Bad Acting, Good Romance: The Twilight Saga's "Eclipse"
Usually, in Hollywood, it's the other way around. A.O. Scott explains:
Those who mock (or praise) the pro-abstinence message of “The Twilight Saga” tend to miss the way the movies in particular embrace the sensuous pleasure of sublimation with the kind of fervor you usually find only in old Hollywood or present-day Bollywood entertainments. The consummation of Edward and Bella’s love — which will come after their marriage, at Edward’s insistence and in spite of Bella’s plea for earlier action — is likely to be a big disappointment. Maybe not for them, but I suspect for whatever Team Edward diehards are still around by then.
Exactly right, with one exception: this isn't sublimation, which invests (often sexual) energy into the production of more useful, popular, or praiseworthy things. Scott hints that the payoff he has in mind is a really spectacular "consummation," but he himself admits at once that maybe it'll just be a letdown. After all, there are limits to the transports of experience made possible by consummating even the most prolonged of courtships. The "payoff" isn't an end to the sexual suspense; it's a permanent union. (Well, not so permanent for Edward, who -- after all -- is an immortal vampire. Awkward.) And yet: that union isn't a payoff at all. Thinking it is gets things precisely backwards.
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May '10
Re: Bad Acting, Good Romance: The Twilight Saga's "Eclipse"
Might be off-topic, but from watching the first film, I've decided that the "courtship" is an unsuitable subject for any larger discussion on relationships, because the Bella/Edward thing is so toxic. I can't think of a better example of battered woman syndrome in contemporary lit. It made me shudder to watch. Then, to see these young girls and even women (I've seen the Facebook status updates) swoon over either Edward or Jacob. Both men admit to struggling with the potential for their lust/passion/anger to overwhelm them to the point of causing physical harm or death to Bella. Take away the vampire v. werewolf angle, and this is just another tragic and destructive relationship, because they're "in love" and he promises he won't hurt her... again. Consummation or not is irrelevant when a woman has surrendered herself to a man's brutality. Might as well slap on a burkha. Perhaps relevant to the third movie is the statistic that homicide is the leading cause of death among pregnant women. It's a sad state when Lizzy Bennett is a more admirable character for young girls than a contemporary Bella.
Edited on Mar 1, 2011 at 4:32pmMay '10
Re: Bad Acting, Good Romance: The Twilight Saga's "Eclipse"
"shudder" not "shutter"