D+
Title: Twilight
Author: Stephenie Meyer
Publication Info: Little, Brown Young Readers 2006
ISBN: 0316015849
Genre: Young Adult
To say I was angsty as a teenager is something of a majestic understatement. I was miserable, for a host of reasons. And I had suitably angsty intense relationships with really awful, unsuitable, self absorbed guys who were interested more in screwing with my already ruffled emotions than they were any genuine efforts at being a couple. One particular guy was an absolute waste, and I am horrified that I spent so much time trying to make this fool happy.
Reading Twilight reminds me heavily of my angsty teen self, and how ridiculous it was that I expected rainbows and happiness when, let’s be honest, teenagerdom is pretty fucking miserable all around. It makes me think of a really old, navel gazing Alanis Morissette song wherein she says, “You were plenty self-destructive for my tastes at the time/ I used to say, the more tragic the better.” Yeah. That about sums up my teen years, and this book.
I’m still reading this thing, persevering to the end, trying to figure out what all the fuss is about, why so many people absolutely adore this book to the point that they set up bulletin boards and fan sites and, for God’s sake, whatever you do, don’t search “Bella” or “Twilight” on Etsy or you’ll get so much jewelry with swans and crap you’ll want to set your eyeballs on fire. The Twilight fandom is a serious fandom.
In case, like me, you’ve been under a rock for awhile (how’s your rock? Mine’s awesome!) and haven’t read or heard of this series, here’s the nutshell: klutzy teen Bella Swan moves to exceptionally small gloomy town in the Pacific Northwest to live with her father, who is so absent he might as well not be a parent so much as a chaperone who falls asleep or, in this case, goes fishing a lot. Gloomy, Abercrombie-gorgeous Hottie McVampire Edward is playing at being a high school student with his adopted family, and seems profoundly disturbed by her presence, only to experience equally profound mood swings which allow him to pay extreme attention to her. Commence panting courtship.
I do get the elements that are so sultry and seductive about the plotline: he’s over the moon about her; he can’t stop thinking about her. He’s mysterious, he’s dark and gloomy, he’s like angst and sexy rolled up in a sparkly taco shell. He’s isolated and longing for her, yadda yadda yadda. And I can see why some readers adore the plotline where she reveals him and gains solo entrance into his world, is the only one to make him smile, etc.
But what I don’t get is the degree of isolation that accompanies that entrance. I can’t even explain how uncomfortable their self-imposed alienation makes me feel. The former angsty teenager in my shriveled, echoing heart is all over it, because dude. Hot angst biscuit wants her and only her and after six weeks let’s make declarations of loooooove. He’ll watch over her while she sleeps, he’ll sneak into her home, he’ll insert himself silently into every part of her world. Former Angsty Sarah can see why that’s incredibly seductive, especially when one is feeling lonely and without anyone who truly understands.
Currently Adult Sarah, who is a lot older and one would hope marginally wiser than F.A.S. is majorly squicked out. The imbalance of power between these two characters is significant, and his moodswings don’t help much. He’s annoyed, he’s irritated, he’s blissful! He’s sparkly, he’s angry, he’s irritated again. But what really bothers me is the degree to which Bella subsumes her identity at every turn. She inserts herself into her father’s home by doing the things that will make him happy (cooking, laundry, making herself scarce when he wants to go fishing and is troubled by feelings of potential parental responsibility) with minimal fuss. She inserts herself into Edward’s world by doing the same – the biggest show of spine she has (so far, I’m on page 3,546,775 of 7,532,668) is asking a shit ton of questions, but mostly only with his permission to do so. She’s a mismatched dichotomy of the teen no one notices and the teen everyone notices and it doesn’t fit well on her, nor does it make for an interesting character. Even her name as a reference to her character is klunky: Bella Swan? COME ON NOW AND I MEANT IT.
