Good writing, bad writing.

[kippurbird]

I got published again! Yay me!

Still not paid though. D:


Twilight, chapter 7 Nightmare pt.2

Bella goes to sleep. She doesn't dream because she's very very tired. She wakes up happy. Yay. She talks to her dad thinking about how she can see what attracted her mother to him. Yay. Whoopie. She eats breakfast and watches the dust motes. Seriously. "I ate breakfast cheerily, watching the dust moats stirring in the sunlight that streamed in the back window." My cat does that. Though he watches motes and not moats. I don't have a moat in my apartment. But really, Meyer's has been trying to present Bella as an intelligent young woman, but what does she do at breakfast? She watches the dust motes. Not read a book or the newspaper, but stare out into space like a cat. It makes her look rather air-headed as she's perfectly entertained watching the dust motes.

She goes to school early and works on some Trig problems, even though she said she finished her homework earlier. She ends up doodling dark eyes though. Edward has dark eyes. Do you think there could be a connection? Mike shows up and is friendly with her, tucking a strand of hair that's got red in it (only in the sun) and it makes Bella uncomfortable. Mike asks Bella out on a date and Bella doesn't want to because of Edward, but instead she says that it's because Jessica likes him and they're going to the dance. Mike acts like he's never realized this before. I'm not to worried though, as Edward and Bella are fated to be together, it's likely that Mike and Jessica will end up together too. Though it won't be as good as Bella and Edward.

Jessica wants Bella to go with her to Port Angeles to go shopping. Lauren and Angela are going too. Since Lauren is going Bella is undecided. She does want to go to get out of Forks.

At lunch however the Cullens aren't there.

lost in my own frenzy of anticipation to notice much of what she said. I was painfully eager to see not just him but all the Cullens — to compare them with the new
suspicions that plagued my mind. As I crossed the threshold of the cafeteria, I felt the first true tingle of fear slither down my spine and settle in my stomach. Would they be able to know what I was thinking? And then a different feeling jolted through me — would Edward be waiting to
sit with me again?

As was my routine, I glanced first toward the Cullens' table. A shiver of panic trembled in my stomach as I realized it was empty. With dwindling hope, my eyes scoured the rest of the cafeteria, hoping to find him alone, waiting for me. The place was nearly filled — Spanish had made us late — but there was no sign of Edward or any of his family. Desolation
hit me with crippling strength.

She's getting a wee bit too obsessed here. She shouldn't be emotionally crippled because someone isn't there. Especially someone she barely knows. Curious or afraid maybe, especially if she wants to know if the Cullens are vampires, but not desolate with dwindling hope. The emotions are too strong here. There's no way she could have time to form such a strong attachment. It feels like a crush. A very desperate crush, but expanded out into almost creepy/stalkery proportions.

It's not a natural reaction and seems forced. Almost as if Meyers is forcing Bella to feel so desolate and empty by not letting her form any other interests or attachments. With no personality she can be shifted to what Meyers thinks is important and given the emotions, not letting them develop over time or naturally. There's no questioning for Bella over Edward. She's happy with him and so miserable without him that she'd do anything to be with him. In a way that reminds me of an abusive relationship. Sometimes, even if the relationship is highly abusive, the person will stay in it because they don't have anything else. Bella doesn't have the chance to have anything else so she clings to Edward and his non-existence.

In fact the rest of the chapter is immaterial because all Bella does is mope about the lack of Edward and the Cullens. Nothing else important happens. I could mention Mike taking Jessica out to dinner but Bella doesn't see it as important. Just the lack of Edwardness. Everything else is just air filler.

Comments

[yattara.livejournal.com]

Nothing wrong with looking at dust motes over breakfast. I know I don't break out Augustine to read then, because I need to wake up first. :P

I had the usual (hopeless) teenage crushes, but to the degree Bella has it? No, never. This can't be healthy, not over a boy she only just met.

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

Re: dust motes (or moats): It's just that she's been previously portrayed as reading Wuthering Heights for fun. And the least she could do is look at the funnies. But staring out at the dust motes is so air-headed it doesn't quantify with her previous characterization. Such as it is.

