I've taught critical thinking both in my days as a lowly academic slave, er...teaching assistant, and as an adjunct professor. One of subjects that takes up most of the class (at least when I teach it) is the extremely long list of mistakes known as informal errors. Whereas formal errors are those that are mistakes in logic, informal errors are mistakes in evidence. One of the informal errors that I've covered is the non-sequitor. Roughly, "non-sequitor" means "it does it not follow." A person is guilty of committing the non-sequitor fallacy when they have a conclusion that is not at all related to the argument they are using as evidence. In other words what we are presented with now is unrelated to what came before it.
Chapter 1 ended with Bella facing down six ravenous vampires, after receiving a paper cut. Of which then Edward made worse by throwing her into a glass table. He did this because Jasper scented the blood and was becoming unable to control himself. That doesn't make a great deal of sense given that he was attending high school. What we are being told, in order to maintain consistency, is that for Jasper's entire tenure in school no one had ever received a paper cut, a scrape, or anything of the sort. This is not only during his time at Forks but in the other times that he had gone to school. Also he was oblivious to the blood in the dance studio where Bella was attacked by James.
Six vampires. Carlisle we know controls himself and Edward is protecting her. That means that all of the others are about to attack. The beginning of the Chapter 2 downplays the excitement of the end of chapter 1. Everyone stands around only to be dismissed by Carlisle who "was the only one who'd stay calm."
This reads almost like Oliver Twist where Dickens ends every chapter with a suspenseful scene. We forgive Dickens though because he was writing a serial story for a newspaper, and those types of hooks were necessary to keep readers (and for him to keep his writing job). Here, it's a let down. Instead everyone files out, "Esme's heart-shaped face was ashamed. 'I'm so sorry Bella,' she cried as she followed the others into the yard."
That's pretty believable, and seems like a normal reaction that she ought to have. The mood is not one of frustration but of embarrassment. They are almost portrayed as recovering addicts who just gorged themselves on whatever drug their choice is. I like it as it shows them to be wrestling with addiction. It's done quite well, albeit too briefly.
Alice brings over Carlisle's medicine bag, which he probably has left over from when doctors used to do house visits and Carlisle asks Bella if she wants to go to the hospital or have her gash fixed at the house. He's giving her a choice but it seems odd for him to do so if he can just fix it up right there. I'm being kind of nit-picky on that, it is after all a courtesy that he would probably try and talk her out of if she did decide to go to the hospital.
"Here please,' I whispered. If he took me to the hospital there would be no way to keep this from Charlie." I would probably choose to have him fix me up as well, but for the reason of expediency and not secrecy. The real trouble is that Bella tells us that Carlisle is stitching her wound, how is she going to hide that from Charlie? Right decision wrong reasoning.
What follows is a nice dialogue between Bella and Carlisle, that shows us more of Carlisle's character than Bella's. Everything we have learned thus far about Carlisle is that he's a doctor and really good looking. However, he also reveals himself to be quite thoughtful as befitting someone as old as he is. Bella asks him how he can stand the blood and he replies that it's been so long that "I barely notice the scent anymore." Just like someone who used to drink and now can barely remember why they drank in the first place.
He follows this decent thought up with "Even the sense of smell is a useful diagnostic tool at times.' One side of his mouth pulled up in half a smile."
I suppose he is talking about smell generally but in the context of the same paragraph it appears as though he just contradicted himself. Leaving that aside I want to know what the deal is with the half smile. There's no context or justification for it. I guess he's just a smiling fool.
Bella hounds him about why he doesn't eat people, which is probably not the brightest conversation that you want to have while he's stitching you up. Carlisle explains that his dad was a firebrand preacher in England (probably a Puritan), but he doesn't continue this conversation the way we expect. It would seem obvious that his father gave him a sense of morality or that life is sacred, or something, and that is why he doesn't eat humans. However, he goes on a religious monologue about the belief in God, "But never in the nearly four hundred years now since I was born, have I ever seen anything to make me doubt whether god exists in some form or another. Not even the reflection in the mirror."
It's completely out of the blue. The religious subject, isn't out of place necessarily, but it's completely unconnected to anything. What does belief in a god have to do with not eating people, it may seem obvious, but he's got to connect the premises. He explained that he was questioning his father's worldview but that would imply that he was going the other way, toward unbelief into my realm. I would suppose that Carlisle's faith in god must be pretty strong because he's seen some shit in four hundred years that ought to make him at least question the belief. The Lisbon earthquake of 1755, one example of nature annihilating an entire city, led Voltaire to question not only the existence of God but also to begin an attack on Leibniz theory that this had to be the best of all possible worlds.
The non-sequitor is established and Bella runs with it, "my own life was devoid of belief." Do we need "devoid" or can we just use "void" I've heard it both ways. Bella explains that her father is a Lutheran but only in name, as he never went to church. Her mother was a dilletante in many different ideas and theories, I get the impression of new age-y pseudo Buddhism about her, but this only means that Bella's life was devoid of religion not belief. The difference is important because if you think there's a god but aren't a member of a religion, you still have a belief. You are classified as being an agnostic along with all of the people who are unsure that there is a god or some higher power. Bella can still believe in it she just lacks anything specific.
