Q and A
Q. What’s with the apple?
A. The apple on the cover of Twilight represents “forbidden fruit.” I used the scripture from Genesis (located just after the table of contents) because I loved the phrase “the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil.” Isn’t this exactly what Bella ends up with? A working knowledge of what good is, and what evil is. The nice thing about the apple is it has so many symbolic roots.
- Stephenie Meyer
Q. Why the big build-up for the fight that didn’t happen? (Breaking Dawn)
A. I’m not the kind of person who writes a Hamlet ending. If the fight had happened, it would have ended with 90% of the combatants, Cullen and Volturi alike, destroyed. There was simply no other outcome once the fight got started, given the abilities and numbers of the opposing sides. Because I would never finish Bella’s story on such a downer—Everybody dies!—I knew that the real battle would be mental.
- Stephenie Meyer
Q. How come Alice and Jasper can affect Bella with their supernatural powers, but Edward and Aro and Jane can’t?
A. Bella has a very private mind. She can’t be touched there. What Edward and Aro do is clearly a mental thing; Jane, also, works inside the head (Jane doesn’t actually inflict pain on anyone’s body, she just puts the illusion of pain inside her victim’s head. It’s a very effective form of torture).
- Stephenie Meyer
What are the characters’ biggest mistakes in Eclipse, their tragic flaws?
A. Edward’s big mistake is overreaction. It’s in his nature to be too extreme (see: New Moon). He’s a very all-or-nothing kind of person, and it makes him unreasonable. In the beginning of Eclipse, he’s too overprotective. When he sees the error of his ways, he goes too far in the other direction. He could have chosen a middle ground—maybe admitted to his jealousy and asked Bella to choose him, rather than watching her get in deeper with Jacob. Of course, he has other issues that make forcing this issue problematic. What if Jacob is better for her?
- Stephenie Meyer
Q. Is Bella an anti-feminist heroine?
A. When I hear or read theories about Bella being an anti-feminist character, those theories are usually predicated on her choices. In the beginning, she chooses romantic love over everything else. Eventually, she chooses to marry at an early age and then chooses to keep an unexpected and dangerous baby. I never meant for her fictional choices to be a model for anyone else’s real life choices. She is a character in a story, nothing more or less. On top of that, this is not even realistic fiction, it’s a fantasy with vampires and werewolves, so no one could ever make her exact choices.
- Stephenie Meyer
Q. What’s the deal with Bella just falling in love with Jacob in the eleventh hour of Eclipse? Don’t you believe in true love anymore? What happened to blacken your soul, woman??
A. First of all, let me say that I do believe in true love. But I also deeply believe in the complexity, variety, and downright insanity of love. A lucky person loves hundreds of people in their lives, all in different ways, family love, friendship love, romantic love, all in so many shades and depths. I don’t think you lose your ability—or right—to have true love by loving more than one person. In part, this is true because you never love two people the same way.
- Stephenie Meyer
Q. What does the title refer to? Is it a werewolf reference? (New Moon)
A. Nope. The term “new moon” refers to the phase of the moon opposite a full moon. It is when the sun is on the opposite side of the moon from us and thus the bright side of the moon is not visible from earth. This is the darkest kind of night. New Moon is the darkest period of Bella’s life.
-Stephenie Meyer
Why did you pick the title Twilight?
Twilight was not the easiest book to title. When I started sending out queries, I called it Forks for lack of a better idea. The first thing my agent advised me was that the title was going to have to change. We played around with a lot of different titles, and nothing seemed to convey the right feel. We brainstormed through emails for about a week. The word twilight was on a list of “words with atmosphere” that I sent her. Though these words were meant to be used in combination with something else, the word twilight stood out to both of us.
- Stephenie Meyer
Are Vampires Ticklish?
According to Stephenie Meyer (Pasadena Q&A):
“You know, I’m not entirely sure. But you know that Emmett would try.”
Character Name Meanings
Babynames.com recently added Renesmee to their data base. In light of this event we thought we’d compile the origins and meanings of all of the main characters names in the Twilight Series.
Renesmee
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ORIGIN
American
MEANING
Reborn And Loved
ADD’L INFO
Combination of the names Renee and Esme.
Created for the Twilight book series by Stephenie Meyer
Edward
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ORIGIN
English, Polish
MEANING
Wealthy Guardian or Rich Guard
ADD’L INFO
Saint Edward the Confessor was a king of England and known as a just ruler. Edward is one of the few Old English names to be used throughout Europe (in various spellings).
