(no subject)
Update: Agosto 11, 2008
I was so wrong /haha/.
Finally I translate the complete Twilight essay.
Twilight Essay
Who Wants to Live For Ever?
…But touch my tears with your lips,
Touch my world with your fingertips,
And we can have forever,
And we can love forever,
Forever is our today,
Who wants to live forever,
Who wants to live forever,
Forever is our today,
Who waits forever anyway?
Queen Lyrics
Most of the Twilight Series followers associate the series with Romeo and Juliet. This work written by Shakespeare is a romantic tragedy and the Twilight Series is filled with references from this novel, which makes me question: is this the path that Stephenie Meyer wants to take for the saga’s culmination? It’s an idea I still don’t discard or doubt because after reading the series several times, Stephenie could justify such argument, but in my opinion I don’t think this is going to happen. I genuinely think that Bella and Edward will have their happy ending:
“Your characters become your children, and you want good things for them.”
[Stephenie Meyer]
I was thinking are some alternatives for the series ending:
During the past books from the series, the most anticipated has been Bella’s change and if Stephanie actually does that I think that she will back it up magnificently on the canon. If it does happen I won’t be that much impressed, it’s pretty predictable. So that’s why I question: will it happen? Stephenie recently said:
“The act of sucking blood is not this sensual, sexual, romantic thing;
it's a very violent, gruesome act."
[May 8,2008 / Centredaily.com]
Another author’s quote that drew my attention and makes me constantly wonder if Bella will convert is:
Dreams are things that can change your life, and the subconscious can bring things out that aren’t clear in daily living. Bella puts things together through her dreams. Interestingly, Stephenie pointed out that if Bella becomes a vampire then she won’t be dreaming any more as vampires don’t sleep."
[Crepusculo Spain]
Isn’t it kind of funny that Bella’s way of organizing her life’s conflicts is through dream premonitions, which makes me question on how she will do on future occasions since Stephenie’s vampires do not sleep, according to the above comment. And if there is someone who thinks that being immortal along with Edward will solve her problems 100%, please make up another story. Not to sound too Harry & Hermoine (not a compliment at all)/ha-ha/, the theory I like the most is that Edward gets his mortality back. If there is something I have learned from reading almost 600 books is that NOTHING is impossible in literature (there are always exceptions to the rules). If there is something that authors are magnificent working with is word gaming. Stephanie assured that Edward could not turn human, technically he can’t. I spoke with my best friend gilyann, who is my literary control since she has not read the series yet and it is because of this that we can be able to speak about it without premade judgments. We once compared Twilight with another literary piece, not Romeo & Juliet, but Beauty and the Beast. Edward’s a monster (a really beautiful one), even though he doesn’t look like one but he is. Sthephenie Meyer did a reference to such statement:
"the fact that vampires are quite clearly monsters, and that common belief from time immemorable condemns them to damnation. It makes sense-monsters are evil by definition. Just because the Cullens don’t follow the definition, does it mean they’re not monsters anymore."
[Twilight Lexicon / Personal Correspondence]
Disclaimer
[Neither anything Beauty and the Beast related nor any other novel or scientific explanation suggests a possible direct line as I was just trying to establish some parallelisms.]
The interesting thing about Beauty and the Beast is that Beauty accepts her love as he is no matter what he is. Doesn’t it happen in Twilight too if Bella cares if Edward’s human or not? The limits of his phisical aspect have slowly vanished. I’ve been drawn my attention by the people that discard this theory for the relative importance that Edward would not look that HOT (bullshit). Even Carlise lets us know in New Moon that Edward was a beautiful creature even with the disease tracks that were killing him. So these Twilighters assure that Edward is happy being a vampire and I say: where did they read that? I want to read it too! In the first Midnight Sun chapter Edward constantly refers to the heaviness and monotony of his life and wishes he could be able to sleep. In Eclipse Edward tells Bella that “he would pay any price for just being human again”. The actor that plays Edward, Robert Pattinson, is the only human being that has read the Midnight Sun manuscript. He assures that Edward only wants to die or become human again when this girl arrives and resurrects all this human emotions. Rose tells Bella in Eclipse: “if we’ve had a happy ending, we’ve been under our graves”. All the Cullens overcome what they are and my very personal opinion as a reader, they have done their best but none is completely happy.
“I wished I were able to sleep.”
[Midnight Sun / Chapter 1]
“The tedium was not something I grew used to;
every day seemed more impossibly monotonous than the last.”
[Midnight Sun / Chapter 1]
“If we’ve had a happy ending, we’ve been under our graves”.