I had the usual (hopeless) teenage crushes, but to the degree Bella has it? No, never. This can't be healthy, not over a boy she only just met.

This isn't a crush, this is an obsession. A psychotic obsession. I'm waiting for her to start looking for things of his to steal just so she can have something of his with her all the time. At this level, a rejection from him (a serious one as opposed to all of these half hearted controlling ones) would likely cause her to commit suicide.

[yattara.livejournal.com]

Or to go down in a flaming ball of killing all the Cullens before offing herself.

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

Oooh. I like that.

[brightrosefox.livejournal.com]

I've been reading a bunch of theories that Bella was created specifically to be an empty vessel for readers, a reader insert. Teenage girls could fill her with their own hopes and dreams and obsessions. She could represent the intensity, the obsession, the self-abuse, of insane stalkery love.

It's scary, really. It's a crush taken to the very extreme, almost psychosis. Someone get that girl a Xanax.
I wonder if Meyers has realized this?

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

I've read that too, and it's starting to feel like that however it's still not a good thing. And it's not something that should be encouraged. Yes, I admit it's not something that can actually be controlled but this book is encouraging it.

It's also suggesting the idolization and removal of actual human interaction of someone you like is a good thing. After all, Bella only pines after Edward never actively doing anything to interact with him. She only waits for him to beckon her and she is utterly passive until this happens.

I suppose this is consistent with a teenager's crush however. The longing and wide eyed mooning, but there's not been any sharing between Bella and her friends. None of them have been shown crushing on Edward and none of them have been shown crushing on anyone to such a devastating degree.

[brightrosefox.livejournal.com]

It just bothers me so much that so many young girls are thinking that this is how they want romance to be. I'd almost go so far as to call the relationship between Bella and Edward an entity unto itself -- psychopathic, directionless, fathomless, mindless, hungry, animalistic.

[wariena.livejournal.com]

I'd take it one step further- I'd call it downright unhealthy. If I had a teenage daughter who read this book I'd make damn well sure they knew that Bella and Edward's relationship is inequal, manipulative and pretty damn dodgy from the get-go.

[brightrosefox.livejournal.com]

Absolutely. When fans try to defend against the idea that the relationship is unhealthy and abusive, it honestly surprises me.

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

Me too. It shouldn't be like that. It is highly un-healthy and irregular. I don't think normal crushes are like that. None of mine were like that. They're usually very distant, from what I remember.

Edward is taking advantage of her by her attraction to her and emotionally manipulating her, even if it isn't supposed to be like that.

[authoressarktos.livejournal.com]

GO KIPPUR! Just you watch, one day you WILL get paid :P

She's getting a wee bit too obsessed here. She shouldn't be emotionally crippled because someone isn't there. Especially someone she barely knows. Curious or afraid maybe, especially if she wants to know if the Cullens are vampires, but not desolate with dwindling hope. The emotions are too strong here. There's no way she could have time to form such a strong attachment. It feels like a crush. A very desperate crush, but expanded out into almost creepy/stalkery proportions.

Ah, Twu Luv.

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

Mawaige is whut bwings us togwether...

[authoressarktos.livejournal.com]

Mawwy me? XD

*is shot*

[rurounitriv.livejournal.com]

... I watch dust motes sometimes. It can be a kind of meditation, a way to rest the brain and quiet the monkey-mind.

Then again, I'm a helluva lot smarter than this girl, and I need to quiet my brain down sometimes. I don't think she has that problem.

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

I watch them too. I suppose the detail just bothers me because the way it's presented, it's not as an act of meditation or anything like that, it's just "OOOOOOH DUST MOTES!!!"

[rurounitriv.livejournal.com]

Just nitpicking the nitpicker. ;)

[wariena.livejournal.com]

Ooh, congrats on getting published again! =D

I wonder if Meyer was ever actually a teenage girl with a crush- someone really needs to buy her a clue. Seriously, the way Bella feels about this strange, potentially dangerous boy who she barely knows is just plain unnerving. If I started to feel like that about someone, I'd want to know what the hell was going on and what the fuck they'd done to me. It just isn't natural.