Skipping past the girl gossip on pages 204-206, we are now at lunch. Edward and Bella are going to by themselves because they have established the fact that they are secretly dating. See, it's such a secret that Bella already told her best friend and that they acting so inconspicuous about it. Edward for the second time isn't sitting with his family, a fact that is unique for the entire time he has been at the school. Who is he sitting with? The new girl, the one that everyone noticed when she first arrived in town and was almost hit by a car. I think the two of them ought to take a look at the dictionary definition of "secret," because they act completely contradictory to the term.
So far Bella believes that Edward is a vampire, but she hasn't really asked him a lot of the questions that we, normal people, would ask when confronted with this unique phenomenon. Thomas Paine in "The Age of Reason" pointed out the odd omission of any further writing concerning Lazarus. Lazarus, who was dead and then brought back to life by Jesus, should have been considered at least interesting since he alone, of anyone else in recorded history, had ventured into Hamlet's undiscovered country and came back. The fact that no one asked him what being dead was like, or even recorded his ultimate fate was suspicious according to Paine. Bella, like everyone else in Lazarus's time, ignores the big question of what Edward went through to become a vampire. Instead she seems to be more concerned with his day to day life than the big questions for which he could have an answer to.
For instance she asks about the fact that his family never appears to eat, which in all fairness is a decent inquiry, but then again she could have asked that before she knew he was a vampire. This is a bit long but it's worth quoting in full:
"What would you do if someone dared you to eat food?'
--'You're always curious.' He grimaced, shaking his head. He glared at me, holding my eyes as he lifted the slice of pizza off the tray, and deliberately bit off a mouthful, chewed quickly, and then swallowed. I watched, eyes wide.
'If someone dared you to eat dirt, you could, couldn't you?' he asked condescendingly."
There are several problems with this. First off, why would anyone dare him to eat food? Aside from another guy actually daring him to eat dirt/worms/etc. no one else suspects anything else. Bella, however, isn't that bright so it's more of an indication of that than anything else.
Secondly, why does Edward grimace? Sure it's understandable that he might be a bit impatient with her for always asking questions, but these shouldn't be unexpected. It's not like she's pestering him with questions like, 'where were you Saturday night?' or 'what are you thinking about?' she's been presented with a creature that up until a couple of weeks ago was only real as a fictional idea. His impatience with her alleged impertinence is unrealistic.
Thirdly, if he has the ability to eat then why doesn't he and his family? This is the first time that we as readers have seen a Cullen ingest anything, this is noticed by Bella and we can presume others as well since the family is so attractive and mysterious. If they are trying to blend in then they should be doing the normal things, things like eating which is only significant if someone doesn't do it. Since Bella noticed about the Cullen women, back in the beginning of the book that "The tall one was statuesque. She had a beautiful figure, the kind you saw on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue, the kind that made every girl around her take a hit on her self-esteem just by being in the same room." Surely people are noticing that they don't eat, especially the girls who are overly concerned with appearance might look to them as guides on how to ape that statuesque appearance.
This indicates one of two possibilities; that they either don't really concern themselves with blending in or that the author wrote a stereotype of Vampire fiction but then forgot to carry it through. I vote the latter. I've read several "non-fiction" books* on Vampires, and the fact that they don't need to eat human food was consistent. What wasn't consistent was whether they could eat food. Tabletop RPG guides to Vampires would maintain that any food ingested would have to be evacuated by the Vampire's body or else it would be held by the non-functioning digestive system indefinitely. Sometimes this was the source of the foul odor that the vampires mouth emanated. It would be nice if Meyer addressed what happens later with Edward after eating the pizza but I'm not holding my breath.
The last issue is the false analogy that Edward gives Bella as a point that he is attempting to make, although if you ask me I couldn't tell you what point that is. He asks her about being able to eat dirt. Well, of course, she can eat dirt but there is a huge difference. Bella is human, Edward is no longer, the fact that he can eat food when centuries of myth have said that he can't should be a source of curiosity. His analogy is, I guess, supposed to explain away her curiosity but it doesn't work for me. It does, sadly, work for her.