Meyer’s writing is nothing to hyperventilate over, in my opinion, except for its tendency to hyperventilate in moments of drama. That said, I don’t necessarily see the point in condemning a book and saying no one should read it, it’s awful, omg, alert the vampires that a terrible insult has been laid upon them. Meyer definitely taps into the dark, mysterious tortured hero, one of my personal favorite archetypes, but the degree to which Edward’s intensity is focused on Bella, and the degree to which he shifts in mood and action (he’s here! He’s gone! He’s back! Whee! Do vampires get frequent flyer miles because damn, he gets elite status in, like, a week.) doesn’t seem to level out. And while Edward is a 9.0 on the Richter scale in terms of mood variations, Bella mopes from meh to meh. I’m curious about the movie, simply because the actress playing her is exceptionally talented, and could revive the character to a more vibrant portrayal. The book’s version of Bella and Edward reads to me like pairing lukewarm milk with a Red Savina pepper.
My wishlist for this book is a mile long in terms of things I wished had been a little different, a little better, a little more sparkly, if you’ll pardon the pun, but mostly I wish I could understand what it is about the book that sends so many people over the moon in terms of their adoration and pursuit of more. Either way, if this book makes people sunny and moony at the same time, more happiness to them. Whatever floats your boat. Or sparkles your vampire.
I second this. LOVE that book.
Regardless of whether or not you enjoyed these books—any clue as to why they are so freaking popular? They seem to be somewhat-less-than-average-quality examples of a niche that has many better samples to offer. Why aren’t the same readers going crazy for L.J. Smith, Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, Annette Curtis Klause, Vivian Vande Velde…? These authors all have relationships between teens and hot, brooding vampires, but generally healthier relationships described in better prose. What quality makes Twilight so crack-like?
Oh, good GOD, yes.
Though I’ve never quite forgiven my college for not being Blackstock. 🙂 (Where’s MY Thomas Lane?)
Has anyone mentioned that the first 12 chapters of Midnight Sun have been leaked? The Amazon boards can’t decide if this was done by SM’s publishers to distract interest from the Breaking Dawn backlash or if it was Rob Pattinson because he hated Edward so much. http://www.amazon.com/Sooo-Midnight-Sun/forum/Fx1GAA6GYWX8459/TxKRNTM1LREH6X/1/ref=cm_cd_ef_tft_tp?_encoding=UTF8&asin=031606792X
Sunshine by Robin McKinley is a much better book. Don’t think it was packaged as YA originally, but it really is.
As a publicist in my day job, I’d tend to go with the “distracting from the backlash” theory. Now that the book has been released, what else are you going to do to get more publicity? Rile up the rabid fans of course! Get them talking. Meh. Seriously, as a writer can you imagine what it’s like to have to rewrite an entire book from another characters POV? Sounds hellish to me personally.
Not to appear stupid, but why is there backlash? and does she have to write it again from another character’s POV?
Sasha:
I kind of disagree with that since almost every interview with SMeyer has her waxing romantic about how perfect Edward is and how perfect their love is, blahblahblah. If she was really writing what you think she was writing, you think she might have spelled it out for the dumb – even just in her interviews.
And the whole “I shouldn’t do this, it’s bad” thing in Midnight Sun is totally one of those “Oh, I shouldn’t have another cookie, it’s WRROOOOOOOOONG!” and then does it anyway. And where are the consequences for his actions? He gets his girl anyway. And Midnight Sun is just the first book, it doesn’t justify the next four piles of steaming crap.
Er… that is, Midnight Sun just covers the first book.
It’s funny to see this now-I just did a marathon reading of all the books. They were OK, but nothing special. The second in the series made me want to beat my brains out.
Bella and Edward seem more creepy obsessive than romantic.
Apparently she wanted to rewrite Twilight from Edwards POV. I haven’t read any of the leaked chapters but from what I’ve heard there’s some unintentionally funny moments as Edward tries to figure out how he could kill Bella without giving himself away.
Someone else is going to have to explain the book returning rage that seems to have consumed a number of her former fans.
