http://books.google.com/books?id=JeiEprPiGvAC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=&f=false

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Resolutely simplistic, seemingly complex, Hurt Locker bears the mark of all mediocre films, most of its tensions disappear on second viewing, some of them dissolve even during their first. Its logic messy and unconvincing, Bigelow has many choices but seems to milk any distortion she can while sacrificing intelligent sequencing. Early on a butcher detonates an IED after the targeted technician has come closest to the killzone, he's already on his way out when it detonates, the purpose here is to array the tensions in layers yet it destroys the pure logic of the bomb's purpose. Bigelow couches everything, it's her first pop-out, the butcher holds his cellphone-bomb-remote artificially and in plain sight, needlessly calling attention from the support troops. Meetings between unknowns are milked for every second of tension possible, 'you guys are wired tight' is the understatement of the film, James' taxi encounter seems to go on for years, the initial seconds of the encounter with mercenary Brits are elongated like a blind date intro.  'Improvs' like the use of a smoke flare to reduce visibility on a tight street are met with hysteria from Sanborn, the film seems to create drama out of operatic fear. You'd wonder if the bomb unit had any sense of cool. The support team loses its lunch at every possible turn, grating audience nerves needlessly, and surely Iraq vets in the audience leave the film rolling eyes: who are these whiners?  Without the perceptive distortions we share with Renner's central character, all cheap gotchas that usually are tools of the horror film, the film is merely a stylized, largely static war drama with a component fate: the tension of defusing catastrophic bombs. Interspersed between the wooden Green Zone/base therapy-'letting steam-off' scenery is the paranoia of cultural confusion and divided languages. The technical nightmares of urban warfare in a city only temporarily conquered are never fully realized though: the plot has to depart the city to duel with ultra-long lenses where its one Iraq-conflict-signature-jarhead-moment, the sniper exchange and outcome, falls this side of flat. She can't decide if the film is a document of what seems real or is it all too surreal?  For all the supposed technical charms of Bigelow's macho bravo eye, it still feels more transvestite than transcendant. Moments like the boy's reappearance and the confused home invasion have contrivances that weigh sentimental rather than paint the film with radical shifts in wartime paradox. Generals, medics, buddies, even cameos like Fiennes and Pearce are modulated into a gruff anyspeak.  Its mediocrity rises full pitch as the film ends with his child's jack-in-the-box routine, a metaphor so leaden, Bigelow may as well be saying: do you get it? The way she displays data is glaring, his box of denatured devices, what is being left in the transitions, nothing. Fear? Do we really obtain a sense of the streets?  Culture is still awaiting this war's watershed flick: the Deer Hunter-Apocalypse Now-Full Metal Jacket lens. Where plot is only a decoy to obtain the visual epic.

Avatar for all its far-out eco-evolution is in many ways nostalgiac, it descends from adventure stories of the far past: the media meltdown occuring now in Imax shares many of its identities with pre-teen, pre-sexual Disney-style colonialist fantasies, revisionist westerns, the early Star Wars Trilogy, and the last great epic of the 20th century: The Matrix. All are god-head myths, either an all powerful force has singularity as a value, or a being in the film possesses this quality: this is the synthesis of this concept of heroism. 

Now there is a heroine: the populous have been converting droves of cash for seats to witness a Wiccan through blood-lust return to the primitive, through the lens of emotionally credible potboiler soap-operas. After years of leafing through teenage tomes: the heavy, sugary, sparkling drifts of snow - the volumes of white stage-pumice Harry Potter came to town on, viewers must have begun to realize that series was a reboot for a decayed and long-gone Empire: Potter converted the English-Anglican (with a Monarchy mask) state into a secret society of earth mound worshippers, staged in enlightenment-era preperatory schools where pre-sexual children fight wars of light and dark energy, coddled and corrupted by aged professors and professoras of all backgrounds and origins. A parallel that no doubt helped to rebrand Tony Blair's new England. Magic leaps in and takes the natural into the supernatural and augments the the role of a singular God in these myths. It was after all the Pagan myth-realm before the fertile crescent migrated north to claim a spirit inside a tree (sound familiar, this, uh, tree transformation?) . Potter should be seen as the colonial pre-teen pre-nup set-up for the pulpy now dominant Twilight Saga. Our American repsonse-result to Potter is the Twilight Saga (Potter can even be a psychic prequel realm, are all of these Vampires not the result of spells by qualified magicians in Europe?), a heavily coded teen-angst battle between individuals claiming the right to either protect or destroy a virgin (or is it both, are these fears-desires now merged into a kind of insanity - the teen version of paradox). Add the native component, a recomputed myth from an actual Pacific-Northwestern tribe, makes them descend from wolves to fight blood drinkers. To bolster their supernatural genre, Summit lured Chris Weitz, the inventor of the teen-sex comedy of the gilded age American Pie, to craft the second model of the trilogy, New Moon.  As teens reconsider the western, singular god-myth unconsciously, they look here to project their desires into archetypes of the supernatural, the males of which are in sexual competition for a virginal maiden. It's easy to forget these archetypes can appear in science-fiction, in sophisticated comedies, but here they are blessed with powers of the underworld, and a central pivot is a maidenhead. Who do teens have as role-models in society now? Reality proves some of all of them have myths that are visibly corrupting in some way, that is the purpose of the digital age: the cleansing of myth or the exploitation of another. The big loser in the age of 'reality' is religion. Although a god will still be worshipped, it's adherents and vectors like priests and imams are also at risk of their corruptions made readily visible, even broadcast to an anonymous population. A fictional archetype is always ready to pick up the slack: that is what lays in wait for the exposed or corrupt here who choose visibility.  As religion's role continues to decay into the singularity of 'reality', along with politics, education and social-entertainment, fantasy must now pick up for the slackening of archetypes available to teens. Potentially heroic role-models like a statuesque President are seemingly surrounded by decayed heroes-forms that no longer have the firewall of myth as protection, no oral statement can mortar the cracking stone, 'reality' of real-time digital evidence is now available to exhibit the actual sides of politicians, athletes, actors. Fantasy must accelerate its own activism (one might say conservatism: that strange light of purity remains stable inside these genres) to keep pace with all the unveiling our society demands with its information. The Myth of Tiger Woods's marriage versus the Myth of Bella Swan's virginity. Fiction will always beat 'reality;' its firewall is made of fantasy.

