Twilight: The Many Faces of Bella Swan

Twilight Recap: Bella has survived her first day of school, but is deeply upset by Edward Cullen's odd behavior -- both in their shared Biology class and afterwards in the school office as he tried to be removed from future Biology classes entirely.

Twilight, Chapter 2: Open Book

Several readers have pointed out that Twilight as a series is sometimes so vague that it is possible for a reader to impose almost any interpretation on the events in the book, and the multiple interpretations -- even if they are mutually exclusive -- are still supported enough in-text to be considered valid. Thus we have the problem of Bella's shifting personality: some readers hate her as a horrible, judgmental person, where other readers see her as deeply sympathetic.

For myself, I tend to see Bella as sympathetic, or at least I try to. I think I tend to see her that way not for the things she does in-text, but for the things she must have done before the series began. I feel sorry for her, I suppose, for having to raise both herself and her mother; I sympathize with the pain she must be going through for having put so much effort into keeping Renee clothed, fed, and financially solvent only to be replaced by Baseball Phil. That can't be easy.

So I imagine, therefore, that there will be wildly different interpretations ahead as we explore the aftermath of The Biology Class Incident.

   THE NEXT DAY WAS BETTER . . . AND WORSE. It was better because it wasn’t raining yet, though the clouds were dense and opaque. [...] And it was worse because Edward Cullen wasn’t in school at all.

Again, giving credit where credit is due, I like this line. It's an informative segue from one chapter to the next, and clearly conveys to the reader that that day is done now, and now we're on this day. I'm a rather impatient reader, and I wouldn't have liked it nearly as much if S. Meyer had decided to follow Bella home, have an awkward and uninformative "how was your first day of school, sweetie?" conversation with Charlie over dinner, and then have Bella dutifully brush her teeth and go to bed. No, there's a story to move along, and we're moving. I like it.

And, yet... at the same time, I don't like it. I don't like it because, from a narrative perspective, it feels unfinished. By that I don't mean that I feel I must follow Bella home or I'm forced to assume that she fell asleep in her car because I wasn't informed differently, but rather that from a narrative perspective, Bella has experienced something that has shaken her to her core -- namely, The Biology Class Incident -- and I think an important characterization detail would include how she deals with this issue around her father.

We know from the text that has come before this that Charlie is the Forks chief of police; we know from the text that will come after this that Bella does not relate The Biology Class Incident to her father. The question that I as a reader am now asking, and the question that S. Meyer as an author should anticipate and answer is: Why not?

The first and most obvious possibility is that possibly Charlie was not there when Bella came home that first night. I still don't know what day of the week it is that Bella first went to school -- we know from "New Moon" that the date was January 18th, but the day is still a mystery between Dana's research and the fact that a clever leap-year fix doesn't work because a Friday start date wouldn't account for Bella having school the next day (unless Forks has school on Saturdays) -- but it's entirely possible that Charlie had to take off work in order to pick Bella up at the airport on the 17th. If that's the case, then it seems reasonable that Charlie might have had to work very late on the 18th to make up for lost time. And if he had to work late on the 18th, then there would be no chance of Bella talking to him about The Biology Class Incident, so that would solve that little narrative problem. However, that theory falls out of the gate on page 24:

   Last night I’d discovered that Charlie couldn’t cook much besides fried eggs and bacon.

Putting aside the many fun and interesting implications of that sentence until next week, we have to concede that Charlie was home long enough last night for him to at least tell Bella that he can only cook eggs and bacon, if not cook them for her outright. (Did they also have eggs and bacon on the 17th as well? Next week is going to be such fun.) So it would seem that Bella and Charlie did spend the evening together and they did have the opportunity to talk about The Biology Class Incident, but Bella chose not to bring up the issue. Again, why not?