Thanks, DS. All the SM stuff is new to me. Like I said in an early post, I have an angsty teenager who’s been that way for the past two or three years. I deal with her every day. Somehow, I just can’t bring myself to read about them on top of that. 😛
I don’t think it is either, especially since when I found my copy, it was in the regular scifi/fantasy section, not the YA section.
But yes, that’s another book I liked well enough to reread multiple times.
Forget S. Meyers. The Japanese have it all over her on the wangst. And they do it better. AND SPARKLIER!
Someone mentioned Vampire Knight (and it gets OH SO MUCH BETTER WITH THE INCEST FACTOR YES YES!) and that’s just the proverbial tip of the angst iceberg. The quality of the stories (beyond the first stirrings of self insert) are typically higher and the characters more well rounded. There is always SOMEONE making sure the heroine grows one way or another BEFORE she gets her man. It’s pleasing. In a squealy kind of way.
As for these books. I cannot stand them. I’m fighting them in my classes now and having to explain to girls that boys their age are NOT going to act like that. Nor should they EVER expect them or want them too. It’s an uphill painful battle.
my word is want48 – I want 48 more YA stories that don’t involve relationships and luuuuuuuv but engage and excite the kids and REMIND THEM that being kids is awesome too.
warning, spoilers of plots points within the Twilight Saga contained within this response.
luxdancer
Stephenie Meyer is on record as talking quite a bit about her characters in less than glowing “oh, Edward is perfect” terms. If you read the personal correspondence she wrote to the Twilight lexicon – she is pretty clear about the fact that 1. the Cullens are murderers, 2. they are criminals above and beyond just murder, 3. they are not living a life of repentance, yada yada yada – nor are they interested in this. They have had to move several times over the past hundred years because family members have “oops, killed a human, and the family basically says, ‘try harder next time – we love you’”. It is pretty interesting reading if you have any curiosity about this topic. There are around 15 different long responses that she gave to multiple questions that fans have asked hat give a lot more background about all the characters and why they respond in different ways. Also, quite a bit about moral hazard and the lack of morality to be found within the Cullen clan.
As for the interviews she gives that have been much more mainstream/widely disseminated – well, I think she is actually pretty cagey about how she describes Edward. I think a big part of this is that her publisher chose to publish these books as YA and many of the (teenage) fans do in fact have those “ooh, it is so romantic, Edward is a dreamboat” view . Stephenie Meyer has always said that she did not write this intending it to be a YA novel (or series) and that she wrote what she, 29 at the time she wrote Twilight, wanted to read.
But in the interviews that I have read/watched with her – she states a few things over and over again. 1. She would never choose to be a vampire, 2. She thinks a lot of the choices Bella makes are terrible, but true to the character, 3. She (the author) loves both Jacob and Edward.
I think there is a lot of nuance though to her love that doesn’t play very well in most kinds of conversations. And as I think that Stephenie Meyer is a shrewd business woman as well as a great storyteller – I don’t think she is going to court controversy about the fact that while she loves Edward – he is still a damaged, disturbed individual. It doesn’t seem like that would go over very well, and really doesn’t create a good soundbite. That doesn’t change what she wrote and I am not the only person seeing these themes.
I don’t think that my interpretation of the series is all that hidden in what is actually within the pages. In fact, it is pretty explicit. In Eclipse, Bella and Edward have a whole long conversation about how messed up/disturbing/damaged Wuthering Heights is (with Bella stating that the only redeeming part of that love story in her mind is Heathcliff and Cathy’s love for each other), and then go on later to describe their feelings for one another by quoting sections of the book to each other. In New Moon – Bella talks about their relationship in terms of Romeo and Juliet and wonders to herself what would have happened if Romeo had dumped Juliet and Juliet had ended up married to Paris after all. Would Juliet have been able to create an ok life with Paris? Bella obviously doesn’t have to make that choice because both her ‘suicide’ attempt and Edward’s are foiled and they are given a chance to work through the misunderstanding as opposed to dying.
