My Top 3 Quotes from the first chapter of Twilight, "First Sight"
#3: "it was one of those solid iron affairs that never gets damaged - the kind you see at the scene of an accident, paint unscratched, surrounded by the pieces of the foreign car it had destroyed."
[pp7-8 Twilight Stephenie Meyer]
This is Bella describing her first sight of the "new - well, new to me" truck her father bought her. I love this sentence for its poetic yet pragmatic description. I also like it for the premonition it gives of a critical event in the storyline, where Edward saves Bella from a car crash, revealing his supernatural speed and strength in the process. The truck, Bella mentions later, is virtually unscathed, while the other car is written off.
The safety and solidity of the truck also provides a metaphoric prefigurement of Bella's need to be protected in her stumbling, human vulnerability - a role which Edward takes upon himself with never a scratch to show for his efforts, given his own granite-like, immortal immutability.
#2: "It couldn't have anything to do with me. He didn't know me from Eve."
[p21 Twilight Stephenie Meyer]
This one is Bella, wondering at Edward's reaction at his first sight of her. It uses an interesting twist on the traditional quote, which says "He didn't know me from Adam," thus prefiguring the major role of temptation in the TwiSaga storyline.
#1: "I can do this, I lied to myself feebly. No one was going to bite me."
[p13 Twilight Stephenie Meyer, emphasis mine]
This is my favourite quote not just from this chapter or book, but from the entire series. Oh, the delicious irony! This quote contains Bella's reaction at her first sight of Forks High School, and her first sight of Edward's car in the school car park. It prefigures the revelation that Edward, whom Bella would fall in love with, will later be revealed as a vampire. And that Bella will come to yearn for Edward's bite...
(I did mention that I believe Meyer is a very accomplished author. This commentary on "First Sight" will, I hope, add evidence to my argument.)
12/21: International Chiasmus Day
5 hours ago
1 comment:
Very clever lines.
It illustrates the advantage the author has, knowing what she will write--seeing all of history at once--whereas the poor reader must plod along linearly. I'm tempted to spiritualize that--but I won't!
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