What would you guys think if I decided to continue my Midnight Sun chapter summaries?
If it makes you happy, go for it!
Yes please!
YES FINALLY IVE BEEN WAITING SO LONG
Oh no not again
All things Twilight are a bane on my existence why must you remind me it exists
*The whale waltzes with wonderment*
Voting ended onJan 18
*Here's a link to my Chapter 1 summary (read: mocking it heavily) if you want to know what I'm on about or refresh your memory of what agonies Ed has suffered in just the first three chapters. (Side Note: There are two new paragraphs for Chapter 3!)
i think nimona (2023) is one of the best animated films of the last years. there are new and creative ideas, a lot of worldbuilding and depth, great humor, it tackles complicated topics and portrays a queer relationship beautifully
Mrs. Hall- Maurice’s mother, very doting mother in this chapter
Ada Hall- oldest younger sister, adores Maurice to the point of “worshiping” him
Kitty Hall- youngest sister, likes Maurice but does not “worship” him in the same way Ada does, is described by Dr. Barry as having “hints of grit” in her.
George- one of the servants hired by the Halls, he has left to “better himself” when Maurice comes home from school
Mr and Mrs. Howell- servants employed by the Halls, Mr. Howell is a coachman
Dr. Barry- old family friend, his favorite Hall is Kitty due to her slightly different personality from the rest of the Halls
Slight side note: Literally why has no one written fanfic about Kitty that isn’t focused around Maurice? Literally two chapters in and there’s already so much potential for her character??? There’s some Kitty/Violet fics on AO3, but all of them still have focus on Maurice (fair enough with him being the title character but still).
Points of Note:
The Halls are essentially the 1910’s version of your white nuclear suburban family. Like Forester goes through a lot of effort to insist how painfully average the Halls are. Kitty is the only one who stands out amongst them, but that isn’t much of an accomplishment considering how boring they’re described as.
Maurice is compared to his father even more in this chapter. It comes up four times from three separate conversations (Mrs. Hall, Mr and Mrs Howell, and Dr. Barry). Once again, this is not in a ‘he’ll be a great success’ way; but in a ‘he’ll be just as plain and boring’ kind of way.
George is arguably Maurice’s first childhood love. Though we get very little description of George, I’ve come to the conclusion that Alec and George are parallels. There’s something hauntingly similar between the two and as we go on with the summary I’ll go more in depth.
Summary:
This chapter starts with Maurice coming home from school. He’s greeted by his sisters and mother who all dote on him and welcome him home. While walking the garden with his mother, he asks where George is. His mother ignores this at first to tell him,
“Such a splendid report from Mr. Abrahams. He says you remind him of your poor father…” (Pg. 17)
After a bit more talking (mostly about vegetables) Maurice asks again about George. His mother lies to him and tells him that George had gotten too old and was given notice (basically laid off/fired) from Mr. Howell. She then changes subject to what they should do while Maurice is home and about how proud she is about him going to the same public school as his father.
“(...) you see, your father was at his school too, and we are sending you to your father’s old public school too- Sunnington- in order that you may grow up like your dear father in every way.” (Pg. 17)
Maurice then begins to cry. When asked why by his mother, Maurice claims he doesn’t know why he’s crying. However, we can assume it’s probably because George is gone. Though when his sisters ask why Maurice is crying, his mother claims that he is tired and he agrees. After this he plays Halma with his sisters (a board game that’s kinda like checkers but a bit more complicated) and then runs out to Mr. Howell to ask about George. It’s here that he learns the truth.
According to Mr. Howell, George left on his accord to better himself (cough cough foreshadowing cough cough). Maurice then makes a rude and snobbish comment to Mr and Mrs. Howell and runs off in true shithead kid fashion. Once again, he’s compared to his father.
