"We made our flight with seconds to spare"
Have you ever been on a flight? Has anyone at any time ever gotten to the airport with seconds to spare and just made the counter? Oh you have? That's because it was pre-9/11 wasn't it. While I'm against shoehorning the terrorist attacks of 9/11/01 into any story just for the sake of doing it, I'm also kind of for it when you reflect on how much it changed life in the US. Bill Maher openly declares that the security protocols instituted after 9/11 are less "war on terror" and more "war on travel." You can't just show up at an airport and buy a ticket with seconds to spare. You have to be there early, early early. Especially for international flights. Now, granted, two white girls from Washington State aren't exactly on the stop and frisk list, but their behavior would still raise some eyebrows. Besides aren't we missing something here? Like some explanation of where they are.
Last chapter ended with Alice and Bella taking off for Italy from Forks. Now, unless Forks has an international airport (it doesn't) we need some transition from where they were to where they are. Did they take the flight from Seattle or some other city? Is there a layover? I mean there has to be, no plane is going to make the trip from Washington to Italy without refueling. Odds are they stop in either NYC or somewhere in Canada. Ok, we're not there yet, but I'm willing to bet these details about flying aren't coming. Honestly at this point it would just make more sense if they borrowed from the George Lucas and the Muppets to "travel by map."
Alice does a curious thing while the flight is still ascending, she uses the phone, "Alice lifted the phone on the back of the seat in front of her before we'd stopped climbing, turning her back on the stewardess who eyed her with disapproval. Something about my expression stopped the stewardess from coming over to protest."
No that's not what happens at all, at least not in real life. The curious thing about this universe is that Meyer alternates between trying for realism with quasi-scientific explanations of certain things but then ditches all of that when she feels it convenient. The tidal pools from the first book showed at least some basic research into nature. Yet when it comes to plot convenience the real world doesn't matter anymore. If it were consistent, it would still be annoying, but at least it wouldn't be jarring. Here we are supposed to be getting the impression that Alice's phone call is important, too important to wait. She had plenty of time to make this call on their way to Seattle...or wherever so she uses the phone in the plane in defiance of every airplane's rule about not doing so.
It matters because the plane's phones won't work until the airplane is safely in the sky. The reason for this: radio transmissions have the capability of screwing up an airplane's radio tethering to from one control tower to another. Mythbusters proved this back in 2006. Shout conspiracy all you want, but no airline in the world lets you do it.*
The plane is in the air, Alice has hung up explaining that Emmet and Jasper are going to try and stop Edward from killing himself. His plan is a little convoluted and at odds with what we were told last chapter. Edward isn't going to ask the Volturi to kill him, he's going to force their hand by either killing a whole bunch of people or throwing a car through a window (someone saw Spiderman 2). Just like suicide by cop, he's going to expose the vampires and they are going to have to put him down.
That begs the question, who are the Volturi? It's exposition time! For around five pages we get the usual tired tropes about vampires: royalty, powerful, legions of guards, handpicked, yadda yadda. They are also old, three thousand years old in fact; why they are older than Jesus. As lords of vampiredom they enforce the rule, the only rule, the same rule that Woody and Buzz abide by--they can't expose themselves to the human folk. Despite the fact that they have no reason to hide. None at all. Just think about the world three thousand years ago. We're talking the end of the bronze age, the proto iron age is beginning. The Greeks don't even have their written language yet, (still using linear B-the losers) David is king of the Israelites which means weapon of mass destruction=sling, and the Zhou dynasty still has 800 years left in it. The point is that warfare is still a one on one physical affair and the vampires decided to hide from the world instead of setting themselves up as the godkings over humanity? Given their abilities they would have had no match. Perhaps one human gets lucky and cuts a head off or two, but that's it. He has to sleep sometime.
"Is planning to flout that in their own city-the city they've secretly held for three thousand years, since the time of the Etruscans."
Ah the Etruscans, the people that gave us the fascii, the bundle of reeds with an axe in it symbolizing the monopoly of the state over violence. (you can see one in the US Capitol building, it's a replica) Too bad the Etruscans weren't a civilization until the seventh century BC. Being accurate here, would actually make the Volturi seem more fearsome but whatever.