Quotes from Eclipse, the final book of the trilogy....

Black eyes, wild with their fierce craving for my death, watched for the moment when my protector’s attention would be diverted. The moment when I would surely die.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Preface, p.1

I could imagine the frustration pulling his black eyebrows together and crumpling his forehead. If I’d been there, I might have laughed. Don’t give yourself a brain hemorrhage, Jacob, I would have told him. Just spit it out.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 1, p.4

The word boyfriend had me chewing on the inside of my cheek with a familiar tension while I stirred. It wasn’t the right word, not at all. I needed something more expressive of eternal commitment… But words like destiny and fate sounded hokey when you used them in casual conversation.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 1, p.6

My dad was not a man of many words, and the effort he had put into trying to orchestrate a sit-down dinner with me made it clear there were an uncharacteristic number of words on his mind.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 1, p.7

It worked — your cooking skills have me soft as a marshmallow.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 1, p.9

It was against the rules for normal people — human people like me and Charlie — to know about the clandestine world full of myths and monsters that existed secretly around us. I knew all about that world — and I was in no small amount of trouble as a result.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 1, p.13

With Jacob there is a… conflict. A conflict about the friendship thing, I mean. Friendship doesn’t always seem to be enough for Jake.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 1, p.14

You and Billy gossip like old women.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 1, p.14

I’m shocked, Sheriff. That’s a federal crime.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 1, p.15

I wrenched the door out of my way — ridiculously eager — and there he was, my personal miracle.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 1, p.17

Staring into his eyes always made me feel extraordinary — sort of like my bones were turning spongy. I was also a little lightheaded, but that could have been because I’d forgotten to keep breathing. Again.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 1, p.17

His touch brought with it the strangest sense of relief — as if I’d been in pain and that pain had suddenly ceased.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 1, p.17

The idea of being in danger from even the most deadly of humans while I was with Alice or Edward was downright hilarious.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 1, p.21

I want to be a monster, too.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 1, p.25

I think it’s something about the inevitability. How nothing can keep them apart — not her selfishness, or his evil, or even death, in the end…
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 1, p.29

It’s a bit late for me to worry about who I fall in love with. But even without the warning, I seem to have managed fairly well.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 1, p.29

My bad luck had nothing to do with it. The werewolves came back because the vampires did.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 1, p.31

I knew I must be patient with Edward. It wasn’t that he was unreasonable, it was just that he didn’t understand. He had no idea how very much I owed Jacob Black — my life many times over, and possibly my sanity, too.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 1, p.32

If Jacob hadn’t helped me… I’m not sure what you would have come home to. I owe him better than this, Edward.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 1, p.32

Alice was scrutinizing my boring jeans-and-a-t-shirt outfit in a way that made me self-conscious. Probably plotting another makeover. I sighed. My indifferent attitude to fashion was a constant thorn in her side. If I’d allow it, she’d love to dress me every day — perhaps several times a day — like some oversized three-dimensional paper doll.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 2, p.36

I’m sure I still have boundaries — like the continental U.S., for example.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 2, p.38

You’re really not that good a mechanic, Edward. Maybe you should have Rosalie take a look at it tonight, just so you look good if Mike decides to let you help, you know. Not that it wouldn’t be fun to watch his face if Rosalie showed up to help.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 2, p.41

If I had my way, I would spend the majority of my time kissing Edward.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 2, p.43

I knew I had about three seconds before he would sigh and slide me deftly away, saying something about how we’d risked my life enough for one afternoon.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 2, p.44

He pulled my face away from his, breaking my hold with ease — he probably didn’t even realize that I was using all my strength.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 2, p.44

I’d say I’m sorry, but I’m not.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 2, p.44

