Eclipse, Ch. 4

Chapter 4. Nature

I knew that essentially nothing had changed.

Awesome. Mention it to Stephenie Meyer next time.

Graduation was only a few weeks away, but I wondered if it wasn't a little foolish to sit
around, weak and tasty, waiting for the next disaster. It seemed too dangerous to be human -
just begging for trouble.

Whoa. A character just had the same objection I had. Good sense? In the Twilight-verse? Weird.

Unfortunately, nothing happens on this front because Bella wants Edward to turn her but he won’t do it unless they’re married. At this point I honestly don’t know why they haven’t eloped; it’s not like it would get a worse reaction than being turned into a supernatural creature with a craving for human blood.

Hey, are you in the mood for a crushingly obvious metaphor? Stephenie Meyer is! Bella is playing with some magnets and starts to get frustrated that they repel each other:

Finally, exasperated at myself more than the magnets, I pulled them from the fridge and held
them together with two hands. It took a little effort - they were strong enough to put up a
fight - but I forced them to coexist side-by-side.
"See," I said out loud - talking to inanimate objects, never a good sign - "That's not so
horrible, is it?"

Do you get it? Do you see what she did there? The magnets are like Jacob and Edward! And Bella is like…well, Bella, except instead of pushing magnets together she’s pushing two opposing supernatural factions together! Look, everybody, symbolism!

Anyway, Bella goes to visit Jacob. Everything is sweetness and light even though they haven’t had a civil conversation since halfway through New Moon. What is Meyer up to here? I don’t see why she’s still keeping this alive when it’s already served its purpose. Was she hell-bent on writing four books no matter what?

Jacob fills Bella in about the hunt for Victoria, and he wishes that Bella hadn’t attracted Alice’s attention by improvising a suicide, because then they’d still be on good terms. And I believe I speak for every male reader of the Twilight series–all three of us–when I say: It’s over, man. Let her go. Yeah, it sucks that the girl you like is stupidly in love with your mortal enemy, but life is like that sometimes. Pick one of the billions of women not attracted to someone you’re genetically predisposed to hate. Sadly, there’s no one to tell Jacob this, and he tries one last time to convince Bella how stupid it is for a prey animal to try to hook up with its natural predator. He’s right, but everyone knows it’s wasted on Bella. He tries to convince Bella to at least get together with a human. Bella’s response?

"Well, that just sucks!" I snapped. "I guess I'm stuck with Mike Newton after all."

Okay, ladies, enlighten me on this one. How did you feel when Bella said this? As a guy, I don’t think I’ve ever liked Bella less than this moment. And what on earth is Stephenie Meyer going for here? How would you feel if, in The Little Mermaid, the Prince had said, “To hell with human women, only a mermaid is good enough for me!” Would you find it romantic, or would you find it just a little bit insulting that your entire gender isn’t good enough? Wouldn’t it be enough for Bella to say that she’s just in love with Edward without being contemptuous of human men as a whole?

It would be one thing if Meyer had placed someone in the novels to call Bella out on her terrible attitude, or if she had intentionally written Bella to be perceived as stupid or immature. Instead, we’ve been told time and again how much more mature she is than her parents and treated as if she were a thoughtful adult. Doesn’t Meyer realize how it looks when what is ostensibly your wisest character says repellent things?