The thing about guilt is that it is largely artificial. There's no innate sense of guilt. That bad feeling that we have when we do something wrong is based entirely on our upbringing. It begins as a feeling of regret from being punished, then it's anticipatory of punishment, and then it becomes largely a matter of ethical teaching. Regardless of where it comes from and what form it eventually takes, guilt is the feeling that is supposed to make you change your behavior. If you guilty about something, you aren't supposed to want to do it again. The word "guilt" is also one that frequently appears in this chapter yet seems to have actually no bearing on anything that happens.
The beginning of the chapter is indicative of how bad a person Bella Swan truly is. Now, another blogger doing roughly the same thing as I (only she's going the much saner route and doing one chapter per entry instead of the longer and more wearisome as I am), has repeatedly made the claim that Bella is a "Mary Sue" for Stephanie Meyer. A "Mary Sue" is a character that is a stand in for the author, what the author does is place greatly exaggerated versions of the themselves in a story thus living out their fantasies. I agree...sometimes, this is not one of those times.
You can't be a "Mary Sue" when you have such a low opinion of yourself, "...to circle in a tight little orbit around the empty space left behind, ignoring the laws of gravity."
Bella likens her broken self to a moon whose planet was desolated (she means "destroyed" or "annihilated"--a desolated planet would still exist) and continues to circle the gravitational free fall that all moons are in. I'll give her credit for one thing: she at least looked up the fact that it would have to "ignore the laws of gravity." If we take this simile on it's own we are left with the fact that Bella looks at herself not as a thing with its own self worth, but as a thing that can only exist in reference to something else which is greater than it. Every satellite needs something to orbit, it is that which ontologically defines a satellite. Bella is saying that she is not a person, or a being; but something whose only worth is determined by that which she is around. Nice role model eh?
Another point before I move on, the simile would actually work much better if she said something like, "I was like a planet drifting through space having lost a star for which to anchor it."* This would preserve not only a sense of self worth but also would more accurately reflect the feeling of drifting through her life that she has told us about.
...back to the guilt thing.
Jacob and Bella have been hanging out a lot. So much that she is getting decent at riding a bike, also that she is becoming aware that Jacob might have a crush on her. Really Bella? No shit, that was apparent in the three brief scenes with the two of you from the last book. In fact, if your just picking this up now, you are basically telling us that everything you told us about Jacob and everything you told Edward about Jacob was a lie.
Jacob asks Bella on a date-ish thing and Bella turns him down. In her words, "I saw a chance and took it..." She makes up a ridiculous claim that she is going to a movie with her high school friends as a way of breaking the rhythm between them. It's a bit cruel to lie like that, but I suppose it's understandable. Then she invites Jacob along with them (keeping in mind there is no "them" yet)!? WTF as they say on the internets. She wants to break the constant hanging around with Jacob but then invites him along? It doesn't make sense--I guess we are past the "making sense" thing with this character though.
Bella invites Mike, who is always willing to hold that torch for her, then sends him on the errand of inviting everyone in the highs school that matters. Note that Bella doesn't do this herself, she doesn't ask a single person other than Mike but has her lap dog do it for her. At some point a 17 year old boy is going to tell her to fuck off, especially one that isn't as attractive as she says she is.** Some of the people are busy, some are not.
What's more important is that Lauren and Jessica are out to sabotage the movie experience. Jessica is still understandably mad at Bella. Lauren, "Lauren got to Tyler and Conner before Mike could, so those two were also busy."
They were busy, it could be on their own, not part of a conspiracy but it probably is. More importantly, who the hell is Lauren? Lauren has no reason to hate Bella, just does...because we are told she hates Bella and we are supposed to hate her ourselves. It would be nice if just once we were shown why we should hate something, or even like something, or feel anything.
Adding to our bad writing seminar is this little gem. Bella finds out in a phone call that Angela is sick and her and her boyfriend aren't coming. Some kind of stomach flu. Three paragraphs later, "Ang is sick...she and Ben aren't coming." Only one time is necessary, thanks Steph. This time though, we can blame the editor.
So now only Jake and Mike are coming. Bella, is not excited but she tries to muster some enthusiasm, "with grim sarcasm." One of those words doesn't fit with the other two, it doesn't matter which one, it won't work with the others.
