphany

Mrs. Meyer uses a host of similes repeatedly to drive home Bella’s emotional barrenness in New Moon after Edward departs, from the darkness of a ‘new moon’ to the void of an ‘empty house.’ The workhorse metaphor, though, which will be hard to film, I have to think, is a chest without a beating heart; I counted 37 different passages leaning on this “painfully empty” image. The heart here is not a Hallmark valentine but a story-stand-in for the lebh and kardia of scripture, the interface of God and Man (cf., Psalm 51:10, Matthew 5:8). When Edward-God is gone, “a huge hole had been punched through my chest;” when Edward-God returns, “my heart inflated like it was going to crack right through my ribs. It filled my chest and blocked my throat so that I could not speak.” She describes her realization that Edward-God loves her as an “epiphany,” religious-speak less for “revelation” than for a “theophany” or appearing of God. New Moon is an allegory about the zombie-like existence of human life without belief in God’s presence and His love.

6. Roman Volturi, Volterra Catholics

One of the sadder points in Latter-day Saint history is a fervent anti-Papism born in the prejudices that Joseph Smith, Jr., and his first followers had against Roman Catholics. This bile is found in many early Mormon sermons and even shows in several Book of Mormon prophecies mouthed, supposedly, centuries before Christ. Mrs. Meyer is a Latter-day Saint, born and bred. There is, consequently, the strong possibility that the ancient vampires in Italy – the Volturi – whose beliefs Carlisle Cullen has resisted for a restored idea of true vampire life are meant to correspond to the Catholic tradition Joseph Smith, Jr., restored to its fullness in Mormonism. (See Spotlight: A Close-Up Look at the Artistry and Meaning of Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight Novels, for the LDS-Twilight connection.) Sadly, because their name sounds like “vultures” and they are horrific monsters who kill humans for lunch, the Mormon historical prejudice seems to be shining through the story-transparency.

7. ‘Soulless in Seattle’

Edward’s motivation for leaving Bella is concern for her soul. Appropriate for a character playing a finite God’s part in this Harlequin version of the Garden of Eden story, but his concern takes the shape of the conviction that becoming a vampire means losing the human soul and hope of an afterlife. He dreads Bella being transformed accidentally or intentionally because that would mean her acquired immortality had cost her eternity. Either this is just a plot device or Edward goes through a remarkable soteriological change of heart during his year in exile, because after the nightmare in Volterra he agrees to transform Bella himself if she’ll marry him and wait a few months. He doesn’t mention being won over to Carlisle’s ‘works theology,’ in which the righteous win salvation and sanctification by their fidelity to principle (an LDS position), but he no longer feels, at New Moon’s end, that he is soul-free or that Bella is in danger of losing hers. He talks a good “eternal damnation” game right up until Bella reminds him that his greeting to her in the Volterra Square revealed he really wasn’t convinced, that he couldn’t know he was a “soulless monster” or that she will lose her soul, without a doubt. End “Soulless in Seattle” plot device. Even in a religious allegory, reading God’s lamentation and concern about not having a soul seems logically strained.

8. Romeo and Juliet: Werewolves and Vampires in Verona

The part of New Moon that has a lot of potential for the movie, I think, is the story scaffolding Mrs. Meyer adapts for it from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, with Edward and Bella playing the lead roles. The book is filled with explicit references (watching the movie, reading the play, quoting lines…) and implicit ones. In case you miss all of them, Bella feels obliged to spell it out. Edward is Romeo to her Juliet, Jacob is Paris and Rosalie fair, neglected Rosalind (her name was ‘Carol’ in the first drafts of Twilight). The trip to Volterra and the scramble through the festival in the Square is reminiscent of Zeffirelli’s Verona and the battles in the Medieval streets between Montagues and Capulets. And did I mention that the warring Cullens and Quileutes, with their borders and treaties, seem like warring, supernatural mirror images? If the screenwriter drops the ‘hungry heart’ agonies and neglects the Romeo and Juliet references, I may ask for my money back.