It's on to more important topics, like whether or not the waitress from the other night was pretty. At this point Edward is just showing off. There is no reason for him to bring it up other than to illustrate that anything that she mentions to anyone else can be divined by him. The only reason to bring that up is to further remind her that in no way can Bella hide anything from her stalker...er, boyfriend. Although that could be considered unfair to Eddie, which is a hard thing for me to type.
From his point of view, he's had a little more than a century around people whose minds are as visible as Goethe barometers, and now he meets a person whose mind is completely closed to him. Out of arrogance, he might be trying to display that although her mind may be closed he can still get into her thoughts through secondary means. It could be a way for him to stroke his fragile ego like a guy who ends an argument with the phrase, "I could still kick his ass," or a hack science fiction/fantasy writer who lambastes a first time author but ends it with the phrase, "...but she's still pretty hot."**
After delving into Jessica's mind for the important information of the physical attributes of the Port Angeles waitress Eddie finds something disturbing. Bringing it up, Bella warns him that she knew that there would be some things that he wouldn't want to know, but he disagrees. His reasoning is strange, and a bit scary and not in a good way, "I do want to know what you're thinking--everything. I just wish...that you wouldn't be thinking some things."
Ah thought crime, where would conspiracy theorists and controlling boyfriends be without it. The thought that he finds so repulsive and worrisome, "Do you truly believe that you care more for me than I do for you?' he murmured, leaning closer to me as he spoke, his dark golden eyes piercing."
The dark ominous tone in the previous paragraph doesn't follow with the actual explanation. The thought I was expecting had the words, "turn," "eternity," and "together" in it. Not, gee I really think that he doesn't like me more than I like him. Although I guess the surprise is nice.
However she does have proof of this, "I'm absolutely ordinary--well, except for bad things like all the near death experiences and being so clumsy that I'm almost disabled. And look at you," I waved my hand toward him and all his bewildering perfection." It's the type of "evidence" that women lacking in self-esteem always bring out as the nuclear option. It begs several questions and serves to switch the conversation over from whatever it was about to inflating the girl's ego. The you-are-too-good-for-me argument, it never works and only adds to the resentment level in the relationship.
I should also mention that she is clearly inflating her desperate situation. She's had one actual near death experience and one hypothetical. Plus, her clumsiness*** isn't that bad. The other thing is that she compares herself experience-wise to Edward appearance-wise. His perfection can't compare with her imperfection. That would be like comparing a baby's ability to walk with my ability to read. Edward sort of gets the distinction, he mentions the thoughts of the other males at the school on her first day. He never tells us the reader, but we can figure it out for ourselves.
Edward, coming back to the subject at hand, replies that he is the one that cares more. Surprisingly, this reads better than a "I love you more. No, I love you more" conversation that plagued the series Friends for nine years. His reasoning is that he is prepared to leave Bella if it gets too dangerous for her. Just to reiterate, his proof that he loves her more is that he's ready to break her heart if she's in danger. Ok, fair enough, but he also pledges to stick around because she is danger all the time as she is a trouble magnet. So, exactly what is his plan? To protect her until it becomes really dangerous, or is he just trying to maintain that image of the dangerous loner.
In either case Bella has a back up plan if he does try and leave him, "If I had to, I supposed I could purposefully put myself in danger to keep him close...I banished that thought before his quick eyes read it on my face."
I like the part where she banishes the thought, not because she knows that it is wrong but because she doesn't want him to know that she will blackmail him emotionally if he tries to leave. It's not about love, it's about getting caught and getting punished. I really hope that people reading this aren't taking these two as a relationship to be admired.****
____________________________
*Obviously using the term non-fiction to refer to Vampires is a confusing issue when you aren't talking about literary characters.
**This comes from several forums criticizing the Twilight Series and Stephanie Meyer. I find it to be in poor taste and vulgar.
