This section is a lot like the final Episode of Lost is going to be: it's satisfactory which disappoints in a way because I wanted so much more. I don't know exactly what I wanted so I'm not too disappointed but the feeling is still there. We are still in Port Angeles, where it is revealed that Edward is a stalker. Following Bella to keep her safe from the inevitable danger that surrounds her even though she's only been in two dangerous scenarios (and that's being generous).
It's been established that Edward has telepathic vampire powers. Instead of playing with the powers Bella goes on to be jealous of every woman that is smiling at Edward at the Italian Restaurant where they are eating. What I don't understand, and it is a continual complaint regarding her, is why she claims that she is so smart and inquisitive when she doesn't express a single characteristic of that personality type. Let's take a look at this ESP.
Bella basically tells Edward that he has it, it makes no sense that she would draw this conclusion, but he confirms it anyway because he is such a good secret keeper. Instead of following up with some obvious questions she just accepts it and moves on. For example when they leave the table Edward pays the waitress setting up an obvious inquiry line for Bella: "He didn't look away from me as he thanked her. I suppressed a smile."
Bella is suspicious of the waitress because she thinks that the woman, who needs to smile and be friendly so that she is tipped well, has the hots for Edward. Instead of asking Edward to read her mind she just smiles because he possibly snubbed her. Anything to display the powers that he has would work here, but Bella, just isn't as inquisitive or intelligent as she would like us to think she is (it bears repeating...often). A normal person, when confronted with the claim of ESP would seek to test it, the more intelligent the person is the more they are going to be skeptical and ask for proof. Blind acceptance isn't a trait that Bella should have if we are to believe her.
The whole section is about Edward's powers and it's done as a "tell" violating the rule of "show don't tell" that anyone who has taken a creative writing class should know. In this case, I'll leap to Meyer's defense since she has to explain Edward's nature in the confines of a restaurant and then a car, so most of it works. It's not bad writing, but it's not great writing either; it's competent which is much more than I was led to expect before I began this project.
Leaving the restaurant, Edward in an unusual display of courtesy opens the door of his car to let Bella in. He shuts the door and walks around the front, "I watched him walk around the front of the car, amazed, yet again, by how graceful he was."
Here is where Meyer should be following the "show don't tell" rule. Edward is walking a maximum of 7 feet what kind of grace can he exhibit? More importantly, why is he so graceful? I don't know how people walked one hundred years ago but I can't imagine that it was any different than it is now. What is also important is whether or not Bella unlocked his door for him, or even tried. This is a rule explained by Sonny in the movie A Bronx Tale. You let the girl in, and walk around the car, if she has unlocked the door she is a keeper*, if not she's selfish and you should dump her.
In the car, Bella grills Edward more about the telepathy, "'How does it work-the mind reading thing? Can you read anybody's mind, anywhere? How do you do it? Can the rest of your family...?' I felt silly asking for clarification on make-believe."
The questions are very pertinent, although the timing is completely wrong. She asks them in the car on the way back to Forks. Again, the restaurant would have been better. I would also like to know if he could read an Infant's mind, since it would settle an old philosophical debate concerning Rationalism v. Empiricism. The explanation he gives is good. He explains that, "It's a little like being in a huge hall filled with people, everyone talking at once."
It reminds me of an episode of Star Trek: The Next Genertaion, where the most useless person on the bridge, Troi, takes in a Betazoid prodigy who has been telepathic since birth and is unable to shut out the voices (Season 3: Tin Man). Edward just lets them buzz around like white noise, something it doesn't seem that the inept Troi** ever suggested.
The next line of inquiry is pretty relevant too, Bella wants to know why Edward can't read her mind. Again, Edward explains it well as a guess, he thinks that Bella's brain is different and it's like her's is on Am but he only gets FM. Nice explanation but Bella takes it the wrong way, "My mind doesn't work right? I'm a freak?' The words bothered me more than they should--probably because his speculation hit home. I'd always suspected as much, and it embarrassed me to have it confirmed."
Well unless by "freak" Bella means, falsely superior, lacking all confidence, prone to lying to itself, then yes, she's a freak. This is all based on Edward's guess, and we can assume this is the first time he's encountered it. If he hasn't then in a hundred more years he'll probably have a better one for the girl he's stalking then. The other thing is that Bella has so far been spending her time bragging about how different she is, then becomes upset when that is confirmed. It further adds to the confusion as to whether I'm supposed to identify or pity her, instead leading me to being disgusted with her.