Alice discusses how dangerous and difficult this is going to be. Bella doesn't care because if they kill Edward, they'll probably kill her too and that's ok, because what is living without your sociopathic boyfriend who already dumped you? Alice, to her credit, gets angry, "Knock it off Bella, or we're turning around in New York and going back to Forks."
Ok, so the layover got mentioned. I wonder if it's an idle threat. Is Alice really going to sacrifice Eddie to teach Bella a lesson? Is there a way they can both die? These are the questions I want answered but am thwarted at every turn.
What's frustrating is that there are two side conversations that shouldn't be here in any respect. The first is that Alice mulls over turning Bella into a vampire. I suppose it's a long flight but given that Alice knows Bella's desire does it really make sense to get her hopes up? The second is more plot based.
Alice reports her visions of the future as soon as she gets them to Bella. Edward has asked the Volturi to die, they offer him a job with them because he's oh-so-special. Even though he really isn't, he has faulty telepathy. Then Edward begins to think of ways to expose himself as a vampire. The conflicting visions are good, because it represents the branching timeline given Edward's choice, that's actually-dare I say-clever. My issue is that I can't seem to fathom how far in the future these decisions are. We know from experience that Alice sometimes sees minutes ahead. I'm confused as to whether I should be feeling tension or despair. As they land we aren't told the time of day. It can't be day light out or else Alice is going to sparkle up the airport, but the sense of panic only allows us to assume that it's just Eddie that sparkles. It's too bad also that neither the Peretola airport nor the Sixt Autonoloeggio Firenze are international airports either. For that they are flying into Pisa at the Galileo Galileii airport.
This is important because they have to steal a car to drive to Volterra. They jack a yellow Porsche and now must speed down the highway to cross the forty miles in order to find and save Eddie from doing something incredibly stupid. It's not just the suicide either, it's his method. He's basically going to out every vampire in the world with this one act. All because he has some pain, selfish jerkoff.
__________________________
*Caveat. Certain airplines are attempting it, but very careful electromagnetic shielding goes into the plane to protect the cockpit. This is still in the experimental stage.
Have you ever been on a flight? Has anyone at any time ever gotten to the airport with seconds to spare and just made the counter? Oh you have? That's because it was pre-9/11 wasn't it. While I'm against shoehorning the terrorist attacks of 9/11/01 into any story just for the sake of doing it, I'm also kind of for it when you reflect on how much it changed life in the US. Bill Maher openly declares that the security protocols instituted after 9/11 are less "war on terror" and more "war on travel." You can't just show up at an airport and buy a ticket with seconds to spare. You have to be there early, early early. Especially for international flights. Now, granted, two white girls from Washington State aren't exactly on the stop and frisk list, but their behavior would still raise some eyebrows. Besides aren't we missing something here? Like some explanation of where they are.
Last chapter ended with Alice and Bella taking off for Italy from Forks. Now, unless Forks has an international airport (it doesn't) we need some transition from where they were to where they are. Did they take the flight from Seattle or some other city? Is there a layover? I mean there has to be, no plane is going to make the trip from Washington to Italy without refueling. Odds are they stop in either NYC or somewhere in Canada. Ok, we're not there yet, but I'm willing to bet these details about flying aren't coming. Honestly at this point it would just make more sense if they borrowed from the George Lucas and the Muppets to "travel by map."
Alice does a curious thing while the flight is still ascending, she uses the phone, "Alice lifted the phone on the back of the seat in front of her before we'd stopped climbing, turning her back on the stewardess who eyed her with disapproval. Something about my expression stopped the stewardess from coming over to protest."
No that's not what happens at all, at least not in real life. The curious thing about this universe is that Meyer alternates between trying for realism with quasi-scientific explanations of certain things but then ditches all of that when she feels it convenient. The tidal pools from the first book showed at least some basic research into nature. Yet when it comes to plot convenience the real world doesn't matter anymore. If it were consistent, it would still be annoying, but at least it wouldn't be jarring. Here we are supposed to be getting the impression that Alice's phone call is important, too important to wait. She had plenty of time to make this call on their way to Seattle...or wherever so she uses the phone in the plane in defiance of every airplane's rule about not doing so.