You know how I am with tools. No pain was inflicted intentionally.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 2, p.47

I’ll do my time without complaining when I’ve done something wrong, Dad, but I’m not going to put up with your prejudices.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 2, p.54

You’re a rotten liar, Dad.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 2, p.54

It’s not like I’m headed off to Vegas to be a showgirl or anything. I’m going to see Mom.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 2, p.54

Interceded? You threw me to the sharks!
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 2, p.56

Edward and Alice playing chess was one of the funniest things I’d ever seen. They’d sat there nearly motionless, staring at the board, while Alice foresaw the moves he would make and he picked the moves she would make in return out of her head. They played most of the game in their minds; I think they’d each moved two pawns when Alice suddenly flicked her king over and surrendered. It took all of three minutes.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 2, p.58

Please tell me you are not trying to have a sex talk with me, Charlie.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 2, p.58

This was beyond the seventh circle of Hades; even worse was realizing that Edward had known this was coming. No wonder he’d seemed so smug in the car.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 2, p.59

I really wish you were not forcing me to say this out loud, Dad. Really. But… I am a… virgin, and I have no immediate plans to change that status.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 2, p.59

I wasn’t in the mood to be alone, but I certainly wasn’t going to go back downstairs to hang out with my Dad, just in case he thought of some topic of sex education that he hadn’t touched on before; I shuddered.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 2, p.61

Renée is so much more… perceptive than Charlie in some ways. It was making me jumpy.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 3, p.66

I knew Jake inside and out. It shouldn’t be that complicated to figure out his motivations.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 3, p.73

I think… I think he was checking. Checking to make sure. That I’m human, I mean.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 3, p.75

I’d forgotten how much this face bothered me. Though I’d gotten to know Sam pretty well before the Cullens had come back — to like him, even — I’d never been able to completely shake the resentment I felt when Jacob mimicked Sam’s expression. It was a stranger’s face. He wasn’t my Jacob when he wore it.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 3, p.76

With a sense of astonishment, I realized that Jacob looked dangerous to them. How odd.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 3, p.77

Edward cut him off mid-sentence, and his face was abruptly frightening — truly frightening. For a second, he looked like… like a vampire.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 3, p.79

Graduation was only a few weeks away, but I wondered if it wasn’t a little foolish to sit around, weak and tasty, waiting for the next disaster. It seemed too dangerous to be human — just begging for trouble. Someone like me shouldn’t be human. Someone with my luck ought to be a little less helpless.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 4, p.92

So the consensus was that I was just supposed to forget that a deranged vampire was stalking me, intent on my death.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 4, p.93

Alice was certainly just as capable of crippling my truck as Edward was.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 4, p.95

For some reason — impending mania, perhaps — this really irritated me.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 4, p.96

As we walked, I felt myself settling into another version of myself, the self I had been with Jacob. A little younger, a little less responsible. Someone who might, on occasion, do something really stupid for no good reason.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 4, p.101

Can you listen, or will you be interrupting me with rude comments about my friends?
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 4, p.103

Being apart… It didn’t work out so well for either of us.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 4, p.108

I love him. Not because he’s beautiful or because he’s rich! I’d much rather he weren’t either one. It would even out the gap between us just a little bit — because he’d still be the most loving and unselfish and brilliant and decent person I’ve ever met. Of course I love him. How hard is that to understand?
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 4, p.110

What is a valid reason for someone to love someone else? Since apparently I’m doing it wrong.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 4, p.110

You know, Jacob, you’re awfully self-righteous — considering that you’re a werewolf and all.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 4, p.111

Normal humans can’t throw motorcycles around the way you can.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 4, p.112

Jacob had become a part of me, and there was no changing that now.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 4, p.112

He really hates it when I do things he considers… risky.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 5, p.115

At least he can be a grown-up about this. He knows that hurt ing you would hurt me — and so he never would. You don’t seem to care about that at all!
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 5, p.115

Most people fall in and out of love many times in their lives. It was just that I’d seen Sam with Emily, and I couldn’t imagine him with someone else. The way he looked at her… well, it reminded me of a look I’d seen sometimes in Edward’s eyes — when he was looking at me.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 5, p.117

Remind me not to get on your bad side.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 5, p.118

Am I the only one who has to get old? I get older every stinking day! Damn it! What kind of world is this? Where’s the justice?
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 5, p.119

I’m a pro at weird.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 5, p.121

Edward’s never in my head. He only wishes.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 5, p.126

I don’t care who’s a vampire and who’s a werewolf. That’s irrelevant. You are Jacob, and he is Edward, and I am Bella. And nothing else matters.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 5, p.130

It felt so ordinary here. Angela’s easy human dramas were oddly reassuring. It was nice to know that life was normal somewhere.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 6, p.133

I wanted to talk to a normal human girlfriend. I wanted to moan a little bit, like any other teenage girl. I wanted my problems to be that simple. It would also be nice to have someone outside the whole vampire-werewolf mess to put things in perspective. Someone unbiased.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 6, p.135

Er… so, I’m still alive.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 6, p.140