Truly, I don’t think that an author who (in her works) describes the hero as “a stalker, a peeping tom, a murderer”, the heroine as “selfish, weak, obsessed” doesn’t see her characters as damaged and disturbed. I think one of the powerful aspects of Meyer’s writing is that she clearly loves her characters with these flaws and allows them to have happiness. I also think that the lack of judgement of the morality of what the characters choose to do is quite deliberate. These are not 4 (soon to be 5) books about how awful it is that the Cullens and many of their vampire friends have killed and continue to kill innocent people. As Kristen Stewart said in an interview, “These situations do not facilitate happy people”. But whether Bella and Edward are good, whether vampires (even vegetarian ones) should be contemplating moral hazard isn’t the point of the story.
This story is one of two people who should not be together being together. Both of them choosing exactly what most of us would say is exactly what they should not choose. Over and over and over again. And it working for them. You know, as much as I was happy to see Bella become a vampire by the last book – I wouldn’t qualify that ending to be a “happy” one. yes, Bella and Edward are happy and I think it is true to them as characters – but dude, she dies/becomes a vampire to be with this guy. She is now potentially going to be a murderer (even if it is unlikely). If one of the other Cullens slips and kills a human (as many of them have in the past) – I think it is pretty clear that she will be saying the same thing all of them have said at one time or another which is “Oops, we forgive you, lets move on”. The unconditional love that the Cullens (as couples and as family) show to one another is all the more powerful for exemplifying both the disturbing/damaged/effed to all that aspects of their vampire family and the unbreakable bonds of love that they share.
Ultimately, I think it interesting how many people bring up the idea of Edward and Bella not getting ‘punished’ enough as one of the reasons that the book isn’t good. That somehow, they should have had to lose more than they did to make it ok that they get their HEA. But as William Munny says, “Deserving’s got nothing to do with it”. If we can suspend disbelief that super hot, super wealthy, criminal vampires are hanging out in Forks, Washington and fall in love with a human girl – I don’t really have a problem with them getting their improbable happy ending. It seems life is always unfair in favor of hot, white wealthy people. Why should this be any different? It just seems like white privilege taken to a whole new level. And Stephenie’s vampire canon (pretty different from the usual) would support most of it.
Oh, YUCK, I HATED that book. Just hated it. But I still love the Little House books. Just goes to illustrate how different people’s tastes are, I guess.
I don’t think this quote from salon.com hase been brought up yet:
Very intriguing. I can see why people would drink that up. Sounds kind of delicious, really.
theo, it’s my understanding (from watching the fandom backlash with irrepressible glee) that Breaking Dawn broke the Twilight fandom.
Somewhere between the “omg sex now plz,” the “must have babies to be Fulfilled Woman,” the Demon Death Baby Nessie, and the ex-imprints on infant child, Twilight fans got mad. It is my understanding that even among the hardcore fans, Breaking Dawn was almost universally disliked.
Reasons varied, from some feeling like SM was not true to her world, that the pedophilia/imprinting overtones were too much, just general wtf crackery badness…
And somehow, instead of just complaining about it, they ‘organized’ a vocal response in which unhappy fans encouraged each other to return their copies to their places of purchase. This, of course, led to some interesting discussions as to whether this mass return was a valid method of protest/voicing an opinion, or if it’s only theft.
Either way, most fandom involved individuals I’ve talked to were surprised by how strong the reaction has been; most people had never even thought about returning a book just because they didn’t like it, much less encouraging mass returns all across the country.
You are seriously the first person I’ve ever seen critisize Tam Lin. I’ve heard praise from everywhere and figured I ought to read it, but it seems to be out of print (or never printed) in the UK.
I haven’t read Twilight, but I did scan through the leaked chapters of Midnight Sun. My favourite part is where he plots the murder of an entire classroom of people. Romantic!
Lyra, THANK YOU! 😀 Gives me a much better idea. Makes me even happier that I passed on this series. I’m already disgusted with one author whose last two books felt like a betrayal to me however, I would never consider returning them!! I just won’t buy anymore!
