Subjugation (Pgs. 179-197)

We are backtracking a little bit this week because two issues popped up during the last section and due to space constrictions* I felt that I would break it up into two posts. Sometimes doing these only once a week can be quite frustrating. The first issue was obviously the vampire powers that Edward possesses, I deemed that more important because the great nerd rage over Meyer's work is partly based on the fact that these aren't real Vampires...as opposed to the "real vampires" that actually exist.

The second post concerns the new revelation of Edward's stalking of Bella. So many people seem to idolize their relationship** that it's very troubling to me to see his actions toward her being deemed not only acceptable but desirable. Simply described this relationship is not based on mutual respect. The surest sign of this is that Edward behaves like a controlling abusive boyfriend by constantly reminding Bella that she is in danger and will surely be in mortal danger without his presence. Another is that the entire relationship is dictated by him, if you take a look at the sections we've read so far you'll notice that every conversation and action is on his fiat. He gives permission for her to ask questions, he determines when they will interact, ask yourself this: when does she determine anything in spite of his wishes?

We are back in the car driving from Port Angeles to Forks, and Edward has consented to answering a couple of questions after the absurd accusation and confirmation of ESP. He's permitted Bella to ask a couple of questions, which is odd in itself since what he is telling her would necessitate that she ask many follow ups. She asks the question regarding why he can't read her mind and, "he sighed."

See what I mean? He sighs impatiently like she's pestering him with questions about some trivial matter that she's making up in her head...the waitress from earlier perhaps, however since she is asking him about an ability that he possesses on everyone on the planet but her the question should have been anticipated. This might be excusable if he were actually 17 and not over a century old. This may, in fact, be the problem with the legions of fans of the relationship between the two. At seventeen we might cut a boy some slack because hormones are driving their actions, but at a certain point it ends, and certainly after a century he should behave somewhat better toward women.

The relationship has never been that good to begin with. Edward makes it worse by reminding Bella that he's her guardian angel, only Edward can keep her safe, not even Bella can stay out of trouble without him. This sets up a one-way dependence relationship where if she begins to believe it (and she does) she will begin to understand that she's completely helpless without him. This is the same mentality that keeps abused women going back to their husbands/boyfriends. Defenders might comment that Edward is correct, he has saved Bella twice so far.

That might be the case, we know that he did save her from the car accident. We don't know what the four men were planning but up until Edward pulled up, all they had done was harass her. Yet, Edward reinforces the danger Bella is in by driving excessively fast. When she freaks out he explains that he's never been in an accident nor ever gotten a ticket. That's not the point though, the point is that Bella is obviously scared, Edward in true form argues before slowing down to 80. Every chance he gets Edward reminds her that she's in danger and that it is only his will keeping her alive. He keeps her in a state of subjugation.

What's worse is that she makes excuses for him, "Your eyes. I told you I had a theory...I've noticed that people-men in particular-are crabbier when they're hungry." He's not angry because she's asking questions, it's because he's hungry...silly blogger, I guess I have the whole thing wrong. Men get upset when they are hungry, not because some silly girl is asking pertinent questions about the nature of their being. Edward doesn't need to relax, he needs to eat...which is worse considering what it is that he eats.

Edward goes on to reinforce his role in their relationship, "I suppose, being you, it could have been much worse--and that possibility tormented me the entire time I was away." He feels panged when he's not around her to protect her from herself. That is the "it" that he is referring to? The fact that she fell and scraped her hand a tiny bit. Something that was deemed to be of so little importance to Bella, that this is the first time that she is mentioning it. I don't know what scenario he's envisioning but unless her fall took place while she was walking on coals while juggling running chainsaws I don't think that it really could have been much worse.

Edward then moves back to the much more dangerous situation of the four men. Bella didn't run because she was trying to remember how to fight off an assailant, her brilliant plan, "I was going to smash his nose into his brain."

Which is a profoundly bad idea for two important reasons. The first is despite what we all learned from the movie "The Last Boyscout" it isn't actually possible. The nose isn't made of bone, it's made of cartilage, a substance that is significantly weaker than bone and tends to snap instead of driving like a nail into the gushy brain anyway. Breaking the nose is a good defensive move since it bleeds a good deal and will cloud the other person's vision as their eyes reflexively water up. It won't be fatal though. The other reason is that unless she was going to perform the maneuver in rapid succession four times in a row she was still in danger. Probably more so, after harming one of the attackers, as the awe factor would last approximately a second before one them grabbed her.

Another minor reason that this was a bad idea, is that Bella would have to overcome that clumsiness that she always reminds us of. Making a decent upward palm strike on an attacker is an action that requires coordination from a person that can't play Badminton without falling down. In no way was Bella going to get out of this by herself. However, it is noteworthy that she at least had enough confidence to come up with something. The trouble is that Edward showed up and she didn't have to assert herself in anyway.

Before she gets out of the car, Bella is told to take Edward's jacket. He doesn't want her to catch a cold, it's a nice sentiment and odd coming from someone that has been reminding (and then proving although not in the way he intended) that he's dangerous. I wonder what the gesture is motivated by, in Psychology one of the things we learned about sociopathy is that those people pay out like slot machines. They are good every so often making their victims think that there is some hope, Bella's repeating over and over again to herself and to Edward throughout the book thus far that, "he's not bad" is illustrative that this method has already worked on her.

The next day Bella awakes, her father gone, and she notices that Edward is in the driveway waiting for her in his shiny Volvo. He asks her if she would like to ride in his car to school. I wonder if this is Mormon second base, but he does ask which is a nice change of pace from his usual orders.

Maybe I'm being hard too hard on the whole thing. She's young, he's playing a seventeen year old, and this is how some teenage relationships are without ever turning into actual abuse. Surely the overly intelligent Bella, fan of Jane Austen, the girl who viewed Chaucer and Shakespeare as basic, who had to turn to books in Arizona because she was such a social outcast would see the signs and determine what she was getting used to. She couldn't willingly engage in a dominating relationship, she knows better right?

