Twilight: Preventing Workplace Violence

Content Note: Violence

Twilight Recap: After lunch, Bella heads to her next class - Biology II - which she finds she shares with Edward Cullen. As soon as she walks into the room, however, Edward's facial expression and body language become extremely hostile and seem to be directed at the confused and startled Bella. 

Twilight, Chapter 1: First Sight

I think I've mentioned before that I am currently employed as a software engineer at a large company. Every year, the employees are required to retake various types of training, including training to recognize and prevent workplace violence. The training isn't difficult - the 'classes' are web videos that the employees can watch from the comfort of their desk. Sometimes there's a quiz at the end, but there's no penalty for getting the answers wrong, and I have to give the company credit for treating us all like adults and not falling prey to the temptation to make the whole thing dreadful and awful.

Having said that, I have to now point out the elephant-in-the-room which is that the training isn't particularly useful. Don't get me wrong, I think the goals behind the training are worthy and I think with some serious rework the training could be useful, but the training is currently implemented so poorly that the whole thing feels more like a yearly exercise in legal indemnification than an actual attempt to actually educate employees. The biggest problem is that the training materials are vague, confusing, incomplete, and contradictory. Several of the courses haven't been updated in years and almost all of them were clearly outsourced to some training video corporation who was deliberately as generic as possible in order to resell the videos to as many companies as they could get away with. Whenever an example scenario is shown, it's almost always an obvious black-and-white issue as opposed to a shade-of-gray ambiguous situation where training could actually clear up some questions and misconceptions.

For instance, the company has a rule that "no weapons" are allowed on the business campus, so to illustrate this the training videos are quick to point out that if Someone Brings A Gun To Work, the incident is to be reported immediately to a phone number that isn't included in the training materials but which you could probably find on the company website if you searched hard enough. The problem, of course, is that when you see one of the many "no weapons" signs hung around the campus, most of the employees already assumed that the prohibition included guns. What no one is quite clear on is the issue of the very-large, very-sharp "pocket knives" that a lot of employees bring to work as "tools" for opening boxes, unscrewing computer cases, and repeatedly flipping open and closed during tense meetings. (I'm serious.) Are those knives also included under the "no weapons" rule? It's possible that they aren't and that the knives fall under a "use your best judgment" clause, but it's important to note that the training materials don't address the issue whatsoever. It's all very frustrating.

I bring all this up not because I want to complain about my workplace (although that is a nice side benefit), but because this chapter makes me wonder what sort of violence prevention classes the good teachers of Forks sit through every summer.

   As I walked down the aisle to introduce myself to the teacher and get my slip signed, I was watching him surreptitiously. Just as I passed, he suddenly went rigid in his seat. He stared at me again, meeting my eyes with the strangest expression on his face — it was hostile, furious. I looked away quickly, shocked, going red again. I stumbled over a book in the walkway and had to catch myself on the edge of a table. The girl sitting there giggled.

The "he" in the passage above is Edward, although you'd be forgiven if you first thought that Bella was talking about her biology teacher, Mr. Banner.

We know from the text that Bella has entered the classroom relatively late in comparison with the other students: she had stayed late in the lunchroom with Jessica and Angela, and immediately upon entering the classroom she was able to note that the only unoccupied chair in the room was next to Edward Cullen - which must mean that all the other students have settled down and taken their seats. It therefore seems very likely to me that Mr. Banner (as well as a good chunk of the student body) should have witnessed at least some of the walk-glare-stumble shenanigans above - if only because people tend to reflexively look up when they hear someone trip, and Edward has nowhere near the necessary self-control at the moment to regain his composure just as everyone looks up to see what all the commotion is about. Mr. Banner just seems nonplussed by all the excitement, though.

   Mr. Banner signed my slip and handed me a book with no nonsense about introductions. I could tell we were going to get along. Of course, he had no choice but to send me to the one open seat in the middle of the room.