CateM:
B&N;has Tam Lin in stock. Ships within 24 hours. $8.99 and it’s a reissue.
I started reading this series with a lot of optimism. And although I had a lot of problems with the feminist nightmare Bella was, I looked past it. I am 3/4 away from the end of Breaking Dawn, and I can barely stomach to finish it. The sexism is rampant within all the characters. I love frothy fun teen angst books, but having a female character that cannot live without a man’s attention is just pathetic.
And I hate to double-post, but I’d just like to respond to Sasha‘s description about the series.
Maybe you’re right about Twilight (and SM’s later reactions that Edward Cullen is one messed up MF), but I find it very hard to believe that there’s some hidden depth to it all, for two reasons:
1) Your mention of her correspondence is the first and only mention I’ve heard of where SM has less-than-glowing things to say about Edward Cullen. I have, however, seen many interviews where she calls Edward the “perfect man.” Where can this lexicon be found? I’m rather curious to see her give an alternate explanation for her character, especially given the sheer number of times she’s waxed poetic about his perfection.
2) In my own opinion, the Twilight books simply weren’t that well written. The research was shoddy; the prose was clunky at best and mindnumbingly painful at worst; and her characters all felt one-dimensional and flat; and her pacing was atrocious. I’m not saying that poorly constructed stories can’t be deep, but it is twice, maybe three times, as hard to believe the depth being attributed to Stephenie Meyer’s writing than I would to something that had more depth in its prose and construction. Or maybe this part is a product of talked to Twilight fans. I find it hard to believe anyone’s writing can be deep when even their most fervent fans claim it is nothing but fuffy, trashy, escapist reading.
Still, it is a different perspective, and makes me want to reread the first from a purely analytical point of view, to see if maybe there is something more buried under all the sparkling.
WHOOO! that was my reaction to your giving Twilight a D+. I agree with EVERYTHING you said, so this comment is pointless, but just so you know, WHOOO! I hated this book and it makes me angry (yaa obsessing) that people like it so much and go so far as to compare it to Harry Potter. I’m not going to let myself rant here, so I’ll stop here. Again, WHOOO!
No opinion on these books or their author, though my 14 year old is gulping them like Sour Punch Straws.
Kudos, though, to those of you who said you were vetting these books for a young relative. Brava!
Yeah. I have friends who read the book and hated it so much that they returned it to the bookshop for store credit.
Lyra
You can find her personal correspondence on the Twilight lexicon, link below:
http://www.twilightlexiconblog.com/?page_id=4
I will admit to having watched/read quite a few interviews with Stephenie Meyer and off hand, I cannot recall a single one where she says that Edward Cullen is the perfect man. She does talk a lot about him being a ‘gentleman’, that she loves him, that she can understand why he is so attractive, that she has him kiss Bella’s neck more often than her mouth becuase S Meyer’s thinks it is sexier but I can’t recall her saying he is the perfect man. She has said she wouldn’t choose Edward and wouldn’t be a vampire which seems to negate the idea of him being the “perfect man” in her view.
But hey, I would love to read more Stephenie, so please direct me to these interviews because it would be interesting to read them.
I read and enjoyed the first three books but have no interest in Breaking Dawn (although I’ve loved the satires of it). Doesn’t mean I don’t see the flaws, however, but enjoyed them nonetheless. I don’t think Meyer is a great writer, but I do think she’s a very good storyteller—she creates a world, draws you in, and has you turning the pages feverishly to find out What Happens Next.
Maybe it’s because I don’t have daughters and it’s been a long time since my own angsty teen years, but I didn’t think of Edward’s behavior as stalkerish. I did find Bella annoyingly one dimensional and whiny. Her only attribute seemed to be her obsession with Edward, and it didn’t make me think well of him that he was so drawn to her. OTOH, that’s a not infrequent aspect of romance novels (and, to be sure, Real Life), where you wonder “what does he/she see in her/him?”