Dr. Barry and his wife stop by to join the Halls for dinner. He also sees the Halls as plain and somewhat boring but he’s nicer about it. This is where we get this interesting quote though,
“Kitty he liked- she had hints of grit in her- but the girls were in bed, and he told his wife afterwards that Maurice ought to have been there too. ‘And stop there all his life. As he will. Like his father. What is the use of such people?’ ” (Pg. 19)
Basically saying, Maurice is as boring and unremarkable as his father he might as well just went to bed instead of joining the adults for their dinner. I think he also just called Maurice useless which is such a harsh thing to say about a fourteen year old like damn.
When Maurice does go to bed, we get a scene with him arranging the candle so the light doesn't cast shadows into the mirror. As mentioned in the previous chapter, young Maurice is scared of the dark. In this chapter we learn that it isn’t so much darkness as it is the odd shadows that are cast against the ceiling and walls by low light.
In his fear of the dark he calls out for George (cough cough foreshadowing cough cough). Maurice questions his own actions (essentially: why should he care about some servant???) and then he falls asleep.
River’s Extra Notes:
So when I read this chapter, all I really thought of George was that he was Maurice’s first crush. But as I was writing this review I had a little light bulb moment as I was looking over the chapter. George is Alec. Alec is foreshadowed from the very beginning and it drives me batshit insane. I didn’t make the connection the first or second time reading the book, but the third times’ the charm I guess. George and Alec are both working class men who move onto another job to better themselves. Maurice, in the darkness/in his darkest moments, calls out for them. Alec answers the call, George does not.
(Maybe I’m the last to figure this out and now I just look stupid lmao.)
Anyways, I wrote this instead of studying and now my brain will be going feral for the rest of the day. Feel free to tell me I’m wrong about anything honestly.
In which Edward faces his fears and spends an agonizing amount of time hyperfixating on Bella.
<-Chapter 1
So we jump into chapter two AND next week, as it has been six days since Edward (shockingly) succeeded in leaving town forever (citation needed)! He is chilling (ha) in a snowbank, staring up at the stars, which are truly magnificent. Or he knows they would be, except he can't quite see anything except Bella's face. Yes, the girl has haunted him straight to (checks location on a map) oh he's in ALASKA, okay! I wasn't sure where Denali was, but I was PRETTY sure even Edward couldn't drive a car to Russia. (You'll see why I considered Russia in a minute.)
Anyway, the "unremarkable" face of this girl he's literally never spoken to directly has been haunting him for six days, which is indeed troubling. While he is brooding on this, the thoughts of a new character come leaping towards him. This is where we meet Tanya, a vampire with silver skin, blonde-but-almost-pink curly hair, amber eyes, and full lips. Mary Sue Tanya is stunning and exquisite, at least from Ed's memory, since he still can't see past the face permanently branded on his eyeballs.
So anyway, Mary Sue Tanya does a cannonball into Ed's snowbank, burying him alive with snow but not burying the image of Bella. It becomes clear that she has been crushing on Ed and is sad he will be leaving soon and doesn't return her affections, although he is very polite and gentlemanly about it.
(Honestly, I liked her well enough until we got to the "I'm not used to rejection" line, and then she starts sifting through the memories of all her human male conquests next to the actual mind reader who she is attracted to, to which I say WOMAN REALLY??? I don't think making the guy you like EVEN MORE UNCOMFORTABLE than he's already admitted you kinda make him is an effective way to gain his affections?!)
ANYWAY, thankfully they get off THAT subject quickly and have a really quite nice conversation, wherein Ed apologizes for getting her hopes up by coming to her home territory and Tanya tries to be a good friend. We see a mention of her "long-lost Russian accent," thus my uncertainty about location, and she tells him she knows he won't keep running from his mystery problem because he's the type who faces things head-on. Mary Sue TANYA then runs away across the snow, so light and fast she doesn't even leave footprints, suggesting a connection between vampires and wood elves.
