I'm sure that if you are reading this blog you've probably been there. You wake up in the morning, unsure of where you are, where you were, and where your clothes are but one thing is for certain: you are pretty sure that something you did last night was a mistake. Or it would have been a mistake but again, there is that memory lapse. Time brings back those memories once the fog clears, you've gotten your butt off to the Greek diner for something involving eggs, lamb, and feta all dripping with grease and salt as well as the obligatory coffee and at least three refills. If you haven't been there, uh, take that preceding sentence as a guide for what to do when you do get there. People will always tell you that a hangover is the product of too much drinking, but it's not--don't hate. What a hangover is, is the product of dehydration. Alcohol leeches the water out of your system which is the reason that mild dehydration and hangovers have the common symptoms: headache, nausea, loss of balance, inability to focus...etc. The reason you vomited? That wasn't too much alcohol, it's because you were drinking draft beer, or bottled beer, or doing that one other thing that you normally don't do.
Bella wakes up after the party and she's worked herself up a bit. She's convinced herself that something is wrong based on a second hand memory of a look that Edward might have had the day he sent Bella off with Jasper and Alice to go kill James, or whatever. That day, Edward was grim and said that he would have no contact with her, and now Bella seems think that he has the same look last night before he left, before he returned to watch her sleep at night. She has a nervousness in her stomach that she can't shake, and when Edward picks her up in the morning to go to school he is quiet. Which leads to Bella to examine the silence in a million different ways that should be familiar to readers of Cosmo, because they are told that silence means something. I guess I'm being unfair, the silence does mean something--it means he doesn't want to talk. And he certainly doesn't want to hear, "what's wrong Edward?"
What works for Edward now, as has worked for him so far, is that he's pretty much got Bella convinced that she is beneath him to the point where she is unsure about herself and can't commit to action. Last night's "my blood or my body" question was out of character for her, and she's returned to normal, "I didn't want to bring up last night, but I wasn't sure if avoiding the subject would be worse."
The thing is that when she begins, she'll phrase it completely wrong. She'll ask Eddie, "what's wrong with you?" or "what is the problem?" etc. Instead what she should say is, "I've become suddenly uncomfortable around you and I don't know why." This way if it's a simple perception issue with her they can talk about it, but if it's something real than she's opened the door in a non-accusatory manner. Which is good, but she won't do this. She's too sheepish and under his thumb to ever get confrontational with the dream boat.
Her inner monologue is funny though, because as she tries and tries to deal with her "problem" (I put it in quotes because we don't know if it is real or not, and she's unreliable narrator) the more she describes herself--headache, anxious, noises are echoing in her head, she is little patience with anyone; the more I think she had too much to drink the night before. She ought to just hit the lunch table and grab some coffee.
We find out that Jasper and Alice have gone to Denali. They've gone there because Jasper was upset at his behavior the night before at the party, and Denali is where the other vegetarian smug vampires live. I'm thinking it must be like Seattle or Modesto full of vegans who are just 'with it' and 'tight.' The kind of place i would like to bring a chainsaw and forty pounds of thermite to. My question is, why did Alice go? She's so far my favorite character and now she's out of the story. Actually I know why she had to go, she'll ruin the story. Bella has already indicated that she was looking forward to talking with her about the "problem," so she's off to somewhere else. The only trouble is that story-wise her leaving doesn't make any sense. She doesn't have an excuse other than taking care of her brother...ok so I guess that's something.
Bella, who instead of talking to Edward, has decided to take the long run around and sneak in through the back door rationalizes, "She (Alice) would have to come back for school right?"
No. This is one of those points in the book that the author, and narrator, seem to forget that the Cullens aren't actually in school to be in school. They are only there for a reason that is unsatisfactorily given as 'need to blend in.' Of course hiding their true natures would be a lot easier if they never interacted with anyone, but they're idiots, the whole lot of them. Even Alice who should be constantly shaking her head in a littany of "I told you so's" as Edward et. al make a stupid decision after stupid decision. Alice never has to come back and Bella decides that if her and Edward don't talk, i.e. if he doesn't bring it up, she'll go to Carlisle. Which is much better than talking to the person she has the problem with I'm sure.
