Edward...Abusive Boyfriend?

I CAN'T STAND IT WHEN PEOPLE CALL EDWARD CULLEN ABUSIVE!
Ahem. Sorry about that. I just really, really needed to say that. Now, for anyone who might read my blog who either agrees with those that say Edward is abusive or who might be on the fence or who just want to know how I plan to back up my statement, I present the following statement-rebuttal form arguement:

• He's controlling/possessive.

Most male vampires are. They have a very possessive, territorial nature that makes them want to be in control of their mate. This is hard to detect when said male has a strong mate who will stand up to him. This is shown when Bella finally puts her foot down & declares that she will see Jacob and that he is not a danger to her; Edward relents as soon as Bella makes it clear that she will not put up with being bossed around. Bella only puts her foot down occassionally though, making her appear weak and Edward abusive when really she's just a non-confrontational, pick-your-battles kind of girl and he's got a normal attitude for a male vampire.

• He left when he should have known it would tear her apart.

How is supposed to have known that? Edward has been around romantic relationships, but has not had one of his own ever. Further complicating things, he's in love with his la tua cantante, whom he might lose control and harm/kill. He hasn't ever been around a romantic relationship with the sort of complications that his does. Also, Edward never understood why Bella loved him; he thought himself such a monster and so dangerous to Bella's well-being that he was positive that if he just removed his hypnotic presence, she would snap out of her love trance and see that he did the right thing for her and move on to a human man who could give her a normal life. He had no idea that it had nothing to do with the things that drew those who would've been prey in and everything to do with him and that she would not "snap out of" her love for him or move on. So there was no way he knew that leaving could have such a negative influence on her.

• He told her he had planned on killing himself.

I consider this a confidence. He wasn't telling her to make her feel responsible for his well-being or anything like that; he told her because it was the truth. I actually think it may have been a ploy meant to show Bella how fucked-up he was so that she would leave him for a safe, normal Mike Newton-type of guy.

• He snuck into her room when she was asleep without her knowledge.

I would consider this valid if, once he began spending the night in her with her knowing, he never told her. But he did tell her and she didn't care. If she had been upset, I might have even said it was wrong, but she didn't care. Besides, he wasn't doing it to be a creepy stalker guy, he was doing it because he was fascinated with watching her sleep. He never touched her or any of her things, he just sat and watch. Plus, you may not want to admit it, but I bet most of us would've been flattered that he spent his nights with us even before we knew he did.

• He isolates her from her friends

No, Bella just has little to no interest in her human friends. She wasn't real into them before she started dating Edward, then when she had someone else [Edward] to spend her time with, she had no reason to keep up the pretense of interest.

Anyone who wants me to tell me why they think or maybe just another reason that they've heard given that Edward is abusive, simply comment on this entry and I will either reply to the comment itself or if I get a few more maybe turn them into a new blog entry. I don't mind the possibility that you might want to comment and tell me how right I am :)

TSWRA & slightly more fluffy controversy

TSWRA stands for "The South Will Rise Again," something that is said (not chanted, as a chant is defined by repetition) at the end of "Dixie, With Love" when it is played at Ole Miss football games. There has been quite a bit of controversy over the phrase, opponents stating that it is a throwback from a racist past; supporters of the phrase claim that it means something different now, that it represents all that the South could be--they claim it's been redefined as a battle cry for progress.
Which group better defines TSWRA is not important; what is important is the University's official stance on the issue: any student caught "chanting" (I've already went over why it's not a chant) this phrase will be punished. What "punishment" is exactly has not been specified: it could be something as simply unpleasant as being escorted from Vault-Hemingway Stadium or it could be as severe as a fine (the bane of every student's existence) or even expulsion. The chancellor has reserved the right to dish out any of these punishments by not saying how students will be disciplined for their participation in saying TSWRA. This is a problem.
Another problem is the restriction of free speech inherent in this sort of stance. Racist or not, progressive or not, shouting out, "THE SOUTH WILL RISE AGAIN!" is every student's right as defined by the Constitution. The bleeding hearts will tell you to have compassion on those who used to be oppressed under the phrase; I say that if men can constitutionally speak out on abortion (something that is supposed to be a woman's right), I should be able to voice my opinion concerning my own right to shout whatever I want at a football game. This phrase has been screamed out in Vault for 7 years & only now that we have a new chancellor is it being brought up. And people thought our former chancellor was being unreasonable with the taking away of Colonel Reb. Yeah, that was pretty stupid, too, but at least it was within his right. Colonel Reb was a school emblem, therefore, he could do whatever he [the chancellor] wanted to with the mascot. TSWRA is not an official school anything; it was started by the students in 2002. This means that the university should have no control over it.
The most valid reason I have heard over banning TSWRA is that we will lose funding, but even this is a weak arguement. It would be like calling for the disbandment of CAN because a pro-war financier of the university was offended by its activities on campus. It's bogus. If someone is anti-Constitution (which you are if you agree with the unreasonable restriction of freedom of speech), then I don't want your money anyway. I'd rather pay more tuition (especially, admittedly, since I don't pay my tuition--ironically, the government does) than have my rights restricted because some people think it's wrong to not hide "the bad South," as TSWRA has quickly become associated with, in a closet & pretending it didn't happen. I'm not racist, I just don't believe that the freedom of speech should be restricted because someone finds it offensive.
Now that I've gotten that bit out of my system, I'm onto slightly less dire sources of controversy, such as the ending to Breaking Dawn. Many people believe that the ending would've been better served with a death; I disagree with every fiber of my being. I'm not normally an HEA kind of girl, but I felt this was the most appropriate ending to the series. Someone on a discussion board actually suggested that Renesmee should've never been born (which is pretty common, even though I think it's rather bogus) and that Bella & Edward should've sacrificed themselves for their family. WHAT?! That's like letting the bad guys win. Even if Edward & Bella's family defeated the villians or the sacrifices they made directly caused the villians' downfall, it still wouldn't have felt like victory to me. "Well, it's the last book, might as well kill everyone," is J.K. Rowling's style, not Stephenie Meyer's. If Bella & Edward would've died, I would've taken my copy of Breaking Dawn back to the store & demanded that they let me exchange it for something a little less lame and sold my copies of the other books on Amazon. I wouldn't have ever been able to see the Twilight Saga the same way again.
I feel terrible for not updating in weeks like I haven't, but I promise, I will start updating more often. Life just keeps getting in the way of my blog updates--ugh, stupid responsibilities.