I think one of the reasons teenage girls like Edward so much is because he is everything the real boys in their lives are not: polite, rich, astonishingly handsome, and controlled. Edward doesn’t hold belching contests with his friends, or bond over first person shooter video games, or push sexually farther than Bella is willing to go. Bella never has to worry that Edward will want more than she’s willing to give. I remember reading of studies that said that girls have sex sooner than they want to because they feel pressured to do so, but in Twilight it’s Edward who says no. So as dangerous as vampires may theoretically be, in many ways Edward is far safer than the real teenage boy who sits next to the YA reader in biology class.
Spamfilter = word17 A lot of words have been written about these 17 y.o.
Stephanie Meyers won the publishing/word-of-mouth lottery. She did nothing to deserve it or earn it, she just won it. Good for her, more power to her.
It’s a continual mystery to me why some product will be insanely popular, and the better product will languish. (VHS vs beta? chia pets? pet rocks? vs something else that has languished its way out of my consciousness) Is it marketing, fluke? Act of god(s)?
The comments I’ve been reading have been reminding me of the shitstorm unleashed by the publication of J.R. Ward’s Lover Enshrined. Lots of fans (including me) of not-terribly-well-done books. They are literary crack. I deeply enjoy them, but I don’t expect much from them. But there were a LOT of people who felt OMGbeTRAYed! by the story.
Maybe Meyers plugged into that same crack-muse. Maybe the publishers are slipping heroin into the ink. Does anyone have statistics on how many fans do the lick-finger-to-turn-page trick?
Sasha,
Thanks for the link. As to the “perfect man” comments, here’s two I found on a quick google search (ironically, neither of them is the one I read before. The one I saw first compared Edward to a couple of the ‘great’ romantic heroes and claims he’s better than all of them because he’s perfect, if that helps any?):
http://chbookstore.qwestoffice.net/fa2006-08.html
“Edward is too perfect to exist in reality” (At least she agrees that he wouldn’t exist in real life)
“I have these perfect men in my head all the time”
And from Newsweek: http://www.newsweek.com/id/148993
Q: Edward is so perfect—you’ve ruined regular men for a lot of teens. Do you feel bad?
A: Oh, a little bit, I guess. I just wanted to write for myself, a fantasy. And that’s what Edward is. But it could be a good thing, too. There’s nothing wrong with having high expectations, right?
With the second one, one might say that Meyer didn’t explicitly say he was perfect, that the interviewer put words in her mouth, but if she really felt that he wasn’t perfect, that he was this deeply flawed character, wouldn’t she have corrected the interviewer? Maybe something like “Well, he’s not perfect, he’s a sociopathic stalker, but he’s pretty hot.”
The person, incidentally, who commented that the Cullens didn’t suffer any consequences for their slip-ups wasn’t Meyer. It was Tennyo. Meyer goes on to excuse everything her vampires do; biological imperative for blood-drinking, whatever. And points out how “good” the Cullens are for even trying to not eat humans and for viewing humans as good. [Personal Correspondence #12]
As for Edward killing lots of people, see Personal Correspondence #12:
I cannot recall a single one where she says that Edward Cullen is the perfect man.
Stephenie Meyer: “WHAT IF… What if true love left you? Not some ordinary high school romance, not some random jock boyfriend, not anyone at all replaceable. True love. The real deal. Your other half, your true soul’s match. What happens if he leaves?
The answer is different for everyone. Juliet had her version, Marianne Dashwood had hers, Isolde and Catherine Earnshaw and Scarlet O’Hara and Anne Shirley all had their ways of coping.
I had to answer the question for Bella. What does Bella Swan do when true love leaves her? Not just true love, but Edward Cullen! None of those other heroines lost an Edward (Romeo was a hothead, Willoughby was a scoundrel, Tristan had loyalty issues, Heathcliff was pure evil, Rhett had a mean streak and cheated with hookers, and sweet Gilbert was much more of a Jacob than an Edward). So what happens when True Love in the form of Edward Cullen leaves Bella?”
Gag.