The next theory is that Bella doesn't have the right relationship with Charlie to broach the subject. Maybe she doesn't feel close enough to confide in him since they really do seem to be functional strangers, despite their summer visits together. Or it's possible that she feels he won't listen to her since Charlie has shown himself to be utterly incurious about Bella's thoughts and feelings by virtue of the fact that he buys her cars without getting her opinions first and he didn't even once ask what prompted her to move in with him and whether or not Baseball Phil had hurt her. It's entirely possible, therefore, that Bella doesn't feel comfortable bringing up The Biology Class Incident with her father, but if that's the case then I want as a reader to see that. I'm not insisting that I should get to view the whole dinner conversation from start to finish, but I do think that a quick acknowledgement that the conversation happened would be good narration and good characterization. It doesn't have to be a lot, just a quick, "I hadn't told Charlie about Edward Cullen's strange behavior because I wasn't sure he would believe me," would do the trick.

There is, however, another interpretation to all this, and it is that having (possibly accidentally) established Edward "The Dreamboat" Cullen as a frightening murderously-glaring tendons-flexing mass murderer, S. Meyer may be trying to edit the situation a little in retrospect to being a little less Threatening Serial Killer Has Marked Me For Death and a little more Meet Cute Misunderstanding Between Lovers.

And you know what? As much as I can hate that from a personal perspective, I can respect it if it is a deliberate characterization choice. If Bella hasn't told Charlie about The Biology Class Incident because she thinks she may have misinterpreted it, or because she doesn't want to make waves or get a stranger in trouble over a murderous-glance-that-turned-out-to-be-severe-indigestion, then I can accept that. I've had moments where I've doubted my own senses, or where someone's utterly unbelievably bad behavior was so very wrong and bad that I was too shocked to take it seriously. Or, as Lemony Snicket would put it:

   When somebody is a little bit wrong — say, when a waiter puts nonfat milk in your espresso macchiato, instead of lowfat milk — it is often quite easy to explain to them how and why they are wrong. But if somebody is surpassingly wrong — say, when a waiter bites your nose instead of taking your order — you can often be so surprised that you are unable to say anything at all. Paralyzed by how wrong the waiter is, your mouth would hang slightly open and your eyes would blink over and over, but you would be unable to say a word.  -- The Reptile Room (A Series of Unfortunate Events)

So I do understand why Bella might convince herself that maybe Edward's strange and threatening behavior has some kind of reasonable explanation beyond his apparently sudden hatred of her. The problem is that I'm not sure this is what the text is trying to convey. To be fair, there are many examples of Bella doubting her judgment of the situation:

   [...] I was terribly uncomfortable, waiting nervously for the moment he would arrive. I hoped that he would simply ignore me when he came, and prove my suspicions false.

   He didn’t come, and as time passed I grew more and more tense.

   I walked to Biology with more confidence when, by the end of lunch, he still hadn’t showed. [...] I was relieved that I had the desk to myself, that Edward was absent. I told myself that repeatedly. But I couldn’t get rid of the nagging suspicion that I was the reason he wasn’t there. It was ridiculous, and egotistical, to think that I could affect anyone that strongly. It was impossible. And yet I couldn’t stop worrying that it was true.

And, yet, if Bella truly doubts her judgment of the situation, it seems strange to have these statements juxtaposed in the text:

   Part of me wanted to confront him and demand to know what his problem was. While I was lying sleepless in my bed, I even imagined what I would say. But I knew myself too well to think I would really have the guts to do it.

It's possible that a lot of this has to do with the human tendency to vacillate between explanations for odd or distressing phenomena. If this is the case, then Bella is understandably caught between the utter certainty that Edward's behavior was the murderous hatred that it appeared to be versus the reassuring rationalization that there must be some reasonable explanation that she is missing and that she can't possibly be related to Edward's strange behavior.

However, I can't help but feel that there is more going on here. It has already been pointed out that Bella's childlike pleas of 'unfairness' in the wake of Edward's threatening behavior smacks of infantilizing Bella in the eyes of the reader. I think, too, that Bella's fantasies of confronting the obviously dangerous Edward, rather than informing a parent, a teacher, or the Chief of Police that happens to live in her house is very telling.