Aside from the ridiculous, but apparently true, theory of Edward's telepathy Bella has the theory that he's a vampire. She confesses the whole story to him, which is unnecessarily summarized, although she does skip the part about the internet research (as would I). Edward doesn't reply to any of it but it's unclear whether this is out of loyalty to his family, embarrassment, or reluctance to admit his essence. All we know is that his knuckles tightened around the steering wheel.***
So finally, the nature of Meyer's vampire: burning in the sun? "Myth." Which is fine, because Stoker's Dracula walked in the daylight as well. It's addressed in Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula that this is not true either but that the powers of the vampire diminish.
Sleeping in a coffin? Again this is wrong, but not in the way you are thinking. These vampires don't sleep at all. I will give her credit for this, because it's at least creative. However Bella has the ability of the Warren Commission to ask follow up questions the most obvious being, "So what do you do all day?" As it is literally, all day. He should be incredibly intelligent, pop-culture savvy, or his gamerscore on XBOX Live is through the roof. Having all that extra time doesn't seem to be helping him any, unless that's how long it takes him to get ready for school.
"You aren't concerned about my diet?' he asked sarcastically." I don't get the adverb in that sentence. For someone who is so concerned about her safety, this shouldn't be a glib comment. She isn't, because she's already decided he's the one despite the fact that his personality reminds me of Ted Bundy and he is a blood drinker.
Since this is a modern Vampire story, we have to do away with the Vampire preys on humans angle because so many people, especially the book's intended audience, actually want to be Vampires without all the mess of having to eat people. They can live off of animal blood, well that is still life they are leaching so it's not so bad and what I do like is how he explains the difference, "I can't be sure, of course, but I'd compare it to living on tofu and soy milk."
So refraining from drinking human blood is like being a vegetarian? Does this mean that the other Vampires in the world regard the Cullens as smug, pretentious, holier-than-thou douche bags who ruin every meal they are invited to? Probably, I'll bet that Volvo has an Apple sticker on the back as well.
__________________________
*It actually is a good indicator, in my experience. Although I do amend the rule so that it is whether or not she attempts to unlock the door. It can be hard to find the button nowadays and you can't fault anyone for that.
**Before you Trekkies go all crazy on me let me ask you this: has she ever contributed anything to an episode other than stating the completely obvious?
***He does get upset, but I'm saving that for next week because there is a larger issue concerning his stalking present along with it.
It's been established that Edward has telepathic vampire powers. Instead of playing with the powers Bella goes on to be jealous of every woman that is smiling at Edward at the Italian Restaurant where they are eating. What I don't understand, and it is a continual complaint regarding her, is why she claims that she is so smart and inquisitive when she doesn't express a single characteristic of that personality type. Let's take a look at this ESP.
Bella basically tells Edward that he has it, it makes no sense that she would draw this conclusion, but he confirms it anyway because he is such a good secret keeper. Instead of following up with some obvious questions she just accepts it and moves on. For example when they leave the table Edward pays the waitress setting up an obvious inquiry line for Bella: "He didn't look away from me as he thanked her. I suppressed a smile."
Bella is suspicious of the waitress because she thinks that the woman, who needs to smile and be friendly so that she is tipped well, has the hots for Edward. Instead of asking Edward to read her mind she just smiles because he possibly snubbed her. Anything to display the powers that he has would work here, but Bella, just isn't as inquisitive or intelligent as she would like us to think she is (it bears repeating...often). A normal person, when confronted with the claim of ESP would seek to test it, the more intelligent the person is the more they are going to be skeptical and ask for proof. Blind acceptance isn't a trait that Bella should have if we are to believe her.
The whole section is about Edward's powers and it's done as a "tell" violating the rule of "show don't tell" that anyone who has taken a creative writing class should know. In this case, I'll leap to Meyer's defense since she has to explain Edward's nature in the confines of a restaurant and then a car, so most of it works. It's not bad writing, but it's not great writing either; it's competent which is much more than I was led to expect before I began this project.
Leaving the restaurant, Edward in an unusual display of courtesy opens the door of his car to let Bella in. He shuts the door and walks around the front, "I watched him walk around the front of the car, amazed, yet again, by how graceful he was."
Here is where Meyer should be following the "show don't tell" rule. Edward is walking a maximum of 7 feet what kind of grace can he exhibit? More importantly, why is he so graceful? I don't know how people walked one hundred years ago but I can't imagine that it was any different than it is now. What is also important is whether or not Bella unlocked his door for him, or even tried. This is a rule explained by Sonny in the movie A Bronx Tale. You let the girl in, and walk around the car, if she has unlocked the door she is a keeper*, if not she's selfish and you should dump her.
