333 pages in...
Here come the mutherfuckin' Cullens.
I'm going to spend most of this post discussing characters, not only the characters as they appear in this chapter, but also, after reading some things on Stephanie Meyer's website, how she perceives and utilizes her characters, and comparing it to how I myself have perceived and utilized mine. If you're thinking "Why do I give a flying frog about you?" I can defend this: I feel that, in a way, Meyer sees her characters the way that I saw the characters I worked with when I was in high school. These were characters that existed, not only for a fantasy series that went on and on for seven books solid and was left unfinished at Book 8, but as these sort of alt egos that I could play with and manipulate to my liking. If I've piqued your interest, I will go into this later in the What's Working section. If you are more interested in hyper-feminist rants, you might want to wait around until next week.
By Twilight standards, this chapter wasn't terrible. Bella no longer complains endlessly and has now turned into a kind of silly-nilly school girl, skipping around and making jokes, because Edward spent the night with her. (CHASTELY you guys. Chastely.) Their good chemistry has become more apparent also; they're starting to resemble an actual couple, not just cardboard cutouts glued together by Meyer's own personal whimsy.
As in the previous chapter, Bella takes what she refers to as "human minutes" (313). This is any instance in which she must brush her teeth, comb her hair, eat, or, as is implied, use the toilet, because Edward doesn't have to do any of these things. There is this moment where Edward carries Bella into her own kitchen, seemingly to prepare her a meal.
"'What's for breakfast?' I asked pleasantly.
That threw him for a minute.
'Er, I'm not sure. What would you like?' His marble brow puckered.
I grinned, hopping up.
'That's all right, I fend for myself pretty well. Watch me hunt.'" (315)
Bella then takes it upon herself to fix some cereal while Edward just kind of stands and watches her. I cited this moment because I liked the interplay between them, and it is the closest these two ever get to having a balanced relationship. Edward, this seemingly dignified, perfect man, stands bewildered for a moment, not knowing what to do, and Bella steps in, with good humor, remedying the situation. But these moments are small and short-lived in the Twilight world. In order to genuinely enjoy this chapter, there are two events that I would like to pretend didn't happen.
1) Edward kisses Bella, and she literally faints. Like SWOONS.
"He tilted his head slowly and touched his cool lips to mind for the second time, very carefully, parting them slightly.
And then I collapsed.
'Bella?' His voice was alarmed as he caught me and held me up.
'You...made...me...faint,' I accused him dizzily." (319)
Damn. Caitlin Flanagan wasn't kidding when she called Bella an "old-fashioned heroine." We're officially in 18th century, it's-fashionable-for-ladies-to-suffer-from-consumption territory.
2) Bella cries when Edward plays something on the piano that he wrote for her (because he is also an accomplished composer), and he TAKES ONE OF HER TEARS AND EATS IT.
"He lifted his finger, examining the drop of moisture broodingly. Then, so quickly I couldn't be positive that he really did, he put his finger in his mouth to taste it." (329)
What makes it even weirder is that Bella's reaction is to look at him "questioningly," and then Edward just smiles and offers to show her the rest of the house. The story moves on, and neither Edward nor Bella mentions this incident again.
God, he is such a creeper....
But moving on. The big event in this chapter is Edward taking Bella to meet his family. They make kind of an issue out of Bella being more afraid that the Cullens won't like her than she is of meeting a houseful of vampires, and Meyer describes the Cullen house itself in rather poignant detail. Then, finally, after 300+ pages of build-up for this awesometastic vampire family, only four of the six Cullens make an appearance.
It's a big letdown for readers who actually like to read what's on the page, though the mysterious way that Edward has talked about his family has probably allowed for everyone else to fill in the blanks, the same way they do for the two main characters. The Cullens are defined solely by their vampirism (their good looks, wealth, and superpowers). Carlisle says two lines before drifting into the background, Esme, despite having the most dialogue, deviates none at all from being a polite mother figure, Jasper appears on the scene solely to appear there, and Alice shows up just long enough to twirl around and reveal that she has no inner life and wants nothing more than to be Bella's BEST FRIEND EVAR! (cough manicpixiedreamgirl cough). Emmett and Rosalie are out of scene still, though Rosalie has remained the most interesting to me, simply because she's the only Cullen (and the only major character PERIOD) who hasn't basically thrown a fucking parade for Bella. Of course, Edward explains to us that it's because she's jealous of Bella's humanity (327), not because Bella is an obvious twat.
Edward also tells Bella how Carlisle became a vampire back in the 17th century, during Cromwell's persecution of the Catholics in England. The anecdotal placement here feels odd, especially since Carlisle did nothing but stand up and say hello in this chapter. I would like to know more about him, honestly, and the next chapter is titled "Carlisle," so I assume that I will.
In all, there is nothing egregious about these characters. There's just not much to them. And any decent development or conflict that could have evolved from this chapter is conveniently averted, because Bella's nerves are all for nothing; everybody adores her as soon as they lay eyes on her. Hooray. Again, it's as though Meyer could not have even CONCEIVED of an instance in which a decent person would have reservations about loving Bella unconditionally.
WHAT'S WORKING: So I'm in the DC airport right now on layover, completing the second half of this blog. My Twilight novel is tucked away in my suitcase. I could dig it out in front of God and everyone, but I'm pretty much just gonna wing it. Oh, I'm dedicated. Yes I am.
