I gather I'm not alone by saying that I come from a family that likes to gossip. In dealing with this situation I have learned a couple of ways to deal with it, the first being that I don't say anything to anyone that I don't want any third party to know. If the web of gossip touches any part of my thoughts I assume as fact that it will get around, it may never get back to me personally that the stories are being spread about but the risk is not worth it especially considering that there is no reward.
This is quite important for our protagonists because their relationship is going to be big news in Forks High School as it will occupy the thoughts of the general population of the students but also be of great concern to two camps. Bella's friends and more importantly the Cullen family.
Edward has picked up Bella at her house, where Bella's dad has already left for work. Driving in the car Bella never once considers that if Charlie decides to run home for any reason he is going to notice that her car is still in the driveway. Thus far she has decided to keep the relationship between her and Edward a secret from him, for reasons that she has neglected to mention. If Charlie worked in an office, or some other occupation she could probably get away with it, but as a cop this is just sloppy thinking. His job is to drive around looking for trouble, and his lunch break is a lot more likely to take him home than most parents. This will lead Bella into the uncomfortable position of having to explain who took her to school and why.
Secondly, Edward is alone in the car with her. We don't know the extent of his family's viewpoint on the new relationship but since this whole book is about vampires and people getting together we can assume that it's not going to be one of approval. From their view the risk of exposure is too great and they actually have something to lose. We should set this up first, driving it occurs to Bella that they are alone in the car where usually it should be all of the Cullens driving together. She asks and unlike his usual grumpiness Edward answers, "They took Rosalie's car,' he shrugged as he parked next to a glossy red convertible with the top up. "Ostentatious, isn't it?"
Ostentatious indeed, in fact so much so that the head vampire, Dr. Cullen, must be some kind of super idiot. They live in Forks, Wa., and having a red convertible sports car makes as much sense as a local trying to pass off an artificial tan as real. I can picture Edward rolling his eyes at Rosalie's car, his chagrin is clearly warranted. Bella remarks that she is surprised that Rosalie would ever ride in the Volvo when she drove that to which Edward agrees but he knows that her car is a bad idea, "Like I said, it's ostentatious. We try to blend in."
Are they really trying to blend in? I would say that no, no they are not. Dr. Cullen works at the hospital, ok they need to make money so we can give him a pass on that. We don't know what his wife (or whatever you call it in Vampire speak) does, if anything, so for now we can assume that she stays at home. The blending in so far works. Then there are the kids, the six of them who are sent out in public to school for no reason whatsoever. It could be to get them out of the house and to socialize but they don't do that, they stick together at lunch time and they isolate themselves from everyone else. Then there is going to be the obvious problem of what to do after one school year as eventually they must either move forward resulting in some of them having to graduate. The good doctor hasn't thought this through, even though he's had centuries to work on it.
Bella, for once lives up to the intelligence that she claims she has by asking Edward the obvious question, "Why do you have cars like that at all?' I wondered aloud, 'If you're looking for privacy?"
When I was teaching it was questions like this that frustrated me so much. For instance if I was teaching St. Anselm's Ontological Proof and during the debunking stage someone would ask "why" the definition posited and reality instead of the more important "how." It's too close to be considered wrong but it's just far enough away that you can't nudge them toward the correct path.
Bella should have omitted the phrase, "like that" from her question so that it would read, "Why do you have cars at all?" If it is privacy they want, there are places like Northern Canada/Alaska or the middle of Africa that are desolate, they did pick a decent place though since it is sparsely populated. True privacy could have them live on the outskirts of town but absolutely no contact with the rest of the Forkers.
As I said it's a good question. Flashy sports cars and designer clothes are going to raise a bit of suspicion in a small town like Forks. Blending in cannot be the goal of the head of the Cullen family. Edward answers he that they like to drive fast as the reason they have them.
They like to fucking drive fast. I guess when facing the spectre of immortality you get whatever thrills you can, but this doesn't even seem consistent with the alleged secrecy that the Cullens are going for. Why doesn't the good doctor go to a country where is money can buy position and get a fleet of planes? Or better yet, buy his kids Toyota Coups that can be modified to go fast without drawing attention. His kids aren't teenagers, they are at least a century old and the thrill of fast driving should be long past them.* It just creates the gossip they are trying to avoid.