***I'm going to note it in every section where it is mentioned because it's mentioned far too frequently to not be important later. Meyer is digging a nice little literary hole here.
****Although it was pointed out to me that the name "Bella" and "Jacob" was topping the list of baby names last year, so some people are taking it seriously and they have both spouses and kids. I worry for the future.
So far Bella believes that Edward is a vampire, but she hasn't really asked him a lot of the questions that we, normal people, would ask when confronted with this unique phenomenon. Thomas Paine in "The Age of Reason" pointed out the odd omission of any further writing concerning Lazarus. Lazarus, who was dead and then brought back to life by Jesus, should have been considered at least interesting since he alone, of anyone else in recorded history, had ventured into Hamlet's undiscovered country and came back. The fact that no one asked him what being dead was like, or even recorded his ultimate fate was suspicious according to Paine. Bella, like everyone else in Lazarus's time, ignores the big question of what Edward went through to become a vampire. Instead she seems to be more concerned with his day to day life than the big questions for which he could have an answer to.
For instance she asks about the fact that his family never appears to eat, which in all fairness is a decent inquiry, but then again she could have asked that before she knew he was a vampire. This is a bit long but it's worth quoting in full:
"What would you do if someone dared you to eat food?'
--'You're always curious.' He grimaced, shaking his head. He glared at me, holding my eyes as he lifted the slice of pizza off the tray, and deliberately bit off a mouthful, chewed quickly, and then swallowed. I watched, eyes wide.
'If someone dared you to eat dirt, you could, couldn't you?' he asked condescendingly."
There are several problems with this. First off, why would anyone dare him to eat food? Aside from another guy actually daring him to eat dirt/worms/etc. no one else suspects anything else. Bella, however, isn't that bright so it's more of an indication of that than anything else.
Secondly, why does Edward grimace? Sure it's understandable that he might be a bit impatient with her for always asking questions, but these shouldn't be unexpected. It's not like she's pestering him with questions like, 'where were you Saturday night?' or 'what are you thinking about?' she's been presented with a creature that up until a couple of weeks ago was only real as a fictional idea. His impatience with her alleged impertinence is unrealistic.
Thirdly, if he has the ability to eat then why doesn't he and his family? This is the first time that we as readers have seen a Cullen ingest anything, this is noticed by Bella and we can presume others as well since the family is so attractive and mysterious. If they are trying to blend in then they should be doing the normal things, things like eating which is only significant if someone doesn't do it. Since Bella noticed about the Cullen women, back in the beginning of the book that "The tall one was statuesque. She had a beautiful figure, the kind you saw on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue, the kind that made every girl around her take a hit on her self-esteem just by being in the same room." Surely people are noticing that they don't eat, especially the girls who are overly concerned with appearance might look to them as guides on how to ape that statuesque appearance.
This indicates one of two possibilities; that they either don't really concern themselves with blending in or that the author wrote a stereotype of Vampire fiction but then forgot to carry it through. I vote the latter. I've read several "non-fiction" books* on Vampires, and the fact that they don't need to eat human food was consistent. What wasn't consistent was whether they could eat food. Tabletop RPG guides to Vampires would maintain that any food ingested would have to be evacuated by the Vampire's body or else it would be held by the non-functioning digestive system indefinitely. Sometimes this was the source of the foul odor that the vampires mouth emanated. It would be nice if Meyer addressed what happens later with Edward after eating the pizza but I'm not holding my breath.
The last issue is the false analogy that Edward gives Bella as a point that he is attempting to make, although if you ask me I couldn't tell you what point that is. He asks her about being able to eat dirt. Well, of course, she can eat dirt but there is a huge difference. Bella is human, Edward is no longer, the fact that he can eat food when centuries of myth have said that he can't should be a source of curiosity. His analogy is, I guess, supposed to explain away her curiosity but it doesn't work for me. It does, sadly, work for her.
