As a special treat for everyone, Instead of the usual dull summary this week, I'm going to present Chapter 9 to you in comic form, which I drew, and which I think speaks for itself. And while this may seem like a lot of work to invest in a book that I hate, remember this: 1) I enjoyed the hell out of myself. 2) It really didn't take that long to put this together, really about two hours, and some of that time I spent watching Law & Order SVU also (though I prefer the original so much more).
I claim that more intellectual thought went behind the making of this comic than the entire bajillion-page Twilight series. So...please enjoy.
*ACTUAL DIALOGUE
The chapter concludes with this infamous passage:
"About three things I was absolutely positive. First, Edward was a vampire. Second, there was part of him -- and I didn't know how potent that part might be -- that thirsted for my blood. And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him." (195)
CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT: Bella may not be the bug-eyed, drooling idiot that my comic portrays her to be, but she does cry when Edward implies that they should not be together. It should also be noted that Bella physically GOES INTO WITHDRAWAL when Edward tells her goodnight. As soon as his car disappears around the corner she "realize[s] it [is] very cold" (193), and then she proceeds to experience dizziness (194), chills, fatigue, and "aching shivers" (195).
...
I think there might be a twenty-page scene missing from this novel, in which Bella and Edward hang out at the shipyard in Port Angeles and shoot heroin together.
You see, the thing is, Bella and Edward don't really know that much about each other. They remedy the problem--kind of--in this chapter, a brief stretch of time in which they converse, according to Bella, "openly, the walls between [them] gone" (187). Bella learns for certain (sort of) that Edward is a vampire, but she's not particularly thrown by this (more "curious" (185), actually), and their conversation thrills her not so much because she's invested in what he has to say, but because she gets to sit in his glowing presence for a while. These crazy kids...they're already in that stage of the relationship in which being apart from each other makes them anxious. Both Edward (188) and Bella (190) feel this way.
Ehhhhhhhh. I guess...I guess my problem is that I don't see any REASON for these two to love each other. And it's not because I don't believe in people clicking and having immediate, intimate chemistry with one another, and it's not because I don't think Bella could be so enamored with Edward's hypnotizing appearance that she would be obsessed with him in this way (this chapter is ever-vigilant of the status of Edward's "honey" eyes, glorious face and silky voice). But there is no chemistry, and the story is trying to sell Bella's obsession as being much, much more than physical attraction.
I keep searching for those blissful, giddy feelings in Bella that I felt when I had crushes in high school. Instead, I get this steady onslaught of angst. When Edward is out of sight, Bella's whole world is dark; when Edward is there, Bella is constantly terrified of the moment when he won't be. And Edward is the same way! On top of being kind of a douche (on pg 181, he literally ROLLS HIS EYES at Bella when she freaks out about him driving a hundred miles an hour down the freeway), he answers Bella's questions with a kind of begrudging nonchalance before quickly slipping back into, "Sometimes we [the vampires] make mistakes. Me, for example, allowing myself to be alone with you" (187). We're supposed to understand that he really loves being with Bella, since he forces her to have dinner with him and informs her that he is driving her home, and yet much of the time he's with Bella, he's spending his energy angsting about the risk he's taking.
These kids...they're just so MISERABLE--even when they are together!
PLOT DEVELOPMENT: On top of the relationship suddenly taking a dive into Serious Luv, we get to learn more about the Meyer Vampire Mythology in this chapter. I know the basics of the usual vampire stories. Fangs. Blood drinking. Immortality. Weakness against sunlight, crosses, garlic, holy water, etc. The point of the vampire genre is that vampires are humans who have been cursed with bloodlust, and as a result they must creep around in the night for eternity -- insert whatever sociological metaphors you wish.
The vampire diet and the sunlight thing are addressed in this chapter. Meyer's vampires can choose not to hunt humans, instead sustaining themselves on animal blood (Edward compares it to "living on tofu and soy milk...it doesn't completely satiate the hunger" (188)), so the bloodlust is there, but it can be overcome. And Edward laughs at Bella (185) when she asks how he can come out in the daytime. In Twilight, it's a myth that vampires burn in the sun, though Edward still says that he "can't go out in the sunlight...where anyone can see" (189).
We'll just leave that plot point alone for a while. It will arise later, to more devastating effects, I have a feeling...
I enjoy reading authors who twist fantasy/horror genres to their own means, but Meyer's twists make me...reeeeeeally nervous. I can't say exactly why. It may have something to do with the fact that every move Meyer makes in the story seems to be an attempt to make her vampires that much better than humans (that is, they don't seem to have any real weaknesses). We'll keep an eye on this as the story progresses.
