Twilight Versus Harry Potter

Novel writing requires imagination, creativity and talent. In fiction writing, there has to be consistency in the “character, description, experiences, background, behavior and actions of the character”, says Elizabeth Young, a London-based literary critic and author. Consistency, as defined by David Farkas in his study entitled The Concept of Consistency in Writing and Editing from the College of Engineering Scientific and Technical Communication Program, University of Washington, Seattle, is the “orderly treatment of a set of linked elements, and it is a necessary characteristic of polished, highly readable prose.” Young says either consistency or explanation is required for the time frame, scene and setting, motivations and all other aspects of who, what, when, where, how and why. It helps to imagine fictional scenes as theatrical stage set, where a stage setter or grip insures that each and every item is exactly where it should be from scene to scene.

In Twilight, transformation from human to vampire is described as being “the sharpest memory they have of their human life.” A human is bitten, and venom from glands inside the vampire’s mouth is injected into the bloodstream. Depending upon how much venom is in the bloodstream, and how close the venom is until it enters the heart, the transformation could last anywhere from 3–5 days, but it is interesting to note that if directly injected into the heart this could go down to 2 days. During this time, the human will endure indescribable pain. Once the venom is injected, it is described as being the beginning of the greatest pain you will ever understand. The venom then has to make its way all through the body. Next through the heart, and it will pump again and again in the heart until it starts meeting itself in the veins. Then it will burn all the veins until the heart stops beating. It moves slower than blood because it’s thicker. Each beat of the heart can only push it so far. The changing and burning process is slow. The venom has to saturate every cell in the body before the process can be completed.

Therefore, the venom basically mocks and takes the place all of human’s body fluids. It replaces all of the natural chemical processes and functions in the body. It wets and pools in the mouth instead of saliva. It coats the eyes, burning through contacts after only a few hours, protecting them from damage and thus eliminating all necessity and reason to cry. It also lubricates them, allowing them to move around more easily within their sockets. Twilight vampires don’t have blood that’s why they look pale. And since they don’t have blood, males were not able to undergo erection. On the other hand, if venom substitutes all their body fluids, therefore, they were not able to make females pregnant. But how did Edward make Bella pregnant on the last book of the series?

Apparently, that doesn’t work with Edward. His venom could act as the blood, though that makes even less sense. This is the biggest plot hole or inconsistency Meyer has in her book. This plot hole is called Renesmee, Bella and Edward’s baby. By following the laws of Biology, if sperm impregnated Bella, then Renesmee could be a normal little girl. If the sperm was a vampire venom, then Bella could presumably have become a vampire. A woman’s uterus is not some impenetrable super tank. Surely some of the venom would have seeped through the uterus wall and turned her into a vampire. She wanted to give Bella everything and in the end, she broke her own rules. Her inconsistency in writing turns out readers puzzled, including me. Consistency in style, language, terms and structure should not only be observed but characters’ description, settings and succession of events too. This avoids vagueness of the story so that readers would be able to follow what is going on.

As vampires describe themselves, based on the book, they are unchanging, “living stone” beings frozen exactly as they were when they were transformed. Requiring little or no change to produce sperm, males can still breed, while female vampires cannot, their bodies no longer accommodate the changes related to pregnancy. In male vampires, the venom takes on a form so similar to seminal fluid that can bond with a human ovum, making possible the creation of a human-vampire hybrid. The underlying biochemistry and physiology is currently unknown. In the case of Meyer’s Twilight series, she doesn’t only invent vampires that are very far from real vampire lore; she also contravene what she had specifically said from her first book that “vampires couldn’t produce children “. May be for the sake of adding anticipation and more thrill in Bella’s life, she had come up with an ending of Edward’s venom-fluid body making Bella pregnant.

There were a lot of inconsistencies in Twilight series aside from Bella’s pregnancy issue. Another is that, if venom lubricates the mouth of vampires, shouldn’t Bella already be turned into a vampire through their kissing? While I am glad to see a “something different” story, it pains me to see it treated so carelessly. If only Stephanie Meyer had fully plotted the ending from the very start and had done her research, then maybe she could have written a series truly deserving of its hype.