[Eclipse / Chapter: Unhappy Endings]
How long it’s going to take Bella to win over this lifestyle? Carlisle has gotten more than 300 years, but Rose and Edward might pass a century and will still trying to reconciliate with something they don’t like.
"We’ve all struggles, trying to reconcile with something …”
[Eclipse / Page: 271]
Getting back to Beauty and the Beast (not the childish Disney version), when Beauty decides to accept the Beast’s marriage proposal, he transforms in that beautiful prince not for a tear or a kiss, but for SEX. Then I remembered; isn’t that the only human experience that Bella hasn’t been able to renounce to. Ever since I began reading this series I asked myself if there was something beyond that delays them from having sex. I don’t know any other Twilight Series human-vampire love case, only Bella and Edward, so we will not know what will happen until it happens. All other vampires on the story have sex with other vampires /ha-ha/, so this kind of story has not happened yet and it’s worth asking: what will happen? Will a moment of pure happiness and purity be able to restore Edwards’s mortality? I remember in my Buffy & Angel moments when finally Buffy gives herself to Angel he is struck by a curse (if he had any pure happiness moment, he would lose his soul). Dammit! Shouldn’t it be backwards? Well, WB is an expert editing cinematographic films with shit. As I spoke with my other best friend voldemorsita she told me: “imagine that when Bella stares at Edward’s eyes, they would have turned green”. I almost wanted to write a fan fic at that very moment /ha-ha/. Another thing that didn’t make me much sense was the book title; Breaking Down. This could be related with the beginning of something, which could be: the life of Bella and Edward in marriage, the beginning of Bella’s converted life (backing cricket sounds) or another situation’s beginning.
“the beginning of something”
“a first appearance; a beginning”
“to begin to grow light after the night”
[Thesaurus Dictionary]
I like this last one definition and fits perfectly in my preference theory, since Edwards life has been a long night (metaphorically speaking). By literary folklore, vampires relate their life with an eternal night. I think Edward refers to this in one of the books when he tells Bella something like he refuses to turn his life into an eternal night. Then metaphorically speaking being a vampire is related with night, not dawn because this appears when darkness has vanished.
“The first appearing, as of light in the morning; the dawn; as, the break of day; the break of dawn.”
[Brainy Quotes / Break Definition]
The word “dawn” or morning. … that which is done in the night, and there now follows that which is done in the morning twilight, and presently that which is done after the sun is gone forth. The twilight is expressed by when the dawn arose, and it denotes the time when the upright are being separated from the evil; which separation is treated off.
[Spiritual Meanings]
Isn’t it by literary folklore that all creatures of the night hide at dawn?
"In Western folklore, it is believed that evil spirits, demons, vampires, trolls, and even Satan are obliged to disappear at dawn, for, being creatures of darkness, they hate light, especially that of the sun. Many pre-Christian cultures also believed in this, including the Anglo-Saxons, Vikings and Celts."
Additional Note #1
It is for these reasons that females having Dawn as a first or second name signify strength and the ability to fend off evil and protect the human race against vampires and evil trolls. E. Dawn Beattie is an example of such a heroine as illustrated by Anne Rice in her novel, The Vampire Chronicles, Book 6.
It is worth saying that the previous book’s titles: (Twilight - New Moon - Eclipse) are all metaphorically related with night and darkness. For Breaking Dawn we have a title metaphorically related with light, dawn and awakening. That title could be a little ironic for a book that narrates Bella’s life as a newborn vampire. Certainly, the title is metaphorically ambiguous.
Additional Note #2
Scientific Explanation
“My vampires are more science than magic to me,
Whereas my werewolves are more magic than science.”
[ Twilight Moms / Stephenie Meyer Quotes #6]
Stephanie Meyer always describes her vampires like they are “frozen”. I was trying to find a possible scientific explanation when I was remembering something I was talking a couple days ago with one of my best friends. We are talking about some organisms that are frozen in real life and they come out that phase and start to live again. That phase is called: Cryptobiosis. In the cryptobiotic state, all metabolic procedures stop, preventing reproduction, development, and repair. An organism in a cryptobiotic state can essentially live indefinitely until environmental conditions return to being hospitable. When this occurs, the organism will return to its metabolic state of life as it was prior to the cryptobiosis. Their sustained by some fluids of plant and animal cells, some species of water bears are known to eat entire live organisms, such as rotifers and other tardigrades. Cryptobiosis is most well known by Scientifics as: “suspended life”. One of the organisms who are capable of cryptobiotic is the “water bear”. The bodies of “water bear” glows … look the video: http://www.tardigrades.com/ Water bears can have wonderful body colors (intense red, orange, even green) and therefore are a good object for microscopy in incident light. That’s when I remember the explanation Stephanie Meyer give for the glowing skin vampires have in her universe:
“They sparkle because they have turned to substance that is somewhat like diamond.
