choices

Dear Friend

Art found at thetwilightsaga.com

Definitely time for something lighter here on The Porch!

But a heads-up: This post would probably bore anyone who is not into the strangeness of literature or the Twilight phenomenon.

As you might or might not know, I have found myself a surprised fan of the Twilight series ever since the film came out last year and I bought and read ALL the books, and then got the DVD of the film, and also the soundtrack from a friend. It’s not that I think the books are that superbly written, but somehow they remain stuck in my mind.

It is probably because I have always been intrigued by the byronic quality of some vampires in literature, nowhere better exemplified than in Edward Cullen. (Of course, if you look at the qualities of the byronic hero posted at that there link, you’d be excused for wondering if he might be a sociopath, too. But that’s the beauty of it, innit? The belief that deep down he is good, contrary to appearances. I don’t think womenfolk fall for men who seem dangerous, rather for men who seem good, but that’s a whole different topic for another time.)

What caught me so much by surprise in the whole series ~ and don’t read any further if you still have to read the other books ~ is that usually, in a love triangle, I have a definite preference for the one or the other. This is the first instance in literature I have ever come across where my loyalty is divided right down the middle. Edward or Jacob?

Edward is exotic, no doubt, and after the first book, I was convinced that Jacob could never replace him. But then I read New Moon, the second book, and didn’t I just get a little miffed with Edward, and a little more open towards Jacob! I even sympathised with Bella who couldn’t make up her mind, silly flit of a girl.

This tension simply keeps expanding until the triangle is resolved … and then, still, there is that little bit of wondering left inside the mind: did she choose right?

Strange and completely new to me.

I dare say the New Moon film is going to be an eye-full, especially with Taylor Lautner all beefed up for the much more central role of Jacob Black.

In real life we can never second-guess our choices. Oh, we do! In utter futility. But right at the bottom of it all, we have to choose one way or the other, and then ~ 99% of the time ~ we have to run with those choices. Mistake, fortune, fate, cause & consequence … we live with what we have here & now.

And here & now, we make the best of it.

Purely. Powerfully. Beautifully.

love,

Pippa

Choices are the hinges of destiny. ~ Attributed to both Edwin Markham and Pythagoras