Forks in the Road

I only got on the Twilight bandwagon about a week ago. Before then, the series held no interest for me whatsoever. In fact, I disdained Twilight fans just a little bit. The teenybopper factor of the series (which is quickly becoming Harry Potter for horny teenage girls) killed any desire I had to read it, as much as I like a good vampire story. I bought the first two installments of the Twilight series at Walgreen’s because they were only $7 a pop and I needed a rest from the heavy stuff for a while.

At first, I thought Twilight would be pure fluff, and I admit I was 60% correct. It’s mostly fluff, at this point. But that doesn’t mean it’s not worth thinking about. There are a few aspects of the novel that struck me.

1. What is it about Bella that catches Edward’s interest? The curmudgeon in me immediately supplied that Edward’s interested in her because she’s Kristin Stewart, who is generally considered hot. I thought, “He’s a vampire, could be decades or even centuries old, and has seen many hot girls in his time. What’s different about Bella?” Edward and his entire vampire family are beautiful themselves. It could be that Bella’s more attractive to him because her beauty will only last her another 40 or so years before it fades away—and 40 years is half an eye-blink to someone like Edward.

Then another idea came from Greek and Roman mythology: Immortals are often fascinated by the human tendency to spit in the face of mortality. Bella faces death every time she is alone with Edward, yet she never shows any fear, except when he illustrates his ability to punish trees in the clearing. Even then, I’d say she’s more in awe of him than afraid. And she’s too blinded by his glittering complexion to register that he could tear her head off and eat it. It’s not until she becomes James’s target that she realizes that Edward has been right all along, and she has been in terrible danger from the moment she met him. But, rather than taking his advice and bailing the first chance she gets, she deliberately (erroneously, because it’s what James wanted from the start, to draw Edward into a deathmatch) surrenders herself to James, assuming it’ll satisfy him and stop his rampage.

Throughout the first half of the novel, I perceived that Edward is oddly intuitive when it comes to other people; he seems to be able to say just the right thing to get people to do what he wants. But he can’t manipulate Bella like that. He’s often puzzled or even taken aback by her words and actions. Then, come to find out, he’s not just intuitive, he’s a mind-reader; and the only person whose thoughts he can’t hear are Bella’s. Bella is uncharted territory for him. She never does what he expects, and he can’t eavesdrop on her inner monologue to find out why. There are no doors that his money, his looks, his intelligence, his strength, or his gift won’t open for him—and Bella’s mind is a closed and locked door. He wants to figure her out because she intrigues him.

But, if he were to figure her out, would it kill the mystery? Would he still be interested in her then? Has he considered that? Does he care? After all, as a vampire, it’s his nature to suck things dry. For me, Edward is a closed and locked door.

2. As the discussion questions in the back of the book indicate (and yes, I ALWAYS read the discussion questions), temptation is a running theme in the novel. The most obvious incarnation of this theme is, obviously, Edward’s temptation to drink Bella. As Edward explains to Bella, when vampires are hungry, they become like animals, with little self-control. Anyone who has read Anne Rice’s vampire novels may also infer that draining the victim’s blood is the vampire version of sex (albeit not as enjoyable for the drainee, in the Twilight universe). It’s nearly vampire canon. The fact that Bella is a beautiful young woman whom Edward believes he loves drives this point home. Just as the book’s original cover art—a black and white photo of two hands cradling a vibrant red apple—implies, Bella is Edward’s forbidden fruit. Bella draws the parallel herself at the beginning of the novel when she quips that Edward doesn’t know her from Eve.

However, Bella is also tempted. Once she discovers how one becomes a vampire, she realizes that, despite the horrible pain she’d suffer during the process, she’s willing to do it to be with Edward forever. Unlike Edward, she’s not good at resisting temptation. She makes it clear that she’d gladly give up her mother and father, all of her friends, the sun, and all possibilities for a normal existence for him. Even if she does love Edward, this is hard to fathom. Edward himself doesn’t seem to like being a vampire—he constantly refers to the difficulty of resisting the temptation to drink people and the violence he is capable of. It’s possible that Bella doesn’t equate vampires with monsters simply for the fact of Edward’s existence, even though other vamps like James, Victoria, and Laurent prove that Edward and his family are the exception, not the norm. Maybe her obsession with Edward runs so deeply that she isn’t afraid to become a monster in order to be with Edward—or maybe Edward just makes it all seem cool.

At the end, she’s in way too deep to just leave Edward alone. Bella needs Edward to stick around. She bound herself to Edward, so now she needs him to protect her from the dangers a vampire’s human girlfriend will undoubtedly face. But even if she leaves Edward, the danger won’t go away. Victoria is still on the loose, and doubtless she blames Bella for James’s death. Changing Bella into a vampire may be the only way Edward can ensure her safety—something of which he’s well aware. And even if he personally doesn’t do the deed, Bella implies that she may try to convince Alice to do it. Alice is the one who told her how it’s done, and Edward has said that Alice once saw Bella’s future as a vampire. But Edward doesn’t want his girlfriend to become what he is. As Edward says at the end of the novel, we’re at an impasse.

3. Then there is the town of Forks. Forks. That is what one of my old college professors would call a “symbolism 2x4”. Hitting your face. Forks. Not a fork in the road, but Forks in the road. Each fork representing the choices being made throughout the novel that branch off into other forks and change everyone’s future. Bella’s decision to come to Forks, then Edward’s decision to befriend Bella, Edward’s decision to protect Bella, to reveal himself to Bella. Bella’s decision to devote herself to Edward, her decision to give herself up to James, her decision not to heed Billy Black’s advice to “break up with her boyfriend.” And, of course, there’s Alice’s gift: her ability to see the future. But her foresight is contingent on the choices made by those it concerns—because each fork leads to another fork, as I said.

If you go to Ms. Meyers’ website, she mentions that she thought Forks was the perfect setting for her little yarn, but she says so in regard to the frequently rainy and sunless weather. But I think I might have guessed another reason for choosing a town with a name like Forks for her novel’s setting.

So, it turns out there really is some meat to this novel. There are few things I seriously dislike about it, one being Bella’s Mary Sue-ness. I mean, come on. New girl in town instantly becomes popular and attracts legions of male followers, including a sexy, loaded vampire who could easily have any girl he wants. Not only is she beautiful, but she’s intelligent, independent, and courageous. She’s a boy magnet and a danger magnet. She gets in trouble all the time, and Edward the vampire is always there to rescue her. She faints in his arms, for crying out loud. She has all of these traits, plus she’s actually different from other people in one crucial way (as Edward puts it, her thoughts are “on a different frequency”). Edward’s family (except Rosalie) immediately likes her, going so far as to endanger themselves for her sake. One could argue that they’re really doing it for Edward’s sake because they value his happiness, but still. Edward implies that his family won’t approve of his relationship with Bella, but if that’s true, they accept her too readily. I think Rosalie’s dislike of Bella may be just to suspend the readers’ disbelief.

That’s all I’ve got to say about Twilight for now. I’ll be reading New Moon next, and after that I’ll probably take a break from this series and read something else.