Author's note: I originally put this on the Amazon forum, back in 2008.
To start: on her webpage SM says about the cover of Twilight: "In the end, I love the beautiful simplicity of the picture. To me it says: choice." Then in the FAQ for BD she goes on and on about choice. Bella's choices.
Now, look at this article. In it she is quoted:
"It's about keeping yourself free of addictions," she explains, sitting on a huge couch in her living room. "We have free will, which is a huge gift from God. If you tie that up with something like, I don't know, cocaine, then you don't really have a lot of freedom anymore."
Why, oh why, would she go on and on about Bella's "choices" when she has made it very plain in the books that Bella has a VERY addictive personality that takes away her free will? Examples:
Page 283 of Twilight: "It would cause me physical pain to be separated from him now"
Page 292 of Twilight: "It was easier to say in the darkness, knowing as I spoke how my voice would betray me, my hopeless addiction to him"
Page 162 of New Moon: "Maybe I was developing a new kind of sickness, another addiction like the numbness before"
Page 219 of New Moon: "But, I needed Jacob now, needed him like a drug."
Page 352 of New Moon: "I was addicted to the sound of my delusions"
Page 17 of Eclipse: "His touch brought the strangest sense of relief-as if I'd been in pain and the pain had suddenly ceased."
Page 599 of Eclipse "He's like a drug for you Bella"
There's more implicit references in the books, those are just the explicit ones. The point is, Bellas has very little free-will to make choices other than to satisfy her addictions. Her addiction to Edward just outweighed the others. So, why do we keep being told these books are about choice?
Author's Note: There is also some excellent discussion about "choice" in Twilight in this article.
Friday, January 30, 2009
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