Now, I went to a lot of different schools when I was growing up. Public school, private schools, and homeschooling - we tried them all, at many different times and for many different reasons. I've had my fair share of teachers, and I have to say that very few of them had "no choice" in classroom seating arrangements. Oh sure, quite a few of them let us sit where we wanted, but almost as many of them had very strong ideas about where and how students should be arranged, and I can't think of a single incident where the teachers didn't get their way. Anything that involved "dual pairs" of students for shared work was especially subject to regular changes - the teachers didn't want students becoming too reliant on a specific partner, or getting too accustomed to working a certain way, or growing too emotionally attached to their partner (the inevitable relationship drama was not considered to be conducive to learning). So I'm very interested to learn that Mr. Banner has "no choice" but to send Bella to sit beside and partner with someone who is very openly glaring at her furiously.

For the next page or so, we get a running description of Edward's openly hostile body language:

...I saw his posture change from the corner of my eye. He was leaning away from me, sitting on the extreme edge of his chair and averting his face like he smelled something bad...

...During the whole class, he never relaxed his stiff position on the edge of his chair, sitting as far from me as possible. I could see his hand on his left leg was clenched into a fist, tendons standing out under his pale skin. This, too, he never relaxed...

...The class seemed to drag on longer than the others. Was it because the day was finally coming to a close, or because I was waiting for his tight fist to loosen? It never did; he continued to sit so still it looked like he wasn’t breathing. What was wrong with him? Was this his normal behavior?...

...I peeked up at him one more time, and regretted it. He was glaring down at me again, his black eyes full of revulsion. As I flinched away from him, shrinking against my chair, the phrase if looks could kill suddenly ran through my mind...

As much as a lot of this feels uncomfortably like purple prose - and as much as I'm made uncomfortable by the careless intertwining of violence and sexuality in these passages as Bella ruminates on Edward's "hard and muscular" forearm that just won't stop clenching into a violent fist - I will give credit where credit is due and agree that this sounds like a particularly uncomfortable class to sit through.

It's interesting to note that this entire scene was heavily edited for the Twilight film. Edward smells Bella from across the room (thanks to some well placed stationary fans), and immediately reacts, but his reaction is one of illness, not hostility. Actor Robert Pattinson clenches his eyes closed, covers his nose and mouth in the universal symbol for extreme nausea, and when he does open his eyes to look at Bella his expression is more "vaguely perturbed" than "homicidally hostile".

There's the difference. Edward looks like he's struggling to remember the lyrics to a Linkin Park song, whereas Fluffy has appropriately been subtitled as "Destroyer of Worlds" on various lolcatz captioning sites.

Part of me wonders if the hostility in this scene was deliberately toned down because the audience had already been clued in that Edward was Bella's destined love interest and the producers didn't want to muddy the waters by making Edward realistically threatening. A brawny man (Bella notes in-text that Edward doesn't seem nearly so slight now that the hulking Emmett isn't sitting next to him) glaring down at a defenseless girl in homicidal rage can be pretty scary and might be difficult for audiences to reconcile with their own established Edward fantasies; better to cast slender, non-threatening Cedric Diggory in the part and just make him look like he's throwing up a little in his mouth.

In-text, however, this moment is particularly distressing when you consider Bella's point of view: not only was she already nervous about school, but now she has to sit next to this hostile and dangerous person and work on lab assignments with him for the rest of the school year. We can legitimately mock Bella for being overly-sensitive on various other issues, but I can definitely imagine being severely freaked out over a 60-minute long encounter of scary-brawny-stranger-glaring-at-me-and-repeatedly-clenching-his-fists, during a droning class on cellular anatomy no less.

   At that moment, the bell rang loudly, making me jump, and Edward Cullen was out of his seat. Fluidly he rose — he was much taller than I’d thought — his back to me, and he was out the door before anyone else was out of their seat.
   I sat frozen in my seat, staring blankly after him. He was so mean. It wasn’t fair. I began gathering up my things slowly, trying to block the anger that filled me, for fear my eyes would tear up. For some reason, my temper was hardwired to my tear ducts. I usually cried when I was angry, a humiliating tendency.

And, once again, I get this. Bella's strong reaction to Edward's behavior doesn't work in the movie, because it looks like she's moping over not being instantly adored by the hottest guy in school. But in the book, without ever once saying a word to her, Edward has crossed several major social boundaries and has acted in an extremely threatening and frightening manner. If I walked late into a meeting on software standards, took the one empty seat in the room next to a stranger I didn't know, and he spent the entire meeting alternately clenching his fists and glaring at me with open hatred and hostility, I wouldn't merely be uncomfortable, I would be actively frightened and would be sprinting towards the nearest phone to call the campus security.