Continuing on from my earlier observation, in a novel like this, I think it's necessary for the Cullens to give Bella a warm welcome. After a full chapter in which Edward's "big secret" is that he sparkles and Bella's "big revelation" is that she loves him twice as much as she thought she loved him. It fits in with the rest of the fantasy pretty easily. Twilight is, if anything, at least CONSISTENTLY indulgent.
So this supernatural family is depicted, Edward among them, as being not cursed, not evil, but superior, practically omniscient in comparison to their human counterparts. Meyer reassures us that they are able to see into Bella's soul and know how wonderful she is. In fact, I read somewhere that Meyer believes Bella's "tragic flaw" to be a "lack of self-knowledge". That's right. The wining, the negativity, the passive aggression, the neediness, the obsessiveness, the self-absorption, the complete disinterest in people who try to reach out to her...these aren't flaws. Bella's big problem is that SHE DOESN'T REALIZE HOW MUCH SHE DESERVES TO BE LOVED AND ADORED BY EVERYONE. Ha. Don't we all wish that this was our tragic flaw?
In a way, this reminds me of my high school role playing and fantasy days, when the characters that my friends and I created had flaws like: "She CARES too much about other people" and "He's got a troubled past" and "She's got vague anger issues that come out as a killer alter ego." This last one got especially touted in our more complex era, when I was in the 10th and 11th grade. We were always looking for any excuse to have our characters go off on violent fits or act not like themselves, be it demon possession, weird viruses, or personality disorders. We had a lot of free time on our hands...
I was most intrigued with the writer/character dynamic. I honestly never considered my characters to BE me, but they were still kind of...extensions of me, alternate versions of me, even characters that were nothing like me at all. They all led more interesting lives. They could do things that I couldn't do. I always thought of them as CHARACTERS, and myself as a WRITER, but to make this more interesting, I began to imagine a fourth wall realm in which my characters knew that I was in control and resented me for it. For a time, I sincerely believed that particular characters could beg and plead with me, or perhaps influence what I wrote in my stories. I spoke about them with friends as if they were real people, and my friends would talk about their characters in the same way.
This may sound insane, but at fifteen, sixteen, it made our lives feel much richer than they actually were. And I don't think this is entirely uncommon for teenage girls who like to write. From the first page of Twilight, I've sense something very adolescent about Meyer, and reading the way she talks about Edward and Bella on andher website--"Bella and Edward were, quite literally, voices in my head. They simply wouldn't shut up" and "I have no intention of quitting at three [books in the series]. Firstly, Bella and Edward would never forgive me"--I think it definitely rings of that genuine, self-absorbed kind of wonder at one's own imagination. I don't think Meyer's joking around here. I think she believes that her characters fully fleshed-out personalities that exist within her.
Need I remind everyone that a personal connection to your character does NOT mean that your character is well-developed. In fact, a lot of times it interferes with your ability to write about them in a multidimensional way, to not babysit them, to let them make bad decisions and suffer the consequences, and to let them change if the progress of the story requires it. Meyer exhibits this problem in that
a) any character that Meyer likes, everyone within the story likes also (unless he or she is jealous)
b) anything bad that happens to an above character happens outside of that character's control, not because the character made a mistake or a bad decision
c) characters come out of the woodwork pretty perfect (in the writer's opinion) and never really change as a result of what they learn or what happens to them
I suffered from some of these problems as a teenage writer also, though I eventually became self aware of them and did a total about face. For my HarryPotterish male protagonist, I got a great kick out of, not only making other characters fully conscious of his flaws, but also having him make decisions that got him fucked up royally (I think that's referred to as an anti-sue, or an anti-hero; it has its own basket of problems). I was able to write better after that, though my stories lost their emotional resonance; reading back over them now, they seem even cruel in places. I was no longer a character in my own universe. I was a GOD OF DESTRUCTION in my own universe.
I know. This was really no better than what Meyer is doing in Twilight. In fact, it may even have been a little more twisted. But the difference between me and Meyer is that I eventually stopped being a teenager, and, um...I don't think she ever did. I also think that the personal fantasy Meyer is writing is generic enough for a lot of female readers to insert themselves, while mine was limited to pretty much just me and a handful of friends. In reading Twilight, readers sense that they are supposed to connect with Bella, Edward, and the whole Cullen gang, even if the characters themselves aren't on the page.
If I want to be truly honest with myself, I am jealous of Meyer. I'm not jealous of her talent, or even her characters. I'm jealous that Meyer has a multitude of fans that she can talk about her characters with as if they were real people. I feel like I've outgrown this phase of my writerhood, but I am nostalgic about discussing my writing with half-delusional fervor. It was a lonely transition to realize that I was just one person, alone, and that the complicated inner world I was supporting was vastly more important to me than it was to anyone else. But alas, I think that's a sad truth we come to understand when we become adults.
Some of us, anyway. Some of us, it seems, are perfectly fine remaining as teenage girls forever.
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I've gone on about this for a while and I think I should draw it to a close. Thanks for sticking with me this far, if you happen to be reading. Chapter 16 for next week.
Wish me luck!
Jenchilla
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Hmm, your work that you mention sounds familiar. Haven't read it in a while.
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Haha. Oh yes. You are familiar with my days as a megalomaniac.
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