Twilight: In Which I Am Extremely Lost

Twilight Recap: Bella is googling for information on 'vampires'.

Twilight, Chapter 7: Nightmare

I have a confession to make: There comes a point at which I find myself rapidly losing hold of the plot of this novel. And that point is here.

I spent a good portion of the week creating a Twilight entry for the blog deconstruction index. We're seven chapters into this book and -- had I not already seen the movies and lived through all the hype -- I would have no idea what this book is about. I'm going purely off of memory here, but I'm pretty sure this has been the outline of the book so far:

  1. Chapter 1, Bella moves to a rainy town she hates and meets a very handsome boy. 
  2. Chapter 2, Bella has a conversation with the very handsome boy.
  3. Chapter 3, Bella is saved by the boy via supernatural means. The boy becomes hostile.
  4. Chapter 4, Bella is asked to the school dance by all boys except the handsome boy. 
  5. Chapter 5, Bella nearly faints from blood typing and the handsome boy carries her. 
  6. Chapter 6, Bella is told by a young boy that the handsome boy is a vampire. 
  7. Chapter 7, Bella decides to research vampires online.

This seems like such a long, torturous drawing out of the narrative. Is it just me? Is it just because I've spent a year on these seven chapters? I just do not see any real tension here. Yes, the handsome boy acts changeable and capricious in dealings with Bella, but there's just not enough hook here for me -- they're not lost in love except insomuch as the text asserts that they are, and I frankly find the handsome boy painfully bland when he's not being an arrogant, abusive snot-head. WHERE IS MY TENSION?

I put it to you in the comments: Does Twilight break the Serial Monogamy rule?

Serial Monogamy
Some authors cannot bear suspense. As soon as the protagonist has a problem, the author rushes in officiously to solve it. [...] These novels seem to be based on a to-do list of plot complications [...]

If a problem is worth creating, it’s worth hanging on to long enough to make the reader care. Most are worth hanging on to until the very end, when all loose ends are cunningly tied together in a rousing climax.

~ How Not to Write a Novel

I'm not sure, partly because I've never been entirely sure as to what Twilight is about. If the story is about girl meeting boy, then it's a story story with a long denouement, to say the least. If the story is about a human and a vampire making a relationship work, then it's a muddled message since Bella wants to be vampire'd from the get-go. If it's a story about boy and girl overcoming odds to be together, then the conflict is dull since the major obstacle is Edward's scruples about virginity and vampirism. Maybe this is why I desperately want the story to be about an Otherkin girl getting the body and future that she's always secretly wanted, since at least then we'd have a basic "Want --> Conflict --> Attain" progression to work with.

But then I'm stuck floundering in Chapter 7 with no idea what's going on or why I should care.

Why is Bella googling vampires? What is her motivation in this scene? Is she doing this because she thinks the Cullens might be vampires and she wants to check to see? Is she doing this because she believed the Cullens are vampires and she wants to research what more that might mean? Maybe it doesn't matter, but I'd like something to hang my hat on when approaching this scene: What motivates Bella?

   Only three entries really caught my attention: the Romanian Varacolaci, a powerful undead being who could appear as a beautiful, pale-skinned human, the Slovak Nelapsi, a creature so strong and fast it could massacre an entire village in the single hour after midnight, and one other, the Stregoni benefici. [...]
   Stregoni benefici: An Italian vampire, said to be on the side of goodness, and a mortal enemy of all evil vampires.
   It was a relief, that one small entry, the one myth among hundreds that claimed the existence of good vampires.

I can see where that would be a relief since Bella thinks the guy she's crushing on is a vampire. It'd be nice to know that there's a Good Vampire option. And yet...

One of the things that bugs me so much about Bella is that she treats the condition of "vampire" as a flat stereotype. (Particularly frustrating because apparently she knows very little about vampires, so she's both ignorant of vampire mythology and well-versed in vampire stereotypes. Great combination!) One of the first things she will ask Edward on the subject of his diet will be: "Tell me why you hunt animals instead of people." I sort of want to shake her a little, to ask, "Well, Bella, why do you eat animals instead of people? Did you ever think about that? Did you ever think that maybe someone who is a person might not want to murder other people in order to survive?"

Bella is relieved here that there is a category of Good Vampires, and... I guess that kind of makes sense if we're going with the world-building rules where vampires are soulless minions of darkness who can't control their actions or their urges. But if we give vampires minds and free will and agency -- which Edward Cullen, vampire or not, has already amply demonstrated -- then Good/Bad categories no longer apply. Vampires become essentially no different than people, only with different dietary needs.

For the record, I cannot think that "Stregoni benefici" are actually relevant to the Cullens. All the Cullens are English or American, not Italian, and none of them fight evil vampires. This is a major point: the Cullens live quietly under the dominion of the evil vampires and generally do not make waves, but they are not active enemies against evil. More on that later.

   Speed, strength, beauty, pale skin, eyes that shift color; and then Jacob's criteria: blood drinkers, enemies of the werewolf, cold-skinned, and immortal. There were very few myths that matched even one factor.

The Vampires A-Z site actually does exist, though whether S. Meyer ever consulted it is anyone's guess. However, I would like to posit that if an encyclopedia vampire site has vampire entries that do not contain speed nor strength nor allure nor blood drinking nor undeath nor immortality, then possibly the entry in question belongs on some other mythology site.

   And then another problem, one that I'd remembered from the small number of scary movies that I'd seen and was backed up by today's reading -- vampires couldn't come out in the daytime, the sun would burn them to a cinder. They slept in coffins all day and came out only at night.

Vampires A-Z does not list Dracula. Bella, who loves old literature and enjoys re-reading Regency novels in her spare time, has never read "Dracula" nor seen a Dracula movie. I CANNOT GET PAST THIS. The rest of the deconstruction series, for the next ten years, will be me questioning how this can be. Did S. Meyer not know about Dracula when she wrote this book? Did she just write that knowledge out of Bella's head so as to heighten the tension and character consistency be damned? I need to know the answer to this.