How long before fandom_wank picks this up?
Really? I love Sunshine, but I don’t think it’s YA. I’d probably rec it to older teens, but there’s some stuff in it that’s maybe not appropriate for younger readers (ditto Deerskin, imo). Also, the protag is in her twenties.
Handyhunter
I know!
Sorry, sorry. I’d edit if I could, instead of double posting.
Heh. He has also called Edward a moron and likened him to a piece of cheese.
I liked Breaking Dawn. It was cracktastic! And the lulz are making it even more entertaining, especially, but not limited to, Growing Up Cullen (which, per the leaked chapters of Midnight Sun, is canon now!).
handyhunter,
Thanks! That was the one I was talking about. Sure, she doesn’t use the exact words “perfect man”, but it’s implied with the force of a wrecking ball to the brain, isn’t it?
Lyra
Ok, the first link you provided when Stephenie Meyer says that Edward is perfect squicked me out. Majorly. Unless (oh please I wish I could truly believe it) she just meant that he was perfect for the freakfest that is Bella. Unfortunately, I don’t think I can really believe that. Though, thanks for the link because I had never read that article and the ones I read seemed to have the interviewer suggesting perfection and Stephenie not challenging (much like the 2nd article you provided) – which I thought was her being cagey, not her agreeing. Like she did in many interviews about subjects that came up in later books.
For the record, though, I still stand by my interpretation of the books and why they are interesting – sadly, I may well have to let go of the belief that Stephenie Meyer completely meant to make them this way. I have to admit I wish I could believe that she meant for it to be as disturbing as it is because as I have said from the get go – it is way disturbing and that was the interesting part for me.
Though, Handyhunter, the quote you provided doesn’t so much negate my original theory. Few of those stories ended well, and many of them had pretty unappealing or unsympathetic characters. And yet they are still considered to be romantic classics. Which would still come down to S Meyers (intentionally or not) giving a HEA to the damaged characters who usually lose everything.
luxdancer
Thanks for the catch, but actually I was more thinking about this quote from Stephenie about what happens after one of the Cullens killed an innocent human
Do the Cullens feel bad when, let’s say Emmett, accidentally kills that person who sets a fire in his throat, the “singers†in his past (“singers†is a relative term by the way. They range from mildly more appealing to five alarm fires)? Of course they do. They mourn what they’ve done. They recommit to their cause. They do better in the future. The family of the victim never sees them or knows of their involvement. If the Cullens wallow (and they have), does that make one thing better or worse for the mourners? Answer: it has no effect on their pain either way.
None of them have been disowned from the family or shunned for killing a person. They have felt bad, been told to recommit and the family moves to a new location to start over after making sure that their move won’t trigger suspicion on any of them for the disappearance of the dead person. Sounds pretty forgiving and unconditional to me
Also in Correspondence #12 she talks about the huge difference between the Cullens and other vampires making the Cullens good. I thought she meant that in comparison to other vampires who look at humans the same way most human look at cattle – the Cullens still attempt to look at them as human.
The Cullens do not look down on humans. Other Twilight vampires see humans as beef or poultry, it’s true. And it’s a hard viewpoint to resist—after all, vampires are physically and mentally superior to the nth degree. Their life spans measure in centuries and millenniums. Human lives are so short—sort of like fruit flies that only live a day in comparison. Humans die so easily, too, in their sleep, from tripping, from a tiny heart glitch, from a virus, from getting bumped a little too hard by a car. It’s sort of hard for an average vampire to take them seriously. They’re going to die soon anyway, right? (I know it might be difficult to step away from a human perspective and see it through their eyes. The question is, is it really wrong for them to see the world that way? Vampires are at the very pinnacle of the food chain. Should they feel bad about that? Or are they simply following the dictates of nature?)