It's not normal or natural for people to immediately conceive an instant and obvious hatred for a stranger the moment they enter the room. Edward's behavior here - outside of some extremely rare extenuating circumstance, like him actually being a vampire and Bella's scent being his own personal acute temptation, and really, how often does that happen - is unacceptably violent and should be immediately reported by to the school authorities for further investigation (along with his apparent eating disorder, his frequent school absences, and the deep bruises under his eyes).

So I have to wonder: why isn't Mr. Banner doing this necessary and appropriate act of reporting?

We've theorized in the past that perhaps only Bella notices Edward's odd behavior - that to everyone else wrapped up in their busy and complicated lives, the odd behavior of the Cullens is just so much white noise. This isn't a great explanation - a lifetime spent listening to my mother cheerfully "people watch" at the mall the way so many people watch birds in the woods has taught me that no matter where you are, someone is watching you with detached interest - but it's at least a standard literary hand-wave that I'd be willing to accept for the sake of disbelief suspension.

However, this theory trips right out of the gate, since S. Meyer keeps clobbering the reader over the head with new characters who exist to show that Edward really is as affected by Bella as Bella suspects.

   “Aren’t you Isabella Swan?” a male voice asked.
   I looked up to see a cute, baby-faced boy, his pale blond hair carefully gelled into orderly spikes, smiling at me in a friendly way. He obviously didn’t think I smelled bad.
   “Bella,” I corrected him, with a smile.
   “I’m Mike.”
.........
   But as we were entering the gym, he asked, “So, did you stab Edward Cullen with a pencil or what? I’ve never seen him act like that.”
   I cringed. So I wasn’t the only one who had noticed. And, apparently, that wasn’t Edward Cullen’s usual behavior. I decided to play dumb.
   “Was that the boy I sat next to in Biology?” I asked artlessly.
   “Yes,” he said. “He looked like he was in pain or something.”
   “I don’t know,” I responded. “I never spoke to him.”
   “He’s a weird guy.” Mike lingered by me instead of heading to the dressing room. “If I were lucky enough to sit by you, I would have talked to you.”

Readers, meet Mike. Mike is here for two purposes, both of which involve characterizing our two main characters. Firstly, he is here to assure the reader that Bella is desirable - and not just to greasy 'chess-club types' like Eric. No, Bella is desirable to attractive, socially-competent boys, because she is attractive to Mike and Mike is nothing if not popular with the other students. Secondly, Mike is here to assure us that Bella's assessment of the Biology Incident was correct: Edward's behavior was both unusual and inappropriate.

What isn't said here, but nevertheless must be implied, is that Edward's behavior was also noticeable. If Mike was able to tear his gaze away from the newest pretty girl in class to assess and note the odd behavior of her clearly-uninterested-and-therefore-not-a-romantic-rival lab partner, then we must assume that other people in the classroom also noticed Edward's hostile behavior. We therefore cannot assume that only Bella - either by virtue of her special specialness or by the single-minded obsession that must accompany True Love - observes the strange behavior of Edward in particular and the Cullens in general.

So again I have to wonder why Mr. Banner and none of the other teachers and none of the other students are reacting in a constructive way in response to the obviously destructive (towards Bella) and self-destructive behavior of the Cullens, and the only real answer that I can come up with is that they just don't care. I don't mean that they don't care in a hostile who-cares-if-something-bad-happens-to-the-outsiders kind of way, but rather in a more general apathetic if-it-becomes-a-problem-we'll-deal-with-it-then.

The problem is, you don't deal with workplace violence or school violence or domestic violence by solving it when it becomes a problem. Once violence has occurred, you have failed to prevent it - and the results of that violence are permanent. Even if no one dies or is seriously injured, you still have emotional trauma that will never go away. You can't wait to clarify your knives-on-campus policy until someone has already been stabbed. You can't not speak to your students about their home life until after one of them has dropped dead from malnutrition or come to school with something worse than their usual bruised eyes. You can't fail to address a student's obvious and unwarranted hostility towards their new lab partner until after they've been the victim of an unfortunate lab accident or fallen victim to a completely random and totally unforeseeable vampire bear attack.