   Aggravated, I snapped off the computer's main power switch, not waiting to shut things down properly. Through my irritation, I felt overwhelming embarrassment. It was all so stupid. I was sitting in my room, researching vampires. What was wrong with me? I decided that most of the blame belonged on the doorstep of the town of Forks -- and the entire sodden Olympic Peninsula, for that matter.

Why not blame Edward?

I mean, he's the one who's been hot-and-cold on Bella so many times and with such quick shifts of mood that it's enough to make her head spin. He's the one who can run faster than a speeding bullet and block rampaging vans with his hands without sustaining even a scratch. He's the one who promised Bella a reasonable explanation and then refused to give it to her once her leverage -- causing a scene right there at the accident location -- was gone.

I know that this scene is meant to try to provide us with perspective: Bella has gotten way too wrapped up in this mystery, she's taking Jacob's stories and the oddities of Edward's behavior too far, the climate and the strangeness of the town are getting to her. If this tone were sustained for any length of time, I think it could make for an interesting novel. I know that I myself have had strange thoughts about the world around me; not so much "Is Bob a vampire?" but more "What if this were the Truman Show and how would I know?" or "If there were aliens kidnapping me nightly for study like in that one Star Trek episode, would it adequately explain why I feel so tired after a 9-hour night's sleep?"

So I think I would totally love "Twilight as told by a Bella feeling like she's spiraling into a ridiculous day-dream except that it would explain so much..." but YOU DO NOT GET THIS THING. No tension for you!

   I had to get out of the house, but there was nowhere I wanted to go that didn't involve a three-day drive. I pulled on my boots anyway, unclear where I was headed, and went downstairs. I shrugged into my raincoat without checking the weather and stomped out the door. [...]
   There was a thin ribbon of a trail that led through the forest here, or I wouldn't risk wandering on my own like this. My sense of direction was hopeless; I could get lost in much less helpful surroundings. [...] I only vaguely knew the names of the trees around me, and all I knew was due to Charlie pointing them out to me from the cruiser window in earlier days.

This is your weekly reminder that it's okay to write a character who doesn't know much of anything about sports, nature, computers, internet, cars, clothes, fashion, modern culture, or any other hobbies or interests you can think of. However, if you write a character who doesn't know much of anything about all of those things, they are going to be very, very bland. And if you write this character as a woman and have her say things like "I guess my brain will never work right. At least I'm pretty," then mean-spirited people like me are going to quote your writing out of context in order to point at it and leap up and down and TALK IN ALL CAPS about it.

Fair warning.

Now having said that, and because I am desperately bored with this chapter, I would like to suggest that in comments we have a nice open thread about good character-building hobbies for Bella. I'll start: If Bella enjoyed classic literature, she might realize the Cullens are vampires because they can walk in sunlight! Okay, that was too easy. Here's another one: If Bella enjoyed knitting, she could make all manner of wraps and cover-ups to help keep her warm while snuggling with Edward Cullen. In addition, knitting takes forever (or at least it feels that way to me!) so Bella would be set with a hobby for eternity and the benefits of vampirism means never accidentally hurting yourself with a knitting needle as Bella might otherwise be wont to do.

   I followed the trail as long as my anger at myself pushed me forward. [...] A recently fallen tree -- I knew it was recent because it wasn't entirely carpeted in moss -- rested against the trunk of one of her sisters, creating a sheltered little bench just a few safe feet off the trail. I stepped over the ferns and sat carefully, making sure my jacket was between the damp seat and my clothes wherever they touched, and leaned my hooded head back against the living tree. [...]
   Here in the trees it was much easier to believe the absurdities that embarrassed me indoors. Nothing had changed in this forest for thousands of years, and all the myths and legends of a hundred different lands seemed much more likely in this green haze than they had in my clear-cut bedroom.

Aw, and now I'm sad we didn't bring the Linkin Park CD if we're going to have another spirit journey.

On the one hand, I like this scene. Bella Swan, distraught by the mystery of the Hot Guy, lost in her own forested world, sinking back into the deep forest setting until she's completely one with the scenery. It reminds me of some of my favorite parts of Tolkien -- the Old Forest in particular -- with the evocative use of the color, the scenery, the sounds, the weather. It's in passages like these that I have to shake my head a little at the reminder that S. Meyer can write and write well. Oh, sure, this isn't going to win any Newbery medals, but it's solid stuff that draws me in and puts me intimately in the scene.

On the other hand -- and here is where I remind you all again that I'm a bitter, mean-spirited person -- the loveliness of this scene just serves to highlight how wrong everything around it is. Bella can't simultaneously know nothing about nature and yet flippantly list off tree names. She shouldn't immediately deduce that a tree is newly fallen because No Moss if she has no concept of moss growth rates. She shouldn't be able to pick up on the status of the weather based on water drip rates and bird sound density. If she's going to be a City Girl who is aggressively uninterested in learning about her surroundings and who apparently takes a dim view of scholastic achievement, she should probably not then be able to pull out this stuff when the narrative depends on it.

TL;DR: If you want a first-person narrator with third-person omniscience, you have to set that up carefully or it's going to be jarring to the reader.

Furthermore, the poetry of this scene just doesn't quite gel for me. There's something off about describing a forest as unchanged for thousands of years whilst sitting on a newly fallen tree. Clearly, the forest is not in a state of unchanging stasis; it would be more accurate to say that the forest has endured for thousands of years. It's a little nitpick, but it's a nitpick in a series where the readers still can't agree if 90% of the protagonists -- the vampires -- are capable of any kind of change, and if they are, to what degree. Here is where precision could matter, a piece of foreshadowing dropped as Bella considers that that which is eternal can clearly still change and adapt... as the forest does. As the vampires do. As Bella may.

Subtlety! I wants it.

55 comments:

Sindragosa said...

I'll tell you what Twilight is about, it's about a bored unfulfilled person, who happens to be a terrible writer and also a terrible human being, jotting down her Mary-Sue fantasies and getting paid millions to do so.

JP said...

