Reading Twilight So You Don't Have To: Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Fifteen
Sweet Sixteen: Carlisle
Based on the last chapter, entitled "The Cullens," being, essentially, Cullen-less, my expectations for a Carlisle-ful chapter are low. I don't dare hope that there be anything here that isn't All. About. Bella. And her love muffin.
Ah... there's hope! It starts out with Bella and Edward actually going right away to Carlisle's office so Bella can find out more about him. The first thing Edward shows her (and Carlisle is there, by the way, as they peruse through his history) is a wall of photos and paintings that don't seem to relate to each other. He shows her a painting of London in the 1650's. "The London of my youth," Carlisle tells her. Then, because he's neither Edward nor Bella, he beats a hasty retreat so that Edward can explain more of his history.
When Carlisle first realized he was a vampire, he was so horrified, he tried to kill himself. But vampires are a little hard to kill, so he manages to survive all his suicide attempts. And all without succumbing to the temptation to feed.
"It is amazing that he was able to resist... feeding... while he was still so new. The instinct is more powerful then, it takes over everything. But he was so repelled by himself that he had the strength to try to kill himself with starvation."
"Is that possible?" My voice was faint.
"No, there are very few ways we can be killed."
Annoying comma splices aside, I'm a little intrigued by this. How can vampires be killed in the Twilight-verse? We already know sunlight doesn't do it. Wooden stakes to the heart? Cutting off the head? Fire?
But Edward, possibly in a bit of cagey self-preservation, doesn't reveal how a vampire can be killed, instead going on to tell more about Carlisle's early un-life as a self-loathing vampire. Because we've never seen one of those before. ::yawn:: So, weak with hunger, he finally feeds off a deer, and his strength returns, along with an epiphany: he doesn't need to kill humans to survive. So he swam to France...
Here Edward's tale gets derailed by Bella learning that vampires don't need to breathe. Why her brain sticks on this when she could skate blithely past "he may or may not have killed people" is beyond me, but it provides a nice opportunity for some emo brooding on Edward's part. Because we've never seen that before in a vampire, either. ::rolls eyes::
His face softened under my hand, and he sighed. "I keep waiting for it to happen."
"For what to happen?"
"I know that at some point, something I tell you or something you see is going to be too much. And then you'll run away from me, screaming as you go." He smiled, half a smile, but his eyes were serious. "I won't stop you. I want this to happen, because I want you to be safe. And yet, I want to be with you. The two desires are impossible to reconcile so in the next book, I'll go ahead and leave you so you can pine after me for months and months and months..." He trailed off, staring at my face. Waiting.
"I'm not running anywhere," I promised.
"We'll see," he said, smiling again.
This reads a lot like foreshadowing, but from all the spoilers I know from the series, she doesn't ever leave him. She should, not because he's a soulless demon who thirsts for her blood, but because he's a creepy stalker control-freak. But it's a bit of a wasted opportunity to show something in Bella other than she Stands By Her Man No Matter What.
Okay, back to Carlisle. He swam to France, studied at night (they had night school at European universities in the seventeenth century??) and "found his calling, his penance, in that, in saving human lives."
OMG, Edward isn't Angel. CARLISLE IS!!!
After "two centuries of torturous effort," Carlisle was able to learn how to resist the temptation of human blood, which is how he can work as a doctor without going off his diet. Edward then tells about how Carlisle met "the others" in Italy (and by "the others," I assume he means other vampires who don't feed off humans). He shows Bella a painting of four figures on a balcony looking down on the unwashed masses, and Edward explains that they are Carlisle's friends, Aro, Marcus, and Caius.
::sniff sniff:: Wait. Is that a plot I smell brewing?
"What happened to them?" I wondered aloud, my fingertip hovering a centimeter from the figures on the canvas.
"They're still there." He shrugged. "As they have been for who knows how many millennia. Carlisle stayed with them only for a short time, just a few decades. He greatly admired their civility, their refinement, but they persisted in trying to cure his aversion to 'his natural food source,' as they called it. They tried to persuade him, and he tried to persuade them, to no avail."