The motivation behind every single one of Bella's rationalizations makes sense. She's afraid that Edward is going to dump her and leave her back to the normal life she can't go back to. In a way she's a lot like the Dr. WHo companion Donna Noble from a couple of seasons ago. She got a taste of time/space travel and couldn't go back, it makes sense. Her actions thus, ought to be clouded by her sense of panic. Remember, this is a one way relationship, she adores and worships him so everything she does she feels must be carefully planned and dissected before action. Sometimes she reasons correctly, "compared to last spring, it (the wound on her arm from the party) seemed especially unimportant." I said it last week, they were all in the dance hall and Bella almost died of blood loss but no one batted an eye then. Now the paper cut sets off a reaction that results in a large gash on her arm.
What's funny is that all of her craziness works out for Mike. Mike asks her how her birthday party was, a normal question, and she replies that she was glad it was over and Mike, "looked at me like I was crazy." Which he ought to, and he ought to retry Jessica.
That was all after school and during her job where she works with Mike at his families sporting goods store. A job that she has absolutely no qualifications or business working at. She can't play Badminton for Odin's sake she shouldn't be selling shin guards. At home Edward's car is waiting for her and inside he's watching ESPN with her dad. So far so good, but she takes it as a sign that something is really wrong and describes a situation where it sounds like she almost threw up out of nervousness. She reasons, "what's the worst that can happen?"
This is solely in reference to the two of them sitting watching the baseball (I assume) highlights. No other context, she takes a breath because thinking of the worst possible scenario scares her, but then she corrects herself, "what's the worst that can happen that I can live through?"
Huh?? So the first situation that she thought of was of her not living through it? What did she think the two of them were going to do tie her to the rack?
I have that thing I do with people, if anyone ever asks me to do something 'by all means' or 'by any means necessary' I double check with them to see if they really want to give me that kind of blank check permission. A boss of mine once told me to fetch a case of paper by all means, and I walked out the front door saying that I was going to buy a gun and the ingredients for thermite. I figured those were all the means I needed to get that case of paper from the back room.* Bella is like that here, she asked herself to consider the worst possible situation that her father and Edward could do together and it scared her into thinking of a scenario that didn't involve her death. Tension is a killer.
Bella wakes up after the party and she's worked herself up a bit. She's convinced herself that something is wrong based on a second hand memory of a look that Edward might have had the day he sent Bella off with Jasper and Alice to go kill James, or whatever. That day, Edward was grim and said that he would have no contact with her, and now Bella seems think that he has the same look last night before he left, before he returned to watch her sleep at night. She has a nervousness in her stomach that she can't shake, and when Edward picks her up in the morning to go to school he is quiet. Which leads to Bella to examine the silence in a million different ways that should be familiar to readers of Cosmo, because they are told that silence means something. I guess I'm being unfair, the silence does mean something--it means he doesn't want to talk. And he certainly doesn't want to hear, "what's wrong Edward?"
What works for Edward now, as has worked for him so far, is that he's pretty much got Bella convinced that she is beneath him to the point where she is unsure about herself and can't commit to action. Last night's "my blood or my body" question was out of character for her, and she's returned to normal, "I didn't want to bring up last night, but I wasn't sure if avoiding the subject would be worse."
The thing is that when she begins, she'll phrase it completely wrong. She'll ask Eddie, "what's wrong with you?" or "what is the problem?" etc. Instead what she should say is, "I've become suddenly uncomfortable around you and I don't know why." This way if it's a simple perception issue with her they can talk about it, but if it's something real than she's opened the door in a non-accusatory manner. Which is good, but she won't do this. She's too sheepish and under his thumb to ever get confrontational with the dream boat.