Ana! How can you say there is no tension or suspense after so much action!

*Aggravated, I snapped off the computer's main power switch, not waiting to shut things down properly. *

Not only does she click through all those pop-up ads, she shuts the computer down angrily. Riveting!

Brin Bellway said...

block rampaging vans with his heads without sustaining even a scratch

I think you mean hands, though hydra!Edward might be interesting.

Susan B. said...

Re: hobbies for Bella

I must say, as a knitter who has in fact sustained a knitting injury in the past (poking my sock needles down with my index finger too frequently and too enthusiastically, until eventually I broke the skin), I might find it helpful to have the impervious marble skin of a vampire. On the other hand, stonelike skin might bring with it a loss of sensitivity which would make knitting much more difficult. On the other other hand, I've just finished some colorful handknit socks and the image of serious, brooding Edward wearing them fills me with giggles.

Actually, if Bella is going to take up a fiber-related hobby, I'd suggest spinning on a drop spindle. It's even more old-fashioned than knitting (so goes well with her interest in classic literature), it's portable, and it's guaranteed to get you strange looks and start conversations if you spin in public! This last part is a distinct advantage, if you consider the following scenario:

Edward and Bella are strolling through the park on what appears to be an ordinary cloudy day. Suddenly, the clouds part and a shaft of light breaks through, beaming down onto Edward's now obviously sparkly skin. Oh no! The Cullens will be exposed, mobs, pitchforks, angry Italian vampires, doom and destruction! But wait! What is that weird girl doing next to him with what looks like a spinning top dangling from a piece of string attached to some fluff in her hand? Much more interesting and stare-worth than the mundane sight of a guy who forgot to wash the glitter off his face after last night's party…

chris the cynic said...

For the record, I cannot think that "Stregoni benefici" are actually relevant to the Cullens.

Two things. First "Stregoni Benefici" is something that existed before Twilight. I have no idea what it is because the only definitely pre-Twilight result I can locate in English is:
In some villages of the region they also say that the benandanti are "stregoni benefici" who fight the witches (Babudri 1925: 12, 112, 324-325). One would not divine from these data the belief -system still in full blossom around the ...
Which is from a 1984 book that I don't have access to called, Shamanism in Eurasia: Part 2. I also get some things that come up in spite of not actually containing the words, and some things that show up as results and could, for all I know, contain the phrase but don't even show a short snippet like the above. For example, The vampire book: the encyclopedia of the undead, I have no idea whether it actually has an entry or it's another false postie like the results around it.

Anyway, this does appear to be a preexisting legend of some kind.

Thing two: according to Meyer Carlise singlehandedly created the legend of the Stregoni Benefici. He went to Italy, and a legend sprung up around him.

-

Nothing had changed in this forest for thousands of years,

Except, you know, the recently fallen tree. That had changed. It was probably a pretty big change for the tree, too. Especially if twas alive when it fell, the loss of it's roots and the removal of its leaves from the sun would cause some pretty massive changes to the tree's entire existence. And if it wasn't alive, well then I bet that the living tree it landed on probably considered the whole "being hit with another tree" thing a change of some sort.

I guess what I'm saying here is that forests are in a constant state of change an nothing in them ever stays the same but, like the way that the waves on the ocean I so recently visited, the change is placed within a larger framework of sameness. No moment in an ocean or a forest is ever without change, but with the exceptions of things like storms and fires and whatnot the changes always seem to leave a sense of sameness intact, and even after the big changes things eventually return to something recognizable as the way things were before, in spite of the the changes.

-

And I'm honestly not sure whether the above was being written as myself or snarky-Bella.

-

There's something off about describing a forest as unchanged for thousands of years whilst sitting on a newly fallen tree.

Crap. Maybe I should read the whole post before writing my response instead of ending up saying things that have already been said.

Fluffy_goddess said...

Subtlety and pacing: two things this book definitely lacks. (Lack? Lacks? Come on, caffeine, kick in already, I need grammar.)

I think I'd rather like this scene if Bella showed signs of being affected by her environment, instead of just observing it as she moves through it. She *could* walk into the forest and find herself instantly soothed by the tremendous age of the trees around her, by the fact that the forest had been the forest for hundreds of years and would still be forest when she left. Or she could wander into the forest and feel overwhelmed and intimidated, and wind up wishing for street signs and concrete. She could see a weird twisty bush and think it looks like a dog, if we want to go with the wolves-in-the-woods theme again.

But as written, she kind of seems to not care. And this is wrong. Your protagonist should care about her surroundings, if she's going to go to the trouble of describing them.

Ana Mardoll said...

Nooooo! You cut off one, two more grow back! AND THEY ARE TWICE AS SMIRKY!

Ana Mardoll said...

I can't un-see this now. o.O

So awesome. :D

Ana Mardoll said...

Heh. I'm glad I'm not the only one who hit that speed-bump while reading. I feel pedantic sometimes. ;)

Ana Mardoll said...

But as written, she kind of seems to not care. And this is wrong. Your protagonist should care about her surroundings, if she's going to go to the trouble of describing them.

YES!

And this is kind of a recurring theme, no? We get description without an effect. What effects we *do* get are largely of the "ooh! ahh! pretty! want!" variety. She kind of feels like a very wide-eyed infant, taking in the surroundings peacefully and only responding to reach out and grab for the shiny sparkly things.

chris the cynic said...

Heh. I'm glad I'm not the only one who hit that speed-bump while reading. I feel pedantic sometimes. ;)

I was feeling the exact same way. I wrote that, then went back to read the rest of the post and was feeling like I was going too far until I got to the part were you pointed out recently fallen tree != unchanging.

Ana Mardoll said...

Pedant high fivez!

I think the biggest reason it bugged me is because it DOES make a difference in the context of the nearby immortal vampire people. Are they unchanging or merely immortal or some strange combination of change/unchange. This matters, dang it.

Amaryllis said...

I tripped over "my clear-cut bedroom," myself. What does that mean?