They get to the movie with Mike and Jake eyeballing each other the whole time. Mike gets sick with presumably the same sickness as Angela and Ben begins throwing up. Jake is delighted, because his rival has now been relegated to the position of pathetic sniveling wreck of a person, a shell of where a man used to be. That's not entirely inaccurate, it's actually a sign that Jacob is human delighting in the misery of his opponent. He's nice about it though, he does take Mike to the bathroom. It's rather nice, but it's clearly a victory march back to Bella.
This is where he makes his move. Bella shoots him down, because...actually we never really get a reason. Fortunately for her Jacob won't give up, this lets her put another guy on the back burner until Dreamy McDreamboat comes back. The best thing so far is that we've only heard him mentioned a couple of times. The less of him the better, if only we could get rid of her too.
Mike is done throwing up, and the three decide that it is a good time to leave. On the way out Jacob stops and thinks about the move, walks back to the counter, "Could I have a popcorn bucket please?"
It's a good thought, Bella explains that the girl behind the counter was looking at them, saw the situation and didn't want to clean it up so moved them out of there. They got the bucket.
Bull. Shit.
I worked in a movie theater for over four years, and while I didn't like sweeping up vomit it was part of the job. What wasn't part of the job was cleaning up the outside where they were almost out of. Furthermore, the person behind the counter doesn't clean up the floor, the usher does that. Thirdly, he won't get the bucket. Ever.
The bucket is how the theater keeps inventory. Popcorn, drinks, etc. are inventoried by the packages they are sold in. An 8 dollar bucket of popcorn costs about a nickel to make, the popcorn itself is basically worthless. A worker who is giving up that paper bucket, when there are garbage bags available, is basically giving herself a nightmare at closing.
They go home. Everything goes to shit for no reason. Mike is sick, Bella gets sick, and Jacob feels off. It amounts to nothing at all, and as a convenient plot device it doesn't make any sense. The only thing we know is that Jacob doesn't have the same thing as the other two, of course we know what it is he has, Lycanthropy.
At this point it's not even a surprise anymore, but it's probably going to get drawn out over a hundred or more pages because these books need to be 500 long, for some reason.***
____________________
*It's cheesy, but I'm not a professional fiction writer.
**Remember in this world the prettier you are the better you are as a person...I guess this world and the world of Toddlers and Tiaras.
***I'm blaming JK Rowling for this one.
The beginning of the chapter is indicative of how bad a person Bella Swan truly is. Now, another blogger doing roughly the same thing as I (only she's going the much saner route and doing one chapter per entry instead of the longer and more wearisome as I am), has repeatedly made the claim that Bella is a "Mary Sue" for Stephanie Meyer. A "Mary Sue" is a character that is a stand in for the author, what the author does is place greatly exaggerated versions of the themselves in a story thus living out their fantasies. I agree...sometimes, this is not one of those times.
You can't be a "Mary Sue" when you have such a low opinion of yourself, "...to circle in a tight little orbit around the empty space left behind, ignoring the laws of gravity."
Bella likens her broken self to a moon whose planet was desolated (she means "destroyed" or "annihilated"--a desolated planet would still exist) and continues to circle the gravitational free fall that all moons are in. I'll give her credit for one thing: she at least looked up the fact that it would have to "ignore the laws of gravity." If we take this simile on it's own we are left with the fact that Bella looks at herself not as a thing with its own self worth, but as a thing that can only exist in reference to something else which is greater than it. Every satellite needs something to orbit, it is that which ontologically defines a satellite. Bella is saying that she is not a person, or a being; but something whose only worth is determined by that which she is around. Nice role model eh?
Another point before I move on, the simile would actually work much better if she said something like, "I was like a planet drifting through space having lost a star for which to anchor it."* This would preserve not only a sense of self worth but also would more accurately reflect the feeling of drifting through her life that she has told us about.
...back to the guilt thing.
Jacob and Bella have been hanging out a lot. So much that she is getting decent at riding a bike, also that she is becoming aware that Jacob might have a crush on her. Really Bella? No shit, that was apparent in the three brief scenes with the two of you from the last book. In fact, if your just picking this up now, you are basically telling us that everything you told us about Jacob and everything you told Edward about Jacob was a lie.