It's on to more important topics, like whether or not the waitress from the other night was pretty. At this point Edward is just showing off. There is no reason for him to bring it up other than to illustrate that anything that she mentions to anyone else can be divined by him. The only reason to bring that up is to further remind her that in no way can Bella hide anything from her stalker...er, boyfriend. Although that could be considered unfair to Eddie, which is a hard thing for me to type.
From his point of view, he's had a little more than a century around people whose minds are as visible as Goethe barometers, and now he meets a person whose mind is completely closed to him. Out of arrogance, he might be trying to display that although her mind may be closed he can still get into her thoughts through secondary means. It could be a way for him to stroke his fragile ego like a guy who ends an argument with the phrase, "I could still kick his ass," or a hack science fiction/fantasy writer who lambastes a first time author but ends it with the phrase, "...but she's still pretty hot."**
After delving into Jessica's mind for the important information of the physical attributes of the Port Angeles waitress Eddie finds something disturbing. Bringing it up, Bella warns him that she knew that there would be some things that he wouldn't want to know, but he disagrees. His reasoning is strange, and a bit scary and not in a good way, "I do want to know what you're thinking--everything. I just wish...that you wouldn't be thinking some things."
Ah thought crime, where would conspiracy theorists and controlling boyfriends be without it. The thought that he finds so repulsive and worrisome, "Do you truly believe that you care more for me than I do for you?' he murmured, leaning closer to me as he spoke, his dark golden eyes piercing."
The dark ominous tone in the previous paragraph doesn't follow with the actual explanation. The thought I was expecting had the words, "turn," "eternity," and "together" in it. Not, gee I really think that he doesn't like me more than I like him. Although I guess the surprise is nice.
However she does have proof of this, "I'm absolutely ordinary--well, except for bad things like all the near death experiences and being so clumsy that I'm almost disabled. And look at you," I waved my hand toward him and all his bewildering perfection." It's the type of "evidence" that women lacking in self-esteem always bring out as the nuclear option. It begs several questions and serves to switch the conversation over from whatever it was about to inflating the girl's ego. The you-are-too-good-for-me argument, it never works and only adds to the resentment level in the relationship.
I should also mention that she is clearly inflating her desperate situation. She's had one actual near death experience and one hypothetical. Plus, her clumsiness*** isn't that bad. The other thing is that she compares herself experience-wise to Edward appearance-wise. His perfection can't compare with her imperfection. That would be like comparing a baby's ability to walk with my ability to read. Edward sort of gets the distinction, he mentions the thoughts of the other males at the school on her first day. He never tells us the reader, but we can figure it out for ourselves.
Edward, coming back to the subject at hand, replies that he is the one that cares more. Surprisingly, this reads better than a "I love you more. No, I love you more" conversation that plagued the series Friends for nine years. His reasoning is that he is prepared to leave Bella if it gets too dangerous for her. Just to reiterate, his proof that he loves her more is that he's ready to break her heart if she's in danger. Ok, fair enough, but he also pledges to stick around because she is danger all the time as she is a trouble magnet. So, exactly what is his plan? To protect her until it becomes really dangerous, or is he just trying to maintain that image of the dangerous loner.
In either case Bella has a back up plan if he does try and leave him, "If I had to, I supposed I could purposefully put myself in danger to keep him close...I banished that thought before his quick eyes read it on my face."
I like the part where she banishes the thought, not because she knows that it is wrong but because she doesn't want him to know that she will blackmail him emotionally if he tries to leave. It's not about love, it's about getting caught and getting punished. I really hope that people reading this aren't taking these two as a relationship to be admired.****
____________________________
*Obviously using the term non-fiction to refer to Vampires is a confusing issue when you aren't talking about literary characters.
**This comes from several forums criticizing the Twilight Series and Stephanie Meyer. I find it to be in poor taste and vulgar.
***I'm going to note it in every section where it is mentioned because it's mentioned far too frequently to not be important later. Meyer is digging a nice little literary hole here.
****Although it was pointed out to me that the name "Bella" and "Jacob" was topping the list of baby names last year, so some people are taking it seriously and they have both spouses and kids. I worry for the future.
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