 "He was really giving me a choice--I was free to refuse,"

Since this is viewed by her as a surprise, I guess she doesn't.
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*i.e. I can only make these posts so long before people stop reading and just start skimming.

**Do a google search on Twilight and take a gander at some of the websites. You'll see what I mean.

The Powers that Be (Pg. 176-188)

This section is a lot like the final Episode of Lost is going to be: it's satisfactory which disappoints in a way because I wanted so much more. I don't know exactly what I wanted so I'm not too disappointed but the feeling is still there. We are still in Port Angeles, where it is revealed that Edward is a stalker. Following Bella to keep her safe from the inevitable danger that surrounds her even though she's only been in two dangerous scenarios (and that's being generous).

It's been established that Edward has telepathic vampire powers. Instead of playing with the powers Bella goes on to be jealous of every woman that is smiling at Edward at the Italian Restaurant where they are eating. What I don't understand, and it is a continual complaint regarding her, is why she claims that she is so smart and inquisitive when she doesn't express a single characteristic of that personality type. Let's take a look at this ESP.

Bella basically tells Edward that he has it, it makes no sense that she would draw this conclusion, but he confirms it anyway because he is such a good secret keeper. Instead of following up with some obvious questions she just accepts it and moves on. For example when they leave the table Edward pays the waitress setting up an obvious inquiry line for Bella: "He didn't look away from me as he thanked her. I suppressed a smile."

Bella is suspicious of the waitress because she thinks that the woman, who needs to smile and be friendly so that she is tipped well, has the hots for Edward. Instead of asking Edward to read her mind she just smiles because he possibly snubbed her. Anything to display the powers that he has would work here, but Bella, just isn't as inquisitive or intelligent as she would like us to think she is (it bears repeating...often). A normal person, when confronted with the claim of ESP would seek to test it, the more intelligent the person is the more they are going to be skeptical and ask for proof. Blind acceptance isn't a trait that Bella should have if we are to believe her.

The whole section is about Edward's powers and it's done as a "tell" violating the rule of "show don't tell" that anyone who has taken a creative writing class should know. In this case, I'll leap to Meyer's defense since she has to explain Edward's nature in the confines of a restaurant and then a car, so most of it works. It's not bad writing, but it's not great writing either; it's competent which is much more than I was led to expect before I began this project.

Leaving the restaurant, Edward in an unusual display of courtesy opens the door of his car to let Bella in. He shuts the door and walks around the front, "I watched him walk around the front of the car, amazed, yet again, by how graceful he was."

Here is where Meyer should be following the "show don't tell" rule. Edward is walking a maximum of 7 feet what kind of grace can he exhibit? More importantly, why is he so graceful? I don't know how people walked one hundred years ago but I can't imagine that it was any different than it is now. What is also important is whether or not Bella unlocked his door for him, or even tried. This is a rule explained by Sonny in the movie A Bronx Tale. You let the girl in, and walk around the car, if she has unlocked the door she is a keeper*, if not she's selfish and you should dump her.

In the car, Bella grills Edward more about the telepathy, "'How does it work-the mind reading thing? Can you read anybody's mind, anywhere? How do you do it? Can the rest of your family...?' I felt silly asking for clarification on make-believe."

The questions are very pertinent, although the timing is completely wrong. She asks them in the car on the way back to Forks. Again, the restaurant would have been better. I would also like to know if he could read an Infant's mind, since it would settle an old philosophical debate concerning Rationalism v. Empiricism. The explanation he gives is good. He explains that, "It's a little like being in a huge hall filled with people, everyone talking at once."

It reminds me of an episode of Star Trek: The Next Genertaion, where the most useless person on the bridge, Troi, takes in a Betazoid prodigy who has been telepathic since birth and is unable to shut out the voices (Season 3: Tin Man). Edward just lets them buzz around like white noise, something it doesn't seem that the inept Troi** ever suggested.

The next line of inquiry is pretty relevant too, Bella wants to know why Edward can't read her mind. Again, Edward explains it well as a guess, he thinks that Bella's brain is different and it's like her's is on Am but he only gets FM. Nice explanation but Bella takes it the wrong way, "My mind doesn't work right? I'm a freak?' The words bothered me more than they should--probably because his speculation hit home. I'd always suspected as much, and it embarrassed me to have it confirmed."

Well unless by "freak" Bella means, falsely superior, lacking all confidence, prone to lying to itself, then yes, she's a freak. This is all based on Edward's guess, and we can assume this is the first time he's encountered it. If he hasn't then in a hundred more years he'll probably have a better one for the girl he's stalking then. The other thing is that Bella has so far been spending her time bragging about how different she is, then becomes upset when that is confirmed. It further adds to the confusion as to whether I'm supposed to identify or pity her, instead leading me to being disgusted with her.

Aside from the ridiculous, but apparently true, theory of Edward's telepathy Bella has the theory that he's a vampire. She confesses the whole story to him, which is unnecessarily summarized, although she does skip the part about the internet research (as would I). Edward doesn't reply to any of it but it's unclear whether this is out of loyalty to his family, embarrassment, or reluctance to admit his essence. All we know is that his knuckles tightened around the steering wheel.***

So finally, the nature of Meyer's vampire: burning in the sun? "Myth." Which is fine, because Stoker's Dracula walked in the daylight as well. It's addressed in Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula that this is not true either but that the powers of the vampire diminish.

Sleeping in a coffin? Again this is wrong, but not in the way you are thinking. These vampires don't sleep at all. I will give her credit for this, because it's at least creative. However Bella has the ability of the Warren Commission to ask follow up questions the most obvious being, "So what do you do all day?" As it is literally, all day. He should be incredibly intelligent, pop-culture savvy, or his gamerscore on XBOX Live is through the roof. Having all that extra time doesn't seem to be helping him any, unless that's how long it takes him to get ready for school.