You made the treaty — you stick to it.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 6, p.141

Next to the warmth of the last of the afternoon sun streaming through the window, his skin felt especially icy. He seemed like ice, too, frozen the way he was.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 6, p.141

I believe that. But I want you to know something — when it comes to all this enemies nonsense, I’m out. I am a neutral country. I am Switzerland. I refuse to be affected by territorial disputes between mythical creatures. Jacob is family. You are… well, not exactly the love of my life, because I expect to love you for much longer than that. The love of my existence. I don’t care who’s a werewolf and who’s a vampire. If Angela turns out to be a witch, she can join the party, too.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 6, p.143

You’re kidnapping me, aren’t you?
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 6, p.145

Alice, don’t you think this is just a little bit controlling? Just a tiny bit psychotic, maybe?
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 6, p.146

Yes, because a vampire slumber party is the pinnacle of safety conscious behavior.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 6, p.146

You are in trouble. Enormous trouble. Angry grizzly bears are going to look tame next to what is waiting for you at home.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 6, p.149

Porsches as bribes and king-sized beds in houses where nobody slept — it was beyond irritating.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 6, p.151

Why don’t you just lock me in the basement, and forget the sugar coating?
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 7, p.169

Charlie’s blatant preference for my Quileute friends was so unfair. I wondered if he would feel the same if he knew the choice was really between vampires and werewolves.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 8, p.173

So what’s the latest pack scandal?
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 8, p.173

We can’t all be freakishly strong.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 8, p.177

If I get hurt, it was because I tripped.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 8, p.178

I traded a lifetime of servitude for a box of conversation hearts. That’s not something I’m likely to forget.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 8, p.178

I held very still — a reaction to stress. It was a habit I’d picked up from Edward.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 8, p.180

There was no friction in the space between us. The stillness was peaceful — not like the calm before the tempest, but like a clear night untouched by even the dream of a storm.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 8, p.185

I like danger.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 8, p.188

I’m going to spontaneously combust one of these days — and you’ll have no one but yourself to blame.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 8, p.188

I don’t mind if you want to give me the wrong impression again.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 8, p.188

You can hold me hostage any time you want.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 8, p.189

Where did all this tolerance come from?
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 8, p.190

If you’re going to have a lapse in control, I can think of a better place for it.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 8, p.192

Let me be in charge of responsibility for a few minutes… or hours.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 8, p.192

If Jacob preferred me dead, then maybe he should get used to the silence.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 9, p.197

I was frustrated. Against my better judgment, I was still human.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 9, p.207

They’ll get so bored, they’ll have to kill me themselves, just for something to do.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 9, p.207

Is Jacob paying you for all the P.R., or are you a volunteer?
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 9, p.207

He sang me to sleep again and — aware even in unconsciousness that he was there — I slept free of nightmares.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 9, p.208

There’s… well, there’s this other problem that’s slightly more worrisome than a bratty teenage werewolf…
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 9, p.210

It was hard to get used to how much faster Jacob was without his car. How everyone seemed to be so much faster than me…
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 10, p.215

I’m not worried about anyone who would be deterred by a locked door.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 10, p.215

Is it really so impossible to wear clothes, Jacob?
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 10, p.215

Do you have a medical degree that you never told me about?
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 10, p.220

I wondered if he had trouble saying the word werewolf aloud, the way I often had difficulty with vampire.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 10, p.223

Okay! Time for the werewolf to get out!
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 10, p.224

I can’t afford it, and I’m not letting you throw away enough money to buy yourself another sports car just so that I can pretend to go to Dartmouth next year.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 10, p.225

It was stupid to want to go hang out with a bunch of big idiot wolf-boys right now when there was so much that was frightening and unexplained going on. Of course, that was exactly why I wanted to go. I wanted to escape the death threats, for just a few hours . . . to be the less-mature, more-reckless Bella who could laugh it off with Jacob, if only briefly.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 10, p.231

I stared at the beautiful machine. Beside it, my bike looked like a broken tricycle. I felt a sudden wave of sadness when I realized that this was not a bad analogy for the way I probably looked next to Edward.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 10, p.233

You know what this reminds me of? It’s just like when I was a kid and Renée would pass me off to Charlie for the summer. I feel like a seven-year-old.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 10, p.235

He’s being pretty dang pleasant about this; you don’t need to push your luck.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 10, p.238

Hanging out with no one but extremely dexterous people all the time was going to give me a complex.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 11, p.240

Other than a few teasing complaints — mostly by Paul — about keeping the bloodsucker stench downwind, I was treated like someone who belonged.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 11, p.241

The way he stared at her! It was like a blind man seeing the sun for the first time. Like a collector finding an undiscovered Da Vinci, like a mother looking into the face of her newborn child.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 11, p.242

What’s the best part? You swallowing an entire cow whole?
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 11, p.243

All was silent for a long moment. The living descendants of magic and legend stared at one another across the fire with sadness in their eyes.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 11, p.259

I’ll be there. And I’ll hate every minute of it. Promise.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 12, p.268