Story-Bella doubts her senses, vacillates between possible explanations for Edward's behavior, and creates elaborate fantasies (that she knows she will never act upon) about confronting him and telling him off. Story-Bella, in other words, does not seem to really accept that Edward is a threat to her. A jerk, yes; annoying, yes; but not a threat. Story-Bella is therefore perfectly placed for a "Meet Cute" twist: when it comes out that this was All A Misunderstanding, then Edward's annoying behavior will now be endearing in retrospect.

The problem with this is that it just doesn't fit what we know about Bella's characterization. Meta-Bella, that is the Bella-that-Bella-must-be-in-order-for-her-backstory-to-make-any-sense must recognize the threat that Edward represents. Bella may be a shy, pretty, clumsy young woman without a lick of common sense, but she's a young woman that has lived her life in The Big City and has spent the entire bulk of that life as the sole caretaker for herself and her pretty single mother, Renee. I cannot believe that Bella would not recognize the potential threat embodied in a big, burly, angry man any more than I can believe that Bella would not have the ability and comfort-level necessary to inform the school officials and/or her Chief of Police father after a lifetime of navigating the adult world as her mother's caretaker. At the very least, I cannot imagine that she wouldn't even consider the possibility of doing so, rather than retreating into comforting fantasies of verbally confronting this dangerous man.

For these reasons, I believe that this chapter is a solid case of plot-driving-the-characters rather than characterization-driving-the-plot. If Meta-Bella were allowed to unfold naturally then quite a few people would end up looking very bad -- ultimately, the school officials and Charlie would have to dismiss her concerns as irrelevant in order for Edward to plausibly escape detection. Even then, the damage would be done to the story, since even the slightest hint of investigation or suspicion should send the Cullens immediately packing. But even if the narrative were somehow to skate around all that, you still couldn't have a romance story at the end of it because Bella wouldn't be wrong about Edward. A "Meet Cute" requires the misunderstanding person to be corrected, and there would be no possible correction here because the very thing that Bella was objecting to -- I don't want Edward around me because he is a murderer -- would be true.

Therefore, we're given this clumsy overlay of Story-Bella, despite the fact that her childish demeanor and unwillingness to recognize and report danger flies in the face of all Bella's characterization thus far. From an authorial perspective, by having Bella keep The Biology Class Incident to herself, Charlie is allowed to continue being a doting-if-distant father, the Cullens are allowed to stay above suspicion within the cloudy town of Forks, and most importantly of all the "Meet Cute" misunderstanding is salvaged because now Bella can object to something -- I don't want Edward around me because he is an unfair jerk -- that is completely wrong.

That is how you sacrifice a character in order to save a story. And all you had to do as an author was create a character so loosely characterized and thoroughly fractured that every possible interpretation of her motives inadvertantly becomes simultaneously true.

38 comments:

Carrie said...

Boo, Meyer, boo. 

Nathaniel said...

I must admit, I find your position of sympathizing with Bella hard to understand.

The constant stream of catty, snide head comments Bella made about others got so bad I started tallying them. About 100 pages in, it was something like 45-3 neg-pos thoughts towards non-sparklies. I just found her fucking poisonous.

Ana Mardoll said...

@a519d0def3fdb34717f53af0e39f519c:disqus Well, keep in mind we're only on page 24 of the deconstruction. ;)

I tend to find most people sympathetic by default, though, just because my personality rather obsessively tries to see things from "their point of view". I even feel a little sorry for Charlie while being privately convinced that he's a terrible father. :)

For the record, the character I feel the least sympathetic towards in this series so far is Edward. But we'll get to that later, I suppose. ;)

BrokenBell said...

Bella hasn't fallen in love with Edward yet. She isn't even mildly infatuated. She's noticed how pretty he is from a distance, but the full extent of their interaction so far has been Bella feeling completely miserable as a direct result of Edward's unbridled hostility. She's just spent the night thinking about how much of a jerk he is. This was her first day in a new town, a new school, just trying to figure everything out. This is a really stressful and tiring situation at the best of times, but then this crapsack stranger goes out of his way to treat her like a plague rat, and ends up almost driving her to tears.