"You aren't concerned about my diet?' he asked sarcastically." I don't get the adverb in that sentence. For someone who is so concerned about her safety, this shouldn't be a glib comment. She isn't, because she's already decided he's the one despite the fact that his personality reminds me of Ted Bundy and he is a blood drinker.

Since this is a modern Vampire story, we have to do away with the Vampire preys on humans angle because so many people, especially the book's intended audience, actually want to be Vampires without all the mess of having to eat people. They can live off of animal blood, well that is still life they are leaching so it's not so bad and what I do like is how he explains the difference, "I can't be sure, of course, but I'd compare it to living on tofu and soy milk."

So refraining from drinking human blood is like being a vegetarian? Does this mean that the other Vampires in the world regard the Cullens as smug, pretentious, holier-than-thou douche bags who ruin every meal they are invited to? Probably, I'll bet that Volvo has an Apple sticker on the back as well.

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*It actually is a good indicator, in my experience. Although I do amend the rule so that it is whether or not she attempts to unlock the door. It can be hard to find the button nowadays and you can't fault anyone for that.

**Before you Trekkies go all crazy on me let me ask you this: has she ever contributed anything to an episode other than stating the completely obvious?

***He does get upset, but I'm saving that for next week because there is a larger issue concerning his stalking present along with it.

Writing out of the Corner (Pg. 164-176)

Last week we discussed the deus ex machina of Edward showing up to save Bella. I only offer that summary because we left off with the corner that Meyer had written herself into and now she has to write her way out of it, the only way that I can see this happening is that she must begin to reveal to Bella who Edward is this I am terming the "big deal." The "big deal" is the only way that Meyer can write herself out of the corner of having Edward show up at this most fortunate of times. I said last week that his appearance is so fortuitous that it would make Aristotle roll his eyes in contempt. Only the Greek gods have this kind of prescience so let's see how this plays itself out.

We're in the tourist town of Port Angeles and Bella has just dove into Edward's Volvo speeding away from what, at best, was going to be a mugging. He is quiet while Bella is in the car. After ordering her to put on her seat belt he doesn't ask her how she is doing. No, instead, he tells her to distract him. What follows is the best bit of unintentional dating advice for young girls that this book has so far offered, "Sometimes I have a problem with my temper, Bella.' He was whispering, too, and as he stared out the window his eyes narrowed into slits. 'But it wouldn't be helpful for me to turn around and hunt down those...'" [Ellipses authors]

Ladies, if ever a guy tells you that he has a problem with his temper, run away. It's a complete deal breaker, it doesn't make him the cool type of dangerous it makes him the dangerous type of dangerous. What's odd about his comment is that all the four boys are guilty of thus far is harassment. They may have frightened Bella, but that's it. If Edward did go hunting them down, he would be prosecuted for murder and my legal knowledge (gleaned from watching too many reruns of Law and Order) tells me that he might be able to plead it down to manslaughter if he did it right away, but that would still be four counts probably run consecutively.

The temper comment isn't revelatory. We know he has a temper from his other actions. So far, Dreamy McVampire has ordered Bella around several times and he refuses 'no' as a response for anything that he asks. The only difference is that now he's admitting it, but Bella isn't seeing the warning signs despite her supposed superior intelligence. Being frightened of her four alleged attackers it's understandable that she doesn't question Edward's desire to hunt them down, she could be theorizing that he just wants to beat them up, but we know better.

Edward takes her back to her friends at the restaurant, who despite being worried over their missing third have decided to sit down and have a nice dinner. I wonder how the conversation would have went: "I wonder where Bella is?" Jessica asked while absently twirling linguine on her fork.
"I don't know, but do you think that Mike and you are going to be an item?" Angela replied wishing that she had her fake ID with her.

Normally I would write three or four paragraphs on how the two should have acted. But given the fact that Bella has shown them very little concern for their lives it becomes almost consistent that they should do the same. When Bella shows up with Edward, they don't even ask where he came from. The do give an inquiry into where she's been, but then let it drop as Edward decides that he's going to give Bella the ride back to Forks. Jessica and Angela, probably think they are being traded up. She's going to ditch them for some alone time with Edward. A guy would suffer for this, his friends would let him go but then give him a substantial amount of grief for doing so.

The restaurant scene is strange. Because there is a lot of nothing that happens, which Bella regards as significant. In hindsight some of it is, but Bella can't know that as long as her theory remains unconfirmed. Edward draws the eye of both the hostess and the waitress, which in turn draws out Bella's jealousy. If these two get together she's going to be a problem, suspicious of every woman that looks at Edward especially as she ages and they do not.*

Then there is the normal behavior Edward exhibits which Bella reads into. The hostess offers them a table, Edward refuses it asking for a booth for more privacy. Bella observes two things: the first is that she thinks Edward paid the hostess, the handshake tip that I've only done once. She then accuses him of "dazzling her" using his magic vampire powers to get the new table. Not only do the two things contradict each other, but there is the place itself. It can't be that busy necessitating him to do either. I don't fault Meyer here but her character. It's obvious these two kids are on a date, a dead restaurant wouldn't be reluctant to re-seat the lovebirds if they appear to be well behaved.

Bella, is falling prey to a condition that infects all conspiracy theorists, selective evidence awareness. She's already bought into the theory that Edward is a Vampire, and everything she observes must confirm that theory or else it isn't worth it. Like the "truthers" and the mysterious C-130 flying over DC, it must have something to do with the plan. Edward refusing the table isn't that odd, but she crams it into her evidence then accuses him of it.