Of course, you can do all those things. You can look the other way, because you're very busy, or because you're not sure if you have all the facts straight and if you should get involved, or even just because you're a single employee in a vast corporate machine and you know for a fact that nothing you ever do or say will make things any better and it will in fact make your life measurably worse. You can do all those things - and I certainly won't blame you because those are all very good arguments and life is complicated like that.

But that's not preventing violence. It's living with it and reacting to it. And, frankly, I'm not sure how to fix that.

17 comments:

Ana Mardoll said...

Note: If you haven't voted on the Deconstruction Poll, don't forget to do so! Voting will be closed one week from today!

http://www.anamardoll.com/2011/05/metapost-deconstruction-vote.html

Kit Whitfield said...

 Edward has nowhere near the necessary self-control at the moment to regain his composure just as everyone looks up to see what all the commotion is about. 

That's an interesting point: Edward is usually spoken of as being the beau sabreur of self-control, but you're right that it doesn't extend to hiding his feelings very well. I suppose his control is largely a question of not acting on his desires rather than masking his reactions; I wonder what's up with that. I suspect it's largely that the passion needs to be emphasised, but you could equally do passion with a glare of horror that only Bella notices, quickly replaced by that same inexpressive mask she saw in the cafeteria, which now looks less like arch disdain and more like the poker face of a suspect in a lineup ... and have the flexing fist be visible only to her. 

I think the noticeability works several angles. To begin with, it allows Mike to inform us that Edward doesn't usually act this way, which reassures us that he's still a prospective partner, but I think it's more than that. One of the big fantasies of the Twilight saga is of being the centre of attention without having to be a show-off: Bella doesn't have to do anything to get attention, it just happens to her. Having Mike notice Edward's reaction to her means that the Bella-Edward relationship is a matter of public interest even before it begins; Bella's star rises early. 

I think there's also the fact that it reinforces the Cullens' high status. Mike notices what Edward's doing because Edward is a person people notice: if nobody noticed what he was doing, it would imply he wasn't a person who interested people. More than that still, it does (in a pulp way) something similar to the beginning of Crime and Punishment: the world oddly reshapes itself around the central character's obsession, so that minor characters start talking about it from all corners without being fully aware of the obsession's existence. Everything but Bella and Edward is fairly hazily sketched in order to keep them in narcotic, brilliant focus; when other characters are fairly dreamlike, it makes aesthetic if not narrative sense that they'd bring up the subjects that preoccupy Bella when they haze into view.

It's also, I think, an early example of Bella using language that sounds less threatened than the situation might imply. 'He was so mean. It wasn't fair.' That's pretty childlike in its tone, and implies not that he's imposing danger on her, but that he's withholding something. If it's not 'fair', that means Bella's entitled to expect something from him rather than marking him down as a weirdo with issues. Edward's behaviour may be disturbing, but really it doesn't raise much more in Bella than a pout. So the danger remains cosmetic rather than serious, because our omniscient heroine knows it's nothing more than innocent meanness.

Ana Mardoll said...

It's also, I think, an early example of Bella using language that sounds less
threatened than the situation might imply. 'He was so mean. It wasn't fair.'
That's pretty childlike in its tone.............Edward's behaviour may be disturbing, but really it doesn't raise much more in Bella than a pout.


You know, I really tripped over that line several times when writing this, and I couldn't put my finger on WHY it was tripping me up. I mean, Edward *is* being "mean" - he's being hostile and threatening and acting very inappropriately. And it *isn't* "fair" - Bella hasn't done anything to warrant this behavior.

But... the sentences are very awkward, despite being factually correct. I eventually chalked it up to clumsy phrasing. But I think you've hit the nail on the head by pointing out that the TONE is all wrong. It sounds like something a 5-year-old would say, not a mature, legitimately upset 17-year-old.

I wouldn't have thought of the idea that this was done deliberately to lessen the obvious threat that Edward represents, but now that you've said so, it makes perfect sense. And it absolutely frustrates me - if the intention was to downgrade Edward's behavior to cosmetic instead of serious, why not just write it that way in the first place? The retrospective downgrading seems terribly problematic from a domestic violence standpoint.