So WHY, for the love of god, is her day made worse by Angry Eddie taking the day off? This is GREAT news. Instead of constantly having to worry about some deranged sociopath with a grudge making her life hell when it's barely her second day of school, she can RELAX a little, and get on with the business of actually getting used to her new surroundings. Sure, it's a bit of an anticlimax after spending the night thinking of what she wants to say to him, and psyching herself up for a confrontation, but it would be such a weight off her shoulders! Screw the weather, not having to deal with this guy makes the day awesome!

I don't understand how this is supposed to make sense, in-universe or out. Did Meyer just forget that she hadn't established any kind of relationship between them, yet? Did it just slip her mind that Bella hadn't even expressed much interest in the guy up to that point? What? I'm baffled. I don't... I don't understand this line at all.

Ana Mardoll said...

So WHY, for the love of god, is her day made worse by Angry Eddie taking the day off?

This is probably my fault -- I didn't quote enough of the surrounding text. (Such a fine line between cherry-picking good quotes and just COPY PASTING THE ENTIRE BOOK.)

I think, in context, the implication is that she's dreading another encounter and would just like to get it over with one way or another -- either he'll show up and be rude again, in which case she'll have to somehow deal with the situation, or he'll show up and be inoffensive, in which case his hostility yesterday was really just acid reflux. I read it as her wanting him to show up and confirm or refute the incident, just so she can get it over with and go on with her life. ("Case closed, he's a jerk." Or, alternately, "Case closed, it wasn't about me after all.")

By having him not show up at all, then (a) the whole incident is left kind of hanging and she still doesn't know to what extent Edward Cullen intends to threaten her further, and (b) the mystery becomes even deeper/weirder.

Of course, since it's all very vague and contradictory, multiple interpretations are probably correct.

Ana Mardoll said...

Ah, here we go. Cherry picked, but without the surrounding text:

1. And it was worse because Edward Cullen wasn’t in school at all.2. All morning I was dreading lunch, fearing his bizarre glares.3. I was terribly uncomfortable, waiting nervously for the moment he would arrive.
4. I hoped that he would simply ignore me when he came, and prove my suspicions false.5. He didn’t come, and as time passed I grew more and more tense.6. I walked to Biology with more confidence when, by the end of lunch, he still hadn’t showed.
7. I held my breath at the door, but Edward Cullen wasn’t there, either. I exhaled and went to my seat.
8. I was relieved that I had the desk to myself, that Edward was absent.

So, actually, in context, it sounds like your interpretation is more correct: that she IS relieved that Angry Eddie isn't there. The extra flavor text afterwards (about her having all these nagging feelings that Something Is Not Right Here) is what I'm using to support my interpretation that the day was "worse" because it's all just so mysterious and she wanted to get this over with and explained so she could go on with life.

Or, as you say, it could just be a Bad Writing "brain blip" on Meyer's part.

Matt Smyczynski said...

Your Lemoney Snicket quote reminded me of a scene in one of the Dirk Gently novels (Douglas Adams). Dirk Gently is in a restaurant for some reason, and he just takes a woman's coffee. The idea is that her reaction would be something like, "I can't believe he would do such a thing!", therefore, she wouldn't believe it happened. 

Silver Adept said...

There may be another reason why Bella doesn't discuss The Biology Incident with Charlie - it might be setting up her characterization as someone who flings themselves headlong into dangerous situations without thinking them completely through. Despite the alarm bells that should be going off in her head about Angry Eddie, the fact that she doesn't tell anyone, not even in an offhand comment, about it either indicates she's so terrified she doesn't think it will work...

...or she's so confident she can resolve the situation that she feels she doesn't need any help. She'll tell him off and he'll run away with his tail between his legs. After all, she's Big-City-Isabella, and she needs to make a name for herself that will both plant her firmly in the popular class and scare off any more of those chess-club types that might drag her down the ladder. She'll project the image of the Ice Queen, make a little scene, and all will be well.