The Cullens struggle to reject that viewpoint. They work (and it is work) to hold on to their human perception of the world. Are they arrogant about it? Some of them, at times. As it has been argued already, maybe you would start to feel a bit superior, too, if you were smarter and faster and stronger than everyone around you (let alone intimately aware of all their petty thoughts). Most humans I know who are great athletes or geniuses have a strong streak of arrogance in their personality (men in particular—sorry, boys, but it’s true). It seems hard to avoid.
When I thought that Stephenie was actually writing more purposefully than she may have been doing, I thought that part of what she was exploring was the idea that good people can do horrible things and not lose that parts that made them ‘good’. I still believe that it part of what she was exploring, and again I do think it gets into nuance. Can Edward be an obsessed, stalk ing murderer and still love his family and Bella? Can Carlisle be good as a doctor who has saved countless lives and is gentle even though he was turning people into vampires for several years, condemning them to life as a vampire? Again – something interesting within the books that I thought was much more intentional than it may or may not have been.
As to Edward being kind of damaged/disturbed and Stephenie understand this
Another Edward point: Edward was never trying to be a superhero—some darker version of the dark knight. That was not his purpose. He was rationalizing, pure and simple. Edward was tired of being in pain, but no so far gone that he would hunt innocents. Back to the burning hand metaphor—he was determined to quench the fire, but for his conscience’s sake, he was going to be particular about which bucket of ice water he used. He was not so much of a vampire after being “raised†by Carlisle that he could be cavalier about it. But he doesn’t share Carlisle’s faith to think he’s got anything to lose in the process. Hopelessness + pain = compromise.
The relative morality of this is something that she is clearly aware of. And the quote you picked out seems to be more Stephenie trying to rationalize her own feelings towards Edward much the same way he tried to as well. It still makes him damaged and disturbed. He was rationalizing the fact of wanting to be a murderer. It doesn’t make him less of a murderer. The interesting part is that Stephenie then tries to forgive it and in the book, so does Bella, saying something to the effect of “Well, that seems pretty understandable to want to rebel against the strictures your vampire dad set up.” Again, seems to prove my thoughts on how damaged Bella along with Edward and how much she is willing to forgive/overlook because she wants to be with him.
Thanks for all the interesting quotes and links – I hope I used the quote function correctly.
I had to laugh when I heard people hated Breaking Dawn so much they were returning it for a refund, because that’s what I did with this book. 500+ pages of me waiting for something to happen, and when I got to the end, I went, “Huh? You mean that’s it?”
Meyer’s prose was competent, but nothing remarkable. I think I fell asleep a couple of times when I was reading it.
Although I still haven’t gotten over the vampires playing baseball!
Hey, I can hold the theory that the entire saga was the product of a meth-addicted girl who lost her grip on reality, descending into a fantasy world of her own creation in order to escape the brutal reality of her life.
That doesn’t make it the truth (in this case, the story that SMeyer was trying to tell).
I am reminded of a brilliant interpretation of that horrible Lindsay Lohan picture, I Know Who Killed Me, which delved right into Lynchian symbolism. However, it didn’t detract from the fact that the movie was a pile of steaming manure even if the original intent of the filmmakers was the interpretation of that one viewer.
luxdancer,
And it’s there!
Yeah. I don’t see what’s subversive at all by giving two Mary Sues a HEA.
And I am not arguing with the fact that Edward is, in fact, a deranged sociopath. My argument is that Meyer wrote him to be a hunkahunka burnin’ love with the tortured angst of a classic bad boy wrapped in a vampire shell without realizing that her character was REALLY FRACKING CREEPY.
I remember reading somewhere that Meyer said she identified more with Edward than with Bella. I’ll have to go find that quote.
And here’s the quote, from SMeyer’s interview with MTV for Twilight Tuesday.
I don’t think Meyer sees Edward as a sociopath. I think she sees him as a Perfect Man with Bad Boy ™ flaws that are designed to make him more appealing. He kills people? Yeah, but they were all murderers and serial killers. He stalks Bella and destroys her car? It’s okay, because they’re in lurve.
And he’s morally superior because he’s not having any premarital sex.
If only Midnight Sun were narrated by fratboy!Emmett…