He takes it with no consideration. Perhaps he is so used to doing it, that he doesn't realize it. Then again, I don't think that he actually did anything but ask for a new table. Edward of course doesn't eat, Bella orders mushroom ravioli and the two begin talking. This is the beginning of what we have been waiting for, the big reveal, more importantly we should get our reason for Edward's sudden appearance.

"This is more complicated then I'd planned," Edward comments to no one in particular. Sure, he's talking at Bella but not to her. In this relationship Edward has all of the power. There is nothing that Bella can really offer him at this point except his attachment to her. This is probably a begrudging conversation on his part. Something that he doesn't want to do but feels that he might as well lest he hear about it later. He probably has the same feeling in his head that everyone has when they hear the words "we need to talk."

Bella, as usual, cuts to the point, what is unusual is that her first questions isn't full of self deprecation, "Why are you in Port Angeles?"

It's the most obvious question, it's the most relevant, and for my part, it's really the one that I want to know too. Edward, as established, is not a good liar because he responds by telling her to skip that one and go to the next question. Almost a century old and he can't say something like, "I was looking for a new suit," he obviously has lived in the woods too long.

Bella reluctantly agrees then goes on with a comment so out of the blue the font might as well be written in it, "Let's say, hypothetically of course, that...someone...could know what people were thinking, read minds, you know ---with a few expections.'

As we say on the internet, WTF? Ah, telepathy, is there anything a vampire can't do? Edward, inexplicably plays along. Beyond being an as-yet-unconfirmed-vampire this accusation of Edward's super powers doesn't even make sense. If we take Dracula to be the prime mover for Vampires, and move forward from there, ESP doesn't fit. I know that some Vampire literature has it, I believe Lestat was able to read minds in the Ann Rice universe, but it's entirely rare. And it's too convenient.

Yet, it's really the only way that Meyer can get Edward to save Bella at this particular point. Even that doesn't explain it fully, "I followed you to Port Angeles,' he admitted, speaking in a rush. 'I've never tried to keep a specific person alive before, and it's much more troublesome than I would have believed. But that's probably just because it's you. Ordinary people seem to make it through the day without so many catastrophes."

It's a repeat of the problem with 80's romantic comedies, that the stalker eventually wins the girl. Even Bella wonders about it too, but secretly she's flattered by the attention (guys: it only works in fiction). What I don't like, because the stalking doesn't bother me since I already don't like Edward, is that it's such a cheap way out of the corner for Meyer. He was in Port Angeles because he's been following Bella. Why, because she's a trouble magnet. Which we know, because Edward's saying it right now. So far Bella has almost been in a car accident, and then...she was harassed. So far that's it.

Having established that Edward can read minds we know that he knew what the four harassers were thinking. What, however does that prove? Roger Ebert, in his review of the deplorable movie The Dream Catcher, wondered about a movie that would deal with the real experiences of a telepath. Most people have desires, thoughts, that are normal but once in awhile they get...odd. Or are evidence of an animal desire that the rational human brain overwhelms. If you throw a punch in anger the thought may be just to hurt the other person but the Id may desire that person's death. It doesn't mean that you are going to kill the person, or that you even want to only that for a brief minutia of an instance the desire was there. Only German Philosopher Immanuelle Kant could hold a person to moral culpability based on latent intention in their action. Then again this book comes from a tradition where a person is guilty of adultery if they find another person "sexy."**

Edward, reading the thoughts of the four perceives an animalistic desire that probably went beyond what they were actually going to do. In any case, Bella is hardly a trouble magnet. Having had been in one dangerous instance and one that could have possibly been dangerous but was at least frightening. So this is Meyer's explanation for Edward showing up without the benefit of a seeing stone of Numenor. Story-wise this means that Edward has to explain his true nature and we finally can get to the big reveal.

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*Like the often quoted line from Dazed and Confused, "I love highschool girls every year I get older and they stay the same age."

**The other thing about Edward's reaction is that he is guilty of the same thing, only he expresses his desire in words. If the four are guilty for thinking about murdering/raping Bella, Edward is as guilty for murdering them since he expresses his wish to hunt them down in the car and in the restaurant. I guess it doesn't matter because he is our hero though.

The Eagles are Coming! (Pg. 153-164)

Deus Ex Machina literally translates as "the hand of god." It's almost never good to hear someone describe a plot device as the hand of god. It comes to use as the author of a story is the god of the world they are writing. Literally they can do anything with their pen, and if they get stuck the ancient writers used to bring the actual gods in to solve the problem. Think of Homer and the Iliad where Athena literally grabs the hair of Achilles to stop him from slaying Agamemnon. Better yet the Eagles of Middle Earth, who show up always where there is no escape for heroes. Gandalf on the pinnacle of Orthanc, Frodo and Sam in the lava flow of Mt. Doom, the battle of five armies in The Hobbit, and since the Eagles are emissaries of the Valar they literally are a hand of god. To use this concept is cheating, because it means that no matter what problem the hero is in the author can just make up something to get them out.

I'm getting ahead of myself though, let's see what Bella does this time. Bella decides that she needs some girl time and takes a trip to Port Angeles to help her friends Angela and Jessica pick out dresses for the big dance. This isn't intrinsically odd, but there are some unusual tidbits here. The first concerns her in the department store as she is picking helping, "I encouraged her to go with the blue; why not play up the eyes?"

Why not? This is odd because up until now we don't have much of a read on Bella's fashion sense. This line makes it appear as though she is superior, yet again, to her friends. It's entirely devoid of context since the only times she has even remarked on clothing style is in noticing the impeccable style of the Cullens.

