Breaking Dawn

I loved the first three books. I have always been a fan of Bella and Edward, but I liked how Meyer introduced the Jacob/Bella dynamic to show the complexity of relationships, and that love means SACRIFICE and making a CHOICE. Plot, character, and substance related issues I've had with the series were compensated by the message I believed Meyer wanted to make--Bella choosing to give up a normal life (and everything that comes with it) in order to be with Edward.

Now, I don't know what message the author wanted to say or what she was thinking.

(Spoilers Below)

Bella didn't have to sacrifice anything apparently. She gets Edward AND a baby AND immortality as a vampire. What about poor Jake--not a problem, he IMPRINTS on the baby, which I find disturbing not so much because it is a baby (though that is creepy just as it was with Quil) but because it's Edward and Bella's baby. Can we say cop out? Life doesn't turn out so neatly. People love and lose (and don't fall for the object of their affection's daughter). But in Meyer's world everyone is one big happy family.

So, girls don't worry. If you have problems, they will ALL work out. Is that what the author wants to tell her fans?

Or is it marriage and family by 18 are the way to go, forget about college, developing as a person, all you need is a husband and a child. No disrespect to people who marry at 18, but Meyer paints a glorified picture of the situation; most 18 years old aren't going to have an endless supply of money and never worry about how the lack of an education will affect their future. Yes, this is a novel, a fantasy, we shouldn't expect or require realism--then why go the mommy route at all? Just focus on Bella and Edward. Bella didn't want children, yet when she finds out she's pregnant she doesn't even freak out; she's carrying a vampire's child and it's just "my heart had grown, swollen up to twice its size in that moment."

Or is the author's message be passive and let others take care of you (what if there is no one else--no, no, girls, there is ALWAYS someone). One of my big issues with the series is how Bella has never had outside interests beyond Edward (or Jake), that she's not an independent person. I hoped Meyer would finally have Bella come into her own in this book, have her lack of personality be the result of high school immaturity or something, but obviously the author thinks a person's entire existence should be defined by others, not themselves. Another great message--not.

Don't even get me started on Bella's power. Again, another major opportunity to strengthen Bella's character is wasted. Also, the explanation of why Edward can get Bella pregnant is ridiculous considering the rules Meyer originally established for her world. The story may be dealing with supernatural/fantastic elements, but it still has to have internal consistency.

I wanted and expected a happy ending. I wanted Bella to become a vampire. I wanted there to be a resolution with Jake. I wanted and expected the Volturi to return. I also expected an intense exploration of pain, sacrifice, vampire Bella having to cope with giving up her family/old life. I wondered if Charlie and Renee would find out--wouldn't it be odd if their child just disappeared--and though a parent does find out (sort of), it was hardly the way I imagined it, especially with the way "newborn" Bella played out.

I wanted Jake angst about her being changed, him maybe not accepting her at first (or at all) but him coming to deal with it in some fashion so you felt there was closure at the end. I would have been fine with Jake moving on, but not with Edward and Bella's daughter.

Finally, why must Bella get everything? So much for a powerful message, I guess.

"You can't expect a message with vampires and werewolves!" I disagree. The best fantasy, horror, and science fiction stories all have a morality/deeper element to them. Fairy tales, as they were originally designed, were meant to teach children a valuable lesson. This does not (and should not) lessen the entertainment value of a story, but I think it's a cop out to say "it's a fantasy," as if that excuses anything. If you look at Lord of the Rings, The Hero and the Crown, The Phantom Tollbooth, The Last Unicorn, Harry Potter, Stoker's original Dracula novel, The Prydain Chronicles, The Little Prince--all of them deal with themes of sacrifice, choice, gaining wisdom, growing as a person, and/or are thought provoking/contain deeper messages.

Sure Twilight began as a dream, but three other books have followed it. Even getting away from message issues, I still have a problem with the plot and character developments of Breaking Dawn.

Reader's Digest

This is one of my favourite magazine published nowadays. You dont get much of these type of magazines now.
Usually when I'm out with my friends shoping, I'd like to stop by a book shop while they busy searching for stuff to buy.

The magazine section isn't my first stop, but its the novel section that caught me first. yeah! I like to read novels, ok everybody knows that. After surfing through the new books there I will move on to the autobiography part. hmm I wonder when is Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim is going to have a new autobiography book. It would be interesting. For your information, Tun Mahathir already has an illustrated autobiography book out in MPH book store. It's RM15 only. You should get it, as i am not much of a fan of Tun Mahathir but the book looks interesting with his version of cartoon illustrated.hoho

Anyway back to the topic. My last stop at the book store would be the magazine section. The section is filled with teen magazines with a non-local artist story at the frontpage. Dont get me wrong, I like people/human interest kind of story but you do get tired when its all the gossip that you've heard all week right?





What I like about readers digest?
Mostly the 'miracle story' part. Thats what I named it. haha. The story that featured in that section is too good to be true but guess what, it's TRUE! I've read about a fireman who went into coma for ten years and woke up one day to find his 6 year old son is now a grown up teenager. And I've also read about how a mexican illegal immigrant kid who cross border to the United State and worked as a low paid farmer and studied his butt off to become a nerosurgeon now! The stories in it really inspired me.
Those kind of stories really push you through your toughest moments in life. And it doesnt hurt you to spend just 15 malaysian dollar to get the magazine and read it.

view the website
rdasia.com

THE NAME OF THE ROSE - UMBERTO ECO

ok, let begin with my first book review here..
The book I've long for to read. it's quite an old book written by Umberto Eco. Maybe not many of you have heard of this author. He's very much into philosophy. Another book of his that you guys should consider reading is, Focults pendulum. I havent read that yet but my friend said its a great book. It triggers your mind. :-)




The young Brother Adso of Melk recounts the events that took place when he was assigned to assist the peculiar but well-respected Brother William of Baskerville in the politically charged task of ferreting out heresy in the monastic orders of the day. The two arrive at a small Italian abbey with a reputation for its wealth in relics and manuscripts. In a few days' time, the abbey becomes the site of a tense debate over the role of poverty in monastic life. Brother William's sharp detection skills become invaluble when the bodies of dead monks begin to appear on a daily basis, apparently following a pattern of apocalyptic prophecy. Adso and William find themselves lost in a community where secrecy and enlightenment, superstition and reason, church and state, and power and compassion become desperately confused. The abbey becomes a microcosm of the very rifts that threaten to tear Christendom--and civilization itself--apart, and at the very heart of this strained social fabric is a fanatically guarded library full of mirrors, trick doors, ghosts, demonic visions, forbidden books, and the key to the deaths that lie like a humorless darkness over the entire monastery grounds.

Set during a week in 1327, Eco's novels finds in the fusion of ecclesiastic history and mystery a chance to explore some of the most fundamental issues of any period of taxing social change. It also explores the importance of symbols and logical debate. The stylistic strength of the book is the resultant combination of rich descriptive detail (especially when it comes to the art and architecture of the Medieval Church) and philosophy (as seen in the impassioned debates over heresy). Although obviously literary, The Name of the Rose benefits from being a mystery novel, using intrigue, adventure, carefully executed pacing, and suspense to propel the story forward. A careful balance is struck between the honest depiction of complexity and the human desire to make things make sense. And politics--simply understood as the social use of power--is exposed as all-pervasive in that balancing process. The book has an incredibly broad appeal, being a highly respected canonical work at the same time as it is an international bestseller.