I was about to complain also that there's no reason for Meyer to make Chapter 9 its own chapter, as it never breaks scene from Chapter 8, but I realize that she does something that I do when I write sometimes, which is offsetting important moments of the story in their own separate sections. In effect, by making this drive home its own chapter, she's putting an asterisk on it, noting its importance to the story. Um....I don't know if she did that consciously; I just thought I'd point it out.
LANGUAGE: I don't have a lot to say about this. Chapter 9 reads as half dialogue and half Meyer's weird fetishizing of whatever Edward's eyes are doing every other paragraph, and how his voice sounds, and whether he is smiling "ruefully" (189), or groaning "quietly" (190). I hope Meyer doesn't inspire legions of teenage writers to start raping their prose with clunky adverb usage.
And what the fuck, Bella says "Holy crow" again. Who SAYS that...?
SUBTEXT: Edward Cullen can be read pretty much as an illicit substance. I'm not kidding. Observe these bullet points, during which I replace [heroin] for [Edward Cullen].
- [Heroin] makes Bella experience a kind of euphoria.
- Bella only feels all right when she has [heroin] nearby.
- When [heroin] is not nearby, Bella suffers from chills, shakes and fatigue.
- [Heroin] is, admittedly, dangerous.
- We have seen [heroin] work on multiple characters in the book. [Heroin] appeals to all who experience [its] hypnotic wiles, including the woman in the nurse's office and the hostess at the Italian restaurant.
Some older people who enjoy Twilight claim that the books reawaken what it was like to have a first crush (Caitlin Flanagan falls into this camp, playing the teenage nostalgia card like nobody's business). Bella's feelings for Edward apparently reach into the very essence of that semi-scary feeling of teenage love, as the relationships you have when you are young, needy, and emotionally immature tend to reach the extremes depicted in the book. Well, fine. Bella's drooling reminds you of how you felt about your boyfriend when you were sixteen. But that would make Bella's obsession a matter of perception (i.e., Edward is unsurpassingly awesome to Bella, and only Bella). And if there's one thing the book makes clear, it's that Edward's awesomeness is not a matter of perception, as Edward exerts his mesmerizing effect ON EVERYONE (all women, at least).
This is why I can't help but read Edward as more of a drug than a person. He hasn't so much wooed Bella as he's gotten her addicted.
No. I do not think Meyer promotes drug use. That's not what I'm saying. I think she wrote Edward in this way so that he would be irresistable, in the way that addictive drugs seem irresistable. But if you make your love interest irresistable, it means that your female protagonist has no agency.
WHAT'S WORKING: This is a kind of romance that I don't understand. It's an old-fashioned, semi-tortured romance for sure, older than I am, far beyond my feminist sensibilities. I mean, I think this falls into the "kiss me awake and I will marry you" camp, which clearly still holds appeal for some people. The part of the relationship where you show interest in one another's personality and learn about them, and navigate each other's lives, and worry about whether or not you have the same values, and discover, with joy, that you do have the same values...it's been eradicated completely here. We are officially in the "I can't stand to be apart from you, I would probably die for you" phase and it is full speed ahead my, friends.
Less, um...rational readers of Twilight are perfectly fine arguing that Edward and Bella love each other because they are "soulmates," that you can't help who you fall in love with, and you can't fully explain it when you love someone, and -- this is one I found on Yahoo! Answers -- "They love each other so deeply it's impossible to tell the true meaning to the love they share" (as in, their love exists in a realm beyond such petty things as logic and reason). I guess not being able to help who you fall in love with would explain why Edward and Bella are so miserable all the time. Neither of them actually enjoys loving the other.
Consistent with previous chapters, there are many gaps left in these characters, and in this relationship. So readers who are more imaginative and don't buy the argument of less intellectual fans have plenty of opportunity to fill in their own character motivations. I did a little research and found further rebuttals to my complaint
Edward loves Bella because:
- She's selfless
- She's mysterious and unique (he can't read her thoughts)
- She is smarter than all the other students
- She doesn't freak out when she learns that he's a vampire (she accepts him for who he is, i.e., a murderer)
- They share an interest in classical music
- She has "depth"
- He has a gentlemanly nature (toward Bella; not so much anyone else)
- He's mysterious and unique
- He's kind (toward Bella; not so much anyone else)
- He saves her life on multiple occasions
- They are both outsiders
- He has "depth"
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Chapter 10 is called "Interrogations." I really want Meyer to describe how Edward is naturally a Glade Plug-in some more. Because...we need more of that.
Wish me luck,
Jenchilla
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