Their bodies have hardened, frozen into a kind of living stone.
Each little cell in their skin has become a separate facet that reflects the light.
These facets have a prism-like quality-they throw rainbows as they glitter.”
[Stephanie Meyer / Lexicon Personal Correspondence #7]
The “suspended life” term is a synonymous from “undead”. Vampires in literature and mythological folklore are called the undead. By the way the famous quote that Stephanie Meyer assures that Edward can’t go back it was based in Edward’s POV I think.
“ “ Edward’s definition of a 'soul' ….
… He believes …
…. But he can’t go back. There is no way to regain mortality ....
What does he base this belief on?”
[Stephanie Meyer / Lexicon Personal Correspondence #12]
As I looked for the title’s ethimological definitions, I liked a small paragraph I found:
“Began to give promise;
in dawning youth." when life awakes,
and dawns at every line.
Dawn on our darkness."
Finally, I understand that the books seem to be worked under a sequence waiting for the moment Bella converts but I couldn’t help asking: What if? The story apparently takes us to the conversion of Bella, since Bella is the narrator. We see the world of Twilight the way she wants us to see it. A clear example is Bella's perspective in the first Twilight chapters. Bella visualized Edward as a beautiful creature. However, from Edward's POV in the first chapter what we see is a monster trying to murder a group of innocent people in order to have Bella for "lunch".
Example Quote
“The face of the monster in me -the face I’d beaten back with decades of effort and uncompromising discipline. How easily it sprang to the surface now!”
[Midnight Sun / Chapter 1]
Certainly, there is a reason why Stephanie Meyer allowed us to see the story from the other side of the coin: Rose, Jasper, the Vulturis, James, Bree and Victoria to name a few. Every good reader must realize that stories are not flat neither a saga, and that is something I teach my students. I made a fool of myself with all the Harry Potter theories, so there’s nothing to lose by making one from Twilight Series.
I was so wrong /haha/.
Finally I translate the complete Twilight essay.
Twilight Essay
Who Wants to Live For Ever?
…But touch my tears with your lips,
Touch my world with your fingertips,
And we can have forever,
And we can love forever,
Forever is our today,
Who wants to live forever,
Who wants to live forever,
Forever is our today,
Who waits forever anyway?
Queen Lyrics
Most of the Twilight Series followers associate the series with Romeo and Juliet. This work written by Shakespeare is a romantic tragedy and the Twilight Series is filled with references from this novel, which makes me question: is this the path that Stephenie Meyer wants to take for the saga’s culmination? It’s an idea I still don’t discard or doubt because after reading the series several times, Stephenie could justify such argument, but in my opinion I don’t think this is going to happen. I genuinely think that Bella and Edward will have their happy ending:
“Your characters become your children, and you want good things for them.”
[Stephenie Meyer]
I was thinking are some alternatives for the series ending:
- Bella dies old and Edward remains immortal
- Bella converts (the most anticipated by the fandom)
- Both Bella and Edward die (Romeo and Juliet style)
- Some X factor happens that reestablishes Edward’s humanity
During the past books from the series, the most anticipated has been Bella’s change and if Stephanie actually does that I think that she will back it up magnificently on the canon. If it does happen I won’t be that much impressed, it’s pretty predictable. So that’s why I question: will it happen? Stephenie recently said:
“The act of sucking blood is not this sensual, sexual, romantic thing;
it's a very violent, gruesome act."
[May 8,2008 / Centredaily.com]
Another author’s quote that drew my attention and makes me constantly wonder if Bella will convert is:
Dreams are things that can change your life, and the subconscious can bring things out that aren’t clear in daily living. Bella puts things together through her dreams. Interestingly, Stephenie pointed out that if Bella becomes a vampire then she won’t be dreaming any more as vampires don’t sleep."