Encouraged by this pep talk, Gary Stu Edward also gets up and runs footprintless across the snow, determined to be brave and go back and face those "bewildered chocolate-brown eyes," and hopefully not eat the girl attached to them.
SCENE CHANGE!
Edward's back in town, and his three vampire siblings/classmates are huddled around him as they head into the lunchroom, being quite adorably protective, honestly. Alice is trying to foresee any problematic eventualities, Jasper thinks it's funny that EDWARD is the one everyone's fretting over instead of him, Emmett is acting like a bodyguard, and Ed is just exasperated with all of them.
To his surprise, nobody at school is thinking about them, suggesting that Bella didn’t blab about his black murderstare from last chapter. After all, a normal human would have asked around about it, because humans and especially teens all like to feel NORMAL and FIT IN and be a "featureless flock of sheep" and WOW, should I be more annoyed at Ed or the author for this intense bias against high schoolers?! But of course Bella isn't like those OTHER kids, she doesn't do things like talk to people when something weird happens!
About this time, Bella walks in and Alice is all, "Act human!" To which Emmett responds by taking out the snowball he compressed into an ice chunk with his superstrength and chucking it at Alice, who casually deflects it across the room at superspeed, where it cracks a brick. This does, ironically, draw attention away from them. Everyone is annoyed at Emmett, which is fair, but also, ALICE COULDN'T YOU HAVE JUST CAUGHT IT INSTEAD OF POTENTIALLY SHOOTING SOMEONE?
So anyway, Bella's in the lunch line, and Mike Newton, Regular High School Guy and Insignificant Human Rival, is worried about her. Ed starts also worrying about if she might be sickly, what with her translucent skin. (Are we 100% sure BELLA is human?!) The vampires do a slightly better job of acting natural, and Edward decides to refer to Bella as “Bella” and not just "the girl,” "as if she were the only girl in the world," which is HILARIOUS considering where we all know this is going!
After eavesdropping on Bella and Jessica whispering about him looking at her (Bella thinks he's mad at her, after the whole murderstare incident), Bella hunkers under her hair and avoids eye contact, although Ed thinks she keeps twitching like she WANTS to look at him. Then, at long last, lunch ends and everyone starts going to class. There is another internal struggle while Ed reviews what all of his vampire family members have advised about this situation. (Emmett sounding the least helpful, as he has apparently encountered two such delicious-smelling-people incidents that... uh... sound like they did NOT go well?) But Ed is determined to prove to himself that he has the self-control to sit through biology without murdering Bella, so off he goes.
(By the way, Rosalie complains she doesn't want to have to move because they're almost finally out of high school. Again, why are you pretending to be high school students?! It's not like you'll age whether you're there or not?! HOW DOES THIS HELP YOUR COVER??)
Edward gets to Biology to find Bella at their table, doodling randomly. He decides to introduce himself. He gets briefly lost in gratuitously detailed descriptions of her eyeballs and how they are simultaneously like chocolate and strong tea, and how could anyone so frail be deserving of his unwarranted hatred last week? He's also holding his breath, but has enough air in his longs for a reasonably lengthy conversation AND a short laugh, during which Bella is... surprised/startled that he called her Bella? Because her dad introduced her to everyone as Isabella? But she's apparently told multiple people since she got here that she prefers Bella? So he probably could have learned that even without his super vampire eavesdropping powers? WHY is this weird enough to be suspicious, and HOW does it indicate she is "intuitive"?
Well, the book and Ed believe she is Insightful and Intuitive, so I guess we should just go with it. Ed does eventually needs to breath so he can talk, and even though just breathing through his mouth is like tasting the FIERY COALS of her deliciousness, and their brief moment of making skin contact is like an ELECTRIC SHOCK, he manages to continue acting normal.