Given the time spent on the religion discussion perhaps this section ought to have been titled "Straw Man."
Chapter 1 ended with Bella facing down six ravenous vampires, after receiving a paper cut. Of which then Edward made worse by throwing her into a glass table. He did this because Jasper scented the blood and was becoming unable to control himself. That doesn't make a great deal of sense given that he was attending high school. What we are being told, in order to maintain consistency, is that for Jasper's entire tenure in school no one had ever received a paper cut, a scrape, or anything of the sort. This is not only during his time at Forks but in the other times that he had gone to school. Also he was oblivious to the blood in the dance studio where Bella was attacked by James.
Six vampires. Carlisle we know controls himself and Edward is protecting her. That means that all of the others are about to attack. The beginning of the Chapter 2 downplays the excitement of the end of chapter 1. Everyone stands around only to be dismissed by Carlisle who "was the only one who'd stay calm."
This reads almost like Oliver Twist where Dickens ends every chapter with a suspenseful scene. We forgive Dickens though because he was writing a serial story for a newspaper, and those types of hooks were necessary to keep readers (and for him to keep his writing job). Here, it's a let down. Instead everyone files out, "Esme's heart-shaped face was ashamed. 'I'm so sorry Bella,' she cried as she followed the others into the yard."
That's pretty believable, and seems like a normal reaction that she ought to have. The mood is not one of frustration but of embarrassment. They are almost portrayed as recovering addicts who just gorged themselves on whatever drug their choice is. I like it as it shows them to be wrestling with addiction. It's done quite well, albeit too briefly.
Alice brings over Carlisle's medicine bag, which he probably has left over from when doctors used to do house visits and Carlisle asks Bella if she wants to go to the hospital or have her gash fixed at the house. He's giving her a choice but it seems odd for him to do so if he can just fix it up right there. I'm being kind of nit-picky on that, it is after all a courtesy that he would probably try and talk her out of if she did decide to go to the hospital.
"Here please,' I whispered. If he took me to the hospital there would be no way to keep this from Charlie." I would probably choose to have him fix me up as well, but for the reason of expediency and not secrecy. The real trouble is that Bella tells us that Carlisle is stitching her wound, how is she going to hide that from Charlie? Right decision wrong reasoning.
What follows is a nice dialogue between Bella and Carlisle, that shows us more of Carlisle's character than Bella's. Everything we have learned thus far about Carlisle is that he's a doctor and really good looking. However, he also reveals himself to be quite thoughtful as befitting someone as old as he is. Bella asks him how he can stand the blood and he replies that it's been so long that "I barely notice the scent anymore." Just like someone who used to drink and now can barely remember why they drank in the first place.
He follows this decent thought up with "Even the sense of smell is a useful diagnostic tool at times.' One side of his mouth pulled up in half a smile."
I suppose he is talking about smell generally but in the context of the same paragraph it appears as though he just contradicted himself. Leaving that aside I want to know what the deal is with the half smile. There's no context or justification for it. I guess he's just a smiling fool.
Bella hounds him about why he doesn't eat people, which is probably not the brightest conversation that you want to have while he's stitching you up. Carlisle explains that his dad was a firebrand preacher in England (probably a Puritan), but he doesn't continue this conversation the way we expect. It would seem obvious that his father gave him a sense of morality or that life is sacred, or something, and that is why he doesn't eat humans. However, he goes on a religious monologue about the belief in God, "But never in the nearly four hundred years now since I was born, have I ever seen anything to make me doubt whether god exists in some form or another. Not even the reflection in the mirror."
It's completely out of the blue. The religious subject, isn't out of place necessarily, but it's completely unconnected to anything. What does belief in a god have to do with not eating people, it may seem obvious, but he's got to connect the premises. He explained that he was questioning his father's worldview but that would imply that he was going the other way, toward unbelief into my realm. I would suppose that Carlisle's faith in god must be pretty strong because he's seen some shit in four hundred years that ought to make him at least question the belief. The Lisbon earthquake of 1755, one example of nature annihilating an entire city, led Voltaire to question not only the existence of God but also to begin an attack on Leibniz theory that this had to be the best of all possible worlds.
The non-sequitor is established and Bella runs with it, "my own life was devoid of belief." Do we need "devoid" or can we just use "void" I've heard it both ways. Bella explains that her father is a Lutheran but only in name, as he never went to church. Her mother was a dilletante in many different ideas and theories, I get the impression of new age-y pseudo Buddhism about her, but this only means that Bella's life was devoid of religion not belief. The difference is important because if you think there's a god but aren't a member of a religion, you still have a belief. You are classified as being an agnostic along with all of the people who are unsure that there is a god or some higher power. Bella can still believe in it she just lacks anything specific.
Given the time spent on the religion discussion perhaps this section ought to have been titled "Straw Man."
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