Sometimes I despise my literary nature

I have a very literary heart--I love to read, but I also enjoy writing. For the longest time it has been original short stories that I only let small numbers of people read; lately though, I have begun writing a novel that I plan to submit for publishing. That's put on the backburner though because I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to get where I want to go with the story.Now I'm thinking of writing a New Moon fanfiction (the idea of re-interpreting any Twilight book is actually scarier than thoughts of the publishing process). I'm thinking of writing New Moon from Emily's POV. I've thought alot about alternative POVs because recently we read Supplement to the Voyage of Bougainville in English 222 (Lit. before 1650) and just now I read this character analysis on Leah & Emily (which I plan on bookmarking). It talked about how the second-in-command in a wolf pack is the Alpha's mate (the Alpha Female), which would make Emily an incredibly powerful woman. Then I started thinking, "What would the events of New Moon look like to [Emily as] the second-in-command of the werewolf pack? Would it conflict with how she felt about them privately?" and that's where I got the idea for the fanfic. I also plan to explore Emily's feelings about her imprint with Sam and her possible guilt over how it affected Leah.
Well, I have to start writing now--when I get an idea in my head, I can't rest until I put it into action (hence why it sometimes sucks to have such a literary soul). I will post the link to the story as soon as I have the first chapter written & on a fanfic site (assuming I don't just write it on LivJournal for the sake of simplicity).

Cool Fan-Made New Moon Posters

Here are my favorite Fan-Made New Moon posters. I didn't make any of these; they were all made by someone named Kim White, but ultimately, everything belongs to Stephenie Meyer and, to a lesser, extent, Summit Entertainment. Note: all the posters will link back to where they originated.

What are YOUR favorite fan-made posters for New Moon?

Another Name for a Twilighter or Twi-Hard...

Twi-tard. I hate that word. It's such a stupid word; people think they're being clever because it rhymes with "Twi-hard", but really they're just making asses of themselves when they use that term. The pathetic thing is though, the people who call Twilighters that (sometimes referred to as anti-Twilighters) are the real Twi-tards. Wanna know why? Because they're on the Internet, ranting about how much Twilight sucks with just as much zeal as the most overeager Twilighter gushes about how Twilight rocks; there is a difference between the overeager fangirl and the anti-Twilighter: the Twilighter is actually talking about something he/she enjoys and the anti-Twilighter is focusing on something they dislike when they could be reading a book or talking about a book that they actually enjoy.
Read a book, take a cycling class, become a painter, whatever, but there really must be more for these people to do with their time than sit around talking about how much Twilight sucks. Or maybe there's not. At any rate, I think focusing all your energy into any one particular thing is pathetic--everyone should have more than one hobby, especially when you're only hobby is bashing a book.

