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Twilight Chapter 9 "Theory"


This is really an Info-Dump chapter. Basically Bella and Edward are playing twenty questions. Though while Edward is supposed to be asking the questions, it's really Bella who does most of them.



Bella and Edward are driving back to Forks in Edward's car. Edward is driving fast. Bella wants to know how Edward knew she had gone south and not to the bookstore. What follows is the InfoDump Du Edward.

He followed her scent.

She has no reaction to this. She can't think of how to react to it so she decides to figure out how to react to it later. "I couldn't think of an acceptable response to that, but I filed it carefully away for future study." Off the top of my head, my response would be, "You did what?" Or at least give him a bug-eyed look.

Instead she just moves on to mind-reading, which she has accepted, once again, as perfectly plausible, and not like he's kidding her. Most of the time, if someone says they read minds, they're being sarcastic. The one thing that does bother her is that he can't read her mind.

"Why do you think you can't hear me?" I asked curiously.
He looked at me, his eyes enigmatic.

"I don't know," he murmured. "The only guess I have is that maybe your
mind doesn't work the same way the rest of theirs do. Like your thoughts
are on the AM frequency and I'm only getting FM." He grinned at me,
suddenly amused.

"My mind doesn't work right? I'm a freak?" The words bothered me more
than they should — probably because his speculation hit home. I'd always
suspected as much, and it embarrassed me to have it confirmed.

Yes, notice how it goes back to her. It's not about Edward being able to read minds and how that is weird or freaky. No, it's about how BELLA is a freak because Edward (the freak) can't read her mind. If you've read enough comic books etc you know it's the ones with the powers who are the freaks, or considered so, not the normal people. Thought with the way Bella trips and falls all the time, it could hardly be said she's normal. Still, as I pointed out, its noticeably about her and not about Edward's weird abilities.

Edward brings this up to her. She doesn't notice it.

Instead Bella, reasonably, freaks out about Edward going over a hundred miles per hour. Though her use of the phrase "Holy crow" leaves something to desire. Normal people don't say "holy crow". I imagine this is Meyers the Mormon speaking here as opposed to Bella.

Edward is hardly reassuring to her, saying that he's never gotten into an accident or a ticket because of a radar. Also he dislikes driving slow. Grudgingly he does slow down. To eighty. While disobeying traffic laws is one thing, he should at least respect Bella's fears on driving to fast. It is a small concession that he could make so that Bella would feel more comfortable, which if he likes her, he should do. Even if he does like driving fast. It's a matter of consideration for friends. Or potential designated love interests.

Which, now that I think about it, is the big problem with this. They're designated love interests. There's no reason for them to be together beyond Meyer Says So. This makes it harder to believe and get invested in the relationship, or at least make it seem real. Of course people have argued that Bella is merely a place holder for the reader, but in that case there should still be some chemistry between the two of them to give the reader a reason to want Edward.

Bella tells him how she learned that he's a vampire, which he's never explicitly stated. Going through Jacob telling her the stories and about his family and then her searches on the interwebs. Then she tells him it didn't matter.

"I decided it didn't matter," I whispered.

"It didn't matter?" His tone made me look up — I had finally broken
through his carefully composed mask. His face was incredulous, with just
a hint of the anger I'd feared.

"No," I said softly. "It doesn't matter to me what you are."

A hard, mocking edge entered his voice. "You don't care if I'm a monster?
If I'm not human!"

"No."

He was silent, staring straight ahead again. His face was bleak and cold.

Now, I would be silent too, if someone just said they didn't care that they were interested in a monster who could and has constantly stated, that they were dangerous and could kill them. This is not the behavior of a sane person. Sane people do not willingly jump into the maws of dangerous people. This is abnormal behavior and shouldn't be encouraged like it is here.

Finally we get to the Vampire part, that is what Edward's abilities are.

"Don't laugh — but how can you come out during the daytime?"

He laughed anyway. "Myth."

"Burned by the sun?"

"Myth."

"Sleeping in coffins?"

"Myth." He hesitated for a moment, and a peculiar tone entered his voice.

"I can't sleep."

It took me a minute to absorb that. "At all?"