It's quite possible that, having had to raise Renee and herself, and now realizing that she's going to have the same role with the parent she actively dislikes, the manipulative skills that Bella has honed to a knife's-edge before coming to Forks will come right up to the top and spill out - at home, Renee might have been able to check her worst tendencies, because, well, she liked Renee. Out here, though, she could possibly get away with most things short of murder. Her dad's chief of police, and so long as she keeps up the appearances of dutiful little daughter, she can do whatever she wants.

Brrr. This is becoming less and less of a love story with a sparkly boy and more a tale of how Isabella manipulated everyone around her into getting exactly what she wanted - beauty, immortality, and power. Dark Territory indeed.

Ana Mardoll said...

Matt Smyczynski I love that scene! Although for Dirk, it backfires because the woman DOES believe he did it and sticks him with the bill. 'Course, he gets a vital clue from the conversation that ensues...

Silver Adept I would totally read Manipulative Libby Bella story where she gets away with murder via her Chief of Police connections. Heck, they should turn Charlie, or at least bring him in as a front man. I DEMAND THIS FANFIC BE WRITTEN. :)

Gela said...

Are we allowed to post alternate scenes a la the Slacktivist deconstructions?  If so, here's my submission for consideration:


When Bella got home from school that
afternoon, the house was quiet. Charlie would still be at the police
station for a couple of hours yet, which gave her plenty of time to
start on her homework before dinner... if only she felt like she
could concentrate on homework.




She made an attempt at calculus; but as
she sat at her desk with pencil in hand, her gaze drifted far beyond
the textbook in front of her. All she could see was the disgusted
expression on the face of her biology partner and the burning
contempt in his eyes. Edward Cullen didn't even know her, had never
met her before that moment, and already she had been judged and found
more worthless than the night crawlers they were scheduled to dissect
next week.




It was all of Bella's worst fears about
starting at the new school personified in one angry, disdainful
classmate. What could she possibly do to make the situation any
better – apologize to him? For what? She couldn't figure out what
she might have done wrong. Ask for a new partner? The teacher
hadn't seemed to notice any of Edward's behavior. Maybe this was
normal for him. If it wasn't, surely their teacher would have
stepped in, wouldn't he? Maybe Edward had personal space issues and
didn't like sharing a desk. Maybe he had a chemical sensitivity to
her lotion. Maybe -





It wasn't doing any good to wonder what
she'd done. Maybe she hadn't done anything; maybe Edward Cullen was
the one with the problem. No one else in the classroom had even
blinked at his expression. Maybe she was misinterpreting it. Maybe
she was only imagining the whole thing.




Bella laid the pencil down and propped
her cheek on her hand, wondering whether she should mention it to
Charlie when he got home. Being the daughter of the police chief
should count for something, shouldn't it? He would do something to
make sure she was safe.... But the Cullen family seemed to be so
well-respected, and might be able to cause problems for him if they
objected to his inquiries. Forks was such a small town, and the one
thing Bella knew about small towns was that there was always someone
with enough clout that you never wanted to cross them. Until she
knew more about Forks politics, and how well-connected the Cullens
were, she shouldn't go making waves.




It was more likely that she was
over-reacting to the stress of the move and the new school.




She picked up the pencil again and
forced herself to concentrate on polynomials. By the time she heard
Charlie opening the front door and calling to her, she was able to
report with a straight face that her first day at school had been
just fine.

Silver Adept said...

I'm afraid my talents generally seem to be in inspiring other options. Plus, I don't think I have the time to do such ideas proper justice. My life interferes too much to be writing.

Ana Mardoll said...

@23e0239d9ef2d52733e4d2c22ef9d0fa That was incredible. A perfect way to flesh out characterization and to really fill out the character: she has her own doubts, she's concerned about her father getting into trouble with the potentially troublesome Cullens, and it works in the fact -- never really dealt with in Meyer's text -- that no one else responded to Edward's behavior. Instead of it being a plothole, it becomes part of the plot by fueling Bella's doubts. Perfect!

