Reading Twilight So You Don't Have To: Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One: Phone Call
Bella wakes up to find Alice had another vision and was drawing "the room with the VCR." I was confused for a moment, and had to look back over the previous chapter to realize that she'd actually seen TWO rooms before, the ballet studio, and another room with a VCR that was too dark for details. Opps, my bad.
Anyway, this vision of this second room is now light, so Alice draws it and Bella recognizes her mother's house. Although... the reveal is rather... dull. We're in Bella's POV, and she has just learned that Alice had a vision of a killer in her mother's home. She reveals this by whispering to Alice "the phone goes there." Alice and Jasper look at Bella, and she tells them "That's my mother's house."
Let me repeat. We're in Bella's POV. First person, even. And we get ZERO sense of emotion. Not even a sense that she feels no emotion. Just... nothing. This bugs me a lot. The BEST thing about novels (as opposed to other media, like movies, for example) is the ability to get inside the characters' heads. Or at least one character's head in the case of a single POV or first person story. We're in Bella's head here, so why do we get no sense whatsoever about what she is feeling upon learning that a killer will soon be in her mother's house? Does Stephanie Meyer not understand point of view at all?? (Although, in her defense, a lot of writers don't, including a few professional ones.)
A little further, she describes Alice's reaction to her revelation, and how Jasper uses his calming mojo on her so that "[t]he panic stayed dull, unfocused."
WHAT PANIC??? YOU HAVEN'T SHOWN US ANYTHING REMOTELY RESEMBLING PANIC! Or, you know, emotions of ANY KIND.
But hey, at least these are writing complaints and not OMG-this-is-what-young-girls-are-learning-about-relationships??? complaints.
I could go on all day about this, because it continues in the same vein, with lots of talking about the situation without really living it or feeling it.
Fortunately, the plot returned to distract me. Bella's mom calls, only she's already been captured by James the Tracker. He has Bella pretend she's talking to her mom while he tells her her to lose Alice and Jasper and go to her mother's house. There she will find a phone number and call it for further instructions. Bella decides she will do what he says, sacrificing herself for her mother and possibly her other loved ones, including the Cullens. (Aha, and now the preface stuff about dying in the place of someone she loves becomes clear.)
Then she goes on this emo jag about not seeing Edward again before she dies, and she writes him a good-bye letter. Okay, I wanna cut her some slack since she's going off to her death, and all, but seriously? Nothing for her dad or her mom? Just Edward? He's the only one she can think about?
Well, at least she isn't sacrificing her mom to be with him. Which, actually, would kind of be in character for her. Well, not her mom, I guess. She was a martyr to her mother to begin with, with the whole moving to Forks thing.
And that's where the chapter ends. Mercifully brief. May the remaining three be the same.
Chapter Twenty-Two
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
Chapter Twenty-One: Phone Call
Bella wakes up to find Alice had another vision and was drawing "the room with the VCR." I was confused for a moment, and had to look back over the previous chapter to realize that she'd actually seen TWO rooms before, the ballet studio, and another room with a VCR that was too dark for details. Opps, my bad.
Anyway, this vision of this second room is now light, so Alice draws it and Bella recognizes her mother's house. Although... the reveal is rather... dull. We're in Bella's POV, and she has just learned that Alice had a vision of a killer in her mother's home. She reveals this by whispering to Alice "the phone goes there." Alice and Jasper look at Bella, and she tells them "That's my mother's house."
Let me repeat. We're in Bella's POV. First person, even. And we get ZERO sense of emotion. Not even a sense that she feels no emotion. Just... nothing. This bugs me a lot. The BEST thing about novels (as opposed to other media, like movies, for example) is the ability to get inside the characters' heads. Or at least one character's head in the case of a single POV or first person story. We're in Bella's head here, so why do we get no sense whatsoever about what she is feeling upon learning that a killer will soon be in her mother's house? Does Stephanie Meyer not understand point of view at all?? (Although, in her defense, a lot of writers don't, including a few professional ones.)
A little further, she describes Alice's reaction to her revelation, and how Jasper uses his calming mojo on her so that "[t]he panic stayed dull, unfocused."
WHAT PANIC??? YOU HAVEN'T SHOWN US ANYTHING REMOTELY RESEMBLING PANIC! Or, you know, emotions of ANY KIND.
But hey, at least these are writing complaints and not OMG-this-is-what-young-girls-are-learning-about-relationships??? complaints.
I could go on all day about this, because it continues in the same vein, with lots of talking about the situation without really living it or feeling it.
Fortunately, the plot returned to distract me. Bella's mom calls, only she's already been captured by James the Tracker. He has Bella pretend she's talking to her mom while he tells her her to lose Alice and Jasper and go to her mother's house. There she will find a phone number and call it for further instructions. Bella decides she will do what he says, sacrificing herself for her mother and possibly her other loved ones, including the Cullens. (Aha, and now the preface stuff about dying in the place of someone she loves becomes clear.)
Then she goes on this emo jag about not seeing Edward again before she dies, and she writes him a good-bye letter. Okay, I wanna cut her some slack since she's going off to her death, and all, but seriously? Nothing for her dad or her mom? Just Edward? He's the only one she can think about?
Well, at least she isn't sacrificing her mom to be with him. Which, actually, would kind of be in character for her. Well, not her mom, I guess. She was a martyr to her mother to begin with, with the whole moving to Forks thing.
And that's where the chapter ends. Mercifully brief. May the remaining three be the same.
Chapter Twenty-Two
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