Bella Bracelets and Other Twilight Jewelry (This post contains SPOILERS for those not through with New Moon and Eclipse)

I've posted two serious posts, so I thought I might lighten things up with a little bit of Twilight news. The "Bella Bracelet" from Eclipse, the third installment of the Twilight Saga, is probably the most sought-after piece of Twilight jewelry. Representing the two loves in Bella's life, it's typically silver (though some are made in gold) and has a crystal heart (typically clear, but some makers offer different colors) charm and a wolf charm. The wolf charm in the book is carved from wood; however, most of the commercial real-life bracelets are not for various reasons--they are usually silver or copper charms. Some are carved from stone, there are not many carved from wood. If you're looking for your own "Bella bracelet", here are some links to sellers of this piece of Twilight memoribilia (I'm putting a link to a few different styles):

• This bracelet is a little different from the typical "Bella bracelet": the bracelet itself has an "antique" look and the wolf is gold. It has a clear heart. $22.00
• This one is also the typical "Bella Bracelet. $12.50
• This one is typical, except THE WOLF IS CARVED FROM WOOD--YEA! $65.00
• This one is in typical form, except the wolf is made from clay polymer rather than silver or copper. $15.00
• This one is a bit different: it's on a silver chain like most and has a silver wolf and a clear heart like most, but between the two typical charms is a silver apple--depicting the "forbidden fruit"--with a red jewel--"blood droplets" apparently--and onyx beads on the "outside" sides of the wolf and heart charms. $24.99
• This bracelet has a unique chain--I can't accurately explain it, you'll just have to look at it--with the typical heart charm on it and a red "blood droplet" jewel connected with a cherry-stained, hand-carved wolf. $29.99

Here's some more Twilight jewelry:

• Replica of the Cullen Crest Necklace that Nikki Reed as Rosalie wears in the movie. $24.99-$52.90
• Replica of the Cullen Crest choker that Ashley Greene as Alice wears in the movie. $24.99-$52.90
• Replica of the Cullen Crest wristband that Robert Pattinson, Kellan Lutz, and Jackson Rathbone as Edward, Emmett, and Jasper wear in the movie. $24.97-$145.99
• Replica of the Cullen Crest bracelet that Elizabeth Reaser as Esme wears in the movie. $24.84-$143.95
• Charm bracelet with mini-books on it. $21.00
• Charm bracelet with the heart charm to represent Edward and a gold wolf to represent Jacob, as well as a red apple charm, red "blood droplet" charm, queen chess piece, old truck, baseball mitt, puzzle piece, and topaz colored glass drop. $25.00
• Watch with a picture of Rob Pattinson and Kristen Stewart as Edward and Bella on it. $9.99
• Has two red "blood droplet" jewels, one near the clasp and one near the pendant. The pendant is handstamped with the word "Twilight"; it has a moon-and-star charm to represent twilight--actually representing Twilight. $35.00
• A Twilight Jewelry Box to keep all this jewelry you're buying in. $19.00-$195.99

There are other pieces of Twilight jewelry available at varying prices. It's quite common--you can Google it. :)

Twilight DVD

There were a few choices to choose from when considering which edition of Twilight you would from what store and how: would you get the 2-Disc Special Edition from Wal*Mart, the special editions from Borders or Chapters, or maybe you would go to Target for the 3-Disc Special Edition. Okay, now how are you going to get the the much-anticipated Twilight DVD of your choice? Are you going to pre-order it and wait for it to be mailed, or go to the store of your choice? If you go to the store that offers your preferred edition of the DVD will you brave it at midnight or pray they didn't put all the special editions out at midnight, leaving you with the single-disc version?
Millions of fans faced this question and had their answer by Friday, March 20, 2009 awaiting the midnight release of the Twilight DVD at the store of their choosing. I myself went to Wal*Mart, nice safe Wal*Mart. Wal*Mart, where the poor stock guy was trying not to get mobbed by Twilighters while putting out the Twilight stand; this stand, which didn't seem to move fast enough for the poor guy's personal taste, had the 2-Disc Special Edition, which Wal*Mart only put out a few the first time and people were snatching those things up like you wouldn't believe, the single-disc edition, posters, the soundtrack, and free guides to throwing a great viewing party. Hernando, MS's, Wal*Mart had its own little area where all the Twilight merchandise sat together (my more local Wal*Mart is re-arranging everything so they couldn't make a Twilight area). This merchandise included button pins, necklaces, keychains, bag charms, messenger bags, purses, T-Shirts, bracelets, and a trivia board game.
I admit it: I stalked like a creeper around looking for someone who could tell me when they were going to get more Special Edition DVDs out then ran for it to get one and I bought pretty much at least one of every kind of Twilight merchandise available at Wal*Mart. I have a messenger bag, a purse, 18 (3 packs) button pins, 2 (1 pack) bracelets, the board game, a necklace, a bag charm, 3 t-shirts, a poster, the soundtrack (that came with a mini-posters), and a calendar I bought about a month ago (that has 12 or 13 medium-sized posters). Did I mention I also bought a "Bella bracelet" not long after finishing Eclipse back in October? So, yeah, I think I have enough Twilight merchandise (I do, right? I don't need anymore?). The only good thing about New Moon being months from coming out in theatres is that my bank account will have time to recover from the massive amount of merchandise I bought.