Guten Tag (Well, “Abend” for me, but Tag sounds better:3)! Picking up where we left off (page 7, if you're interested)
So Bells is majorly bummed for her birthday. Seems to me like Bella is always either bummed or swooning over Ed. And people say she's deep. Pfft. Anyway, Bella is moping and bringing down the feel of the novel right off the bat when... Prince Charming appears! All is better again! I know this was supposed to show how... uh... important Edward is to Bella or some shits like that, but what came across to me is that her feelings are shallow. Unimportant. If she can go from depressed to fangirl in the blink of an eye, her sorrow must not be as heart-wrenching as she'd have us think.
Also! If you've been in a relationship for a year(?) and still can't see any flaws with the other person, and especially if you think you don't deserve them, then you need psychiatric help.
Bella is greeted at school by Ed and Alice; Ms. Meyer spends paragraph over paragraph describing Bells' joy at seeing Edward, and about half a sentence on Alice. This further supports my theory that Ms. Meyer really just wanted to write about Ed and Bell alone in the world, but thought it wouldn't sell. Does she think it would somehow de-Speshulize their “love” if Bella were close with Alice too and genuinely excited to see her?
Note that once again Ms. Meyer comments on how beautiful the vampires are (if I ever re-read these, I will count how many times she brings it up), with attention to the bruise-like circles under their eyes. Now, maybe this is just me, but I find bruises alarming, not hot.
A lot of people, when I bring up Bella's character traits mention her selfishness over the whole “birthday” issue. Up until now I haven't been able to comment, but no more. I also felt that that particular episode emphasized certain character's... unfortunate sides, but, to my surprise, Bella was not chief among them.
-Bella's stance on the birthday issue is stupid, I think, but it's her stance and it's her birthday. If she doesn't want a party, so be it. The Cullens are in the wrong here. Edward claims to be such a good boyfriend, but here he repeats his controlling aspects; she doesn't want a party, he makes her go anyway. He discusses it with Alice with no doubt in his voice that it will happen. When Bella protests, he ignores her. Strikingly familiar to the kidnapping scene in Twilight. This is what we call “Boyfriends Behaving Badly” and I sincerely hope there is an afterlife for vampires, just so Edward can rot in hell.
And I also want to read that parody, because it sounds so full of pwnage<3