I felt like someone had kicked my legs out from under me. The weeks of stress, of worry… somehow in the middle of all my obsessing over the time, my time had disappeared. My space for sorting through it all, for making plans, had vanished. I was out of time.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 12, p.269

I knew exactly what I wanted, but I was suddenly terrified of getting it.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 12, p.269

You really do want to keep me, no matter how I turn out?
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 12, p.273

I’m not that girl, Edward. The one who gets married right out of high school like some small-town hick who got knocked up by her boyfriend!
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 12, p.275

Edward, there’s no point to forever without you. I wouldn’t want one day without you.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 12, p.276

As we walked in, Emmett ambled through the kitchen door, seeming perfectly at ease. Nothing ever bothered Emmett.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 12, p.283

Emmett sighed theatrically, and plopped down on the couch to wait with exaggerated impatience.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 12, p.285

I shuddered at the image in my head, at the word feed. But Jasper wasn’t worried about frightening me, not overprotective like Edward always was.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 13, p.288

I frowned at the way he pronounced the name — with respect, almost gratitude. The idea of the Volturi as the good guys in any sense was hard to accept.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 13, p.288

We would win, but we would lose. Some wouldn’t survive.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 13, p.309

Sure, I thought to myself. Trust him. He wasn’t the one who was going to have to sit behind and wonder whether or not the core of his existence was going to come home.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 14, p.312

He was so beautiful that it made it hard sometimes to think about anything else, hard to concentrate on Phil’s troubles or Renée’s apologies or hostile vampire armies. I was only human.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 14, p.315

I hate being babysat.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 14, p.316

If something helped even the odds… and then I shuddered, realizing I was willing to have a stranger die to protect him. I was horrified at myself, but not entirely able to deny it, either.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 14, p.317

I was pleased to have an option besides being babysat. There was a tiny bit more dignity in spending the day with Jacob.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 14, p.318

I wanted to make both of them get out of their cars and shake hands and be friends — be Edward and Jacob rather than vampire and werewolf. It was as if I had those two stubborn magnets in my hands again, and I was holding them together, trying to force nature to reverse herself…
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 14, p.319

While he slept, every trace of defensiveness and bitterness disappeared and suddenly he was the boy who had been my very best friend before all the werewolf nonsense had gotten in the way. He looked so much younger. He looked like my Jacob.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 14, p.323

There was just something about him being the one to make the choice — to want to keep me enough that he wouldn’t just allow me to be changed, he would act to keep me. It was childish, but I liked the idea that his lips would be the last good thing I would feel. Even more embarrassingly, something I would never say aloud, I wanted his venom to poison my system. It would make me belong to him in a tangible, quantifiable way.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 14, p.324

I miss you when you’re not there. When you’re happy, it makes me happy. But I could say the same thing about Charlie, Jacob. You’re family. I love you, but I’m not in love with you.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 15, p.329

I can’t wait to see what Edward does to you! I hope he snaps your neck, you pushy, obnoxious, moronic DOG!
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 15, p.332

I’ll give you passionate. Murder, the ultimate crime of passion.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 15, p.332

If I think about you tonight, it will be because I’m having a nightmare.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 15, p.333

I don’t want to be happy with anyone but him.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 15, p.333

That was not kissing back, that was trying to get you the hell off of me, you idiot.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 15, p.334

I punched a werewolf in the face.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 15, p.342

I guess I could throw in a few extra homicides, if it makes Jasper happy. Why not?
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 15, p.343

Was there a human experience I was not willing to give up?
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 15, p.345

Stupid, thieving, annoying vampire!
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 16, p.347

I can’t imagine how awful that must feel. Being normal? Ugh.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 16, p.347

Well, everyone can relax. Nobody’s trying to exterminate the Cullens after all.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 16, p.349

And now Edward rode in the backseat of my father’s police car, behind the fiberglass divider, with an amused expression — probably due to my father’s amused expression, and the grin that widened every time Charlie stole a glance at Edward in his rearview mirror. Which almost certainly meant that Charlie was imagining things that would get him in trouble with me if he said them out loud.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 16, p.351

Please don’t get all weepy on me.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 16, p.352

They stood out from the rest of the crowd, their beauty and grace otherworldly. I wondered how I’d ever fallen for their human farce. A couple of angels, standing there with wings intact, would be less conspicuous.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 16, p.354

Okay, so telling Edward had been a really bad idea. Alice was right to keep her thoughts clouded. I should have waited till we were alone somewhere, maybe with the rest of his family. And nothing breakable close by — like windows… cars… school buildings.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 16, p.358

This kiss frightened me. There was too much tension, too strong an edge to the way his lips crushed mine — like he was afraid we only had so much time left to us.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 17, p.365

I saw Emmett grin at Mike over the food table, the red lights gleaming off his teeth, and watched Mike take an automatic step back.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 17, p.368

She was forever trying to make me be human the way she thought humans should be.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 17, p.368

In case my right hook was too subtle for you, let me translate: that was me uninviting you.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 17, p.372