"My distinctly defined, non-ambiguous bedroom"? Okay, there's a hobby for Bella: interior decoration! She can spend her eternity designing bedrooms that look like bedrooms for vampires, with coffin-shaped beds a la Dracula. (Do Twilight vampires sleep?)

Dressing rooms for vampires-- lots of closets to store the slinky wardrobe accumulated over the centuries, lots of mirrors to reflect all the sparkliness.

Living rooms for vampires-- no, they'd have to be parlors, wouldn't they? "Living" rooms would be awkward!

Kitchens and dining rooms-- non-starters, I suppose, unless maybe cabinets full of crystal glasses and stoneware mugs for drinking preserved blood or blood-substitute in the proper ambiance.

Or does "clear-cut" refer to "removing all the trees at once"? Or in Bella's case, removing all traces of actual personality at once. There's probably not a non-classic book, or individually-chosen picture, or movie poster, or stuffed animal or soft-drink can or anything that Bella actually likes, anywhere in the room.

As for the Stregoni Benefici, I took it for granted that Meyer had invented them, because a "strego/strega" isn't a vampire, it's a witch. (Not that I speak Italian, but I read the "Strega Nona" books to my kid.) But if there are pre-Twilight references, then maybe Meyer came across the phrase somewhere and appropriated it for her own purposes.

Which is not necessarily a bad thing to do: it's her story. It's just that she's, once again, keeping the name and changing the meaning, when it seems to me to be just as easy to invent something that means what you want it to mean. "Freddore benefici" or some such.

chris the cynic said...

*high fives*

It actually seems like it would be a good time to think about what it means to be the same. One one end of the spectrum you've got, "You can never step in the same river twice," on the other hand you have ... uh, "It still is a new car." (Quotations from memory, links to Wikipedia.)

If the forest is still the same forest as it was thousands of years ago in spite of the fact that everything in it is in a constant state of change, then that implies that Bella can be the same person for thousands of years without stagnating. On the other hand if the forest is a different place than it was before the tree fell, then that means that the only way for Bella to stay the same person is to be frozen in time, never changing, never growing, never learning, never progressing, never anythinging.

Bella must answer the Ship of Theseus paradox if she's going to answer the question of what eternal life as a vampire will mean to her, and what better place than in a forest that appears unchanging in spite of unmistakable change (in the form of a fresh fallen tree.)

chris the cynic said...

As for the Stregoni Benefici, I took it for granted that Meyer had invented them, because a "strego/strega" isn't a vampire, it's a witch.

That explains why the only English result I got mentioned witches and not vampires.

Launcifer said...

Are the Stregoni Benefici relevant in any way, or is it just a name Meyer threw at the screen? I'm kind of curious here because I know that I've encountered the term strigoi (which, strictly speaking, aren't vampires - or aren't only vampires) in terms of vampires and, well, I guess I'm now wondering if that was more properly what Meyer was after and she conflated the two or something.

depizan said...

It strikes me that inventing a group of benevolent vampires is both really suspense killing and potentially undermines how impressive it is that there are good vampires. (Though the latter may be why she decided to have Carlisle be the origin of the Stregoni Benefici legend. Even though it makes no sense as Carlisle and co don't actually fight evil vampires.)

It would be far more exciting for Bella to only find evil vampire legends. Oh my gosh! Maybe they're preparing to prey on the school or something! Tension! Or at least it would raise the question more of what are they doing there and what are these camping trips they go on. They're eating Seatlites! Oh noes!

But, no, we can't have that. *sigh*

I'm not sure what Twilight is about, either. In some ways, it reads most like Slice of Life, only with random vampires.

chris the cynic said...

I don't actually know. From the Twilight Lexicon (a fansite):

Q: There really wasn’t a question, but rather a whole conversation about my own thoughts on New Moon. In a nutshell, all she said was that I was wrong, but she did give me one more interesting fact. When Bella looked up vampire information on the Internet, she found a name – Stregoni benefici. I had a speculation about it, which as usual, was wrong.

A: Stregoni benefici–that would be CARLISLE, my dear friend. Yes, he created that myth all by himself.

Which doesn't make sense to me because from the information I've encountered Carlisle wasn't the enemy of the evil vampires, he was hobnobbing with them. His time in Italy was spent on the same side as the vultures/Volturi. Also, though I don't know which book it's from, I've encountered an Edward quote making excuses for them, presumably he got that attitude from Carlisle.

-

It strikes me that inventing a group of benevolent vampires is both really suspense killing and potentially undermines how impressive it is that there are good vampires.

I think it could work. Though the fact that Jacob already told Bella that the Cullens are amoung the good ones is somewhat problematic for how I would see it. If Bella thinks that the Cullens are vampires but isn't sure whether they're good or evil, then that means that she's got a dilemma on her hands.

If they are evil then she should be working to expose them so that people won't die the next time they go out "camping". She should be wondering if Carlisle is using his job at the hospital to pick out the best candidates for midnight snacks. She should be desperately looking for a way to show them for what they are.

If they are good then she should be trying to preserve them. She doesn't want to tip off the evil vampires that, "Hey, your mortal enemies are over here." That would be bad. And what if Carlisle's job at the hospital is so he can access blood without killing people? Exposing them would cut off the Cullen food supply and in the absence of sustenance maybe they'd turn evil and start hunting people.

If things are one way then she should be trying tirelessly to expose them, if things are the other way she should be trying to help them keep their secret. If she chooses wrong, people die.

Redwood Rhiadra said...

Strigoi from the "Laws of the Blood" series by Susan Sizemore, or a different source? (curious about if the term is at all widespread...)

Redwood Rhiadra said...

Like Ana and Chris, I got hung up on the "unchanging forest with newly fallen tree" bit.

I *also* boggled at the "flip the main power switch of the computer" - every computer I've seen since 1995 or thereabouts has had a power button, not a switch, and turning the computer off this way requires *holding down the button for fifteen seconds*. It's far faster to just select the shutdown option from the operating system and walk away. This is deliberate on the part of the manufacturers, because a hard shutdown has a chance to completely destroy the hard disk (from the head touching the surface of the disk).