9. Allegory of ‘Falls’

Twilight is an allegory of the Fall of Man in the Garden of Eden. As I explain in Spotlight, it’s not the Fall as St. Augustine or the Cappadocian Fathers understand it; the Fall here is a good, necessary, even salvific event in human history, as Joseph Smith, Jr., and Brigham Young explained it. New Moon picks up this Fall theme by having Bella fall three times, each of which descents triggers a huge plot shift. The question to be explored is “How do we live without God in our lives?” “What if God leaves?” is presented quite literally as a “fall” to represent our “fall from grace” at birth. On Bella’s birthday, then, appropriately enough, she cuts her finger when opening presents at the party Alice throws for her. Jasper attacks, and, in Edwards haste to protect her, he hits her hard enough into a table stacked with gifts and crystal that “it fell, as I did.” She cuts her arm from wrist to elbow. Bella’s fall causes Edward’s departure and prompts Carlisle’s explanation of why Edward would leave. The other two “falls” in New Moon that serve as markers for story shifts are (1) Bella’s fall from the Cliff on the Quileute reservation, which jump, because of Alice’s misunderstanding it as meaning Bella is dead, brings on Edward’s attempted suicide in Volterra, and (2) the descent through the grate and underground sewers to enter the Volturi castle. The “fall” at the Cullens’ house causes the separation of Edward and Bella, the jump from the cliffs, inspired as it was by Bella’s desire to hear Edward’s voice, is the cause of their reconciliation, and the descent into Volterra’s slice of hell is the passage Edward and Bella take together to the crucible in which their union is sealed. Look for Bella’s literal and metaphorically heavy falls in the movie New Moon for cues things are about to get hairy.

10. Alchemical pivot: Key Set-Up for Breaking Dawn Pay-offs

New Moon is probably my favorite Twilight Saga novel because it expands the original, relatively narrow tension of the story from “human-to-vampire conversion story” out to a drama of alchemical apotheosis. Mrs. Meyer wrote Twilight, the first novel, without thoughts of a four-part saga; her first sequels and epilogues became a manuscript titled ‘Forever Dawn,’ in which most of the big events of Breaking Dawn were laid out. But Dawn, with its alchemical wedding, hermetically hermaphroditic baby who is the conjunction of human-and-vampire genes, and its Shakespearean ‘resolution of contraries’ in the Mountain Meadows finish, is not a plot and vision you can get to straight from Twilight. She needed a novel-bridge to cross from the Eden allegory in the first book to Bella’s divinization and resolution of the vampire-human contraries in the finale.

New Moon is that bridge. By introducing Jacob Black and the lupine Quileute shape-changers, Mrs. Meyer creates the contrary to ivory-white Edward Cullen and his family to give us the ‘Quarreling Couple’ of Mercury and Sulphur, Mercutio and Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet, Hermione and Ron in Harry Potter, that act as story-catalysts and reagents in these stories’ crucible of change for their heroes. New Moon sets up the Romeo and Juliet drama of complementary antagonists and Eclipse delivers their Wuthering Heights resolution; both serve as preamble to Bella’s figurative theosis consequent to Breaking Dawn’s wedding, honeymoon, pregnancy, child-birth, and confrontation with the Volturi and their guards. The real power and depth of meaning in this series, what hooks readers everywhere, is the arrival of Jacob Black as an alternative and foil to Edward Cullen.

If the movie Jacob isn’t burly, passionate, and manly -- and a striking contrast to Edward -- then I’m afraid the franchise is in trouble. New Moon sets the Elizabethan and Gothic Romance stage that make Eclipse and Breaking Dawn the engaging alchemical dramas of human-lead to vampire-gold they are. A wimpy or childish Jacob will be worse than a cheerful Lord Voldemort or a serene King Lear in how it promises to de-rail the meaning and substance of the story.

My New Moon satisfaction checklist that I’ll have in hand at the movies on November 20^th, then, has a Wolverine-esque Jacob Black right at the top, with three Bella “falls,” a bunch of Romeo and Juliet moments, the achy-breaky heart, Edward’s soul-focused soliloquies, and Jesuit-vampires in Italy also on the first page. It’s a fun book that works on several levels and the lynch pin of the four book saga. Here’s hoping it survives the transition to silver screen!