I'm on Team Eric

Hello everyone, and welcome to my third entry in Twilight and the High Life! My first four days of reading got me only as far as the middle of the first chapter, but the last couple of days have seen a flurry of reading activity that has sent me surging all the way to page 68.

At the time of my last post I had just reached the point where the head-scratchingly-named Bella Swan was about to leave home for her first day at Forks High School. Little did I know that her school experiences were about to demonstrate her propensity for ... er, how should I put this delicately?... oh yes: bitchiness. I suppose I shouldn't be terribly surprised. Being a proud Seattle native, I was already disinclined to like her after reading of her reaction to the rain-soaked topography of Forks: "too green - an alien planet." I liked her even less upon reading of her smirking reaction to two young gentlemen named Eric and Mike who were both helpful and pleasant in helping her get oriented in her new school surroundings. Eric's assistance in showing Bella to her second class of the day earned him a dismissive "overly helpful, chess club type" description from our heroine, while Mike's similar services got him tacitly regarded as "taking on the qualities of a golden retriever."

Meanwhile, Bella has formed an overwhelming obsession with one Edward Cullen, whom she describes as "devastatingly, inhumanly beautiful" and possessing a mug that seems to be "painted by an old master as the face of an angel." And how does this angelic person welcome Bella? "He stared at me...meeting my eyes with the strangest expression on his face - it was hostile, furious ... He was leaning away from me, sitting on the extreme edge of his chair and averting his face like he smelled something bad ... He was glaring at me again, his black eyes full of revulsion..." and so forth. Naturally, Bella seems to be head-over-heels in love with this young gentleman, who if I'm not mistaken is also a vampire.

Is it just me, or is Bella clearly destined for one abusive relationship after another? Granted, Edward is surprisingly pleasant the next time he meets our heroine, and proves to be a shockingly intelligent lab partner in science class. There's also the small matter of him using some sort of otherworldly power to save Bella from being crushed to death by a van spinning on an icy road. Still, even if Edward weren't a vampire, he doesn't seem like he would make a particularly upstanding human at this point in the story. I realize it's still early in the book, and by my calculation I have only read 13.4% of it, but Bella just seems like the kind of person who grows up to be a battered wife who constantly says "It's my fault!" rather like Connie Corleone in The Godfather. I'd feel more sympathy for her if she weren't so patronizingly dismissive of classmates like Eric and Mike, who have shown nothing but thoughtfulness towards her. I just can't say I like Bella Swan at this point.

But still, things are early, and it's just a work of fiction, no? I'll do my best to keep an open mind as I  plow ahead in my journey into the world of Paranormal Teen Romance fiction.

And no, I did not purchase a copy of Alice in Zombieland at the same time I bought Twilight, so let's go ahead and put that rumor to rest.

Stick a Forks in that book!

Hello everyone! Welcome to Twilight and the High Life, and my first day of commentary on the first book in Stephenie Meyer's hugely popular series of vampire novels.

I bought my copy of Twilight last Tuesday at a Barnes and Noble in Spokane, Washington. My first impression of the book immediately upon purchase was an intense and profoundly emotional one: "I just bought a book that was in the Teen Paranormal Romance section???" Not really able to believe what I was doing, I actually (this is true) was so embarrassed by my purchase that I felt compelled to also buy a copy of BBC Music. With Georg Solti on the cover of this month's issue, I felt a little bit safer about combining that purchase with Twilight.

The friendly sales lady, apparently under the impression that the teen paranormal romance novel wasn't for me, naturally assumed I would want a gift receipt. I think it should be an indication of just how comfortable I am in my mature masculinity that I declined.

Anyway, after four days of furious reading I have managed to get almost halfway through the first chapter of Twilight, and in that time I have formed some very developed opinions of the book that are at least slightly more informed than simply judging it by its cover.