All around us, my friends and neighbors and petty enemies ate and laughed and swayed to the music, oblivious to the fact that they were about to face horror, danger, maybe death. Because of me.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 17, p.379

People — well, vampires and werewolves really, but still — people I loved were going to get hurt. Hurt because of me. Again. I wished my bad luck would focus a little more carefully.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 18, p.386

He raced through the black, quiet forest with me on his back, and even in his run I could feel the elation. He ran the way he did when it was just us, just for enjoyment, just for the feel of the wind in his hair. It was the kind of thing that, during less anxious times, would have made me happy.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 18, p.386

You’re in every thought I have.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 19, p.413

You’re more important than everyone else. And you’ve given me you. That’s already more than I deserve, and anything else you give me just throws us more out of balance.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 19, p.413

Okay, look, Edward. Here’s the thing… I’ve already gone crazy once. I know what my limits are. And I can’t stand it if you leave me again.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 19, p.419

I wondered if I was a monster. Not the kind that he thought he was, but the real kind. The kind that hurt people. The kind that had no limits when it came to what they wanted.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 19, p.421

Two voices struggled inside me. One that wanted to be good and brave, and one that told the good one to keep her mouth shut.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 19, p.422

Edward had requested that I relax, and I was going to do my best.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 20, p.435

After everything I’d seen in the past two years, I didn’t believe in the word impossible anymore. It was going to take more than that to stop me now.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 20, p.436

He must have been eager to give me my non-present, because human velocity was not fast enough for him.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 20, p.438

I leaned into him, ducking my head under his arm and cuddling into his side. It probably felt similar to snuggling with Michelangelo’s David, except that this perfect marble creature wrapped his arms around me to pull me closer.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 20, p.439

I didn’t have the faintest idea how to be seductive. I would just have to settle for flushed and self-conscious.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 20, p.442

I doubted if awkward, self-conscious, and inept added up to desirable in anyone’s book.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 20, p.445

I already know how strong you are. You didn’t have to break the furniture.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 20, p.447

There isn’t much that’s traditional about you and me.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 20, p.451

It’s not like you didn’t know you were going to win in the end. You always win.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 20, p.452

You make me feel like a villain in a melodrama — twirling my mustache while I try to steal some poor girl’s virtue.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 20, p.452

That’s it, isn’t it? You’re trying to protect your virtue!
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 20, p.453

Vampire rules aren’t enough for you? You want to worry about the human ones too?
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 20, p.453

You can’t make me go somewhere you won’t be. That’s my definition of hell. Anyway, I have an easy solution to all this: let’s never die, all right?
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 20, p.455

Show me the damn ring, Edward.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 20, p.457

There were many things I wanted to say, some of them not nice at all, and others more disgustingly gooey and romantic than he probably dreamed I was capable of.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 20, p.460

The urge to fight must be a defining characteristic of the Y chromosome. They were all the same.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 21, p.463

I never thought I’d see the day where I’d be willing to take a bet against you, Alice, but it has arrived.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 21, p.467

It would hurt his feelings if I told the truth — that it didn’t really matter, because it was all just varying degrees of awful anyway.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 21, p.469

Some people will go to any lengths to delude themselves.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 21, p.476

But I don’t count that as a kiss, Jacob. I think of it more as an assault.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 21, p.476

Don’t mess with me, Jake. I swear I won’t stop him if he wants to break your jaw.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 21, p.477

You’re an enormous monster who refuses to respect anyone else’s personal space.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 21, p.478

Nervousness and irritation are not the same thing.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 21, p.478

I was horrible. I had to be, to convince him to stay with me. He won’t hold it against me, but I’ll always know what I’m capable of.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 21, p.480

You’re my best friend. At least, you used to be. And still sometimes are… when you let your guard down.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 21, p.481

Leave it to you to ruin the moment.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 21, p.481

I wondered if the Cullens and the Quileutes weren’t just playing up that whole odor issue because of their prejudices. Everyone smelled fine to me.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 22, p.492

Why are you so much furrier than your friends?
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 22, p.493

Edward met my gaze evenly. His expression was calm, but the pain in his eyes was unconcealed.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 23, p.506

You’ve always seemed more like a dream than reality.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 23, p.513

It made no difference that Jacob was not human when he cried out. I needed no translation.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 23, p.514

Yes. I should save my energy to torment Jacob some more. I wouldn’t want to leave any part of him unharmed.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 23, p.515

Do you think I care whether it’s fair or whether he was adequately warned? I’m hurting him. Every time I turn around, I’m hurting him again. I’m a hideous person.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 23, p.515

I was hurting everyone today. Was there anything I touched that didn’t get spoiled?
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 23, p.517

I was selfish, I was hurtful. I tortured the ones I loved.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 23, p.517

Edward would never see me shed another tear for Jacob Black.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 23, p.517

I had to get over this irrational feeling that Jacob belonged in my life. He couldn’t belong with me, could not be my Jacob, when I belonged to someone else.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 23, p.518

It would be no more than I deserved if I somehow lost them both.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 23, p.520