Brin Bellway said...

I *also* boggled at the "flip the main power switch of the computer" - every computer I've seen since 1995 or thereabouts has had a power button, not a switch, and turning the computer off this way requires *holding down the button for fifteen seconds*.

I imagined it as being a setup similar to our desktop, where the computer is plugged into an extension cord that has an on/off switch. (Crashes are often dealt with by flipping said switch rather than the computer's own button.)

Cupcakedoll said...

*plops down giant book*
*flips pages*
Stregoni Benefici. Yep, from real Italian mythology. A vampire slayer who is zirself a vampire. A person killed by a vampire can return as a stregoni benefici. If vampires all over the world are creating slayers with similar powers, the supernatural ecosystem remains in balance. Alternate explanation: vampires who do penance and are forgiven by the church can remain undead but become good. Book notes that Angel and Spike both fit the criteria as vampires who left the dark side.

Italy seems strong with the powers of good; the other two entries are for the Benandanti, shape-shifting monster hunters and astral-plane warriors, and the Vampiros, a species created separately from Adam and Eve, and thus unfallen and perfect in body and soul.

Disclaimer: this book is highly sensational and tends to regard everything as either a vampire or slayer. Actual mythology may vary somewhat.

Amarie said...

Errr…

May I also add something about the Stregoni Benefici?

Stregoni Benefici is largely an Italian phrase, strictly speaking in terms of language and idioms. Okay…

But Carlisle isn’t Italian. He’s British/English.

And then, as everyone else as already said, he and the rest of the Cullen’s don’t actually stand up to the non-vegetarian vampires. In fact, they kind go out of their way to avoid contact with the other vampires as much as possible. Now, their vegetarian lifestyle may certainly be seen as a rebellion…but unless and until the audience sees them trying to either, 1.) convert other vampires to their cause or 2.) destroy vampires that don’t follow their lifestyle…

…We’re pretty much talking about a *passive* rebellion and fight rather than an *active* one, aren’t we? Meaning that (aside from Edward’s period of eating rapists, problematic elements not withstanding) the books should have differentiated between the Cullen’s simply *not hurting humans* vs. *saving humans from the other vampires that would eat them*. Now, both are certainly commendable, of course. But one takes much, much more effort than the other and could have the potential to be much, much more interesting and tension-inducing.

So now we have a lot of problematic and factual elements with Mrs. Meyer’s use of Stregoni Benefici. First, to me, it kind of feels like…the cultural appropriation again. Just as Jacob says “THE FLOOD”, so Carlisle, an Englishman, uses an Italian term to his own benefit. To add salt to the wound, he’s possibly appropriating that term for the sake of putting on a front that he is the *enemy* of the Volturi, rather than just a passive rebel. In a lot of ways, this kind of paints Carlisle as the one who showcases his lifestyle as little more than propaganda.

But then again, perhaps this is an analogy to Christianity (Carlisle) vs. Catholicism (the Volturi)…?

Rikalous said...

Chess would be a useful hobby for Bella. It's been around long enough to be appropriate for old-fashioned vampirey Bella, and it's a gold mine of symbolism. She can compare the people around her to the various pieces*, or think of her frequent acts of self-sacrifice in terms of things like castling and that wonderful word zugzwang. The fact that a chess game requires two people could lead to her actually interacting with Charlie or her peers, or the way she's more often found solving chess problems from a book or playing the chess game on her computer than seeking out a meatspace game could highlight her disinterest in interacting with most people. She'd also have a different reaction to Chess Club Eric, even if it's just assuming he's a D&D geek instead.

*For instance, she could compare her intended vampirism to a pawn promoting to queen, categorize the fighting Cullens as rooks, knights, and bishops, or realize that when the Cullens are protecting her that they're treating her like the ineffective but vital king.
----
@Redwood Rhiadra: Only place I can remember coming across Strigoi is in the Warhammer game, where they're the semi-feral, ghoul-friendly vampire type.

depizan said...

Ah, I think I was unclear. The information (and I use the word loosely) that Bella digs up makes it sound as though there are types - species? - of vampires. If we know that vampire X is a member of the good species, then, assuming this is a world that works by stereotype (and a world with good and bad species is inherently that) we know that vampire X is good. No suspense. And it seemed as if Meyer was going for that, then realized it wouldn't work. Or something. (I sometimes think she wrote by throwing a whole lot of things into the narrative and only running with some of them. Which isn't necessarily bad, but I don't think it worked out very well in the Twilight saga.)

Just knowing that some vampires are good doesn't really affect the suspense, though it does, if played right, set up exactly what you describe.

Majromax said...

I think she should pick up tabletop RPGs, like D&D. After a few campaigns in, for example, a Ravenloft setting, perhaps she wouldn't be so genre-blind when an NPC gives her clearly Plot Critical Information.

Launcifer said...

Different sources. They're a bestial vampire bloodline in Games Workshop's Warhammer universe, for one. I have seen it referenced in a couple of books though: possibly in Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian and - I think - in one of the books written by my Reformation history lecturer from university.

@Cupcakedoll: So... a stregoni benefici is kind of like a dhampir, if that's the right word for it? A vampire vampire hunter?

Hmmm.

Patrick said...

As for eating animals: why do the cullens not eat hans? Later on, they will host other vampires and have little problem with them hunting humans. They won't act once to save people (aside from Bella and her kin) - so why? Clearly humans taste better and also make vampires stronger than animal blood. Finally, why don't they operate a blood bank? Easy access, no dead people, ...

Silver Adept said...

@Fluffy_goddess -

Lacks. Flip the sentence - "This book ____ things like subtlety and pacing." The lack therefore relates to book, not subtlety and pacing.

On the OP:

I can see how Bella could have not read the text of Dracula, considering how it's not exactly required reading for school, and having to run Renee's life and hers would leave her little time to go to the movies or read books for pleasure (yet she's managed to see several scary movies, apparently), but there's no freaking way that she would not know at least the popular conception of Dracula. So that's probably why she knows about the Dracula-conception - if she didn't, there would be so many popular jokes that she would miss.