Out of the car Edward and Bella run into Jessica who is holding Bella's jacket from the previous night. This is off topic, but warrants a wtf so I mention it here, "Good morning, Jessica,' Edward said politely. It wasn't his fault that his voice was so irresistible."
That's not out of context either. Prior to the sentence Jessica handed the jacket over without saying anything. What is so irresistible about his voice, the fact that Jessica heard it? Evolution has designed our ears so that we can never shut them off, I don't understand what Jessica couldn't resist aside from hearing him.
Edward reads Jessica's mind and figures out that Jessica is going to ambush Bella with a series of questions regarding the two of them. Did he really need his magic vampire powers to know this given that Bella ditched her friends to have dinner with him the previous night and then she shows up with him at school? There is no way she wasn't going to ask some questions about it. It does make me wonder which is the bigger idiot, Edward for thinking that Bella needed to know that priceless tidbit or Bella if she did really need to know something that even captain obvious would find too apparent to mention?
Edward refrains from mentioning anything else in Jessica's mind which Bella finds unfair. I would think so to if my friend could read minds and refused to share that information. Again, the information shouldn't be that hard to discern, she wants to know why it looks like the two of them are dating. For an idiot this might be difficult but we must remember that Bella has told us how smart she is, and I know that sometimes smart people can be oblivious but this isn't that--it's inconsistent, the more this happens the less we can trust Bella which is bad because she is the narrator of the story.
Bella does show some intelligence though in dealing with Edward's ability. She knows that Ed can't read her mind, so in order to figure out what she is thinking he's going to read Jessica's mind for what Bella has told her. This is proof of her intelligence, she sees the phone tree and realizes how to work it. She can lie to Jessica so that Edward will hear it. It's an indirect way of communicating but it's the same way I got one of my aunts to stop sending me glurch** emails. A bit passive-aggressive to be sure, but effective enough where I no longer spend five minutes of my day deleting my inbox.
Bella and Jessica gossip instead of paying attention to class. Normal behavior and well written, it's one of the few times in the book that you get the impression of realism in the writing. The two girls can't stop gushing over their relationships unable to focus on school. It's cute and very well done. What is also nice is that it shows that Bella does finally admit that she has friends in this school. She can no longer be the "lonely loner" dishing about Jessica/Mike and her relationship with Edward. It seems like she's going to make it as a normal person after all...but like all sparks it will burn itself out, her character is such that it must.
________________________
*At least since the 1960s.
**You know the type that aunts always send you.
This is quite important for our protagonists because their relationship is going to be big news in Forks High School as it will occupy the thoughts of the general population of the students but also be of great concern to two camps. Bella's friends and more importantly the Cullen family.
Edward has picked up Bella at her house, where Bella's dad has already left for work. Driving in the car Bella never once considers that if Charlie decides to run home for any reason he is going to notice that her car is still in the driveway. Thus far she has decided to keep the relationship between her and Edward a secret from him, for reasons that she has neglected to mention. If Charlie worked in an office, or some other occupation she could probably get away with it, but as a cop this is just sloppy thinking. His job is to drive around looking for trouble, and his lunch break is a lot more likely to take him home than most parents. This will lead Bella into the uncomfortable position of having to explain who took her to school and why.
Secondly, Edward is alone in the car with her. We don't know the extent of his family's viewpoint on the new relationship but since this whole book is about vampires and people getting together we can assume that it's not going to be one of approval. From their view the risk of exposure is too great and they actually have something to lose. We should set this up first, driving it occurs to Bella that they are alone in the car where usually it should be all of the Cullens driving together. She asks and unlike his usual grumpiness Edward answers, "They took Rosalie's car,' he shrugged as he parked next to a glossy red convertible with the top up. "Ostentatious, isn't it?"
Ostentatious indeed, in fact so much so that the head vampire, Dr. Cullen, must be some kind of super idiot. They live in Forks, Wa., and having a red convertible sports car makes as much sense as a local trying to pass off an artificial tan as real. I can picture Edward rolling his eyes at Rosalie's car, his chagrin is clearly warranted. Bella remarks that she is surprised that Rosalie would ever ride in the Volvo when she drove that to which Edward agrees but he knows that her car is a bad idea, "Like I said, it's ostentatious. We try to blend in."