Wait. They weren't non-human-killing vampires? And he hung out with them for decades? I don't know, I guess it might be like a vegetarian hanging out with meat eaters, but to me it's more like an ardent right-to-lifer of the abortion-is-murder variety being best buds with an abortion doctor. Where does Killing People fall on Carlisle's morality scale? Is it EVIL, or just Wrong, but Who am I to Judge? 'Cause I gotta think that if he was kickin' it with the homeboys in Italy for DECADES, then he'd have to be think the latter. And if that's the case, shouldn't Bella be a little disturbed by this? Shouldn't killing people be a deal-breaker, full-stop?
Apparently not. Bella is silent on this bit of news, and Edward continued the tale. Carlisle heads out for the New World, hoping to find other vegetarian vampires, but to no avail. He is able to interact with humans more as monsters become myths in the world's eyes, however, and he becomes a doctor. But he was still lonely... until the influenza epidemic of the early 1900s. Enter, Edward.
"When the influenza epidemic hit, he was working nights in a hospital in Chicago. He'd been turning over an idea in his mind for serveral years, and he had almost decided to act--since he couldn't find a companion he would create one. He wasn't absolutely sure how his own transformation had occurred, so he was hesitant. And he was loath to steal anyone's life the way his had been stolen. It was in that frame of mind that he found me. There was no hope for me; I was left in a ward with the dying. He had nursed my parents, and knew I was alone. He decided to try..."
Now we're caught up to what he told her before about his own origins, so the tale of Carlisle is over, and Bella asks if Edward had remained with him ever since. When he replies, "Almost," she queries him further, and we finally get to the Big Question, the one about which Bella has shown a creepy lack of curiosity: Are you now, or have you ever been, a human-killing monster?
"Well, I had a typical bout of rebellious adolescence--about ten years after I was... born... created, whatever you want to call it. I wasn't sold on his life of abstinence, and I resented him for curbing my appetite. So I went off on my own for a time."
"Really?" I was intrigued, rather than frightened, as perhaps I should have been.
You think? You think maybe you just might want to be a tad bit concerned to find out the love of your life "wasn't sold" on not killing people? But then, that wouldn't be romantic if she weren't completely enthralled and not the least bit disturbed by anything Edward does, would it? ::sigh::
Edward, being the more sensible of the two, questions her about this.
"That doesn't repulse you?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"I guess... it sounds reasonable."
::blink::
I don't really know what to say to that.
"It took me only a few years to return to Carlisle and recommit to his vision. I thought I would be exempt from the... depression... that accompanies a conscience. Because I knew the thoughts of my prey, I could pass over the innocent and pursue only the evil. If I followed a murderer down a dark alley where he stalked a young girl--if I saved her, then surely I wasn't so terrible."
I'm having an Arnold flashback.
"Have you ever killed anyone?"
"Yeah, but they were all bad."
Hey, at least Jamie Lee Curtis cared enough to ask.
But Edward decides that even killing badguys isn't a good thing, and goes back to Carlisle and Esme, who "welcomed [him] back like the prodigal."
Then he shows her The Promised Land his bedroom. Where, in point of fact, there is no bed, what with him not ever sleeping and all. He says he's more than relieved to have all his secrets out: he's actually happy. But he also is waiting for her to run away, but she informs him she doesn't find him scary at all.
To which he responds by attacking her. Not to hurt her, you see. Just to scare her and keep her in her place remind her he's a killer. Then they have a good laugh--all in good fun, you see--until Alice and Jasper interrupt their not-sex. Alice makes a crack about Edward having Bella for lunch, and can she have some, too? Then Jasper announces that a storm is coming, so does Edward want to play ball? Because apparently vampires like to play baseball when it thunders. But we have to wait for the next chapter to find out why.
One more thing about Chapter Sixteen...
