Introduction Post

So I decided that since I like writing both series posts and stoking the fires of nerd rage I decided to borrow a page from my Wiker series and tackle another book. The choices were many and since this is the second time I am doing this books on my list of things to read were kind of out. It might be interesting to walk through chapter by chapter Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War but I would also like to finish this series sometime in 2010. That book also suffers as being the second history book in Western Civilization and all i could legitimately compare it to would be Herodotus.

I decided to lower the bar a little bit and take something that nerds hate, I am rather indifferent to, but that I am also curious about. I also thought that I could pander to the hoi polloi by making it something popular and maybe drive up some readership. For good or ill I decided that since I already defended the phenomenon earlier I might as well take up the first book of Stephanie Meyer, Twilight.

Some people out there may think, somehow, that this is beneath your humble blogger’s scope. I assure you that it is not. Next to Philosophy my interest has always been in pop-culture, which kind of explains why I have three publications in the Pop-Culture and Philosophy series. Right now, love it or hate it* Twilight is the big thing. So every Monday I am going to write about a section of the book that I have read, kind of like an assignment. I should note, although it should be obvious, that I will do this in chronological order and though it is possible that I skip sections in the writing I will not in the reading. This is because if the book has long descriptions it isn’t worth reflecting on here unless they are either extremely good or shockingly bad.

If anyone wants to follow along I will be using the paperback copy of the book that has the pale hands holding an apple (I wonder if this is symbolic or not), as my guide. I will list the page numbers of the parts I have read, or in cases where it is an entire chapter (my feeling is that since any narrative has to spend a certain amount of time describing the setting, the main characters, etc. that the first two chapters will go like this) the chapter number.

Yes, yes this is a lot of instructions and needless prattling about what I am going to do for what I assume is an intelligent audience, but this is the internet and you never know what kind of special idiot you can attract. So let’s take a look at the cosmetically and write out some initial impressions:

Ugh, this book looks to be almost 500 pages, with a whole bunch of pages in the back that are unnumbered, oh wait this is a paper back so I’m betting those last pages are the opening for the next book/current movie and I’m right.

The aforementioned cover is an odd choice. My thought is that unless these vampires or the main character have a liking for apples this is probably symbolic. One of the very few things that I know about the author is that she is a mormon with a degree from (surprise!) BYU (which as a side note the only Notre Dame football game (because all good Irish Catholics make the hajira there at least once in their lives) I ever saw in person was against BYU and the Irish won by landslide). Unless this book takes a complete metaphorical journey into the Garden of Eden I’m going to hazard a guess and say that it is supposed to be about desire. If that be the case then the book is going to have to reflect that in some fashion, or else this is the oddest cover for a book that I’ve seen in a long time.

Next time: Chapter 1…no wait there is apparently a prologue, so next time: the Prologue.

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*Because Pop-Culture doesn’t care which one you partake in.