We are also made aware that Tyler is claiming that he is taking her to the prom. A two-fold issue because Prom is a late Spring thing and now it's approximately early Spring. This just means that the school really likes to keep the students in a busy schedule. The other thing is that Bella reacts to it with rage. Now, I've been in a situation similar involving a girl in college who was calling me her boyfriend when I barely knew the person. That elicited confusion on my part. To be fair, I don't know how a woman would react if the situation was reversed. Tyler's motive is obvious, he's still trying to make amends for almost pulverizing our intrepid protagonist. The news comes as a surprise to Bella, which is also odd because all of these people sit together at lunch and she knew nothing of this. None of other suitors (Mike and Eric) mentioned it to her. The school is so small but the people are so distant it seems.

The dresses and the all-important, all too mysterious to men, shoes are purchased (we really don't notice them ladies) so the girls decide to go to dinner. Sounds good? Well it doesn't work out. Bella needs some alone time and decides to travel to a book store that she is pretty sure exists in the town. I am not sure what Jessica and Angela are up to since they agree to meet in an hour but they go somewhere. This is where the story takes a sharp turn.

Bella walks around, "I had no trouble finding the bookstore, but it wasn't what I was looking for. The windows were full of crystals, dream-catchers..." she sees the hippy/Wiccan owner decides against it, "I decided that was one conversation that I could skip." In Toledo there used to be one of those shops at the corner of Secor and Central near the Beaner's coffee shop. These types of places are not bookstores even if that's what they call themselves, they are New Age shops. You will find a Philosophy section but it's not Philosophy it's Deepak Chopra, The Secret type of bullshit. The shelves are lined with books on Tarot, Faries, Magic (although with the alternate spelling "magick"). The queer thing about it is that this should be exact type of place Bella needs to visit. There aren't going to be many other places where she could find rows of books on the supernatural, even finding a book on Vampires that will undoubtedly cast them in a good light. I would have skipped it as well, but I don't believe in Vampires.

"I decided to turn East at the next corner, and then loop around after a few blocks..." Our hero makes a series of stupid decisions. The first is to wander around looking for another bookstore that may not actually exist, it would be nice if we knew what she was looking for but since we don't we just follow her around. Instead of staying in the tourist shopping district she wanders in one direction well past the point where the stores are. Then she sees a group of four men that frighten her but she decides to walk past them. That's stupid decision number 2. Her instincts told her to not associate with Anime Eric but now in real danger she decides to toughen up?

Two of the four people are behind her and she is spooked. Meyer does a good job creating the tension. Bella is genuinely frightened and it comes off very well in the writing. Especially with the objection that I would normally have. One of the men cat calls her and then later she notices two of them behind her. Normally I would ask why she was scared, even Bella does so, "Breathe, I had to remind myself. You don't know they're following you."

Excellent. I've walked through some dangerous areas before with people behind me (downtown Detroit was an interesting one), this thought ran through my brain multiple times. People do have places to go that may or may not have anything to do with you. Her initial thought to save herself is to jump in front of a car, I'm not certain where that comes from since it is obviously going to be far more dangerous than she expects. Her paranoia abets itself when she notices that the two men behind her have increased their distance.

Her relief is short lived, "I realized then that I wasn't being followed. I was being herded."

She sees the remaining two in front of her, somehow they anticipated her direction. A completely lost woman, a strange town, and they have expertly pushed her into a trap. A trap, that seems completely unnecessary as she walked right by the four of them on an isolated street earlier.

We don't know what they were planning, we can assume, like Bella, that at the very least they are going to rob her. Bella made a couple of stupid decisions but we're not going to blame the victim. Her fear and the whole situation is extremely well written, conveying both her fear and the attempts of her mind to solve the situation. Her self-deprecation is not only justified here it lends more credibility to her status as a character. She claims that she has no self-confidence and for the first time it appears to be genuine.

As the tension begins to boil and as soon as it does Edward shows up in his Volvo. All of the sudden he comes to her rescue. It was good in the parking lot of the school because it made sense that Edward would be there. In Port Angeles, away from her friends, on an obscure street away from the populated areas for Edward to just show up is going to take a good deal of explaining. Tolkien's Eagles are sent from the gods so it makes at least some sense that they show up in times of peril. Edward isn't the herald of the gods, Meyer has a nice corner to write herself out of.

Decisions (Pg. 140-152)

This chapter is conspicuously long, I think that the editor of the book dropped the ball here because the tone and ‘plot’ of the chapter abruptly switch around pg. 142, I would have broken it off there but maybe the next chapter would have been too short? In either case all it means for us is that this entry may take longer than usual, I don’t know because as this is the first paragraph I haven’t written it yet.

“Making decisions was the painful part for me, the part I agonized over,” isn’t this is the case for everyone? To remind the reader Bella has just had her faith struggle with whether or not Edward is a creature not human. She’s decided that no matter what he turns out to be she’s going to stick with him…obviously. Thomas Harris wrote in the book Hannibal that decisions aren’t made in momentus sequences. They are made almost instantly from the point where the decision is first pondered. Everything else is just posturing or fictional.

The whole reason Bella ducks into the forest to make a decision is for dramatic device. She knew all along whether or not she cared what Edward turned out to be. The only reason that anyone needs to indulge themselves in such activities is to back up the decision that they have already made. They need to convince themselves to do what they want to do, that isn’t making a decision that’s working up nerve. Harris’ detective in Florence at least confronted the idea of taking a bribe honestly.

That’s why Bella finishes her sojourn into the woods with this, “This decision was ridiculously easy to live with. Dangerously easy.”

“Dangerously”? I’m still trying to work around the progression of the story. When the last section ended Bella wasn’t positive what it was that Edward happens to be, so what is so dangerous about the decision? If you put yourself into her shoes, at this point the only thing you have decided is that you are going to stick with this guy (if he’ll have you, he is still ambivalent about that) even if he is possibly something other than human. Which, for Bella, is a hope shrouded in a fear.