There was no end to his generosity. I deserved him now less than I ever had.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 23, p.521

I had to never hurt him again. That would be my mission in life. Never again would I be the reason for this look to come into his eyes.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 23, p.521

Kiss me, Jacob. Kiss me, and then come back.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 23, p.525

Jacob was right. He’d been right all along. He was more than just my friend. That’s why it was so impossible to tell him goodbye — because I was in love with him. Too. I loved him, much more than I should, and yet, still nowhere near enough. I was in love with him, but it was not enough to change anything; it was only enough to hurt us both more. To hurt him worse than I ever had.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 23, p.528

I lay facedown across the sleeping bag, waiting for justice to find me. Maybe an avalanche would bury me here. I wished it would. I never wanted to have to see my face in the mirror again.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 24, p.531

There wasn’t enough room in my body to contain anything besides the hatred I felt toward myself.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 24, p.533

I should have known you’d find some way to blame yourself. Please stop. I can’t stand it.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 24, p.534

What happened to fighting back? Don’t start with the noble self-sacrifice now! Fight!
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 24, p.535

I don’t care that it’s cold here. I don’t care that I stink like a dog right now. Make me forget how awful I am. Make me forget him. Make me forget my own name. Fight back!
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 24, p.535

You said I could have any part of you I wanted. I want this part. I want every part.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 24, p.535

First, because you are bizarrely moral for a vampire.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 24, p.536

If I had to bleed to save them, I would do it. I would die to do it, like the third wife. I had no silver dagger in my hand, but I would find a way.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 24, p.539

I wasn’t sure how I heard the low sound with all the other noises echoing off the stone wall and hammering inside my head. My own heartbeat should have been enough to drown it out. But, in the split second that I stared into Victoria’s eyes, I thought I heard a familiar, exasperated sigh.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 24, p.550

I’m fine. I’m okay. I’m just. Freaking out. Give me. A minute.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 25, p.557

Just you wait till I’m a vampire! I’m not going to be sitting on the sidelines next time.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 25, p.559

A united front, as Edward had said, with me at the heart, in the safest place.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 25, p.571

If only I could be struck by lightning and be split in two. Preferably painfully. For the first time, giving up being human felt like a true sacrifice. Like it might be too much to lose.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 26, p.589

Why didn’t anyone ever try to kill me when I wanted to die?
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 26, p.592

He wasn’t even mad at me — he wasn’t even mad at you! He’s so unselfish it makes me feel even worse. I wish he would have yelled at me or something. It’s not like I don’t deserve . . . well, much worse that getting yelled at But he doesn’t care. He just wants me to be happy.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 26, p.593

How can we be friends, when we love each other like this?
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 26, p.597

Two futures, two soul mates… too much for any one person.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 26, p.599

Silly Jacob — don’t you know better than to believe vampire stories?
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 26, p.602

I probably won’t think she’s good enough for you. I wonder how jealous I’ll be.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 26, p.603

Sometimes, there isn’t any way to compromise.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 27, p.607

Nothing scared Charlie worse than tears.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 27, p.608

My hindsight seemed unbearably clear tonight. I could see every mistake I’d made, every bit of harm I’d done, the small things and the big things. Each pain I’d caused Jacob, each wound I’d given Edward, stacked up into neat piles that I could not ignore or deny.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 27, p.608

It had not been Edward and Jacob that I’d been trying to force together, it was the two parts of myself, Edward’s Bella and Jacob’s Bella. But they could not exist together, and I never should have tried.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 27, p.608

Edward, I know who I can’t live without.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 27, p.610

You may be brave enough or strong enough to live without me, if that’s what’s best. But I could never be that self-sacrificing. I have to be with you. It’s the only way I can live.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 27, p.610

I’ve chosen my life — now I want to start living it.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 27, p.616

At least my mom and dad and my friends will know the best part of my choice, the most I’m allowed to tell them. They’ll know I chose you, and they’ll know we’re together. They’ll know I’m happy, wherever I am. I think that’s the best I can do for them.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 27, p.616

It’s a good thing you’re bulletproof. I’m going to need that ring. It’s time to tell Charlie.
Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 27, p.620

Himpele and Casteneda's lowfi doc is of the angry young men genre, as anti-positivist romanticists, they see the blind westerners, drawn hypnotically towards a clearly marked equinox/solstice, as locusts and the poor trammelled indigenous Itza-as-Maya as the holy. Clear class lines are delineated as 'Mexican' capitalists replace the local vendors of Chichen Itza, a prime, eldest centrally located Post-Classic Maya polity, whose stature grows as years approach a perceived time vortex named in our calendar as 2012. What you are looking at is vibrant proof that myth replaces knowledge as cash structures are focused, Himpele and Casteneda seem to miss this and instead dress their talents as post-modernists and can't compete with the real processes in place now. They're too insensitive to the outsiders and much too sensitive to the true locals. Should be seen.