Quick Links:
Why I'm doing this | Preface & 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 16.2 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | Epilogue |
Discussion Questions
Sweet Sixteen: Carlisle
Based on the last chapter, entitled "The Cullens," being, essentially, Cullen-less, my expectations for a Carlisle-ful chapter are low. I don't dare hope that there be anything here that isn't All. About. Bella. And her love muffin.
Ah... there's hope! It starts out with Bella and Edward actually going right away to Carlisle's office so Bella can find out more about him. The first thing Edward shows her (and Carlisle is there, by the way, as they peruse through his history) is a wall of photos and paintings that don't seem to relate to each other. He shows her a painting of London in the 1650's. "The London of my youth," Carlisle tells her. Then, because he's neither Edward nor Bella, he beats a hasty retreat so that Edward can explain more of his history.
When Carlisle first realized he was a vampire, he was so horrified, he tried to kill himself. But vampires are a little hard to kill, so he manages to survive all his suicide attempts. And all without succumbing to the temptation to feed.
"It is amazing that he was able to resist... feeding... while he was still so new. The instinct is more powerful then, it takes over everything. But he was so repelled by himself that he had the strength to try to kill himself with starvation."
"Is that possible?" My voice was faint.
"No, there are very few ways we can be killed."
Annoying comma splices aside, I'm a little intrigued by this. How can vampires be killed in the Twilight-verse? We already know sunlight doesn't do it. Wooden stakes to the heart? Cutting off the head? Fire?
But Edward, possibly in a bit of cagey self-preservation, doesn't reveal how a vampire can be killed, instead going on to tell more about Carlisle's early un-life as a self-loathing vampire. Because we've never seen one of those before. ::yawn:: So, weak with hunger, he finally feeds off a deer, and his strength returns, along with an epiphany: he doesn't need to kill humans to survive. So he swam to France...
Here Edward's tale gets derailed by Bella learning that vampires don't need to breathe. Why her brain sticks on this when she could skate blithely past "he may or may not have killed people" is beyond me, but it provides a nice opportunity for some emo brooding on Edward's part. Because we've never seen that before in a vampire, either. ::rolls eyes::
His face softened under my hand, and he sighed. "I keep waiting for it to happen."
"For what to happen?"
"I know that at some point, something I tell you or something you see is going to be too much. And then you'll run away from me, screaming as you go." He smiled, half a smile, but his eyes were serious. "I won't stop you. I want this to happen, because I want you to be safe. And yet, I want to be with you. The two desires are impossible to reconcile so in the next book, I'll go ahead and leave you so you can pine after me for months and months and months..." He trailed off, staring at my face. Waiting.
"I'm not running anywhere," I promised.
"We'll see," he said, smiling again.
This reads a lot like foreshadowing, but from all the spoilers I know from the series, she doesn't ever leave him. She should, not because he's a soulless demon who thirsts for her blood, but because he's a creepy stalker control-freak. But it's a bit of a wasted opportunity to show something in Bella other than she Stands By Her Man No Matter What.
Okay, back to Carlisle. He swam to France, studied at night (they had night school at European universities in the seventeenth century??) and "found his calling, his penance, in that, in saving human lives."
OMG, Edward isn't Angel. CARLISLE IS!!!
After "two centuries of torturous effort," Carlisle was able to learn how to resist the temptation of human blood, which is how he can work as a doctor without going off his diet. Edward then tells about how Carlisle met "the others" in Italy (and by "the others," I assume he means other vampires who don't feed off humans). He shows Bella a painting of four figures on a balcony looking down on the unwashed masses, and Edward explains that they are Carlisle's friends, Aro, Marcus, and Caius.
::sniff sniff:: Wait. Is that a plot I smell brewing?
"What happened to them?" I wondered aloud, my fingertip hovering a centimeter from the figures on the canvas.
"They're still there." He shrugged. "As they have been for who knows how many millennia. Carlisle stayed with them only for a short time, just a few decades. He greatly admired their civility, their refinement, but they persisted in trying to cure his aversion to 'his natural food source,' as they called it. They tried to persuade him, and he tried to persuade them, to no avail."