So, living with her-hard-to-make-but-easy-to-deal-with-decision (wow just like Heidegger) she goes back to sketching out her Shakespeare paper for the English class we know nothing about. I mentioned before, and this will be the last time, but since English class isn’t the crux of the relationship between Bella and Edward it’s not important for us to know about it. The plot Meyer has established so far means that as far as the reader is concerned Forks HS, should contain a cafeteria, Biology, and Gym. Even gym is a stretch, but Bella’s clumsiness must pay off later since she’s stressed it so much. Bella’s homework should be Bio, and it should be about blood typing since that was the last time she was in class. Like the doomed fat guy pilot at the end of A New Hope, we need to stay on target.

The only point to mentioning English class is to show once again that Bella is smarter than anyone else in the school. This does become the running theme of the end of the chapter though, while emotionally she’s completely out of touch Bella is going to over compensate by lording her intellect over us the reader. She however must think we’re idiots. First off she’s at the school, early, by herself obviously trying to catch the Cullens coming in.

“My homework was done—the product of a slow social life—…” This is just a flat lie. What more does she want in her social life? She’s the newest kid in the school, been invited to the dance by three different people, went to the beach party, and has a good deal of friends,* and sits at a reasonably popular table in the lunch hall. In prison terms, she’s part of a decent gang. She sits down to work on her trig and Mike comes to flirt with her.

No matter how much I try, I just can’t hate Mike. He’s wearing shorts and a rugby shirt because the temperature has spiked to 60, we call that early summer in the North. He speaks to her a little bit, they talk about English class. Even though it comes up again, and is now part of the super trite side plot involving Mike and Bella, it still should have been about, again Biology. Since Bella fainted and Mike carried her out of the room, it makes it seem like there is a legitimate connection between them even if Bella doesn’t think so. Plus it gives Mike a great opener, “here’s the notes/assignment you missed when you fainted…”She’s finished the Macbeth paper, Mike hasn’t started so he asks her the topic. Which, is groan inducing but here it is, “Whether Shakespeare’s treatment of female characters is misogynistic.”

Based on Macbeth!? Not get all Assistant Professorly on her but the only conclusion that she can really draw is “no.” The only female characters in Macbeth are the murderous then remorseful wife, the witches, and then Hecate. All of them pull the strings for the title character, I guess they’re the ultimate villains but the only point for Bella to be writing that paper is for the author to make the character a feminist. Which would be oddly contradictory for her since she spends all of her time pining over Edward and never once really asserting herself. Currently, she only defines her life by the guy she wants to date, I’ve known many feminists and I think they would consider her not among them. Though, if I were to be honest I would like to read that paper.

Bella turns Mike down, but instead of asserting herself she deflects, “Really Mike are you blind?” She tells Mike to go out with Jessica, and Mike seems perplexed. Apparently he hadn’t read the guide to women yet (it’s on my list), or he had, noticed that Jessica liked him but wanted Bella more. Never mind, that minor plot detail is now settled. Mike is with Jessica and Bella who is alpha ascendant in their group can go back to having no social life.

This is a two pronged section which has nothing to do with Bella’s confrontation with herself in the forest. The first is to deal with Mike once again showing that Bella is supremely intelligent. That, however, didn’t need to happen on its own. It could/should have taken place at the beach where it wouldn’t seem so out of place. Take it out and nothing changes. The second is to set up the trip to Port Angeles to buy dresses for the dance that she isn’t going to with the girls that aren’t her friends further establishing the utter lack of social life that she experiences.**

There’s an odd couple scenes with Charlie that I’m skipping discussion about now, but reserve the right to bring up later. It concerns their interaction as Bella acts like mother to him and it begins to progress beyond her advanced maturity.

She grabs a book, which is of course “The Collected Works of Jane Austen.” I tend to pick on English majors just because I’m in Philosophy but the women tend to fall into a stereotype that I just love to exploit. The biggest one is that they love love love Jane Austen, and it’s such a clichéd stereotype that I’m guessing that Bella has a collection of Buckowski right next to it.

Ultimately she decides after her second incursion into nature to go along with the girls to get the dresses. The motivating factor behind this is that she sees the Cullens aren’t back from their camping trip and she needs to get out of town to keep from looking for Edward all of the time. Feminist indeed.

*Not to her, because she must maintain the loner persona, but everyone else would think she was rather popular.

**Your sarcasm detectors should be in the red right now.

Doubt (Pg. 135-139)

I wasn't always an Atheist, my religiousness (religiosity?) could be considered Orthodox at one point, I was probably never so far that I could be considered fundamentalist, but since this is subjective memory ten years after the fact it's really hard to tell. I do remember one day sitting in my parent's house and a thought hit me, it hit me so hard I literally had to leave the house to work it out in my head.* Which brings me to today's section which I feel is the most honest selection from the book so far, it's also an example of the great writing that Meyer is capable of which makes me lament that it's only four pages and inconsistent within as well. I mentioned in the first post that I would give credit where it's due, that I wasn't one of those people opposed to the book on some misguided principle. This is a good section in concept with some flaws in execution but so far it is easily my favorite.

Bella has finished doing her vampire research and has apparently come to the conclusion that Edward is a vampire. Frustrated (or something) she turns off the computer to sort out her thoughts and flees into the forest of Washington. Why? Because she's angry and what she's doing, "Through my irritation, I felt overwhelming embarrassment. It was all so stupid I was sitting in my room, researching vampires."

This is the most honest she's been so far. She's told us how smart she is then proceeded to act entirely contrary to that assertion. Yes, this is stupid. A kid, whom she knew from back when, told her a vampire story, she completely bought it and now she realizes that maybe this isn't the most rational response. The best part of this is that she's embarrassed for herself without any other prying eyes or social atmosphere. All alone she begins to come to the realization that Edward could just be a normal person because certainly vampires do not really exist.

She retreats into the forest along a trail because, "my sense of direction was hopeless."

