I didn’t get anything like that from Twilight, and I guess it’s best for Meyer that I didn’t because that sounds like a bad, dumbed-down rip-off of the vastly superior Tim Powers novel The Stress of Her Regard. Powers’s vampiric beings were never humans, but are the last survivors of an ancient race of silicon-based life forms. They become immobile and appear to turn to stone during the day, something not explained in detail but that has to do with changes in the Earth’s atmosphere leaving them with less protection from solar radiation. This characteristic is Powers’s explanation for not only vampire myths but also Medusa, Lot’s wife, trolls, etc.
The Stress of Her Regard recently came back into print after more than a decade, and I highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in vampire fiction. It’s a very different take on the vampire mythos, and Powers does a great job of making it all seem fairly plausible. Much of the plot deals with a “secret history” behind the lives of famous Romantic poets like Keats and Byron, and this is also well researched and cleverly done.
From what I’ve read online, Meyers actually contradicts herself on this point. I haven’t read any of the later books at all, but apparently after making it pretty clear that vampire women are infertile and that all vampire bodily fluids are venomous, Edward and (still mortal) Bella manage to have a perfectly healthy baby because that’s just so much HAPPIER!
Apparently, he’s jealous that she’s stealing his limelight. :dubious: And he’s stupid because, of course, vampirism isn’t a sexual metaphor for teenagers. Edward and Bella don’t even have sex until the last book – duh!
Well, since Bella is still human when she conceives, the fact that *vampire *women can’t have children is neither contradicted nor relevant. And second, do you remember where you read that? Because I recall that Meyer discusses that they realize that while vampire women can’t have babies, apparently vampire men can inseminate human females – it just hadn’t happened in anyone’s memory so they didn’t realize it could happen.
Seems pretty relevant to me. If becoming a vampire definitely makes women infertile, why does it not have this effect on men? If Edward has been dead for decades, how can he still have living sperm? Mortal men have to produce new sperm cells continuously, because the little guys don’t live very long. “It’s magic” would be good enough reason in a fantasy for vampires remaining fertile after death, but why wouldn’t this apply equally to males and females?
A better author might be able to come up with some plausible explanation for all this, but like with so much else relating to Twilight the answer to these questions is “Because Meyer is a terrible writer, and clearly not very bright either.”
Regarding the whole vampire knocking up wimpy chick thing, this is how it’s explained in the book:
Lame, yes, but I’m already reading a book in which the vampires sparkle, the local boys turn into big dogs, and every human boy in a 50 mile radius falls in love with a pale clumsy broad with the personality of a lump of cat sick. I can overlook Edward’s live sperm. I can even overlook the fact that according to Doctor Daddy Vamp, vampires have two more pairs of chromosomes than humans, which in a rational world should mean conception is impossible, but whatever. I’m not picky.
But while I’m sort of on the subject, don’t we find out at the very end of the series, as an afterthought really, that (spoilered, on the slim chance that anyone really cares)Jacob and his howling buddies aren’t TRULY werewolves? They’re shapeshifters that just happen to become wolves - they could have been cougars or bears or merry little titwillows if the Very First Shapeshifter had gone that way. It’s like the author had no problems making her vampires as not-vampire as possible, but she didn’t want to screw with werewolf canon for some reason.
And yet I’ve read all the books. Multiple times. I can’t help it, they’re like Twinkies. Bad, mass-produced, greasy, fluffy, creamy, yummy Twinkies. I have no self-control.
Actually, different numbers of chromosomes do not preclude conception (see mules) but rather precludes the fertility of the resulting offspring (usually).
IIRC, according to the movie, Blade’s mom was very, vey pregnant with a fully human child when she was bitten by a vampire. I think the vamp attack even managed to induce early labor. So she was in the earliest stages of dying and turning into a vampire when Blade was born making his status unique.
Ah, okay. I knew I should have paid more attention in biology class. Wait a minute, though, that makes the baby infertile, right? But the whole point of imprinting (we are told) is to ensure the survival of the werewolf gene, and/or to create stronger wolves. Oops. Jeez, these books don’t stand up to any kind of scrutiny at all, do they?
I honestly can’t explain it. Part of it is pure escapism, of course, part of it is my fondness for all things tacky and kitschy and weird, part of it is just that sometimes I want something fluffy and mindless to read. They’re badly written and depict a relationship that in the real world would be unhealthy and unnatural, not to mention creepy and gross, but at the same time I kind of dig the way that Twinkles and Stumbles are so in love that whenever they get together the whole world falls away and they’re able to forget about all the worries and doubts they have, and all the people trying to kill them, and just be happy for a while.* I guess the books feed my corny romantic streak.
[sub]* This sentence dictated by my inner 13 year old.[/sub]
Okay, so Jacob “imprints” on Renesmemememe and she’s supposed to be his soulmate. (Well, when she’s finally old enough) But um, she’s immortal and he’s not (I think). So even though werewolves live longer, won’t she be devastated when he dies?) That’s kind of mean.
Oh, and Rosalie’s story is so stolen from Titanic. Which may be cheesy, but is 10 times > than Twilight. Because Kate Winslet rules, and the costumes are gorgeous.
Thanks for the quote, Marlitharn. Even having just read the first book I’d agree that Edward having live sperm is far from the dumbest thing in the series, but it’s still pretty dumb. There are things constantly going on inside men’s bodies to allow them to produce sperm (spermatogenesis), although there are no obvious external signs like with a woman’s menstrual cycle. If Edward were frozen exactly as he was when he died then his sperm production would have halted and all his little swimmers should have been likewise dead within a day or two (see Wikipedia on Posthumous sperm retrieval).
Both the ability to produce sperm and the desire/ability to have sex would seem pretty clear indicators that Edward’s body produces testosterone and other hormones. This also seems inconsistent with being frozen and unchanging, but if Edward does have hormones then it would seem that female vampires should as well. Given that male vampires in the Twilight series can indeed reproduce, an IMHO more plausible (and to my mind more interesting, and far more tragic) fate for Rosalie would be having the ability to ovulate and even conceive without being able to undergo the physical changes necessary to carry a child to term.
On the other hand, the possibility of a vampire with PMS is perhaps too scary for the kind of books that Meyer was writing.
Anyway, my big criticism of the vampire pregnancy plot isn’t as much the science as that it’s pretty darn contrived to have Bella suddenly able to conceive a perfect half-vampire child so she can live happily ever after with her perfect vampire family…especially since all the other characters, including Edward himself, believed that this was impossible.