Emmy said...

My favorite Twlight rewrite with a dark, manipulative Bella: The peaceable kingdom.

Chelsea said...

The thing I find upsetting is Bella totally  ignoring her her completely correct instincts. The mask that Edward wears has slipped, and Bella has seen what he really is. He is unstable, he seems to want to hurt her very badly, and no one else seems to think this is worth worrying about. This is a situation real women find themselves in all too often, and Bella just dismisses it all. It squicks me out.

Kit Whitfield said...

 This is a situation real women find themselves in all too often, and Bella just dismisses it all. 

One could argue that it's naturalistic: girls do often dismiss the warning signs, or misinterpret them as romantic - and the less experienced the girl, the more likely she is to do it. Sometimes they appeal to the rescue fantasy, which is something that appeals to both boys and girls - and indeed, sometimes people with emotional issues do get better if they're in a relationship with someone who both supports and stands up to them. 

On the other hand, if you think that's a romantic beginning to a relationship ... okay, honey, remember your boundaries, hang onto your self-esteem, and brace yourself. 

Gela said...

Glad you liked it.  :-)  Sorry about the formatting; it looked right when I pasted it into the comment box!  ^_^;;

Priscilla Parkman said...

I think I'm with Jarred.  When I had doubts about problems at school, my parents didn't understand them, so I tried not to talk about them.  When I think of Bella taking care of her mother, I imagine a kid who can pick up the house and do the laundry and cook dinner and keep up with the schedule, but hardly ever sees the outside world, so she's not equipped to judge what a stranger glaring at her means, and her insecurity about her own inexperience would keep her from wanting to make a scene and look foolish.  

It's weird to me, because I can see being a person where this book would make PERFECT sense to me (I can see her now!  Say "hi," 13-year-old me!  Oh, 13-year-old me is now avoiding my gaze and putting her hand on her neck.  This isn't working....), and that person is insecure with codependent tendencies and romantic notions... and I'm not sure that I want this book reinforcing that as a completely reasonable way to go through life.  So, I like it, and I hate it.

JarredH said...

I'd also suggest that if Bella was realling doing everything to take care of her mother and herself, Bella also lived a childhood in which required her to be constantly vigilant because just one missed thing on her part could mean everything spinning out of control.  Imagine Bella's end of a phone conversation with someone from the electric company...

"Hello?......No, this is her daughter, Bella.  Who is this?......... oh, you're calling because you haven't received our payment yet.  Yeah, sorry about that, I hope to get it out to you in a couple weeks......Yes sir, I pay all the bills......Only ten sir.....Well, sir, my mom isn't too good at paying the bills, so I end up doing it.....yes sir, thank you....

"Why are we late....well, you see sir, my mother went on a shopping spree a couple weeks ago, and I just didn't have any money to send you....Yes sir, I know I just got caught up a couple months ago....Yes sir, we were late for the same reason......Well sir, I try to stop her, but it's so hard.  She goes shopping while I'm in school.....I'm just thankful she doesn't have a credit card right now, sir....She ran up $2000 on the last one before I found it and cut it up......

"Yes sir, I'll try to get out a payment to you as soon as possible......Thank you for being understanding and not turning off our electric, sir.....You have a good day too, sir..."

Granted, I'm assuming some things about Renee here, but I don't think it's an entirely unreasonable assumption that there are reasons Renee needed Bella to take  care of everything or that she did things that made that process difficult at times.

cjmr said...

Actually, it was a packet of biscuits that was on the table between Dirk and the anonymous other person--they alternated eating the biscuits and Dirk couldn't believe she was eating HIS biscuits, but when he stood up to leave, it turned out HE'D been eating HERS, because his were there under his newspaper.

(Clearly I've read those books far too many times...)

Matt Smyczynski said...

Clearly I have not read them enough! (once, ~13 years ago)

BrokenBell said...

