Writing - Good & Bad - Edward Cullen?

[bboyminn]

I don't want to get too deeply into the whole Twightlight thing
since this is a Harry Potter group, but I think I can bring some
relevance to the current discussion of goof writing and bad.

To some extent Harry Potter is illogical in that the magic, 
the presence of magical people, not to mention a full range of
magical beasts, and so forth are written as if they actually
exist. But illogical and irrational as it might be it is 
written in such a casual style that we believe or accept that it
does exist.

By 'casual style' I mean that JKR doesn't try to convince us
that they exist; she simply proceeds as if they do.

Now, we could day Meyer's does the same, she proceeds as if 
vampires and werewolves did exist. But, let's look at the logic
of that existance? 

If you were a young healthy 500 year old person (or however old
Edward Cullen is) would you really be content to spend your 
life in a small town high school. You will have lived through
history, you will have experienced countless wars, politicians
and leaders that were good, inept, kind, cruel, vicious, and
everything in between. Why would you want to spend a couple
years in this town, another couple years in that town, 
perpetually hanging around with tyrannical teachers and whiny
angst ridden school kids? 

That seems a flaw in the internal logic of the story. 

Now to some extend, as with Harry Potter, to be entertained,
we must suspect critical logic and rational thinking. But,
you can only just suspend it so far. I can understand the
internal logic of Artemis Fowl or Harry Potter. But, I can't
understand why someone as old and experienced as Edward Cullen
and his 'family' would hang around the high school. That had
to be painfully boring for them. 

I mean, I suppose they could be hanging around hoping to 'score'
some young stuff. But, it doesn't seem like, from the internal
logic of the movie, that is something they would want to do
or would be able to do. We see how difficult it is for Cullen
to bring his human girlfriend into the group. So, the 'score'
path would not seem logical justification. I doubt that they
could learn anything that they couldn't learn better from 
other sources. 

It would seem college would make more sense if they were intent
on gathering modern knowledge that they could apply to their 
advantage.

Also, one small investment made 500 years ago, would be worth
a fortune today. So, dabbling in the background of big business
even makes more sense than hanging around high school. 

In our discussion of Harry Potter, we have found or at least
discussed what we feel are logical inconsistencies in the
story. But these are very small things, that are only seen by
deep probing critical minds. I don't that most people are
even aware of them. 

But I think a 500 year old vampire that has nothing better to
do than hang around high schools, is a far bigger illogical
inconsistency, that the minor points we've brought up about
Harry Potter. 

So, while Meyer was able to weave a nice romantic tale, you
really have to look at the story with THE MOST uncritical
eye to buy it.

Sorry for running off on a tangent, but if I were 500 years
old with the body of a 17 year old, I'm not sure I would
hang around the small town high school. The first time was
bad enough, I have no desire to repeat it over and over and
over again for 500 years. 

Just a thought.

Steve/bboyminn