Things begin with a bible verse, Genesis 2:17, in which we read that "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." The death that verse speaks of has generally been interpreted as a spiritual death - the separation of humankind from God. The Geneva Study Bible, for example, has this commentary on the passage: "By death he means the separation of man from God, who is our life and chief happiness: and also that our disobedience is the cause of it." Vampire traditions change from book to book, but in most cases vampires are viewed as the embodiment of rebellion against God. The laws of physics and of mortality don't apply to them; they live outside the ordinary constraints of the universe. I assume that is the parallel Meyer is drawing with that particular bible verse, though as yet I don't really have much to go on.

Moving on to first chapter, we encounter a heroine by the name of Bella Swan, who has just moved from Phoenix to live with her father in the small, rainy town of Forks, Washington. I know what you're thinking: what kind of name is Bella Swan? Last night I asked my wife what her reaction would have been if I were writing Twilight and had decided to name my heroine Bella Swan. "I would have told you writing's not your thing," she said. Sage words, indeed. Yet I felt compelled to continue reading all the way to page 14, when I decided I would rather go to bed. But I was intrigued at the choice of Forks, Washington as the primary locale for Twilight, and that may keep me interested enough to finish the book someday.

I recall reading a few years back that Meyer had never been to Forks, and chose it only because it gets more rain than any other town in the continental United States. I have not been to Forks either, but I am quite familiar with the Olympic Peninsula, where Forks is located. While I was growing up my family would regularly vacation at Lake Quinalt Lodge, which is not far from Forks. The lodge is located in a temperate rainforest where moss seems to cover everything. "Like something out of Avatar," was how my wife described it. Bella's description of the region is a little less charitable: "too green, an alien planet." Something tells me I'm not going to like Bella.

I stopped reading right at the point where Bella is about to leave for her first day of high school in her new town. Perhaps I should read a little more before I comment further, but I can't say my initial impressions are favorable. We'll see comes next.

Twilight and the High Life: A Concise Introduction

Welcome to Twilight and the High Life, a cultural elitist's journey into the world of popular literature! In this blog I will be writing about my reactions to the insanely popular series of teen vampire novels by Stephenie Meyer. I don't know what to expect from these books, but if society's winds are any indication they will be a genuine, if somewhat guilty, pleasure. I look forward to sharing my reactions in as entertaining a manner as my effervescent prose style allows. Please be kind.

If you've read any of my previous blog, 80 Days of Toscanini, you'll know that I am a classical musician by trade, and a relatively snobby one at that. Why, then, am I venturing into a very popular subject matter, and one so far removed from what it is I do for a living? The less lofty answer is that my orchestra is currently on strike and I'm frankly a little bored. I have not yet read any of the Twilight books, and doing so while writing about my reactions to them seems like a good way to kill some time in a reasonably enjoyable way.

The deeper reason has to do with my constitutional fear of being left out of a cultural phenomenon. This may stem from a childhood in which I was always afraid of there being a party or some other form of social excitement to which I was not invited. I've never liked the idea of there being fun times going on to which I was not privy. So to this day, despite the high-brow cultural milieu I immerse myself in as a matter of both personal inclination and professional necessity, I regularly find myself drawn into the world of the uncultivated and the faddishly mainstream (or is it just my own myopic view that leads me to see it as uncultivated?). I frequently watch South Park and Family Guy on the same day I've rehearsed Beethoven and Brahms, and there's nothing about that that doesn't make sense.

The time has finally come where I must admit that Twilight has become a true cultural phenomenon. Lots and lots of people are talking about it, and I can't talk about it with them, because I have never read the books. I have also not seen any of the popular series of films based on the Twilight novels, because it just seemed kind of silly to watch them before I'd read any of the books. I greatly admired Kristen Stewart's performance in Adventureland, and Robert Pattinson gave Hufflepuff House great respectability in the fourth Harry Potter film. It's time to see the movies and experience more of what these fine actors can do, but first I want to read the books.

I should caution you that the very nature of this blog requires a big spoiler alert. I will be writing about my reactions to what I've read, and I can't really do that without describing the plot points of the books , at least to some extent. Many, many of you will have already read all of the Twilight series, but if you have not done so or have any interest in doing so this blog will probably be of little interest.

I hope this will be fun! I will post again when I've done a bit of reading.

Happy Friday!