[Crepusculo Spain]
Isn’t it kind of funny that Bella’s way of organizing her life’s conflicts is through dream premonitions, which makes me question on how she will do on future occasions since Stephenie’s vampires do not sleep, according to the above comment. And if there is someone who thinks that being immortal along with Edward will solve her problems 100%, please make up another story. Not to sound too Harry & Hermoine (not a compliment at all)/ha-ha/, the theory I like the most is that Edward gets his mortality back. If there is something I have learned from reading almost 600 books is that NOTHING is impossible in literature (there are always exceptions to the rules). If there is something that authors are magnificent working with is word gaming. Stephanie assured that Edward could not turn human, technically he can’t. I spoke with my best friend gilyann, who is my literary control since she has not read the series yet and it is because of this that we can be able to speak about it without premade judgments. We once compared Twilight with another literary piece, not Romeo & Juliet, but Beauty and the Beast. Edward’s a monster (a really beautiful one), even though he doesn’t look like one but he is. Sthephenie Meyer did a reference to such statement:
"the fact that vampires are quite clearly monsters, and that common belief from time immemorable condemns them to damnation. It makes sense-monsters are evil by definition. Just because the Cullens don’t follow the definition, does it mean they’re not monsters anymore."
[Twilight Lexicon / Personal Correspondence]
Disclaimer
[Neither anything Beauty and the Beast related nor any other novel or scientific explanation suggests a possible direct line as I was just trying to establish some parallelisms.]
The interesting thing about Beauty and the Beast is that Beauty accepts her love as he is no matter what he is. Doesn’t it happen in Twilight too if Bella cares if Edward’s human or not? The limits of his phisical aspect have slowly vanished. I’ve been drawn my attention by the people that discard this theory for the relative importance that Edward would not look that HOT (bullshit). Even Carlise lets us know in New Moon that Edward was a beautiful creature even with the disease tracks that were killing him. So these Twilighters assure that Edward is happy being a vampire and I say: where did they read that? I want to read it too! In the first Midnight Sun chapter Edward constantly refers to the heaviness and monotony of his life and wishes he could be able to sleep. In Eclipse Edward tells Bella that “he would pay any price for just being human again”. The actor that plays Edward, Robert Pattinson, is the only human being that has read the Midnight Sun manuscript. He assures that Edward only wants to die or become human again when this girl arrives and resurrects all this human emotions. Rose tells Bella in Eclipse: “if we’ve had a happy ending, we’ve been under our graves”. All the Cullens overcome what they are and my very personal opinion as a reader, they have done their best but none is completely happy.
“I wished I were able to sleep.”
[Midnight Sun / Chapter 1]
“The tedium was not something I grew used to;
every day seemed more impossibly monotonous than the last.”
[Midnight Sun / Chapter 1]
“If we’ve had a happy ending, we’ve been under our graves”.
[Eclipse / Chapter: Unhappy Endings]
How long it’s going to take Bella to win over this lifestyle? Carlisle has gotten more than 300 years, but Rose and Edward might pass a century and will still trying to reconciliate with something they don’t like.
"We’ve all struggles, trying to reconcile with something …”
[Eclipse / Page: 271]
Getting back to Beauty and the Beast (not the childish Disney version), when Beauty decides to accept the Beast’s marriage proposal, he transforms in that beautiful prince not for a tear or a kiss, but for SEX. Then I remembered; isn’t that the only human experience that Bella hasn’t been able to renounce to. Ever since I began reading this series I asked myself if there was something beyond that delays them from having sex. I don’t know any other Twilight Series human-vampire love case, only Bella and Edward, so we will not know what will happen until it happens. All other vampires on the story have sex with other vampires /ha-ha/, so this kind of story has not happened yet and it’s worth asking: what will happen? Will a moment of pure happiness and purity be able to restore Edwards’s mortality? I remember in my Buffy & Angel moments when finally Buffy gives herself to Angel he is struck by a curse (if he had any pure happiness moment, he would lose his soul). Dammit! Shouldn’t it be backwards? Well, WB is an expert editing cinematographic films with shit. As I spoke with my other best friend voldemorsita she told me: “imagine that when Bella stares at Edward’s eyes, they would have turned green”. I almost wanted to write a fan fic at that very moment /ha-ha/. Another thing that didn’t make me much sense was the book title; Breaking Down. This could be related with the beginning of something, which could be: the life of Bella and Edward in marriage, the beginning of Bella’s converted life (backing cricket sounds) or another situation’s beginning.
“the beginning of something”
“a first appearance; a beginning”
“to begin to grow light after the night”
[Thesaurus Dictionary]
I like this last one definition and fits perfectly in my preference theory, since Edwards life has been a long night (metaphorically speaking). By literary folklore, vampires relate their life with an eternal night. I think Edward refers to this in one of the books when he tells Bella something like he refuses to turn his life into an eternal night. Then metaphorically speaking being a vampire is related with night, not dawn because this appears when darkness has vanished.
“The first appearing, as of light in the morning; the dawn; as, the break of day; the break of dawn.”