So Bella, in her irritation, storms out the door into the forest, where she freely admits that it's easy for her to get lost, where she could have a convenient clumsy episode that would leave her hurt and unable to describe where she is to any rescuer, assuming that this Forks has cell phones and decent reception, or, if we were going for the Darker Sketch idea, where any assailant could capture her or do bad things to her...this is totally the spot where Bella's supposed to realize she's good and truly lost as night falls, or that she heard something that indicates there's somebody there.

Instead, we're treated to a reflection on the unchanging nature of a forest, with a fallen tree providing a bit of a Zen snicker. If Bella were more self-aware, this would be a perfect part for her to say "The Way that can be named is not the Eternal Way.", and then recognizing the fact that she's sitting on a fallen tree trunk, an indication of change. (So we shift from Taoism to Zen Buddhism, but either way, sudden insight, yeh?) Or maybe we delay the recognition until later for Plot Purposes, but it's totally a perfect setup to learn a bit more about Bella.

(Also, Bella? The reason you're researching vampires is because you don't have an explanation for Edward Cullen. Soemone has given you one that on face appears to be plausible. That's why you're researching. Pay attention. That irrational anger? Probably Because Jasper. But you don't know that yet.)

Re: Hobbies for Bella:

Chess, maybe. I see Bella more as a contract bridge (duplicate variety) player. Playing against Edward, Jasper, and Alice. Edward knows what everyone's going to bid, Jasper can change how everyone feels about their bid and cards, and Alice can see how the hand is going to play out at whatever contract or bid things arrive on. (It also leads to a funny scene in my head where Vampire-Bella extends her anti-Vampire field around them and says something to the order of "Now, we're going to play this like civilized people.") Bridge has the advantage of being played indoors, it allows for some socialization, but it also allows Bella to only have to talk as much as she needs to for bidding, and possibly playing, if she's not always the "dummy" hand so that Edward can play things out. Plus, it's a great couples game, so Bella doesn't have to have things like hobbies that are independent of Edward.

Cupcakedoll said...

Yep, a vampire vampire hunter. =)

Don't think it counts as a dhampir though, I think dhampirs are only the result of vamp/human sex. A lot of folklore vampires are more like ghosts, and can visit their families to sleep with their wives and spread the plague to everybody without any non-family-members noticing. (which would explain a widow turning up pregnant...) Dhampirs are supposed to be the result of such unions, and I think they hunted the invisible vampires which they could see by using some trick like looking through a special glass or the sleeve of a shirt. Then they could catch the invisible vampire and leave the town safe from plague.

swanblood said...

"Maybe this is why I desperately want the story to be about an Otherkin girl getting the body and future that she's always secretly wanted, since at least then we'd have a basic "Want --> Conflict --> Attain" progression to work with."

If you would like to read that book by the way, it does exist! It's called To Dream, Perchance to Soar. http://nafina.com/soar/ I would love to know what you think of it.

(Disclaimer: it's my friend's book so I do have a bias here, but it's very well written and it had decent editing too.)

kilowatt said...

Now my brain is conflating Edward with Zaphod Beeblebrox.
Edward's just this guy, you know?

Ana Mardoll said...

Are you THE Edward Cullen?

No, I'm just A Edward Cullen. Didn't you hear we come in six packs?

Ana Mardoll said...

Awesome! I'll check it out.

Ana Mardoll said...

Dad always used to say that bridge was for people who found quantum physics not quite challenging enough, so this would have the added bonus of making Bella and the Cullens seem smart to me.

chris the cynic said...

I can sort of see that:

NARRATOR: Having been through the Total Perspective Vortex, Edward Cullen now knows himself to be the most important being in the entire universe - something he had hitherto only suspected. It is said that his birth was marked by earthquakes, tidal waves, tornados, fire storms, the explosion of three neighbouring stars, and, shortly afterwards, by the issuing of over six and three-quarter million writs for damages from all the major landowners in his galactic sector. However, the only person by whom this is said is Beeblebrox himself. And there are several possible theories to explain this.

Jessica: Bella?
Bella: Yeah?
Jessica: He’s totally mad, isn’t he?
Bella: Well, the border between madness and genius is very narrow.
Jessica: So is the Berlin Wall.
Bella: The Berlin - ?
Jessica: Oh, the Berlin Wall… the border between East and West Germany. It’s very narrow. I mean the point I’m making -
Bella: Was very narrow. Get your tenses right.
Jessica: Thank you.
[Snip]
Bella: Well it could be... Probably not important though. I only bring it up because I’ve been looking out the window, and there’s been a Volturi army outside for the last half hour.
Jessica: What?!
Bella: Where’s Edward?
Jessica: A Volturi army?
Bella: Yeah. Where’s Edward?
Jessica: He… well… he’s in his room signing photographs of himself: “To myself with frank admiration.” But why are the Volturi outside?

(Adapted from episode 9 of the Hitchhiker's radio series.

Darchildre said...

There's also "stregoica" which gets mentioned in Dracula. Jonathan Harker does specifically say that the word means "witch," but it's used in a way that's obviously meant to refer to Dracula. (I could have sworn it was actually "strigoi" there too, but apparently not.)

Beroli said...

This is all the setup phase. The tension starts when the bad vampires show up.

"Create tension by having the main characters treat each other like crap" is a romance novel trope which I'm inclined to consider extremely unfortunate. In Twilight, on the other hand, Edward treats Bella like crap and it mysteriously doesn't create real tension.

chris the cynic said...

I think I meant to say this earlier:

One of the first things she will ask Edward on the subject of his diet will be: "Tell me why you hunt animals instead of people." I sort of want to shake her a little, to ask, "Well, Bella, why do you eat animals instead of people? Did you ever think about that? Did you ever think that maybe someone who is a person might not want to murder other people in order to survive?"