By the way, along with being unconventionally if lopsidedly pretty and smelling delicious, Bella was also in advanced-placement biology at her previous school and Knows Science! Edward realizes this must mean she is ESPECIALLY intelligent for a human, which of course makes perfect sense. After all, she was the first student in two years to look him in the eye long enough to notice they'd changed from the Murderstare Incident's I'm-going-to-eat-you black to today's calmer I'm-probably-not-going-to-eat-you-except-by-accident amber/gold! My friends, may I remind you this man previously admitted he has two medical degrees, a thing that probably required some amount of physically attending college. I really wonder if Ed's standards would be more realistic if he ever once SOCIALIZED WITH HIS HUMAN CLASSMATES.
In an effort to maintain normalcy, they talk about the weather. Bella does not like the cold and wet of Forks. She clearly does not like being in Forks at all. She is vague and grumpy about why she came here, and Edward is so obsessed curious that he may implode (this is the actual word used). We learn (agonizingly slowly) that her mom remarried—and no, Edward, Bella DOES like the guy, he's nice and a minor-league baseball player; and no, Edward, her mom DIDN'T send her here, SHE sent HERSELF here so her mom could happily travel with her step-dad rather than unhappily stay home with her! Ed is certain by now that Bella "isn't like other humans" because he keeps guessing her story arcs wrong and she's just so CONFUSING and UNPREDICTABLE, and this can't possibly be because he's about 100 years out of practice having a normal conversation without a cheat code into the other person's brain.
(Okay, to be fair, there are at LEAST two moments of self-awareness where Ed wonders if he'd be this bad at reading everybody without his mindreading powers. We should give him points for that.)
But despite his difficulties, he DOES figure out that Bella is unhappy, mostly by her sending out signals that a rhino could decipher. When he confronts her with this observation, her response is, "So?" And after meditating on this for an unusually brief paragraph, Ed realizes THE ANSWER:
"She was selfless."
I'm sorry, guys, I need to break for a second, that's the first part that made me laugh out loud. Can someone lend me a combine to harvest all this corn.
(Side Note: As previously stated, I have not read the books or watched the movies, so I could be biased by the negative side of the fanbase. But my general impression of Bella has not lent itself to "selflessness." BUT, it is only chapter two and I am only going off of general hearsay! The amount of poorly concealed disgruntlement is not impressing me, though.)
Anyway, Ed guesses that she doesn't really like her situation but doesn't want people to KNOW she doesn't like it. He continues to marvel at how positively he feels towards this girl, how discerning she is, how *cough* selfless she is, not like an "average martyr" who would actually tell someone that she's not 100% happy with her SACRIFICE. Bella gets annoyed, which Ed finds amusing, so there's another adjective for the list. But then she says she's annoyed because she's so easy to read, and Edward can't believe this, because he's never had to work so hard to read someone before! Again, this could not possibly be because she's the first person in 100+ years whose mind he can't read!
By the way, Bella also seems to be oblivious immune to the usual red flags normal humans feel around vampires! Ed tries smiling dangerously at her, but the teacher breaks up their conversation with actual classtime, so he gets to angst for a few paragraphs about why he shouldn't find this girl interesting and how dangerous this is for her and yet how MUCH he wants to know more about her. And also trying not to kill her when her thick, black hair flips in his direction and drives his vampire nose bonkers.
He books it as soon as the bell rings, having survived the encounter without murdering anyone but with so many new questions about this unremarkable, shy, frail, unmindreadable-yet-highly-face-readable, delicious-smelling, selfless, quietly disgruntled human girl.
(Side Note: I have learned a new word! "Attar—a fragrant essential oil, typically made from rose petals."
Ex: "Again, I gasped at the clean, wet air outside as though it was a healing attar."
*loud sighing noises*)
So after that brief break, he goes to class with Emmett. Emmett, IMMENSELY HELPFUL EMMETT, asks how it went, questions if it wouldn't be easier to just get it over with, reassures Ed that everyone would understand if he messed up (GIVING IN IS NOT THE SAME AS "MESSING UP," EMMETT), and then vividly visualizes a time he experienced a really good-smelling woman and ate her. Between his earlier blasé-ness about not "wallowing in guilt" over past mistakes and this section's lack of anything indicating regret about that incident, I take back any nice things I might have said about this guy. Emmett, YOU. ARE. THE WORST.