I can understand someone preparing themselves for a confrontation, and being disappointed that it didn't happen because they just want it to be over and done with, and I'm much happier if Bella is actually written as being somewhat relieved that she can attend her class without having to deal with Angry Eddie. It just struck me as... Premature, maybe, to declare that the day is made worse by his absence. I mean, second day of school, whole new environment, etc. She has so much more on her plate right now, no matter how much she might want to rip off the band-aid, it would be far easier to deal with him after having had just one more day to get her bearings, acclimatise to the new culture, try and gain a few more allies... Maybe it's less a case of "Nobody would possibly feel like this" than it is "Come on, Bella, look at it this way", I guess. I don't know. It doesn't sit right.

Nora said...

I believe that actually happened to Douglas Adams (he taking the Dirk role); at least, that's the way he reported it in an essay in The Salmon of Doubt.

BrokenBell said...

Oh, jeez. That whole thing is just heartbreaking. I'd love to own a book about ten-year-old Bella trying her best to take care of her mother, the household, and her schoolwork all at the same time, but I don't know if I'd be able to cope with actually reading it. Well, unless it was also written by Meyer, in which case I don't know if I'd be able to cope with reading it for a whole different reason.

cjmr said...

Salmon of Doubt is the only DA I've never read.  It certainly seems plausible to have happened to him based on other things he wrote auto-biographically.  Last Chance to See comes to mind.

Ana Mardoll said...

No, Matt is right, it was coffee:

A few seconds later the waiter returned bearing a herb
omelette and a single breadstick. Dirk explained that this
wasn't what he had ordered. The waiter shrugged and said that
it wasn't his fault.

Dirk had no idea what to say to this, and said so. He was
still having a great deal of difficulty speaking. The waiter
asked Dirk if he knew that he had broken his nose and Dirk said
that yedth, dthagg you berry budge, he did. The waiter said
that his friend Neil had once broken his nose and Dirk said
that he hobed it hurd like hell, which seemed to draw the
conversation to a close. The waiter took the omelette and left,
vowing never to return.

When the girl sitting at the next table looked away for a
moment, Dirk leaned over and took her coffee. He knew that he
was perfectly safe doing this because she would simply not be
able to believe that this had happened. He sat sipping at the
lukewarm cup and casting his mind back over the day.

Chelsea said...

One could argue that it's naturalistic: girls do often dismiss the warning signs, or misinterpret them as romantic

Oh no, it definitely happens. It's just really disturbing to read about it as the beginning of an ~epic romance of true love~. I guess part of the problem is that it feels too realistic, if that makes sense? Extremely unstable guy who is attracted to a girl and loathes her because of that, scared girl who tries to tell herself that maybe that's just how he is, maybe he just likes her and doesn't know how to express it, etc. This situation happens all the time in real life, but it rarely ends happily. It's just frustrating to have yet another YA book preaching the dangerous myth about "bad boys", especially one as popular as Twilight has become.

Gela said...

I think I remember the story about the biscuits being something Arthur Dent was telling to someone in "So Long and Thanks for all the Fish" - the same girl he learned to fly with, wasn't it?

cjmr said...

Now that I think about it again--yes, that is Arthur relating the story to Fenchurch, not Dent relating the story to anyone...

cjmr said...

I do not remember that.  Maybe because every time I read LDTT I go back to the mental state I was in the first time I read it--off my head with fever from the having the flu the week after finals...

Ana Mardoll said...

 @23e0239d9ef2d52733e4d2c22ef9d0fa No problems! I fixed the carriage returns. I've noticed lately that Disqus does that in some browsers. (I think Google Chrome is the least error-prone for Disqus. Odd, that.) Easiest way to fix it is to create an account so that you can Edit your post; next easiest is to ask me to fix it and I will. :)

Gelliebean said...

Thanks for fixing it!  I signed up for an account, but my name was already taken....  :-/  So this'll be me from now on.  :-)

Pamela Merritt said...

