Spread Hope Like Fire

Why did the evil, moronic, despicable person who saw fit to leak Stephenie Meyer’s half-finished draft of Midnight Sun onto the internet have to be evil, moronic, and despicable enough to leak Stephenie Meyer’s half-finished draft of Midnight Sun onto the internet??

WHY?

I’m sure that I part company with approximately zero fellow Twilighters on this point, so it’s not like I’m expounding upon a revolutionary point of view or anything, BUT STILL. ARGH.

I really sat down with it last night, and it was, unsurprisingly, completely engrossing. I ended up staying up for a good amount of the night reading most of it and will probably finish it later tonight. It was jarring and refreshing to hear Edward’s inner monologue, instead of Bella’s. I also loved how amazed he is when he considers how he could have possibly overlooked her beauty when they first saw each other. Of course, he ultimately does understand what initially caused him to not see her in that way – the overwhelming force of her scent – but, even despite that, he’s still completely unable to view her any differently once he really sees her, and he’s amazed that her scent could be powerful enough to distract him, even for a moment, from looking at her with eyes filled with nothing but fervent love.

I couldn’t help but smile when reading about just how excited Alice was at the notion of being friends with Bella. “Can I talk to Bella now??” made me laugh out loud, and I enjoyed seeing that she, of course, wants Edward to be happy, but that she also simply looks forward to hanging out with Bella and having her as a girlfriend. It was also heart-warming to see Esme’s ecstatic happiness that her son, the one who always seemed to end up alone, might have actually found someone to share his life with. Perhaps understandably, Edward falling for Bella isn’t exactly viewed as great news by most of the Cullens – Jasper is cautious, Rosalie is horrified, Emmett is probably more amused than anything else, Carlisle is happy for Edward but also intensely aware of the dangers posed, and even Alice is a bit worried despite her excitement over the idea – but Esme? She’s thrilled. Absolutely thrilled. She couldn’t be happier.

So, even considering how enjoyable it was to read, and how much I look forward to getting back to it, I remain extremely annoyed that Stephenie’s artistic integrity was attacked, and that her work was shown to the rest of the world in a state much earlier than she wanted the public to see it in. For the record, I don’t generally involve myself in piracy, and I justified reading it only because Stephenie decided to make it available on her website. If she had not, or if she were still working on it, I would stay away. I can’t say that I blame her for suspending the project out of frustration, either, but I do hope that, perhaps in the next couple of years, after she’s gotten a bit of distance and spent some more time with her family, she can continue and finish at least that one book through Edward’s eyes. I like that the idea didn’t start as any sort of a business decision, but merely as one example of how her love for her characters manifests itself – it was simply Stephenie wanting to see how Edward would tell the story and where it would go.