It's so bad that Ed has to bolt out of class AGAIN, although it doesn't help that Emmett follows him and continues to suggest maybe Ed should just get it over with if it's so bad, can Alice or somebody please come punch him. Ed finally gets him to leave and hides in his car. Then, "like an addict" (his own words), he searches the whole school for thoughts about Bella. From his car. My GUY, just how UNREASONABLY powerful ARE your mind radar skills???
He finally locates Bella in gym class, because Mike, who is mad about Ed talking to her, is thinking in logical, complete sentences (as one does) about how satisfied he is that Bella doesn't seem interested in Edward. He also conveniently remembers her asking "what was with" Edward last Monday (after the Deathstare Incident). So apparently Bella isn't QUITE abnormal unique enough to stay totally silent when she encounters a weird thing (not that Edward notices). Ed's response to his annoyance over Mike's satisfaction is to blast "violent music," which seems the opposite of helpful to me.
We end the chapter with Bella coming out of school and heading to her rusty old truck while Ed watches her creepily from his car. She almost hits another student's car when she locks eyes with Ed, and Ed has to laugh at her sudden increased driving vigilance, as if she might be DANGEROUS! Because of course it's RIDICULOUS to think that BELLA could be dangerous to ANYONE in ANY vehicle, as if the driver's physical frailty has any bearing on the damage a truck can do when crashing into cars or non-vampires at speed.
AND SCENE!
I'm gonna be honest, guys, that one was a couple degrees more agonizing than the first chapter. I dread how much more I'm going to hear about Ed's conflicting desires to eat Bella and be attracted to her simultaneously average yet fascinating allure. She's just so unusually unique and smart and intuitive and selfless and shy and frail and inspires protective instincts, you see, and she's not like ANY OTHER human he's ever encountered, even though we have evidence now that sometimes certain vampires just find certain humans irresistibly delicious, and we can probably extrapolate that those humans were somehow immune to vampire powers, too.
I also highly question Bella's above-average "martyrdom," considering she dropped her guard pretty fast around the cute stranger and basically broadcasted how unhappy she is with her decision, which makes it feel a bit like she did what she did so she could feel good about herself rather than because it was the best thing to do? Being selfless doesn't mean COMPLETELY ignoring your own needs, or justify using your good deed as an excuse to have a poor attitude. Of course, considering that half her traits that Ed notices and marvels over are actually fairly normal, I don't think any of us feel a strong need to trust his assessments of her character.
Next up is CHAPTER THREE: RISK. I'm sure it will feature Edward being very level-headed and undramatic. I think I need to build my endurance back up for this one. (And thanks for the likes and comments so far, they really help keep me motivated! =D)
Maurice- older now (exact age not given but we can assume this chapter takes place from the time he’s 15 until 18 before heading to Cambridge)
Characters side note:
-There are several boys mentioned throughout this chapter, none are given a name but I still would like to make note of them as they are important for this phase of Maurice’s life.
-The adored: boys that Maurice basically had a crush on but he didn’t know what it meant
-The admirers: the boys that had a crush on Maurice but he shunted off as soon as he picked up on it
-The one boy: one boy who Maurice had a crush on that also had a crush on him (further discussion about intense friendships that are basically relationships that end in that weird ‘totally not a relationship break-up but a friendship no-homo break-up’ that seems to be a universal queer experience. (He’s just like me fr fr)
Points of Note:
Maurice is plain. Again. Forster doesn’t give this man a break for even a second. Maurice is the boyest boy to ever boy and Forster wants us to remember that lol.
Puberty hits Maurice like a goddamn train. It’s made clear that Maurice has always been attracted to men. Clive wasn’t the one who made him realize he was attracted to men, it was always there Maurice just tried really hard to ignore it.
