In order to accurately go through this section we have to go waaaay back to my second post in the series. I mentioned then, that beginning any story with a phrase about dying is difficult to do. Because while it sets the tone of the story it also ruins the fact that the character is going to survive until we come back to that point. Well here we are, the point in the story that syncs up with where we began almost a year ago. Bella is laying semi-conscious on the floor of the dance studio, where she begins her tale saying, "I'd never given much thought as to how I would die--"
James has left, Bella is drifting out remarking, "And then I knew I was dead."
Well the thing is she isn't. We know she isn't and she knows she isn't because she's still having thoughts about her mortal life. As an atheist I don't pretend to understand what happens to a person when they die. People who know me don't usually ask me either so I haven't really given it much more thought than I had when I was a teenager. The best explanation I ever heard or read comes from Plato who, through the mouth of Socrates, explains that you either go to the afterlife where you get to meet all of the dead people that you have known or wanted to know or it's like a deep dreamless sleep. Bella's worldview is probably more of the former given the writer's religious leanings, but in either case she isn't dead. She's drifting in and out. Then the angel appears.
The identity of the angel is obvious. It's so obvious because we have been beaten over the head with it throughout the entire book. At some point I would imagine that even the most star struck readers of this book must be rolling their eyes thinking, "we get it Edward is perfect."
"Carlisle!' the angel called, agony in his perfect voice." So it sounds like the entire Cullen family has finally arrived. Carlisle, who is a doctor, obviously is going to tend to Bella's injuries. It's noted by him that she has a broken leg, the cut on her face is nothing serious, and probably some broken ribs. These are all from the beating that James gave her in the dance hall. What I wonder is how much blood is in the room, and how the vampires can stand it. I know that these are special vampires that can resist the blood lust, but a funny scene (that we are not going to get) might be one of the them licking their fingers or their hands. A more realistic scene might be the trepidation or the anxiety over actually having to touch the blood on her face as they are bandaging the wound. The doctor is probably used to it, but the others probably don't have the experience.
"Alice?'
'She's here, she knew where to find you."
Really? Alice knew where to find her. How did she do that? By looking into the present. Like the prologue Alice is a tricky part to write and only a very clever person is going to figure out a way to have Bella outwit the future, other than merely walking out of the airport. Then again we don't know enough about Alice, maybe she saw the whole thing and wove her threads so that went exactly as it did. She let Bella escape and let her confront James. Bella couldn't have been unconscious to the world for very long so Alice's timing seems to revolve around when Edward and Carlisle landed. Hopefully they didn't have to wait too long before their luggage was unloaded. In the end of it all, Alice knew Bella would be ok...right? The thing is that for the whole expanse of this book I have only liked one character, and that was Mike. He was just a pitiable guy shafted by a girl who wanted better. Alice is the next one, but I only want to like her, so I'm probably cutting her more slack than I would if it was just Jasper in the airport.
Back to Bella though, she's on the ground and Carlisle notices that she has been bitten, by James we assume or perhaps some large rat wandered into the Studio. As Bella thrashes about she begins screaming that her hand is on fire. We know from Alice that the way a person becomes a vampire is through being bitten by one, there is a toxin in the Vampire's saliva that changes the human into the undead. That's why Bella's hand is burning, it's been infected.
Carlisle looks to Edward, "See if you can suck the venom back out. The wound is fairly clean."
Edward hesitates and then hems and haws. Finally doing so. Why? Because Carlisle isn't a very good doctor that's why. This type of advice appears to be sound, in fact at some point we were probably taught that this is what you do if you are bitten by a snake, BUT YOU SHOULD ABSOLUTELY NOT DO IT. Carlisle should know this, and he should know that Bella is screwed unless there is some sort of anti-venom she can take. First off, sucking the venom out is bad because the sucker is now poisoned. In this case we can assume that vampires are immune to the vampire-making toxin. Secondly, the blood stream isn't like a series of straws. You cant just rewind the circulatory system by pulling in the other direction. And thirdly, how long was Bella out? A couple of seconds or an hour? Even after a couple of minutes a snake's venom is dangerous when the bite is untreated, and Bella wasn't doing anything. We can assume that she was unconscious for more than a few seconds because she never realized that she was being bitten.
The heart pumps the blood at a good rate so that venom from her finger tip should be long gone by now. Edward's sucking it shouldn't work at all, even worse as he sucks the counter motion in his mouth could actually put more of the venom back in her! Carlisle and Edward are realistically making this situation much worse than it was. Bella ought to be done for, but then Edward finishes, "Her blood tastes clean,' Edward said quietly, 'I can taste the morphine."