In the car, Bella grills Edward more about the telepathy, "'How does it work-the mind reading thing? Can you read anybody's mind, anywhere? How do you do it? Can the rest of your family...?' I felt silly asking for clarification on make-believe."
The questions are very pertinent, although the timing is completely wrong. She asks them in the car on the way back to Forks. Again, the restaurant would have been better. I would also like to know if he could read an Infant's mind, since it would settle an old philosophical debate concerning Rationalism v. Empiricism. The explanation he gives is good. He explains that, "It's a little like being in a huge hall filled with people, everyone talking at once."
It reminds me of an episode of Star Trek: The Next Genertaion, where the most useless person on the bridge, Troi, takes in a Betazoid prodigy who has been telepathic since birth and is unable to shut out the voices (Season 3: Tin Man). Edward just lets them buzz around like white noise, something it doesn't seem that the inept Troi** ever suggested.
The next line of inquiry is pretty relevant too, Bella wants to know why Edward can't read her mind. Again, Edward explains it well as a guess, he thinks that Bella's brain is different and it's like her's is on Am but he only gets FM. Nice explanation but Bella takes it the wrong way, "My mind doesn't work right? I'm a freak?' The words bothered me more than they should--probably because his speculation hit home. I'd always suspected as much, and it embarrassed me to have it confirmed."
Well unless by "freak" Bella means, falsely superior, lacking all confidence, prone to lying to itself, then yes, she's a freak. This is all based on Edward's guess, and we can assume this is the first time he's encountered it. If he hasn't then in a hundred more years he'll probably have a better one for the girl he's stalking then. The other thing is that Bella has so far been spending her time bragging about how different she is, then becomes upset when that is confirmed. It further adds to the confusion as to whether I'm supposed to identify or pity her, instead leading me to being disgusted with her.
Aside from the ridiculous, but apparently true, theory of Edward's telepathy Bella has the theory that he's a vampire. She confesses the whole story to him, which is unnecessarily summarized, although she does skip the part about the internet research (as would I). Edward doesn't reply to any of it but it's unclear whether this is out of loyalty to his family, embarrassment, or reluctance to admit his essence. All we know is that his knuckles tightened around the steering wheel.***
So finally, the nature of Meyer's vampire: burning in the sun? "Myth." Which is fine, because Stoker's Dracula walked in the daylight as well. It's addressed in Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula that this is not true either but that the powers of the vampire diminish.
Sleeping in a coffin? Again this is wrong, but not in the way you are thinking. These vampires don't sleep at all. I will give her credit for this, because it's at least creative. However Bella has the ability of the Warren Commission to ask follow up questions the most obvious being, "So what do you do all day?" As it is literally, all day. He should be incredibly intelligent, pop-culture savvy, or his gamerscore on XBOX Live is through the roof. Having all that extra time doesn't seem to be helping him any, unless that's how long it takes him to get ready for school.
"You aren't concerned about my diet?' he asked sarcastically." I don't get the adverb in that sentence. For someone who is so concerned about her safety, this shouldn't be a glib comment. She isn't, because she's already decided he's the one despite the fact that his personality reminds me of Ted Bundy and he is a blood drinker.
Since this is a modern Vampire story, we have to do away with the Vampire preys on humans angle because so many people, especially the book's intended audience, actually want to be Vampires without all the mess of having to eat people. They can live off of animal blood, well that is still life they are leaching so it's not so bad and what I do like is how he explains the difference, "I can't be sure, of course, but I'd compare it to living on tofu and soy milk."
So refraining from drinking human blood is like being a vegetarian? Does this mean that the other Vampires in the world regard the Cullens as smug, pretentious, holier-than-thou douche bags who ruin every meal they are invited to? Probably, I'll bet that Volvo has an Apple sticker on the back as well.
__________________________
*It actually is a good indicator, in my experience. Although I do amend the rule so that it is whether or not she attempts to unlock the door. It can be hard to find the button nowadays and you can't fault anyone for that.
**Before you Trekkies go all crazy on me let me ask you this: has she ever contributed anything to an episode other than stating the completely obvious?
***He does get upset, but I'm saving that for next week because there is a larger issue concerning his stalking present along with it.
Damn! You're shooting out of both barrels with that last paragraph and it is WONDERFUL
ReplyDelete<3 ....I laughed out loud...
-Laura