Maurice is clumsy! He’s a very clumsy boy! Lowkey, he’s kinda your average YA protagonist, clumsy plain boy who never stands out until…
Summary:
This chapter is only four pages long and is more so about how Maurice’s sexuality changes as he hits puberty. In school, he’s not very noticeable. In Forster’s own words,
“If people noticed him they liked him, for he had a bright friendly face and responded to attention; but there were so many boys of his type- they formed the backbone of the school and we cannot notice each vertebra.” (Pg 21)
Maurice is a very stick with the crowd person. He was bullied as a new student, and so he bullied new students. This is part of why he never sticks out amongst the other boys in his school.
This chapter also brings up Maurice’s dreams. One is your typical teenage boy wet dream (starring George the garden boy) and the other is the dream of his “friend” which is pretty blatant symbolism for later.
In the dream about George, George is naked jumping over the wood stacks. Unfortunately for Maurice, every time he thinks he’s about to see all of George, the dream ends and Maurice wakes up very disappointed. He also feels like these dreams are a punishment for something he doesn’t have the words to describe just yet.
In the second dream, Maurice sees a face with a voice that says,
“This is your friend,” … (Pg. 22)
Maurice thinks it might be Jesus at first. Then he figures it’s not anybody he knows, and leaves it up to being a dream and decides to not put much thought into figuring it out. Maurice is confirmed and has horny thoughts when receiving Holy Communion (understandable, I too think religious aesthetic can be oh so sexy) which doesn’t help the guilt-complex he’s developing.
There’s also the implication that the year before Maurice went to Sunnington, a student was caught doing something elicit (probably queer) and was ousted from the school. This results in all of the boys being overly policed.
As he gets further along in school, Maurice develops what we would recognize as ‘crushes’ on other boys.
“As he rose in the school he began to make a religion of some other boy.” (Pg. 24)
These boys would often “shake him off”, and like we see earlier in the chapter, Maurice does the same to the boys who seem to have a crush on him. There was one exception however.
“The adoration was mutual on one occasion, both yearning for they knew not what, but the result was the same. They quarreled in a few days. All that came out of the chaos were the two feelings of beauty and tenderness that he had first felt in a dream. They grew yearly, flourishing like plants that are all leaves and show no sign of flower. Towards the close of his education at Sunnington the growth stopped. A check, a silence, fell upon complex processes, and very timidly the youth began to look around him.” (Pg. 24)
River’s Notes:
So a few quick notes-
It’s not explicitly stated which church Maurice belongs to (yet), but Forster belongs to The Church of England so I’m going to guess that Maurice does as well. I also don’t know how they do communion in that church (I was raised Southern Baptist so we just passed around crackers and grape juice). During this scene I imagined that they do the whole kneeling before the priest as he puts the bread in their mouths, which explains the immediate sexual thoughts Maurice has (not judging. Completely understandable.)
The fact that the ‘super intense friendship which is definitely a no-homo relationship’ trope has been going for so long is so…comforting? Like I went through this when I was a young teenager. I was Maurice not knowing what the fuck to do with how I felt about the other girls around me. I too had an extremely homo-no-homo relationship that ended in fights and not knowing what the fuck was going on between us. I too felt like I only knew half of what was going on with me, the other half hidden behind hushed words that I wasn’t allowed to hear. Maurice is an asshole, but he’s just like me for real for real.
[Okay so I finally got my hands on my own copy of Maurice by E.M Forester. As I was rereading it, I found little bits of information that I thought were interesting. I decided that I would do a small breakdown of the entire novel chapter by chapter, pointing out the fun little details I find while also documenting key information. I don’t know how often I’ll update due to the fact I’m a full time student and work part time but I’ll do my best to post updates as I go along. Also, I should warn y’all that I’m painfully American so if I get something wrong about British culture just yell at me and I’ll fix it lol.]
