CONTENTS 9
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 13
INTRODUCTION 15
Part I: TWILIGHT 19
Chapter 1: YOU LOOK GOOD ENOUGH TO EAT: LOVE, MADNESS, AND THE FOOD ANALOGY 21
\u201cSorry about the Food Analogy\u201d\u2014What\u2019s Your Pleasure? 22
\u201cWhat I Knew Was... and What I Wanted\ 25
The Vampire Socrates 27
Lambs and the Predators Who Adore Them 31
\u201cOther Hungers... That Are Foreign to Me\u201d 33
\u201cA Moonless Night\u201d 36
Chapter 2: DYING TO EAT: THE VEGETARIAN ETHICS OF TWILIGHT 39
Scene 1. In Which a Reasonable Ethic Is Proposed 40
Scene 2. In Which a Classmate Brings Up an Unpleasant Scenario 45
Scene 3. In Which Edward Says No to the Kosher Option 48
Chapter 3: CAN A VAMPIRE BE A PERSON? 53
What Is a Person (Other Than Vampire Food)? 54
What Humans, Vampires, and Animals Have in Common 56
If Animals Are Human Food, Are We Vampire Food? 58
Naughty Vampire! No People for You! 60
Chapter 4: CARLISLE: MORE COMPASSIONATE THAN A SPEEDING BULLET? 63
Carlisle\u2019s Theory of \u201cGifts\u201d 64
Carlisle\u2019s Super-Compassion 65
Is Compassion a Feeling? 66
Compassion of a Saint? 68
Compassion, Caring, and the Cullen Family 69
The Power of Connections 71
Part II: NEW MOON 75
Chapter 5: VAMPIRE-D脛MMERUNG: WHAT CAN TWILIGHT TELL US ABOUT GOD? 77
Evil\u2019s Not a Problem, Because Evil Doesn\u2019t Exist 79
Evil\u2019s Not a Problem, Because Evil Indicates Ignorance 81
Evil\u2019s Not a Problem, Because It\u2019s the Necessary Cost of Good 82
Evil, Transcendence, and Natural Goodness 86
Chapter 6: TO BITE OR NOT TO BITE: TWILIGHT, IMMORTALITY, AND THE MEANING OF LIFE 93
More Love and Death 94
On Losing One\u2019s Soul 98
I\u2019m Bored... 102
It\u2019s Complicated 104
Chapter 7: MIND READING AND MORALITY: THE MORAL HAZARDS OF BEING EDWARD 107
Does Power Corrupt or Reveal Moral Character? 108
Benevolence and Mind Reading 109
Privacy and Mind Reading 112
Love and the Inequality of Mind Reading 115
God and Morality 117
One Last Thought before Dawn 118
Chapter 8: LOVE AND AUTHORITY AMONG WOLVES 121
What\u2019s Free Will, Anyway? 123
The Wolves, Free Will, and Authority 126
Wolf Love and Free Will 127
A Final Worry 130
Here Jacob Stands: He Can Do No Other 131
Part III: ECLIPSE 133
Chapter 9: BELLA SWAN AND SARAH PALIN: ALL THE OLD MYTHS ARE NOT TRUE 135
Having It All 135
All of the Myths Are True 136
Consider Sarah Palin 137
A Lesson for Serious Feminists 137
Who Are the Real Elitists? 139
A Lesson for Feminists 142
Having It All in Real Life 143
Chapter 10: VAMPIRE LOVE: THE SECOND SEX NEGOTIATES THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY 145
Back in Time 146
The Second Sex in the Twenty-first Century 151
A Feminist Subtext 153
The Price of Existence 156
Chapter 11: EDWARD CULLEN AND BELLA SWAN: BYRONIC AND FEMINIST HEROES... OR NOT 161
You\u2019re Only Young Once, but You Can Be Byronic Forever 162
Why Byronic Heroes Make Bad Bosses 163
Jane Eyre: Gritty Governess, Runaway Bride, and Feminist Hero 165
The Byronic Hero: Now Available in Marble-like, Sparkly Perfection 168
Can You Still Be a Feminist If You Become a Bloodsucking Vampire for Your Husband? 171
Self-Exiled Harold Wanders Forth Again; or, Basically, Bella and Edward Deserve Each Other 173
Chapter 12: UNDEAD PATRIARCHY AND THE POSSIBILITY OF LOVE 177
The Control Issues of Edward Cullen 178
Bella\u2019s Mixed Reactions 182
Edward\u2019s Progress 183
Talked into Love 185
Risk and Transformation 188
Chapter 13: THE \u201cREAL\u201d DANGER: FACT VS. FICTION FOR THE GIRL AUDIENCE 191
Just the Facts, Ma\u2019am 192
Bella and \u201cGeneration Me\u201d 196
Twilight in the Desert of the Real 199
New Moon Rising? 201
Part IV: BREAKING DAWN 205
Chapter 14: TWILIGHT OF AN IDOL: OUR FATAL ATTRACTION TO VAMPIRES 207
An Undying Wish 207
Deadly Transformations 209
Unbreakable 210
Bloody Special 211
Lone Wolves 212
Tortuous Thirsts 214
The Not-So-Guilty Pleasures of Twilight 215
Once Bitten, Twice Shy: Grave Concerns about Vegetarian Vampires 218
Chapter 15: BELLA\u2019S VAMPIRE SEMIOTICS 223
The Signs around Tyler\u2019s Blue Van 223
The Philosopher of Oneness, Twoness, Threeness 225
The Sign of the Cross 226
The Signs of a Good Vampire 227
Vampire Semiotics Are No Guarantee... 229
The Semiotic Waltz: One, Two, Three, One, Two, Three, One, Two, Three 230
Chapter 16: SPACE, TIME, AND VAMPIRE ONTOLOGY 233
Kantian Space and Time 234
Kant, Dracula, and Twilight's Vampires 235
Abilities beyond Space and Time: Alice, Edward, and Aro 237
When Worlds Collide 238
Chapter 17: FOR THE STRENGTH OF BELLA? MEYER, VAMPIRES, AND MORMONISM 241
What\u2019s Religion Got to Do with It? 241
Meyer\u2019s Religion and Its Philosophical Context 243
Eternal Covenants, Binding Promises 245
Eternal Union in Body and Spirit 246
Close but Not Too Close: The Erotics of Abstinence 247
Returning the Gaze 249
Nice Mormon Girls and Sexy Vampires 249
Chapter 18: THE TAO OF JACOB 251
It\u2019s Always Darkest before the Dawn 252
No Good Deed Goes Unpunished 255
Bend So That You Don\u2019t Break 256
The Dawning of a New Era 258
CONTRIBUTORS 261
INDEX 267