Isabella/Bella
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ORIGIN
Italian
MEANING
God is My Oath/Beautiful
ADD’L INFO
Isabella of France married Edward II.
Jacob
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ORIGIN
English, Scandinavian, Biblical, Dutch
MEANING
Supplanter or May God Protect
Jasper
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ORIGIN
Persian, English, Judeo-Christian
MEANING
Treasurer
ADD’L INFO
This name was traditionally assigned to one of the wise men (also known as the Magi, or three kings) who were said to have visited the newborn Jesus.
Rosalie
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ORIGIN
French
MEANING
Rose
Alice
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ORIGIN
English, French, Portuguese, Italian
MEANING
Of A Noble Kin
Emmett
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ORIGIN
English
MEANING
Entire, Whole, Universal
Carlisle
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ORIGIN
Welsh, English
MEANING
City Belonging to Lugovalor or “Strong as Lugh”
ADD’L INFO
Lugh was a Celtic god of the sun and craftsmanship. Also known as “the shining one.”
Esme
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ORIGIN
French
MEANING
Esteemed or Loved
Charlie
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ORIGIN
English
MEANING
Free Man or Army or Warrior
Leah
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ORIGIN
English, Jewish, Biblical
MEANING
Weary
Seth
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ORIGIN
English, Biblical
MEANING
Appointed or Pillar or Dazzle
Sam
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ORIGIN
English
MEANING
Name of God or God Has Heard
ADD’L INFO
Samuel was the last of the ruling judges in the Old Testament.
Jessica
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ORIGIN
English
MEANING
God Beholds
ADD’L INFO
This name was first used in this form by Shakespeare in his play ‘The Merchant of Venice’(1596), where it belongs to the daughter of Shylock.
Angela
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ORIGIN
English, Italian, German, Dutch, Romanian
MEANING
Messenger of God
Mike
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ORIGIN
English
MEANING
Who is Like God
Ben
———————————–
ORIGIN
English, Dutch
MEANING
Son of the Right Hand
Outtakes
Here's some outtakes from the book New Moon, although, they're not neccesarily a fun fact...:
http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/pdf/nm_outtakes_scholarship.pdf
http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/pdf/nm_outtakes_jacob.pdf
http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/pdf/nm_extras_miscalculation.pdf (This one is actually a practical joke done by Stephanie. Rosalie's point of view)
http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/pdf/nm_extras_jacob.pdf (This isn't neccesarily an outtake, but rather a brief summary in Jacob's point of view)
Here are some of the outtakes from Twilight:
http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/pdf/twi_outtakes_promremix.pdf
http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/pdf/twi_outtakes_shopping.pdf
http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/pdf/nm_extras_rosalie.pdf
http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/pdf/twi_outtakes_emmett.pdf
Extra
We all know Eclipse comes before Breaking Dawn…so all I can say is, what an appropriate setup for the Breaking Dawn book release!
On the morning of August 1st, as fans are probably still sleeping in, exhasusted from late night preparations for their Midnight Release parties, the first total solar eclipse in 2.5 years will be in view in many parts of the world.
The total eclipse will be visible along a narrow track that will start over the Northwest Passage of Canada, northern Greenland, then southeast through Siberia and western Mongolia, before ending near the famed Silk Route of China. There will be a partial eclipse visible over a largee area that includes western and central Asia, parts of northern and central Europe, all of Greenland and even a small slice of northeastern North America.
Just in case you're wondering, here's how the Twilight characters compare in height:
In case you don’t remember this scene, it is in Chapter 7. To get some sleep after hearing Jacob’s story of the cold ones, Bella plays a CD that Phil gave her.
She describes the band:
a little too much bass and shrieking for my tastes…the shattering beats made it impossible for me to think.
What band was she listening to? None other than Linkin Park.
What does Edward break after 'the vote' in New Moon???
According to Stephenie Meyer:
Edward ripped into halves a sixty inch plasma TV that the Cullens had shipped in from Korea because it’s not available in the states yet. Emmett was a bit annoyed.
Harry's Heart attack occurs after his two kids, Seth and Leah, transform in front of his eyes. (According to the Twilight Lexicon)
Most of the information on this page was from twilightersanonymous.com. (I've always wanted to do this. Write really small on the bottom like they do in commercials :D)