So. The weirdest thing she finds her is that he can't sleep. Not that any of the myths are false or anything, but she has trouble getting that he can't sleep. The annoying thing here is that Meyers has just taken away all of the vampire's vulnerabilities. There isn't anything here that can stop them. Which then begs the question of why aren't they running the world? Clearly the Cullens are in the minority of vampire behavior from what Jacob Black has told us earlier and it would make sense for intelligent creatures to conveniently domesticate their food animals, much like we have done for cows, horses, sheep, etc. It brings to mind Spike's comment in a Buffy episode where he didn't want to kill the world because it was like Happy Meals on legs.

The best example I can think of in recent vampire lore is in the end of the fourth season of Angel where the Big Bad of the Season has caused the sun to vanish and cast the world in darkness. The vampires now able to take to the streets without fear of the sun promptly do so causing mass mayhem and damage. Essentially, the Meyers vampires could do the same thing. They have nothing to fear about being in the sunlight. They're stronger, faster, sparkier than anyone. They should have been ruling the world ages ago.

Then we get this lovely part.

"It makes me… anxious… to be away from you." His eyes were gentle but
intense, and they seemed to be making my bones turn soft. "I wasn't
joking when I asked you to try not to fall in the ocean or get run over
last Thursday. I was distracted all weekend, worrying about you. And
after what happened tonight, I'm surprised that you did make it through a
whole weekend unscathed." He shook his head, and then seemed to remember
something. "Well, not totally unscathed."

He too feels the anxiety that she does when they're not together. Obviously, then, they were meant to be together. This is foreshadowing. It's not very good foreshadowing because we've already seen that they're inexplicably drawn to each other. Also since Bella has only shown interest in Edward as opposed any of the other guys hanging around her, there isn't any tension. Or things like that. Bella never even thinks twice about Edward constantly telling her he's dangerous. It's just "Okay!" Perky smile!

Edward does admit that he's been back for a few days, and when Bella wants to know why he didn't go to school if he's not hurt by sunlight he says that he can't go out in sunlight where anyone could see him. OOOOH Mysterious. Maybe he turns into some sort of MONSTER!! After all he keeps on saying he's a Monster! OH NO! WHATEVER MIGHT HAPPEN TO POOOR BELLA !!!! GASP!!

After some back and forth on Edward being dangerous goes by for another page or so and then Edward wants to know what she was doing when he was just about to rescue her. She said she was trying to remember how to stop attacker. Instead of running away, because she falls down a lot when she runs away. So, she's not clumsy enough to try and fight someone but she is to run away. Personally, I think running away would be less dangerous because it would get you away from the group of people than fighting which would give them the opportunity to you know, get you. But of course, I'm using Earth logic again.

Edward comments that it is his fate to try and keep her alive. Haha it is to laugh.

FINALLY Edward drops her off. He makes her promise something.

"Bella?" he asked in a different tone — serious, but hesitant.

"Yes?" I turned back to him too eagerly.

"Will you promise me something?"

"Yes," I said, and instantly regretted my unconditional agreement. What
if he asked me to stay away from him? I couldn't keep that promise.

"Don't go into the woods alone."

I stared at him in blank confusion. "Why?"

He frowned, and his eyes were tight as he stared past me out the window.
"I'm not always the most dangerous thing out there. Let's leave it at
that."

The thing is here. Edward has been telling her not to do things this entire book, what makes him think that she'll listen to him now. It's almost one hundred percent assured now that she will go into the woods and something bad will happen to her. Why? Because Edward needs to rescue here again from danger.

Finally, Bella is dropped off at home, when she takes a shower we get this:

About three things I was absolutely positive. First, Edward was a
vampire. Second, there was part of him — and I didn't know how potent
that part might be — that thirsted for my blood. And third, I was
unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him.

While the first two are perfectly reasonable, the third is utterly laughable. Bella has never been in love before. How does she know exactly what love is like? How does she know it's irrevocable? They barely know each other. They've had three real conversations and all of them included, "I'm Dangerous Stay Away From Me". She knows nothing about him except he's a vampire. This is not love, this is lust. She's a teenager. Teenager's go where their hormones blow. And a lot of times they're irrevocably in love with someone new every other week. Fan girls are a prime example of this. This statement is hard to take seriously, especially given the situation.