Vampire: You're not afraid of me?
Human: Why would I be?
Vampire: I'm a vampire, aren't you afraid I'll drink your blood?
Human: I'm a meat eater, aren't you afraid I'll devour your flesh?

InquisitiveRaven said...

Chris the Cynic: I think that if you're going to quote from movies, it might be better to link to IMDB than Wikipedia, especially since IMDB has a quotes section in its movie entries, so you might be able to find the quote in question.

Going back to last week's post, maybe Bella has Active Desktop turned on? In one sense, it's not actually pop ups, but I find it just as annoying. If Bella has no idea how to turn it off, then yeah, she's going to spend a lot of time closing unwanted windows. My only encounters with Active Desktop were at the fire company where I used to volunteer. There were three computers available for J. Random crew member to use, and sometimes they'd have Active Desktop turned on. Even with broadband, I found it a performance killer. Also, it would pop up windows even before the browser was launched. I figured out how to turn the blasted thing after my second encounter with it at the latest, but periodically someone would turn it back on. Oh, did I mention that I hate Active Desktop?

Marc Mielke said...

In the White Wolf RPGs, vampires commit 'diablerie' by killing other vampires by drinking their blood. If that's the case, becoming a vampire hunter gives you a steady stream of victims while making you look good at the same time. Win-Win! (well, not for the dry husks left in your wake).

Marie Brennan said...

Coming late to this party, because I was out of town all weekend.

This is all the setup phase. The tension starts when the bad vampires show up.

It's illuminating to notice how the movie changed things from the book. I can't cite it precisely, because it's been a while since I saw the film, and (as I've said before) I only know the book from other people's descriptions, but I know the film-makers did what they could to haul that plotline forward, setting up hints of it earlier in the story, out of a desperate need for SOMETHING resembling a plot.

Maybe it doesn't matter, but I'd like something to hang my hat on when approaching this scene: What motivates Bella?

It does matter, and Ana, it is so very much not just you who thinks the beginning of the novel is inexcusably drawn-out and devoid of Things Happening. By my reckoning, so far there have been precisely two things resembling significant plot points: Edward stopping the truck, and Jacob explaining everything to Bella. I can't even count things like Bella meeting Edward -- even though I normally would -- because nobody does anything, nobody takes any action. Bella just floats along the surface of this sea of vague, near-total apathy, and I'm tearing my hair out at her refusal to protag.

(Yes, that's a verb. At least among my writer-friends it is.)

The main root of "protagonist" is agon, a struggle. Bella has struggled for nothing so far in this book. Yeah, she asked Edward for answers -- but when he refused, she basically gave up. Information comes when Meyer wants her to have it. Friends and suitors flock to her even though she rarely shows them the slightest bit of consideration. The things she can't have, she doesn't fight for. And we don't even have a clear sense of her personality, because too much of what we do get is contradictory. (Cf. the classic-literature thing.)

Personally -- and I add that qualifier because apparently there are millions of readers who disagree -- I don't even think Twilight works as a romance (the genre it most closely resembles). I don't feel passion or attraction from the characters; the volume dial for their emotions appears to have been turned down to 3. The obstacle between them and their Happily Ever After is one-sided and uncompelling. Neither party is risking anything, nor do I really see what they'll gain. Sure, Bella will become a vampire (which has obvious benefits) -- but that doesn't actually have much to do with Edward. She could get Alice to turn her, and have pretty much everything she really seems to want.

It's painfully weak. Purely on a craft level -- let alone the more ideological issues -- its flaws drive me up the wall.

Rikalous said...

One Vampire supplement introduces dampyrs, who appear to be perfectly normal humans, and are usually unaware of their true nature. They kill vampires not by hunting them, but by being effortlessly enticing and possessing blood that triggers nasty psychological effects when the vampire drinks it. In the case of the pretty, Anne-Rice-type vampires, the enticement comes in the form of a whirlwind romance that turns obsessive, and the poison in the blood triggers depression. Sound familiar?

Intersection Victorian said...

A computer I had in 2010, and which is still in use, had a power switch on the back.

JenL said...

I imagined it as being a setup similar to our desktop, where the computer is plugged into an extension cord* that has an on/off switch. (Crashes are often dealt with by flipping said switch rather than the computer's own button.)

*It occurs to me that's probably not the right word. One of those things that plugs into an outlet and has a bunch of outlets at the other end.

I assume you're talking about a power-strip or surge protector (although I don't know that those are the proper names).

But I don't think I'd ever describe the switch on a power strip as being *the computer's* main power switch.

kbeth said...

Bella can't simultaneously know nothing about nature and yet flippantly list off tree names. She shouldn't immediately deduce that a tree is newly fallen because No Moss if she has no concept of moss growth rates. She shouldn't be able to pick up on the status of the weather based on water drip rates and bird sound density. If she's going to be a City Girl who is aggressively uninterested in learning about her surroundings and who apparently takes a dim view of scholastic achievement, she should probably not then be able to pull out this stuff when the narrative depends on it.

I'm only seeing what you quote here, so there's probably more in-text that you find frustrating that I don't know about, but this actually makes some sense to me.

We know that Bella knows tree names because Charlie's told her some of them during the random periods of time they spend together. Given that, I don't find it difficult to imagine that Charlie may also have pointed out a fallen tree at some point and said "See how there's no moss? It must have just fallen," or something along those lines.

But this probably isn't enough knowledge for Bella to consider herself someone who "knows about nature", because that's such an undefined phrase. As a City Girl myself, I too have a vague knowledge of some tree names and the vaguest of concepts about moss growth rates and so on. But if you asked me if I know anything "about nature", I'd probably say no. To me, that phrase denotes having an intimate familiarity with the natural world -- being able to classify most of the plants you see, knowing where animals are likely to hide out, knowing which plants you should and shouldn't touch, knowing about the seasonality of various plants, and so on. Above all, it seems like it refers to the kind of person who's spent enough time in a natural environment that they would know these things, rather than someone who was told them randomly over the course of several car rides. Someone who wouldn't, for example, sit down very carefully in such a way that their coat goes between their clothing and the log at all times (something which, incidentally, I would definitely do if I were walking in a forest and sat on a log. I mean, what if there are ants?! Did I mention I'm a City Girl?). Maybe this is just a totally weird way of interpreting the phrase, or I'm attributing a depth of knowledge to People Who Know About Nature that they don't actually have, but I think that's also part of being a City Girl -- I don't even know what "knowing about nature" *means*.

