New Moon is probably my favorite Twilight Saga novel because it expands the original, relatively narrow tension of the narrative 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.
Two quick notes:
The alchemical ‘Great Work’ is a three-step process: dissolution, usually called the nigredo or Black stage, purification, the albedo or White stage, and perfection and revelation, the rubedo or Red stage. I explain how the last three books of the Twilight Saga are these steps in sequence, Black to White to Red, but here I need only point out the obvious. Edward’s leaving Bella causes her complete reduction to zombie and prima materia, her essence. The nigredo of the series appropriately features the bunsen burner buddy, Jacob Black, to aid in her surviving the breakdown.
Beyond serving as a necessary stage in the process, New Moon creates the catalytic antagonism necessary in alchemical drama for the hero/ine to proceed to perfection.
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, then, 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. (No, I haven’t seen it yet!) New Moon the novel 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 cinematic-depiction satisfaction checklist that I’ll have in hand at the movies whenever I get around to going, 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 (37 times!), Edward’s soul-focused soliloquies, and Jesuit-vampires in Italy near the top of the list.
New Moon is a fun book that works on several levels and the lynch pin of the four book saga. Here’s hoping it survived the transition to silver screen! Let me know what items I missed on my list and what you thought of the movie…
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I’m going to see it tonight, but before I do, I would like to suggest one thing that you may well have considered in another, older post that I haven’t read, but you haven’t included it in this list so here goes:
Is Alice Cullen (individually or in combination with Jasper) representative of the Holy Spirit? Or is she representative of Moroni and other “angels” who have guided the formation of LDS doctrine?
Bella’s internal subconscious or whatever Edward’s voice is could have warned Bella that Edward-God is going to sacrifice himself, given their conversation while they watched Romeo and Juliet at the opening of the novel. So why is it Alice who reveals the truth? Is it because Alice, in her characterisation of the Holy Spirit / guiding angel, must both reveal truth (so essential in LDS history and tradition) and enable action, rather than truth being able to be determined by the self alone?
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I really enjoyed the movie, actually, and one of my favorite moments was very alchemical. When Carlisle cleans Bella’s cut arm, not only was their interaction lovely (a little short perhaps) but there is a great shot of him burning the blood-soaked gauze in a little white bowl. The crucible imagey is very striking, especially as Bella is about to enter her nigredo phase of transformation. Mybe some nice movie person has been paying attention.
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Loved the movie and loved the book. Some scenes were left out and was a little distracting to the avid reader, but overall I am glad they kept it on a shorter time span. It worked. Definitly not as bad as the movie version of Prisoner of Azkaban.
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