[Brainy Quotes / Break Definition]
The word “dawn” or morning. … that which is done in the night, and there now follows that which is done in the morning twilight, and presently that which is done after the sun is gone forth. The twilight is expressed by when the dawn arose, and it denotes the time when the upright are being separated from the evil; which separation is treated off.
[Spiritual Meanings]
Isn’t it by literary folklore that all creatures of the night hide at dawn?
"In Western folklore, it is believed that evil spirits, demons, vampires, trolls, and even Satan are obliged to disappear at dawn, for, being creatures of darkness, they hate light, especially that of the sun. Many pre-Christian cultures also believed in this, including the Anglo-Saxons, Vikings and Celts."
Additional Note #1
It is for these reasons that females having Dawn as a first or second name signify strength and the ability to fend off evil and protect the human race against vampires and evil trolls. E. Dawn Beattie is an example of such a heroine as illustrated by Anne Rice in her novel, The Vampire Chronicles, Book 6.
It is worth saying that the previous book’s titles: (Twilight - New Moon - Eclipse) are all metaphorically related with night and darkness. For Breaking Dawn we have a title metaphorically related with light, dawn and awakening. That title could be a little ironic for a book that narrates Bella’s life as a newborn vampire. Certainly, the title is metaphorically ambiguous.
Additional Note #2
Scientific Explanation
“My vampires are more science than magic to me,
Whereas my werewolves are more magic than science.”
[ Twilight Moms / Stephenie Meyer Quotes #6]
Stephanie Meyer always describes her vampires like they are “frozen”. I was trying to find a possible scientific explanation when I was remembering something I was talking a couple days ago with one of my best friends. We are talking about some organisms that are frozen in real life and they come out that phase and start to live again. That phase is called: Cryptobiosis. In the cryptobiotic state, all metabolic procedures stop, preventing reproduction, development, and repair. An organism in a cryptobiotic state can essentially live indefinitely until environmental conditions return to being hospitable. When this occurs, the organism will return to its metabolic state of life as it was prior to the cryptobiosis. Their sustained by some fluids of plant and animal cells, some species of water bears are known to eat entire live organisms, such as rotifers and other tardigrades. Cryptobiosis is most well known by Scientifics as: “suspended life”. One of the organisms who are capable of cryptobiotic is the “water bear”. The bodies of “water bear” glows … look the video: http://www.tardigrades.com/ Water bears can have wonderful body colors (intense red, orange, even green) and therefore are a good object for microscopy in incident light. That’s when I remember the explanation Stephanie Meyer give for the glowing skin vampires have in her universe:
“They sparkle because they have turned to substance that is somewhat like diamond.
Their bodies have hardened, frozen into a kind of living stone.
Each little cell in their skin has become a separate facet that reflects the light.
These facets have a prism-like quality-they throw rainbows as they glitter.”
[Stephanie Meyer / Lexicon Personal Correspondence #7]
The “suspended life” term is a synonymous from “undead”. Vampires in literature and mythological folklore are called the undead. By the way the famous quote that Stephanie Meyer assures that Edward can’t go back it was based in Edward’s POV I think.
“ “ Edward’s definition of a 'soul' ….
… He believes …
…. But he can’t go back. There is no way to regain mortality ....
What does he base this belief on?”
[Stephanie Meyer / Lexicon Personal Correspondence #12]
As I looked for the title’s ethimological definitions, I liked a small paragraph I found:
“Began to give promise;
in dawning youth." when life awakes,
and dawns at every line.
Dawn on our darkness."
Finally, I understand that the books seem to be worked under a sequence waiting for the moment Bella converts but I couldn’t help asking: What if? The story apparently takes us to the conversion of Bella, since Bella is the narrator. We see the world of Twilight the way she wants us to see it. A clear example is Bella's perspective in the first Twilight chapters. Bella visualized Edward as a beautiful creature. However, from Edward's POV in the first chapter what we see is a monster trying to murder a group of innocent people in order to have Bella for "lunch".
Example Quote
“The face of the monster in me -the face I’d beaten back with decades of effort and uncompromising discipline. How easily it sprang to the surface now!”
[Midnight Sun / Chapter 1]
Certainly, there is a reason why Stephanie Meyer allowed us to see the story from the other side of the coin: Rose, Jasper, the Vulturis, James, Bree and Victoria to name a few. Every good reader must realize that stories are not flat neither a saga, and that is something I teach my students. I made a fool of myself with all the Harry Potter theories, so there’s nothing to lose by making one from Twilight Series.