Her inner monologue is funny though, because as she tries and tries to deal with her "problem" (I put it in quotes because we don't know if it is real or not, and she's unreliable narrator) the more she describes herself--headache, anxious, noises are echoing in her head, she is little patience with anyone; the more I think she had too much to drink the night before. She ought to just hit the lunch table and grab some coffee.
We find out that Jasper and Alice have gone to Denali. They've gone there because Jasper was upset at his behavior the night before at the party, and Denali is where the other vegetarian smug vampires live. I'm thinking it must be like Seattle or Modesto full of vegans who are just 'with it' and 'tight.' The kind of place i would like to bring a chainsaw and forty pounds of thermite to. My question is, why did Alice go? She's so far my favorite character and now she's out of the story. Actually I know why she had to go, she'll ruin the story. Bella has already indicated that she was looking forward to talking with her about the "problem," so she's off to somewhere else. The only trouble is that story-wise her leaving doesn't make any sense. She doesn't have an excuse other than taking care of her brother...ok so I guess that's something.
Bella, who instead of talking to Edward, has decided to take the long run around and sneak in through the back door rationalizes, "She (Alice) would have to come back for school right?"
No. This is one of those points in the book that the author, and narrator, seem to forget that the Cullens aren't actually in school to be in school. They are only there for a reason that is unsatisfactorily given as 'need to blend in.' Of course hiding their true natures would be a lot easier if they never interacted with anyone, but they're idiots, the whole lot of them. Even Alice who should be constantly shaking her head in a littany of "I told you so's" as Edward et. al make a stupid decision after stupid decision. Alice never has to come back and Bella decides that if her and Edward don't talk, i.e. if he doesn't bring it up, she'll go to Carlisle. Which is much better than talking to the person she has the problem with I'm sure.
The motivation behind every single one of Bella's rationalizations makes sense. She's afraid that Edward is going to dump her and leave her back to the normal life she can't go back to. In a way she's a lot like the Dr. WHo companion Donna Noble from a couple of seasons ago. She got a taste of time/space travel and couldn't go back, it makes sense. Her actions thus, ought to be clouded by her sense of panic. Remember, this is a one way relationship, she adores and worships him so everything she does she feels must be carefully planned and dissected before action. Sometimes she reasons correctly, "compared to last spring, it (the wound on her arm from the party) seemed especially unimportant." I said it last week, they were all in the dance hall and Bella almost died of blood loss but no one batted an eye then. Now the paper cut sets off a reaction that results in a large gash on her arm.
What's funny is that all of her craziness works out for Mike. Mike asks her how her birthday party was, a normal question, and she replies that she was glad it was over and Mike, "looked at me like I was crazy." Which he ought to, and he ought to retry Jessica.
That was all after school and during her job where she works with Mike at his families sporting goods store. A job that she has absolutely no qualifications or business working at. She can't play Badminton for Odin's sake she shouldn't be selling shin guards. At home Edward's car is waiting for her and inside he's watching ESPN with her dad. So far so good, but she takes it as a sign that something is really wrong and describes a situation where it sounds like she almost threw up out of nervousness. She reasons, "what's the worst that can happen?"
This is solely in reference to the two of them sitting watching the baseball (I assume) highlights. No other context, she takes a breath because thinking of the worst possible scenario scares her, but then she corrects herself, "what's the worst that can happen that I can live through?"
Huh?? So the first situation that she thought of was of her not living through it? What did she think the two of them were going to do tie her to the rack?
I have that thing I do with people, if anyone ever asks me to do something 'by all means' or 'by any means necessary' I double check with them to see if they really want to give me that kind of blank check permission. A boss of mine once told me to fetch a case of paper by all means, and I walked out the front door saying that I was going to buy a gun and the ingredients for thermite. I figured those were all the means I needed to get that case of paper from the back room.* Bella is like that here, she asked herself to consider the worst possible situation that her father and Edward could do together and it scared her into thinking of a scenario that didn't involve her death. Tension is a killer.
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