Twilight, 1.9

In which there is a headache.

How do people fall in love? This is one of the oldest, most impossible, most obsessed-over questions in human history. I won't pretend to have a definitive answer. I like to think that I've been in love a couple of times, although the passage of time and clarity of hindsight brings me to question one of those. There really isn't a mechanism, a formula. It isn't as simple as flipping a hormonal switch and having that particular part of the brain explode electrically. And no, I don't believe in love at first sight. If anything, love takes time. It's a process, and endless process of growth and exploration. This does not happen instantly. Attraction at first sight, sure. Lust, easily. But not love.

All of this is preamble. Bella does not love Edward. She just doesn't. They've spent, what, a few hours together at the most? Most of which involved sitting silent in Bio. They don't really know a thing about each other, and what Bella does know is fairly horrifying. What is Edward passionate about? Is he familiar with the concept of humor? I'm not going to judge him for being a vampire, as I'm assuming he didn't make the choice to become one. See, it's important to judge people based on their actions and intentions, not assumptions, projections, and physical superficialities.

I do have a few questions for Eddie, though. Let's start with this; How fucking old are you? Seventeen for a while. Except, Bella is actually 17. She's a minor, a child. Edward is an adult. It doesn't matter how old you look, but how old you actually are. Tom Cruise, who clearly has a Lazurus pit in one of his backyards, isn't a kid and therefore has the decency to not date children himself. What we're seeing set up in this book is a disturbing, patriarchal relationship with a seriously fucking disturbing imbaance of power. I'm sure I'll have more opportunity to rant about this later, so let's move on.

I'm kind of amazed that PETA didn't burn Stephenie Meyer in effigy, but whatever. I myself am not a vegetarian, so I won't judge the vampires for hunting animals. What I am judging them for is endangering the lives of several hundred innocent teenagers. Edward wants to kill Bella, and presumably all of her classmates, every second of every day. So. Yeah. Great guy, that Edward. Why the fuck don't they go live in the woods where they belong?

Enough for tonight. This book makes me so angry. Next post, I'm going to shift away from recapping and try to be a little more intellectually engaged. It porbably won't go well. See ya soon, crips and bloods.