I don't know where the morphine came from or why it's in Bella's bloodstream. The more important question is to ask why Edward knows what Morphine tastes like. I wonder how long has he been chasing the dragon?
James has left, Bella is drifting out remarking, "And then I knew I was dead."
Well the thing is she isn't. We know she isn't and she knows she isn't because she's still having thoughts about her mortal life. As an atheist I don't pretend to understand what happens to a person when they die. People who know me don't usually ask me either so I haven't really given it much more thought than I had when I was a teenager. The best explanation I ever heard or read comes from Plato who, through the mouth of Socrates, explains that you either go to the afterlife where you get to meet all of the dead people that you have known or wanted to know or it's like a deep dreamless sleep. Bella's worldview is probably more of the former given the writer's religious leanings, but in either case she isn't dead. She's drifting in and out. Then the angel appears.
The identity of the angel is obvious. It's so obvious because we have been beaten over the head with it throughout the entire book. At some point I would imagine that even the most star struck readers of this book must be rolling their eyes thinking, "we get it Edward is perfect."
"Carlisle!' the angel called, agony in his perfect voice." So it sounds like the entire Cullen family has finally arrived. Carlisle, who is a doctor, obviously is going to tend to Bella's injuries. It's noted by him that she has a broken leg, the cut on her face is nothing serious, and probably some broken ribs. These are all from the beating that James gave her in the dance hall. What I wonder is how much blood is in the room, and how the vampires can stand it. I know that these are special vampires that can resist the blood lust, but a funny scene (that we are not going to get) might be one of the them licking their fingers or their hands. A more realistic scene might be the trepidation or the anxiety over actually having to touch the blood on her face as they are bandaging the wound. The doctor is probably used to it, but the others probably don't have the experience.
"Alice?'
'She's here, she knew where to find you."
Really? Alice knew where to find her. How did she do that? By looking into the present. Like the prologue Alice is a tricky part to write and only a very clever person is going to figure out a way to have Bella outwit the future, other than merely walking out of the airport. Then again we don't know enough about Alice, maybe she saw the whole thing and wove her threads so that went exactly as it did. She let Bella escape and let her confront James. Bella couldn't have been unconscious to the world for very long so Alice's timing seems to revolve around when Edward and Carlisle landed. Hopefully they didn't have to wait too long before their luggage was unloaded. In the end of it all, Alice knew Bella would be ok...right? The thing is that for the whole expanse of this book I have only liked one character, and that was Mike. He was just a pitiable guy shafted by a girl who wanted better. Alice is the next one, but I only want to like her, so I'm probably cutting her more slack than I would if it was just Jasper in the airport.
Back to Bella though, she's on the ground and Carlisle notices that she has been bitten, by James we assume or perhaps some large rat wandered into the Studio. As Bella thrashes about she begins screaming that her hand is on fire. We know from Alice that the way a person becomes a vampire is through being bitten by one, there is a toxin in the Vampire's saliva that changes the human into the undead. That's why Bella's hand is burning, it's been infected.
Carlisle looks to Edward, "See if you can suck the venom back out. The wound is fairly clean."
Edward hesitates and then hems and haws. Finally doing so. Why? Because Carlisle isn't a very good doctor that's why. This type of advice appears to be sound, in fact at some point we were probably taught that this is what you do if you are bitten by a snake, BUT YOU SHOULD ABSOLUTELY NOT DO IT. Carlisle should know this, and he should know that Bella is screwed unless there is some sort of anti-venom she can take. First off, sucking the venom out is bad because the sucker is now poisoned. In this case we can assume that vampires are immune to the vampire-making toxin. Secondly, the blood stream isn't like a series of straws. You cant just rewind the circulatory system by pulling in the other direction. And thirdly, how long was Bella out? A couple of seconds or an hour? Even after a couple of minutes a snake's venom is dangerous when the bite is untreated, and Bella wasn't doing anything. We can assume that she was unconscious for more than a few seconds because she never realized that she was being bitten.
The heart pumps the blood at a good rate so that venom from her finger tip should be long gone by now. Edward's sucking it shouldn't work at all, even worse as he sucks the counter motion in his mouth could actually put more of the venom back in her! Carlisle and Edward are realistically making this situation much worse than it was. Bella ought to be done for, but then Edward finishes, "Her blood tastes clean,' Edward said quietly, 'I can taste the morphine."
I don't know where the morphine came from or why it's in Bella's bloodstream. The more important question is to ask why Edward knows what Morphine tastes like. I wonder how long has he been chasing the dragon?
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