Are they really trying to blend in? I would say that no, no they are not. Dr. Cullen works at the hospital, ok they need to make money so we can give him a pass on that. We don't know what his wife (or whatever you call it in Vampire speak) does, if anything, so for now we can assume that she stays at home. The blending in so far works. Then there are the kids, the six of them who are sent out in public to school for no reason whatsoever. It could be to get them out of the house and to socialize but they don't do that, they stick together at lunch time and they isolate themselves from everyone else. Then there is going to be the obvious problem of what to do after one school year as eventually they must either move forward resulting in some of them having to graduate. The good doctor hasn't thought this through, even though he's had centuries to work on it.
Bella, for once lives up to the intelligence that she claims she has by asking Edward the obvious question, "Why do you have cars like that at all?' I wondered aloud, 'If you're looking for privacy?"
When I was teaching it was questions like this that frustrated me so much. For instance if I was teaching St. Anselm's Ontological Proof and during the debunking stage someone would ask "why" the definition posited and reality instead of the more important "how." It's too close to be considered wrong but it's just far enough away that you can't nudge them toward the correct path.
Bella should have omitted the phrase, "like that" from her question so that it would read, "Why do you have cars at all?" If it is privacy they want, there are places like Northern Canada/Alaska or the middle of Africa that are desolate, they did pick a decent place though since it is sparsely populated. True privacy could have them live on the outskirts of town but absolutely no contact with the rest of the Forkers.
As I said it's a good question. Flashy sports cars and designer clothes are going to raise a bit of suspicion in a small town like Forks. Blending in cannot be the goal of the head of the Cullen family. Edward answers he that they like to drive fast as the reason they have them.
They like to fucking drive fast. I guess when facing the spectre of immortality you get whatever thrills you can, but this doesn't even seem consistent with the alleged secrecy that the Cullens are going for. Why doesn't the good doctor go to a country where is money can buy position and get a fleet of planes? Or better yet, buy his kids Toyota Coups that can be modified to go fast without drawing attention. His kids aren't teenagers, they are at least a century old and the thrill of fast driving should be long past them.* It just creates the gossip they are trying to avoid.
Out of the car Edward and Bella run into Jessica who is holding Bella's jacket from the previous night. This is off topic, but warrants a wtf so I mention it here, "Good morning, Jessica,' Edward said politely. It wasn't his fault that his voice was so irresistible."
That's not out of context either. Prior to the sentence Jessica handed the jacket over without saying anything. What is so irresistible about his voice, the fact that Jessica heard it? Evolution has designed our ears so that we can never shut them off, I don't understand what Jessica couldn't resist aside from hearing him.
Edward reads Jessica's mind and figures out that Jessica is going to ambush Bella with a series of questions regarding the two of them. Did he really need his magic vampire powers to know this given that Bella ditched her friends to have dinner with him the previous night and then she shows up with him at school? There is no way she wasn't going to ask some questions about it. It does make me wonder which is the bigger idiot, Edward for thinking that Bella needed to know that priceless tidbit or Bella if she did really need to know something that even captain obvious would find too apparent to mention?
Edward refrains from mentioning anything else in Jessica's mind which Bella finds unfair. I would think so to if my friend could read minds and refused to share that information. Again, the information shouldn't be that hard to discern, she wants to know why it looks like the two of them are dating. For an idiot this might be difficult but we must remember that Bella has told us how smart she is, and I know that sometimes smart people can be oblivious but this isn't that--it's inconsistent, the more this happens the less we can trust Bella which is bad because she is the narrator of the story.
Bella does show some intelligence though in dealing with Edward's ability. She knows that Ed can't read her mind, so in order to figure out what she is thinking he's going to read Jessica's mind for what Bella has told her. This is proof of her intelligence, she sees the phone tree and realizes how to work it. She can lie to Jessica so that Edward will hear it. It's an indirect way of communicating but it's the same way I got one of my aunts to stop sending me glurch** emails. A bit passive-aggressive to be sure, but effective enough where I no longer spend five minutes of my day deleting my inbox.
Bella and Jessica gossip instead of paying attention to class. Normal behavior and well written, it's one of the few times in the book that you get the impression of realism in the writing. The two girls can't stop gushing over their relationships unable to focus on school. It's cute and very well done. What is also nice is that it shows that Bella does finally admit that she has friends in this school. She can no longer be the "lonely loner" dishing about Jessica/Mike and her relationship with Edward. It seems like she's going to make it as a normal person after all...but like all sparks it will burn itself out, her character is such that it must.
________________________
*At least since the 1960s.
**You know the type that aunts always send you.
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