So, maybe I'm projecting way too much, but when Meyer says Bella knows nothing about nature and yet also has Bella say, "Oh, hmm, that looks like a pear tree" (or something), that doesn't actually ring false to me -- it sounds like Meyer is trying to establish both Bella's actual nature knowledge (very vague and totally dependent on the small things others have told her) and Bella's feelings about that knowledge, as well as her emotional distance from the forest, in one go. But, again, that may just be me.

Lliira said...

There's also the fact that Bella hates herself and claims she's useless and stupid on every page. We know she was in an AP science class, so she does know stuff, and she is competent at something. But if she admitted to herself that she was competent at anything, then she'd have to start expecting things of herself. And if she admitted to anyone else that she was competent at anything, they might start expecting things of her, and maybe not "protect" her all the time.

When Bella says she doesn't know something, or isn't good at something, that's not an assessment that can be trusted.

Gyroninja said...

Oh god hydra!Edward.


Edward stopped me in the hallway on the way to the nurse. All fourteen of his eyes were focused on me. I found myself lost in how beautiful they all were. He smiled at me, and I marveled at his long fangs, perfect like ivory tusks.

"Bella," he said, "There's something important I have to tell you. Maybe we should go outside. I can detect the infrared radiation from too many people around here."

When we left the school building, I was almost blinded by the sunlight reflecting off of his scales. He basked in the sunlight, using the solar energy to supplement his metabolism.

"So what is it you wanted to tell me?"

Edward flicked his forked tongues in the air. "Just a minute? Do you smell something, too?"

He walked away into the woods, and I watched his tail make a path through the fallen lives. He came back moments later holding a rabbit in his foreclaws. He pushed into his largest head, detaching his jaw to swallow it whole. He sat there in hibernation digesting his prey for two whole days.

"Bella," he asked me when he awoke. "Have you notice that me and my family are... different?"

"What do you mean?" I asked. I certainly had questions to ask him, but I'd thought it was still just culture shock from moving into the backwoods. What could possibly be different between Edward and all the other students?

"It's true. Me and my family have been feared, hunted for generations, ever since I hatched from my egg in the swamps of Lerna." He let a soft hiss come from his many heads. "Bella... I'm a hydra."

"No! That's not possible!" I cried. Maybe he was a little bit different from other students, a little bit less hair, a few more heads, but surely he was a human. If you cut him, did he not bleed highly corrosive venom?

"It's true. My whole family are."

Is this what Jacob had been trying to warn me about? Now his stories about the "cold-blooded ones" made much more sense. Or that his tribe was watching for the "many-headed ones". Even the part where he told me that, "basically what I'm trying to say is that the Cullens are hydras you fucking moron". Everything suddenly made sense!

Ana Mardoll said...

This made me giggle FIERCELY. :D

Silver Adept said...

@JenL - I normally call them those - the surge protector is technically a part of the apparatus that breaks the circuit when there's too much current flowing, but it can be used to refer to the whole thing. (As opposed to the Uninterruptable Power Supply).

@kbeth - From personal experience, believe it or not, even when you're trying very hard not to learn something, sometimes you pick it up anyway, and it comes back in handy when you need it. Kind of like how I tried hard not to learn anything about tools and wiring from my father, only to have it all come back to me enough when it came time to change some of the light fixtures in my house. Perhaps Bella is doing the same thing - all those things she didn't care about have returned, unbidden.

@Gyroninja - Giggle-giggle, snort! That's excellent.

Will Wildman said...

Hydra!Edward is already more likeable, having not yet taken any opportunities to belittle Bella or taunt her with his secrets. Also, 'don't make me bleed on you' becomes a legitimate threat. I would read this tale.

Ana Mardoll said...

And he's a woobie! Poor Hydra!Edward, having to go into digestive hibernation every few days! :(

Timothy (TRiG) said...

I'd forgotten that sockets in America don't have switches on them. The British 3-pin socket (standard in the UK, Ireland, and Cyprus) is often equipped with a switch on the actual wall.

Also, computers are often not plugged directly into the wall socket, but into an extension lead which has surge and spike protection built into it, to protect the delicate electronics in the computer from strong fluctuations in the power supply (possibly caused by thunderstorms).

However, I wouldn't describe the switch on the wall socket as "the main power switch of the computer". That switch is surely the switch on the computer itself. If a computer is very slow or is crashing or has a tendency to crash (as Bella's probably does), holding down the switch on the front may be the fastest way to turn it off.

TRiG.

JenL said...

I imagined it as being a setup similar to our desktop, where the computer is plugged into an extension cord* that has an on/off switch. (Crashes are often dealt with by flipping said switch rather than the computer's own button.)

*It occurs to me that's probably not the right word. One of those things that plugs into an outlet and has a bunch of outlets at the other end.

I assume you're talking about a power-strip or surge protector (although I don't know that those are the proper names).

But I don't think I'd ever describe the switch on a power strip as being *the computer's* main power switch.

Timothy (TRiG) said...

I'd forgotten that sockets in America don't have switches on them. The British 3-pin socket (standard in the UK, Ireland, and Cyprus) is often equipped with a switch on the actual wall.

Also, computers are often not plugged directly into the wall socket, but into an extension lead which has surge and spike protection built into it, to protect the delicate electronics in the computer from strong fluctuations in the power supply (possibly caused by thunderstorms).

However, I wouldn't describe the switch on the wall socket as "the main power switch of the computer". That switch is surely the switch on the computer itself. If a computer is very slow or is crashing or has a tendency to crash (as Bella's probably does), holding down the switch on the front may be the fastest way to turn it off.

TRiG.

Post a Comment