Love/Hate (Pg. 75-85)

Comedian Patrice O’Neal (Even googling the name I’m not sure what the correct spelling is), mentioned on a morning radio show that all he ever needed to get a girl in bed was to make her hate him. I don’t remember the exact quote but it was close to this, “if I can get a girl to hate me I can flip that over to love in a week.” I don’t agree with the method,* but I understand why it works. It’s the emotional violence of hate, a feeling that is so powerful that it draws a connection to the two people related to it, and in this it has so much more in common with love than any other emotion in the human spectrum. It is also the most uniquely human, my daughter when she was an infant only displayed two emotions: hate and love, which she switched between so frequently it was easy to see how little difference the two actually have.

Let me explain this through Bella’s experience with Edward. First she hated Edward when he abhorred her very presence. She hated him so much that she couldn’t stop thinking about him, which then turned to curiosity, and then led to the contest in biology. She had to prove that she was better than this person, when that didn’t work and he saved her life, she wanted to hate him again. It didn’t work, it couldn’t work, she’s already fallen for him. What’s worse for her sake, is that he knows this which is why the remainder of this chapter is a bit amusing. Not amusing in a good way though, it’s amusing in the way that Sci-Fi original picture is amusing.

It’s amusing because of the “situation” that Bella finds herself in. It’s almost Spring,** and Forks HS, is having their “Girl’s Choice” dance. The rules seem to be that the women ask the men to go to the dance with them, but that isn’t the way it seems to be working out. First, to the chagrin of Jessica, Mike asks Bella if she will ask him to the dance. Due to the rules of the dance this is the only Asimovian way to logically work around the law. However that is splitting legal hairs, Mike asking Bella to ask him is just a fancy way of asking her. She says no. Then Eric, the greasy haired dragon t-shirt boy, asks her in much the same way. Again she says no.

What I don’t understand is that this high school seems to operate under different social rules than any other high school in the history of the United States. This is especially odd because the tale takes place in modern times, and the only high school in modern times that operates like this was the one in Saved by The Bell, or 90210. Eric shouldn’t be eating lunch with the moderately popular kids. He should have his own clique of which he would no doubt be the king. It makes me wonder if our author was home schooled or some ultra small private Mormon school that made such social distinctions impossible. Forks is small, but it isn’t that small.

Then Tyler asks her. Tyler is unique because he isn’t asking her because he likes her. He’s asking her because he almost killed her. It’s the most selfish way of achieving contrition, because what he’s saying is this, “Hey, sorry I almost pulverized a good number of your bones the other day. As a way of making it up to you I would like for you to ask me to take you to the dance.” Even if there was no sex, groping, making out, he still gets both a date and absolution. A nice deal for him. She says no. Her reason: she decided on the spot she’s going to Seattle. For the Day.

I figured this was a reasonable idea. She wants to see the big city, and I with little knowledge of the state of Washington figured it would be like driving from Rochester to Buffalo (a little over an hour). However, it’s not. As the crow flies, it’s around 90 miles, but driving it takes 140 miles. Her on-the-spot excuse is now a seven hour road trip and it’s going to be just for the day. When I would drive from Toledo OH to Buffalo NY, I planned my week around that trip.

We don’t get an exact reason why she doesn’t want to attend the dance. We can assume it’s because she’s shy, but that doesn’t really work because there are going to be enough people there that she does know and can tag along with. We can assume that it is because she constantly reminds us that she is a klutz, but this doesn’t work because she can hold up the walls or talk to her friends. We get the impression that it is because she doesn't want to be in the spotlight. I, however, don’t see why she would be the center of attention, because the accident? Because she’s the new girl? Someone help me out here because her vacuous excuses are insulting to the superior liar that lives inside my brain.

In all three cases that she is asked about going to the dance, Edward is present and he snorts or smiles as she turns each one of her suitors down. It’s just like the end of the Odyssey only without the masterful writing, engaging plot, or interesting characters; she has to stall while the hidden Odysseus plans his move. Edward snorts, smugly which Meyer forgot to add as an adverb here, because he knows none of these pretenders are going to succeed. The only person that she would go to the dance with isn’t going to ask her, because it’s him.

She hates him, but she can’t stop thinking about him. The nerve of him saving her life and all. She toys with running over his car, which seems like an extreme response. Her truck, made of solid steel and forged in the heart of Detroit would not only have annihilated the Cullen’s pussy ass Volvo but just out of spite killed everyone inside it and standing near it. Edward, she hates, but are his siblings just supposed to take it?

I also like the fact that as she’s stuck behind Edward’s car she calls back to Tyler to explain why she hasn’t moved, “I’m stuck behind Cullen.” The phrasing and context mean that she has friends. The dance wouldn’t be her sitting on the bench watching people have fun. She assumes by this phrase that the listener both knows who she is talking about, and understands the predicament. Not just because he’s been stuck in traffic, but this exact act-token is repeated at this school. She’s one of them now, her attempts to be viewed as a loner have utterly failed. Now, she should probably be viewed as the girl who is just a little busier than most. To any normal person this would be good, but Bella’s narcissism mandates that if her peers don’t view her as she wants them to she must be depressed about it.

In the long run her tired excuse of going to Seattle works out though, because Edward asks to drive her. This is going to lead us into what sends the internet nerds into ‘roid rage, because in order to do this Meyer is going to have to explain the rules of her vampires. I’m kind of looking forward to that.

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*At least now that I have a daughter I don’t.

**I guess, it’s hard to say what month it is. The snow fall happened, then the ice which almost caused the accident, but then there is a period of time that goes by yet we don’t actually know how much time has passed. I’m going to assume Spring since that is usually school dance season.