In Which I Read Twilight: Chapter 16 -- Carlisle · 3:02pm Jan 30th, 2018
To explain Carlisle and his past to Bella more, Edward takes her into Carlisle’s room, to show her some pictures of the time period. Carlisle himself is still there, reading, and the only reason he doesn’t tell the story himself is because he’s running late. To his job as a doctor. Where he saves people’s lives. BECAUSE HE WAS READING.
Anyway, Edward exposits. Carlisle knew he’d become a vampire and was so horrified by what he’d become that he tried to drown himself and later starve himself to death. Those didn’t work (there are very few ways to kill a vampire), so he made himself an outcast so he wouldn’t lose his will and kill somebody. One night, a herd of deer passed by him, and he killed one without a second thought, he was so thirsty. When he realized his thirst was temporarily sated, he developed a new philosophy. He’d eaten animal meat instead of human meat when he was a human, so why not drink animal blood instead of human blood now? He could avoid becoming a monster, and now he had eternity to study and learn whatever he wanted.
Carlisle traveled to the mainland and studied. He found his calling in medicine as a sort of penance: instead of ending lives, he’d save them. He slowly perfected his self-control, hence why he can work in a bloody environment without going into a feeding frenzy. He soon found other vampires in Italy. Although they were incredibly cultured, they kept trying to get Carlisle to feed on human blood, and he kept trying to get them to feed on animal blood. Eventually, they parted ways, with Carlisle setting out for the Americas. As the years wore on, he grew lonely. During the Spanish flu epidemic, an idea formed: since he didn’t have any companions, he’d make one. He was working the night shift at a hospital in Chicago, found Edward, and successfully turned him.
Now, this could’ve been amazing. A vampire hunter is turned into a vampire himself, manages to keep his morals, and not only avoids eating his natural prey, but devotes his life to helping them? Wow. That’s pretty damn creative. But do we delve into the existential issues of that? Do we hear any philosophy from Carlisle besides “killing people is wrong”? Nope. Carlisle’s past doesn’t factor into the rest of the book at all. It’s almost like it’s there only to provide a way for Edward to survive without needing to drink human blood. I really, really want Twilight to be rewritten by a better author.
Edward admits that he had a “rebellious teenage phase” after being turned; he didn’t want to abstain from human blood. He left Carlisle for a while and fed on humans. Thanks to his mind-reading powers, he could avoid innocents and only feed on would-be murderers and the like to assuage his conscience. Vampire vigilante for the win! Until the guilt got to be too much, he decided that killing is killing regardless of who’s being killed, and went back to Carlisle. You know, weeding out the scum of the earth isn’t exactly a bad thing, Edward, especially if you know for a fact that they’re guilty thanks to your powers.
The two of them arrive at Edward’s room, where:
The western wall was completely covered with shelf after shelf of CDs. His room was better stocked than a music store.
His room’s better stocked than a music store even though he loathes 60’s and 70’s classics? Even though he only has CDs when a lot of music stores also carry vinyl? (You know, if he’d preferred records instead of CDs, that could’ve been a nice character trait: “Vinyls have richer sound. CDs strip out too much ‘noise’ that adds flavor.” Alas, as with many other options that would have vastly improved the book, it was not to be.)
Edward says he’s relieved that he doesn’t need to keep secrets from Bella anymore. In fact, he’s happy about it. A potential moment of character development rapidly turns sappy when they start wrestling-but-not-really, and the sappiness is thankfully cut short when Alice and Jasper enter Edward’s room.
“It sounded like you were having Bella for lunch, and we came to see if you would share,” Alice announced.
But she’s just joking. Yay! Someone with a sense of humor that isn’t dull snark! I love you more, Alice. No, Alice and Jasper are just there to ask Edward if he wants to play ball with them that evening; there’s a storm coming. Edward accepts, and Alice adds that he should bring Bella to watch. The game she’ll be watching? Baseball.
It really is a shame to see so many promising ideas fall by the wayside because the author is most focused on the part she can least write.
It really is amazing, watching the potential just be swallowed up by the gulf of Meyer's talent.
Here's a title for this hypothetical AU Twilight in which it had a competent author: Gloaming. Not only is it a synonym for Twilight, it also sounds kinda dark and gloomy.
4785188
Indeed. What could have been, if she had been writing one of these other stories rather than a poorly thought-out creepy romance?
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Aaaand now I have a title for if I'm ever crazy enough to attempt this. Thanks.
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Welcome, I think!
Sounds like it could be a really cool series on its own...
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Blade? OK he's a Dhampir but still