BrokenBell said...

Ah, but was it necessarily a conscious, deliberate decision? For it to have been a retroactive downgrade intended to reassure the reader, it would require a level of self-awareness that I'm not sure is really evidenced in either Meyer's writing, or how she's talked about her writing in interviews. If I had to put my money somewhere, I'd bet it on being another example of unreliable Bella commentating on an omniscient level. The fact that Edward has too much self-control/cares for Bella too much to ever really hurt her might seem self-evident, therefore she never needs to actually be afraid of him - even when ordinary un-special folk like Mike (or, perhaps more significantly, her own Infallible Narration superpower) characterise Edward as being openly hostile. A pout at how mean and unfair he's being might just be all the reaction the situation is be supposed to warrant.

Not that I know this for certain. But I don't think it necessarily follows that it was a deliberate action on Meyer's part intended to reassure the reader - it seems just as likely to be another example of Meyer not really knowing where the line between player knowledge and character knowledge is actually supposed to be.

Carrie said...

Everything but Bella and Edward is fairly hazily sketched in order to
keep them in narcotic, brilliant focus; when other characters are fairly
dreamlike


First of all, Kit, this is such a beautiful way to put that. Having said that, I don't see that brilliant focus in Meyer's work. I have a really, really hard time seeing her as making stylistic choices. Instead, I see her as sloppy. The other characters are dreamlike because Meyer doesn't care about them and she knows that we don't care about them, either. They're just fillers and she treats them as such. That's the sort of conclusion I jump to immediately.

But, wow, what a fabulous idea. I wish that I did see that kind of deliberate decision-making in Meyer's work. I wish that I could see her making overarching aesthetic decisions about her writing and that the decisions she made were as awesome as you suggest. I'd really like to read a narcotic love story that read like tunnel vision. Unfortunately, like I said, I have trouble reading that intent into Meyer. If she's doing it on purpose, I can't tell and the effect is lost on me.

Also, Ana, it's interesting that your deconstruction, more and more as time goes on, is basically revealing that everyone in Twilight is a bad person to one extent or another. It's bad of nobody to take action about the Cullen children's scary bruises and apparent eating disorders, it's bad that Bella makes snap judgments about everyone she meets, it's bad that Mr. Banner either doesn't notice or care about Edward's hostile reaction to Bella, it's not real good of Charlie to buy Bella a vehicle without talking with her first, and Bella's (and Charlie's) trillions of white lies and half truths aren't great, either. I can't think of anything bad about Eric, Mike, or Jessica off the top of my head, but I get stupid at 7 AM.

Anyway, I wonder if, as the deconstruction goes on, we'll be able to find a single character and decide that they're petty okay as far as being a decent person. I am kind of excited to find out.

Kit Whitfield said...

 And it absolutely frustrates me - if the intention was to downgrade Edward's behavior to cosmetic instead of serious, why not just write it that way in the first place? The retrospective downgrading seems terribly problematic from a domestic violence standpoint.

I wonder if literary influences might be a factor here. I believe Meyer has stated elsewhere that she's a fan of the Brontes, and the Brontes tend to violent heroes. Heathcliff is violent to everyone but Cathy, so it's a slightly different situation, but Rochester is violent to Jane in a way that's very similar to Edward here. He drags her to the church to marry so fast she's out of breath; when she declares she'll leave him he holds her in a painful grip, grinds his teeth and talks about how he could kill her body but would only lose her spirit. Jane isn't intimidated by this because she's confident of her ability to handle him - she relates to him in an explicitly manipulative way from the moment they become engaged, and she's clear from the first time she meets him that she prefers an aggressive man she can manage to a courteous one because she isn't used to deferential treatment. Bella seems likewise unthreatened by Edward, and if I remember right, her bristling at him over their power disparities has an Eyrish note to it as well. Bronte is much subtler, of course, and hence more convincing, but I wonder if that might be what's going on in this scene. 

Charleen Merced said...

 Angela seems pretty nice? :/

Matt Smyczynski said...

If memory serves, Jacob was a pretty swell guy in the first book. He was helpful toward Bella and harbored hostility toward the Cullens -- a hostility that, as your deconstruction shows, is totally justified. It wasn't until the not-a-werewolf thing hit him that he lost most of his good qualities.