As a teenager, the last thing I would do with a problem is go to the authorities, including my parents. Sore experience would have taught me this only makes things worse. So I can see Bella, for a number of reasons, handling this herself, as her experience would have taught her.But a wonderful authorial opportunity was missed in that none of this is explained or even alluded to. A besieged personality with zero support is exactly the kind of adolescent who makes rotten decisions, trusts the wrong people, and falls for the most transparent cons. It would have added wonderful dimensions to the story.But what we get is something Barely Written. I bailed on the book at this point; I don't mind thinking, but I do mind working so damn hard to figure out what's going on.

Marc Mielke said...

Was that not in 'Mostly Harmless'? I seem to recall an identical scene involving Arthur Dent. (Never read the Dirk Gently series.)

Consumer Unit 5012 said...

The "Eating someone else's biscuits" scene is actually an old, old urban legend/joke.

Phil_Malthus said...

(Very late to this party but ...) " Bella-that-Bella-must-be-in-order-for-her-backstory-to-make-any-sense" seems to be an enormous leap on your part. You assume that Bella must have been the one to take care of her mother and be the responsible parent, but I didnt see any particular justification for that, and my first thought was that the mother would have had a steady string of not-particularly-reliable boyfriends doing the billpaying and insurance and whatnot (indifferently or ineptly, no doubt). Possibly that just reflects my history with some of my flakier friends, however.

Ana Mardoll said...

There are many hints within the book -- Bella knows where Renee's dry-cleaning is (but Phil and Renee don't), Bella frets that with her gone the bills won't get paid (with no thought that Phil is already handling that aspect), Bella did all the grocery shopping for Renee which, when you're living on a kindergarten teacher's salary, pretty much *has* to be done by the budget maker -- but I'll refer for the money quotes to the always convenient Twilight Official Illustrated Guide:

As Bella got older, she began to assume many of the adult responsibilities in the home, simply because she was better suited to them than Renée was. When she took over the bookkeeping at age ten, it made both of their lives much easier. [...] Renée missed Charlie, but always thought of him as a childish infatuation. She recognized that she was not well suited for serious relationships, and she did her best to keep herself from becoming entangled romantically, worried about the impact such a relationship would have on Bella. When Bella was in her teens, she encouraged Renée to date more, sensing that her mother was a little lonely.

~ RENÉE HIGGINBOTHAM DWYER

Ana Mardoll said...

There are many hints within the book -- Bella knows where Renee's dry-cleaning is (but Phil and Renee don't), Bella frets that with her gone the bills won't get paid (with no thought that Phil is already handling that aspect), Bella did all the grocery shopping for Renee which, when you're living on a kindergarten teacher's salary, pretty much *has* to be done by the budget maker -- but I'll refer for the money quotes to the always convenient Twilight Official Illustrated Guide:

As Bella got older, she began to assume many of the adult responsibilities in the home, simply because she was better suited to them than Renée was. When she took over the bookkeeping at age ten, it made both of their lives much easier. [...] Renée missed Charlie, but always thought of him as a childish infatuation. She recognized that she was not well suited for serious relationships, and she did her best to keep herself from becoming entangled romantically, worried about the impact such a relationship would have on Bella. When Bella was in her teens, she encouraged Renée to date more, sensing that her mother was a little lonely.

~ RENÉE HIGGINBOTHAM DWYER

JarredH said...

Bella may be a shy, pretty, clumsy young woman without a lick of common
sense, but she's a young woman that has lived her life in The Big City
and has spent the entire bulk of that life as the sole caretaker for
herself and her pretty single mother, Renee. I cannot believe that Bella
would not recognize the potential threat embodied in a big, burly,
angry man any more than I can believe that Bella would not have the ability and comfort-level
necessary to inform the school officials and/or her Chief of Police
father after a lifetime of navigating the adult world as her mother's
caretaker.

Actually, I disagree.  I would argue that Meyers' portrayal of and backstory for Bella make a good case for a Bella who has become codependent due to her mother's need for constant care.   While excellent care-takers, codependent people all too often refuse to trust their own judgment and are all too willing to make excuses for other people's behavior.  It would also further explain the fantasies about confronting Edward.

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