Jacob asks Bella on a date-ish thing and Bella turns him down. In her words, "I saw a chance and took it..." She makes up a ridiculous claim that she is going to a movie with her high school friends as a way of breaking the rhythm between them. It's a bit cruel to lie like that, but I suppose it's understandable. Then she invites Jacob along with them (keeping in mind there is no "them" yet)!? WTF as they say on the internets. She wants to break the constant hanging around with Jacob but then invites him along? It doesn't make sense--I guess we are past the "making sense" thing with this character though.
Bella invites Mike, who is always willing to hold that torch for her, then sends him on the errand of inviting everyone in the highs school that matters. Note that Bella doesn't do this herself, she doesn't ask a single person other than Mike but has her lap dog do it for her. At some point a 17 year old boy is going to tell her to fuck off, especially one that isn't as attractive as she says she is.** Some of the people are busy, some are not.
What's more important is that Lauren and Jessica are out to sabotage the movie experience. Jessica is still understandably mad at Bella. Lauren, "Lauren got to Tyler and Conner before Mike could, so those two were also busy."
They were busy, it could be on their own, not part of a conspiracy but it probably is. More importantly, who the hell is Lauren? Lauren has no reason to hate Bella, just does...because we are told she hates Bella and we are supposed to hate her ourselves. It would be nice if just once we were shown why we should hate something, or even like something, or feel anything.
Adding to our bad writing seminar is this little gem. Bella finds out in a phone call that Angela is sick and her and her boyfriend aren't coming. Some kind of stomach flu. Three paragraphs later, "Ang is sick...she and Ben aren't coming." Only one time is necessary, thanks Steph. This time though, we can blame the editor.
So now only Jake and Mike are coming. Bella, is not excited but she tries to muster some enthusiasm, "with grim sarcasm." One of those words doesn't fit with the other two, it doesn't matter which one, it won't work with the others.
They get to the movie with Mike and Jake eyeballing each other the whole time. Mike gets sick with presumably the same sickness as Angela and Ben begins throwing up. Jake is delighted, because his rival has now been relegated to the position of pathetic sniveling wreck of a person, a shell of where a man used to be. That's not entirely inaccurate, it's actually a sign that Jacob is human delighting in the misery of his opponent. He's nice about it though, he does take Mike to the bathroom. It's rather nice, but it's clearly a victory march back to Bella.
This is where he makes his move. Bella shoots him down, because...actually we never really get a reason. Fortunately for her Jacob won't give up, this lets her put another guy on the back burner until Dreamy McDreamboat comes back. The best thing so far is that we've only heard him mentioned a couple of times. The less of him the better, if only we could get rid of her too.
Mike is done throwing up, and the three decide that it is a good time to leave. On the way out Jacob stops and thinks about the move, walks back to the counter, "Could I have a popcorn bucket please?"
It's a good thought, Bella explains that the girl behind the counter was looking at them, saw the situation and didn't want to clean it up so moved them out of there. They got the bucket.
Bull. Shit.
I worked in a movie theater for over four years, and while I didn't like sweeping up vomit it was part of the job. What wasn't part of the job was cleaning up the outside where they were almost out of. Furthermore, the person behind the counter doesn't clean up the floor, the usher does that. Thirdly, he won't get the bucket. Ever.
The bucket is how the theater keeps inventory. Popcorn, drinks, etc. are inventoried by the packages they are sold in. An 8 dollar bucket of popcorn costs about a nickel to make, the popcorn itself is basically worthless. A worker who is giving up that paper bucket, when there are garbage bags available, is basically giving herself a nightmare at closing.
They go home. Everything goes to shit for no reason. Mike is sick, Bella gets sick, and Jacob feels off. It amounts to nothing at all, and as a convenient plot device it doesn't make any sense. The only thing we know is that Jacob doesn't have the same thing as the other two, of course we know what it is he has, Lycanthropy.
At this point it's not even a surprise anymore, but it's probably going to get drawn out over a hundred or more pages because these books need to be 500 long, for some reason.***
____________________
*It's cheesy, but I'm not a professional fiction writer.
**Remember in this world the prettier you are the better you are as a person...I guess this world and the world of Toddlers and Tiaras.
***I'm blaming JK Rowling for this one.
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