Warning: Maurice spoilers below (you should really read the book if you haven’t already)
Named Characters Descriptions:
Mr. Abrahams- Schoolmaster/Principal,
Mrs. Abrahams- Mr. Abrahams’ wife, gives Maurice sleeve links (cuff-links basically), motherly
Mr. Read- Junior Assistant (Vice Principal???)
Mr. Ducie- Also a schoolmaster, unclear where he ranks against Read and Abrahams, young and engaged
Maurice Hall- our boi <3, 14 3/4 thank you very much, is also described as stupid so early on like damn Forester give him a chance he’s 14, all 14 year olds are stupid.
Literally zero appearance descriptions at this point outside of just vibes and ages.
Points of Note:
Maurice’s father died of pneumonia when Maurice was 13-14ish (the book says that Maurice’s father died recently, and when Mr. Ducie has his talk with Maurice, he says that he’s “fourteen and three quarters”).
Kitty is actually the youngest of the Halls. For some reason I always thought she was his eldest sister??? She gives such eldest daughter energy that my brain just tuned canon out I guess.
Maurice (as a child at least) is a afraid of the dark. Not to spoil later reviews, but this does come up again in the novel several times so keep this tagged in your brain when reading.
Maurice is repeatedly compared to his father, but not in a ‘he’ll be a great success’ kind of way; but in the way that he’s actually very plain and unassuming. This is another point that will repeat in the novel so put a pin in it!!
Summary:
Maurice is getting ready to enter British public school (to Americans: from my understanding it’s kind of like a private school, but also not?? You have to pay a fee to attend but it’s less selective) and is going on an end-of-term walk on the beach with his class. Maurice as a young boy is repeatedly described as unremarkable, plain, and a copy of his father. Early on, Maurice is told to follow in his father’s footsteps by Mr. Abrahams. Then we get to the walk with Mr. Ducie. If you’ve seen the movie, this scene plays out almost exactly the same only we get to see more into Maurice’s mind.
Maurice is not interested in the sex talk that Mr. Ducie gives him. He asks questions because he knows he supposed to, but internally we see Maurice is unable to be interested in what Mr. Ducie is talking about. By the end of their talk, Maurice actually begins to resent Mr. Ducie a bit.
“Liar,” he thought. “Liar, coward, he’s told me nothing...” (Pg. 15)
This could be because Maurice is still a bit too young to care about sex, puberty, etc. From my interpretation (and experience as a queer person myself), Maurice could be struggling because Mr. Ducie keeps emphasizing the importance of a wife and having sex with women, which Maurice simply can’t understand because it isn’t in his nature.
Finally, the chapter ends with the most fuckin metal line:
“Then darkness rolled up again, the darkness that is primeval but not eternal, and yields to its own painful dawn.” (Pg. 15)
Now, I’m still not entirely sure how I want to interpret the meaning of this line and anyone is welcomed to offer their own interpretations. So far my mind is circling on the idea that this is in reference to Maurice’s later sexual awakening that he’ll undergo. Right now he’s in the dark (which he fears), but reaching the light won’t necessarily bring him peace either and will come with it’s own pain.
Venom was actually really good. It did take a while for the Plot to Get Going and once it did it went pretty fast, but besides that it was good all around. It was funny, the special effects were really good, and Venom is Cutie. 8.5/10
Without spoiling anything the movie was really good! As a sequel it was solid, it did what sequels are supposed to do continue and add to the story. But there is an obligatory pop song (following the indie pop fad luckily so it sort of fits). Luckily they didn't take much if anything away from Astrid's character! I thought for sure now that she was 'The Girlfriend' she would suddenly stop having a personality so that was nice. I will say some dramatic parts take themselves too seriously. I won't say it's as good as the first film but it's surprisingly good. It heads in the right direction for a third movie which I'm crossing my fingers will be even better