Carrie said...

Incidentally, with regard to the sexualization of violence here in Twilight, I think I read somewhere that, when she went to do the film, Kiersten Stewart attempted to deliberately play Bella as a masochist. I think that suits pretty darn well and potentially makes the character more cohesive. Even the pouty "Waah, he's not fair," sort of thing would fit in with masochism, or with somebody actively seeking dominance in a partner.

I think that poor, masochistic Bella is probably still not being precisely safe if she's attracted to a person who really does not seem to be able to stand the sight of her despite their being strangers, but I wonder if the idea that Bella is a masochist changes the way we read this scene.

Silver Adept said...

If we're going with a potential Worst Case Scenario here in Forks, it could be that Mr. Banner has noticed, but to actually do anything about it would not only invoke paperwork that he doesn't have the spoons to deal with, he has to actually be able to prove any sort of accusation or suggestion that Edward is behaving in a manner that will likely end in violence. He'll have to get it past the administration to get them to do anything. Additionally, considering Carlisle's status in the town, he can probably, erm, "smooth over" any minor disagreements that might happen between classmates (and provide a nice diagnosis for the body when all is said and done), too. If Mr. Banner is going to say anything, he's got to have an ironclad case with documented evidence, or there will be a new biology teacher in Forks.

The Darkest Sketch interpretation suggests that everyone in Forks might be aware of all of these things that the Cullens are, but they're not paying too close of attention because it is dangerous for them to do so. Like there's that unspoken rumor about what the Cullens do on their "camping trips" or some eyewitness accounts from obviously "crazy" people where they saw Carlisle Cullen teeth-deep in a deer somewhere. Mike saw what happened, but he's going "That's not fair, now was it, ha ha?" because he knows if he says "Run. Run now, while Edward is still deciding how he wants to kill you." it will be his own corpse discovered somewhere nearby.

Twilight could very well be a psychological thriller, had S. Meyer decided to embrace the darker aspects of vampires.

Ana Mardoll said...

Also, Ana, it's interesting that your deconstruction, more and more as
time goes on, is basically revealing that everyone in Twilight is a bad
person to one extent or another.


I'm holding out hope for Alice, but she's problematic in her own ways. I still really want to like Bella, just because she makes it such a CHALLENGE sometimes. :P

he knows if he says "Run. Run now, while Edward is still deciding how he
wants to kill you." it will be his own corpse discovered somewhere
nearby.


This made me laugh so hard while at the same time accosting me with longing. You guys really do come up with REALLY good fanfic (hate-fic?) ideas.

Add in the fact that Edward can READ MIKE'S MIND and you have a *really* intense psychological thriller. *chills*

Silver Adept said...

@anamardoll:disqus We're doing what S. Meyer intended for us to do with the story...just not in the way she intended for us to do it. There's a lot that could be going on in that world that was The Road Not Taken.

k said...

"I bring all this up not because I want to complain about my workplace
(although that is a nice side benefit), but because this chapter makes
me wonder what sort of violence prevention classes the good teachers of
Forks sit through every summer."

this made me laugh... as a teacher of some 20 years, I don't ever recall attending a violence prevention class. The closest thing was a 45 minute presentation on 'bullying' several years ago...

Alienbooknose said...

We do have to watch the same old video on bloodborne pathogens every year though.

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You are right, Iagree with you. The biggest problem is that the training materials are vague, confusing, incomplete, and contradictory. Several of the courses haven't been updated in years and almost all of them were clearly outsourced to some training video corporation who was deliberately as generic as possible in order to resell the videos to as many companies as they could get away with.Thanks for post.
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Lauren Kuffler said...

Months after the post was made and with nothing of intense relevance to share, I just wanted to voice my fervent wish that Mr. Banner was in fact Bruce Banner, the Incredible Hulk.

His eyes are an unnatural shade of green when he's the Hulk, too. He'd fit right in!

Andrew Glasgow said...

Add in the fact that Edward can READ MIKE'S MIND and you have a *really* intense psychological thriller. *chills* "It's good that you did that, Edward... Real good. And tomorrow's going to be a good day, too."

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