Sigh, yet another example of her telling us how useless and helpless she really is. It's frustrating to read sentences like this especially now when she is actually asserting that intelligence we've been expecting but never experiencing. Meyer, does a good job describing the setting. She's either been in the Northwest forest or really done her research here because for a person who has spent some time among the trees her words really put me there. Anyone who has followed foot paths through the woods knows that Meyer has it pefectly. An example, "The trail wound deeper and deeper into the forest, mostly East as far as I could tell. It snaked around the Sitka spruces and the hemlocks, the yews and the maples."

All that's really missing is Bella stumbling over fallen branches and tree roots.

Sitting down on a fallen timber, careful to keep her raincoat to cover her butt from the wet wood she contemplates the recent knowledge, "I forced myself to focus on the two most vital-questions I had to answer, but I did so unwillingly. First, I had to decide if it was possible that what Jacob had said about the Cullens could be true."

As an atheist I criticize religion and religious people for many things. One thing that I don't dare touch are passages like this, the struggle with doubt. Reading those visceral confrontations that are entirely internal are fascinating because they try to communicate that "a ha" moment by describing the incredible doubt as it clashes with a wholly new realization. The personal reflections of C.S. Lewis or Augustine and their conversions are amazing. The struggle between the worldview that once was versus what it is going to be is what Bella is going through right now. I can't think of one example of secular writing that comes close to those two men.

Bella explains that Jacob's story is completely absurd and silly. This is all true, the idea that the kid she has a crush is much much older than he appears, and that their father whom she saw at the hospital is centuries old...that's simply foolish. She almost gets there too, I would have liked it more if she questioned whether she was following the evidence or merely indulging in wishful thinking but that's nit picky. I don't know how this scene could be filmed as internal struggles are the hardest to make known on celluloid.

As she struggles with faith versus reason, reason almost wins but then she comes to a completely erroneous conclusion, "There was no rational explanation for how I was alive at the moment."

Well, Bella, the fact is that there is a completely rational explanation. It's tough to make this criticism because we know that in the long run she is right. Her perception of the accident was factual, but the important thing is that she can't know that. The simple explanation is that she was wrong about where Edward was standing. The evidence for this is that no one else in the parking lot, who witnessed the whole thing, noticed the incredible speed that she posits must have occurred for her to be alive. It's unreasonable for her to hold on to her theory with the grip of a zealot in light of this fact. Especially in this scene where she's supposedly going through her own personal Cartesian doubt experiment.

She takes a breath and then lists the properties of Edward so far: the speed, strength, shifting eye color. All purely subjective to her and perhaps that is the whole point of her feigned superior intelligence in the beginning of the book. Although I feel that it is wrong because no one else notices any of this, maybe her intelligence is the reason that only she does. It's a stretch but I'm trying to help out the author here because I like the section so much. Also with the deftness of a Creationist trying to shoehorn science into supporting their view she brings up other evidence that also supports the "Vampire hypothesis."

One by one here they are:
1: "Along with never eating," this is mentioned several times. It is odd, especially for the Cullens. Why don't they bring empty plastic bins. In my high school you could have skipped the lunch room for the library or claim some odd religious/health dietary restriction that compel them to not eat at school. The Cullens are just stupid for this, which does bring us to the question of why they are in high school to begin with.

2: "the disturbing grace with which they moved." Other than the stark attractiveness of the group this isn't really mentioned, and nothing in the vampire literature/cinema portrays this, I don't think it proves anything.

3: "And the way he sometimes spoke, with unfamiliar cadences and phrases that better fit the style of a turn-of-the-century novel that that of a twenty-first-century classroom." My biggest problem here is that there has been no evidence of this, this is the fault of the writer. Meyer hasn't given us any of this 19th century dialogue to bring it up is just cheating the audience.

4: "He skipped class the day we'd done blood typing." So? He skipped class, and said that it was good to do so once in awhile. This is hindsight evidence and wouldn't hold up in court at all.

5: "He hadn't said no to the beach trip till he heard where we were going..." Actually, no this isn't the case at all. He said that he wasn't invited and Mike certainly hadn't done so. Bella invited him, but Edward explained that he probably wouldn't be welcome because Mike didn't like him. False evidence.
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Therefore: "Whether it be Jacob's cold ones or my own super hero theory, Edward Cullen was not...human." The conclusion falls apart, she can't know this and her theory isn't worth entertaining. It only enlightens us that the book was written during the influx of superhero movies in the early millennium.

Accepting the conclusion she now has to realize what to do with it. Leaving Edward crosses her mind but she decides against it. Because she loves him? No. But because even if he is a monster, "he'd done nothing to hurt me so far." Good idea, and the words of every potential victim. It's true with a caveat, he'd done nothing to hurt her physically although he has threatened her and forced his will on her, but it's not physical so I guess we're ok.

"Now that I knew--if I knew--I could do nothing about my frightening secret. Because when I thought of him, of his voice, his hypnotic eyes, the magnetic force of his personality, I wanted nothing more than to be with him right now." It should probably read "right then" but this is again the most honest we've seen Bella. It's not about the excuse of him not hurting her, she's willing to overlook all of her objections because of her infatuation. It's honest, and at least in honesty she's sympathetic. To bad given who Edward is, that delusion is going to be trouble.

*The thought (which I know I have to mention) was what one does to stay interested during infinity. I reasoned that life is tolerable in a way, because we know it ends, but afterlife does not. It still shakes me once in awhile.