It matters because the plane's phones won't work until the airplane is safely in the sky. The reason for this: radio transmissions have the capability of screwing up an airplane's radio tethering to from one control tower to another. Mythbusters proved this back in 2006. Shout conspiracy all you want, but no airline in the world lets you do it.*
The plane is in the air, Alice has hung up explaining that Emmet and Jasper are going to try and stop Edward from killing himself. His plan is a little convoluted and at odds with what we were told last chapter. Edward isn't going to ask the Volturi to kill him, he's going to force their hand by either killing a whole bunch of people or throwing a car through a window (someone saw Spiderman 2). Just like suicide by cop, he's going to expose the vampires and they are going to have to put him down.
That begs the question, who are the Volturi? It's exposition time! For around five pages we get the usual tired tropes about vampires: royalty, powerful, legions of guards, handpicked, yadda yadda. They are also old, three thousand years old in fact; why they are older than Jesus. As lords of vampiredom they enforce the rule, the only rule, the same rule that Woody and Buzz abide by--they can't expose themselves to the human folk. Despite the fact that they have no reason to hide. None at all. Just think about the world three thousand years ago. We're talking the end of the bronze age, the proto iron age is beginning. The Greeks don't even have their written language yet, (still using linear B-the losers) David is king of the Israelites which means weapon of mass destruction=sling, and the Zhou dynasty still has 800 years left in it. The point is that warfare is still a one on one physical affair and the vampires decided to hide from the world instead of setting themselves up as the godkings over humanity? Given their abilities they would have had no match. Perhaps one human gets lucky and cuts a head off or two, but that's it. He has to sleep sometime.
"Is planning to flout that in their own city-the city they've secretly held for three thousand years, since the time of the Etruscans."
Ah the Etruscans, the people that gave us the fascii, the bundle of reeds with an axe in it symbolizing the monopoly of the state over violence. (you can see one in the US Capitol building, it's a replica) Too bad the Etruscans weren't a civilization until the seventh century BC. Being accurate here, would actually make the Volturi seem more fearsome but whatever.
Alice discusses how dangerous and difficult this is going to be. Bella doesn't care because if they kill Edward, they'll probably kill her too and that's ok, because what is living without your sociopathic boyfriend who already dumped you? Alice, to her credit, gets angry, "Knock it off Bella, or we're turning around in New York and going back to Forks."
Ok, so the layover got mentioned. I wonder if it's an idle threat. Is Alice really going to sacrifice Eddie to teach Bella a lesson? Is there a way they can both die? These are the questions I want answered but am thwarted at every turn.
What's frustrating is that there are two side conversations that shouldn't be here in any respect. The first is that Alice mulls over turning Bella into a vampire. I suppose it's a long flight but given that Alice knows Bella's desire does it really make sense to get her hopes up? The second is more plot based.
Alice reports her visions of the future as soon as she gets them to Bella. Edward has asked the Volturi to die, they offer him a job with them because he's oh-so-special. Even though he really isn't, he has faulty telepathy. Then Edward begins to think of ways to expose himself as a vampire. The conflicting visions are good, because it represents the branching timeline given Edward's choice, that's actually-dare I say-clever. My issue is that I can't seem to fathom how far in the future these decisions are. We know from experience that Alice sometimes sees minutes ahead. I'm confused as to whether I should be feeling tension or despair. As they land we aren't told the time of day. It can't be day light out or else Alice is going to sparkle up the airport, but the sense of panic only allows us to assume that it's just Eddie that sparkles. It's too bad also that neither the Peretola airport nor the Sixt Autonoloeggio Firenze are international airports either. For that they are flying into Pisa at the Galileo Galileii airport.
This is important because they have to steal a car to drive to Volterra. They jack a yellow Porsche and now must speed down the highway to cross the forty miles in order to find and save Eddie from doing something incredibly stupid. It's not just the suicide either, it's his method. He's basically going to out every vampire in the world with this one act. All because he has some pain, selfish jerkoff.
__________________________
*Caveat. Certain airplines are attempting it, but very careful electromagnetic shielding goes into the plane to protect the cockpit. This is still in the experimental stage.
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