Wait. They weren't non-human-killing vampires? And he hung out with them for decades? I don't know, I guess it might be like a vegetarian hanging out with meat eaters, but to me it's more like an ardent right-to-lifer of the abortion-is-murder variety being best buds with an abortion doctor. Where does Killing People fall on Carlisle's morality scale? Is it EVIL, or just Wrong, but Who am I to Judge? 'Cause I gotta think that if he was kickin' it with the homeboys in Italy for DECADES, then he'd have to be think the latter. And if that's the case, shouldn't Bella be a little disturbed by this? Shouldn't killing people be a deal-breaker, full-stop?
Apparently not. Bella is silent on this bit of news, and Edward continued the tale. Carlisle heads out for the New World, hoping to find other vegetarian vampires, but to no avail. He is able to interact with humans more as monsters become myths in the world's eyes, however, and he becomes a doctor. But he was still lonely... until the influenza epidemic of the early 1900s. Enter, Edward.
"When the influenza epidemic hit, he was working nights in a hospital in Chicago. He'd been turning over an idea in his mind for serveral years, and he had almost decided to act--since he couldn't find a companion he would create one. He wasn't absolutely sure how his own transformation had occurred, so he was hesitant. And he was loath to steal anyone's life the way his had been stolen. It was in that frame of mind that he found me. There was no hope for me; I was left in a ward with the dying. He had nursed my parents, and knew I was alone. He decided to try..."
Now we're caught up to what he told her before about his own origins, so the tale of Carlisle is over, and Bella asks if Edward had remained with him ever since. When he replies, "Almost," she queries him further, and we finally get to the Big Question, the one about which Bella has shown a creepy lack of curiosity: Are you now, or have you ever been, a human-killing monster?
"Well, I had a typical bout of rebellious adolescence--about ten years after I was... born... created, whatever you want to call it. I wasn't sold on his life of abstinence, and I resented him for curbing my appetite. So I went off on my own for a time."
"Really?" I was intrigued, rather than frightened, as perhaps I should have been.
You think? You think maybe you just might want to be a tad bit concerned to find out the love of your life "wasn't sold" on not killing people? But then, that wouldn't be romantic if she weren't completely enthralled and not the least bit disturbed by anything Edward does, would it? ::sigh::
Edward, being the more sensible of the two, questions her about this.
"That doesn't repulse you?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"I guess... it sounds reasonable."
::blink::
I don't really know what to say to that.
"It took me only a few years to return to Carlisle and recommit to his vision. I thought I would be exempt from the... depression... that accompanies a conscience. Because I knew the thoughts of my prey, I could pass over the innocent and pursue only the evil. If I followed a murderer down a dark alley where he stalked a young girl--if I saved her, then surely I wasn't so terrible."
I'm having an Arnold flashback.
"Have you ever killed anyone?"
"Yeah, but they were all bad."
Hey, at least Jamie Lee Curtis cared enough to ask.
But Edward decides that even killing badguys isn't a good thing, and goes back to Carlisle and Esme, who "welcomed [him] back like the prodigal."
Then he shows her The Promised Land his bedroom. Where, in point of fact, there is no bed, what with him not ever sleeping and all. He says he's more than relieved to have all his secrets out: he's actually happy. But he also is waiting for her to run away, but she informs him she doesn't find him scary at all.
To which he responds by attacking her. Not to hurt her, you see. Just to scare her and keep her in her place remind her he's a killer. Then they have a good laugh--all in good fun, you see--until Alice and Jasper interrupt their not-sex. Alice makes a crack about Edward having Bella for lunch, and can she have some, too? Then Jasper announces that a storm is coming, so does Edward want to play ball? Because apparently vampires like to play baseball when it thunders. But we have to wait for the next chapter to find out why.
One more thing about Chapter Sixteen...
Quick Links:
Why I'm doing this | Preface & 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 16.2 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | Epilogue |
Discussion Questions