Research (Pg. 128-135)

First, we need to place our setting. Bella is home from the beach trip after receiving an odd story from the poor young man she manipulated about ancient Vampires at war with his tribe of Indians who may or may not be descended from wolves. In no way does she view this with skepticism, after all no 15 year old boy would make up a story just to impress a girl. He's already got that mysterious exotic ethnic thing going for him, so he wouldn't just run with it. Not to mention that he's not supposed to be talking about such things either. So far Jacob is the best character we've met so far, and I don't mean for anyone to think that I'm attacking him (yet), it's just that I've had the unpleasant experience of being a 15 year old boy and no matter what the background they will embellish a bit when a cute girl is flirting with them. She wants solace from her thoughts, the thoughts that she so desperately tried to not think about on the ride home.

Her first solution is to play a CD to her given by her step-father. When that doesn't work, she takes a shower, then she decides that she is going to look up some things on the internet. This is obviously easier than going to the library, and who knows what kind of information that the small library in Forks is going to have. It also shows that Meyer does have a finger on the pulse of her audience, the internet is the first place anyone goes to now. An older writer would definitely have used the library or some mysterious book or something like that.

"My modem was sadly outdated, my free service substandard; just dialing up took so long that I decided to go get myself a bowl of cereal while I waited." She doesn't just get that bowl of cereal, she fixes it up, eats it, then cleans up the dishes and finally gets back to the computer. You people that are the intended age group for this book, will never know what it was like but it sucked. Clicking on the wrong link meant waiting and waiting and waiting to find out that it was the wrong link, then clicking back, then starting over. Dial up sucked, but once you got that 28.8 modem it was faster than light. Meyer is very accurate here.

Once loaded, "naturally the screen was covered in pop-up ads" 2005 was a tough year for internet use. Pop-ups had hit their stride, it just seems that if her computer is so outdated it's surprising that it didn't crash under the weight of the ads. It's a bit pedantic for me to make this gripe but it seems as if the author is making this complaint and not Bella as narrator.

Searching for Vampires on the internet is like trying to eat at a mall, sure the food court is there but do you really want to eat at any of those places? Here's an experiment, go to Google/Bing and type in the word "Vampire." Ok, now that you've done that skip over the wikipedia entry (as we are supposed to be in 2005 and it wouldn't have been number 1 then) and how many of those entries look like they would be worth checking out?

Skip the forums where people pretend they are vampires, the gothic clothing sites, and you are still left with tons and tons of garbage. At least in our simile we've decided not to eat at Sbarro, but we're left with Manchu Wok and Burger King. Finally she finds something that has an academic look to it and is first greeted with two quotes. One of these quotes is from French Philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau and among the vampire community is pretty popular the quote runs as follows "If there is in this world a well-attested account, it is that of vampires. Nothing is lacking: official reports, affidavits of well-known people, of surgeons, of priests, of magistrates: the judicial proof is most complete. And with all that, who is there who believes in vampires?"

What the websites, forums, and communities won't mention is that the quote comes from Rousseau as he was defending his work "Emile" from the fires of censorship because he had the gall to criticize religion. The quote above is offered not as proof that vampires exist but that authority figures (either religious or political) will make appeals to the supernatural in order to instill fear in the populace. It's been argued by Phillip Cole that the "vampire craze" of the 17th and 18th centuries is no different than the witch hunts of the 15th and 16th. Answer Rousseau's question for yourself, who really believes in Vampires? No one, all of those people on the internet know that they are posers and are merely indulging in wishful thinking.

The thing is that the vampire web page that Bella finds, is real. I don't know if the book preceded the page or vice versa, but it's there if you want to take a look at it. She clicks away and becomes rather insightful, "It seemed that most Vampire myths centered around beautiful women as demons and children as victims; they also seemed like constructs created to explain away the high mortality rates for young children, and to give men an excuse for infidelity."

It seems as though Rousseau was probably right all along. The only people that really believe in Vampires are the people that have a reason for doing so. Calling upon the myth of the Succubus, not actually a Vampire, makes as much sense as all of those ancient Greek women knocked up by Zeus. The myth is ready made for the excuse, who can really resist the demonic powers of the succubus? Here, Bella is really intelligent here she looks at all of the myths and begins seeing a pattern. That however isn't good enough.

The odd thing about Bella at this point is that she has completely bought into the story. If she's so smart, she needs to rationalize more that's what smart people do when they don't understand something. The first explanation she comes up with is superhero, then Jake gives her the Vampire story that isn't necessarily about Edward but she shoehorns him right into it. This whole list of Vampires is nice, but she needs something that works with Edward, "Speed, strength, beauty, pale skin, eyes that shift color; and then Jacob's criteria: blood drinkers, enemies of the werewolf, cold-skinned, and immortal."

"Pale skin?" just like Bella was so fond of reminding us that she has in the beginning of this book. They live in Washington state, everyone should have pale skin. Aside from that her list is simple perception, but then she shifts over to Jacob's list and none of that makes sense. She's never seen him drink blood, he's not fought a werewolf and more importantly she hasn't established their existence aside from a dream, and then there's "immortal."

By immortal she means "deathless." Vampires aren't immortal, never were never are because of one fact: they can be killed. Every vampire movie/story establishes this. Greek gods are immortal. By most people's misuse of this word Zombies are immortal and no one will stand by that. Bella, again, has no proof of this and neither do we. Just that Jacob said Dr. Carlisle could be the same thing that made a deal with his great grandfather. Bella is worse than a Creationist in the respect that she's already arrived at a conclusion and now she's making up evidence to fit the proof. There is however a snag:

"And then another problem, one that I'd remembered from the small number of scary movies that I'd seen and was backed up by today's reading--Vampires couldn't come out in the day time, the sun would burn them to a cinder."

Well no, that's not even remotely true. "Haven't you read the Irishman's fable," asked Dracula to Blade in Blade III while standing in the sunlight. There isn't the consistency that Bella finds here and it's unclear whether any Vampires are killed by the day or the sun, and as Meyer placed our story in an area with little sunshine she doesn't have that proof either. The research she does is understandable but completely useless if she already has a conclusion in mind.