it seems our children need to educate themselves: http://www.detentionslip.org/

Las Vegas teacher disciplined for denying Holocaust

Posted: Dec 18, 2009 09:36 PM

Updated: Dec 18, 2009 06:36 PM PST

Student Upset Over Graphic 9/11 Film

The challenge for Mayan scholarly studies is simple: what's left to study after thousands of years, continual looting, a gripping moisture the jungle provides and the wars of collapse and then conquests. Many of these polities of Central America were abandoned for centuries, or trafficked rarely. What's survived in written form from the Americas' (it is poorly yet logically claimed) only literate civilization?  Not much, few codices (books of recorded data) and mostly what has survived the jungle in these forms of glyphically rendered stone and baked clay - a predominance of dates and what appears at first simplified deity or lordship worship verses, hymnals. As in most dominant indigenous cultures carefully studied by the explosion of graduate studies in the last century, the language is recorded in somewhat complete dictionaries per 'dialect' through spoken word translation. Although narrative myths exist in spoken Maya, some scattered in ethnographies, only a few complete narratives were recorded at the Spanish conquest, none are in their original written or carved glyphic transmission, and unfortunately thousands upon thousands of Mayan books are lost, a few hundred even burned by a fearful Jesuit as retribution for locals continuing to practice their local religions while also attending mass. Now Dennis Tedlock has achieved what might have seemed impossible only decades ago, he's brought the first study of Mayan literature to a masterful book form.  Although a blight of evidence might have hindered research, it also may have been a proverbial blessing in disguise. Scholars have had to work with pottery and monumental stela, and both have coded, expressive manners of storytelling; since stela, lintels etc. were integrated into sky viewing structures, they offer more complete understandings of the language's use of time and math, even interrelations between phases, and even some unusual keys: differing perceptions in meaning but not gesture, violating, or perhaps liberating them from the closed structure of western languages.  Using available data, some of which he's translated himself (a crucial one - an expansive take on the Popol Vuh), Tedlock incorporates his knowledge by impersonating unconscious strategies of Mayan and pools a vast array of master thinkers like Coe, Marcus, Taube, Marcus, Schele, Stuart, Aveni, B. Tedlock, Rice, Houston, and Kerr and assembles, in piles almost - into their spheres of specialty, translations of key artifacts and styles of writing, utilizing leaps with data they've already hinted at, but Tedlock makes certain overarching leaps: he states naming conventions across boundaries (a use of 'hereafter' that results in several 'eureka's). He allows the Maya to posses powerful storytelling strategies that any culture would could and should read in both literate and non-literate ways and he extols its visual specifities exclusive of translation.  He takes an open risk visual evolutions he's spotting are values that travel along a logical route, building skeletons of ideas from orchestrated proof. He includes astronomical data to many entries and it boosts his arguments since these chosen stories' shapes clearly expand into the night sky, some are cleverly illustrated with sky views and gradient milky ways, discussions of decaying orbits, spans of sky appearance, the goals of which are astounding once the language's overall arching methods seep in (something, a spoiler, that shouldn't be ruined here). A chapter about Mayan graffiti is pivotal, you can sense the literacy of non-royals, non-astronomers, thus the Maya convincingly hint that their language was suffusive, beyond any ideas (or ideals!) of literacy we cling to in the west. Accompanying the juicy textual discoveries are some exquisite visual strategies possible only in book form - the venn between anthropology, archeology and linguistics - connective starscapes, visually-based translations of both layout and deciphered mirroring. Sometimes these illustrations are maybe a bit asutere, but the gravity of the shapes and forms in play and the historical correlations are proven (look below for only a hint): and above too, the cover's bare-bones stela-ish design is a preview of the things to come inside. And the number he chooses as a timeframe, 2000, shows how unsensual our millenial epochal stopwatches are, how constrictingly dull our calendrical bookends can be.  Tedlock's book should be read by all slightly interested in the past and future of languages, and he's carefully prepared it for anyone without knowledge of the Maya with a run-through introductory chapter of conventional practice in Mayan dating and grammar. Tedlock's book is a time-extended lingual guide and much, much more.

2000 Years of Mayan Literature, Dennis Tedlock, University of California Press, 2010

Whether or not one loves Avatar, its impact on audiences is unmistakable. Its rampant success stems from Cameron's insistent visual experimentation in an ultra-expensive sub-medium, entirely designed CGI with motion capture, one that audiences have found usually poorly directed, managed, leaden and stiff, propelled by the type of imagery that seems to affect only little boys and little men (the mechanics of Transformers as a CGI glass ceiling). Animal and human-form movement have always suffered CGI eyewitnesses the gnawing realization that what we are seeing can't possibly be real, but by slicing the film into it's revealing and not so revealing (he makes it about focal length) 3-D realms photographically, he restates the purpose of colonial war in future terms with a sense of movement and motion (camera view included) that gets us close enough to filmic reality to let us lose ourselves in it. If the visuals can fool us the emotions can be effectively transforming, hence the steady flow of couples and families to the multiplex. Of course visual effects revolutions are not enough, critical becomes Cameron's ability to state the case of the film as a mysterium (something that must be reseen to increase one's comprehension) utilizing a 'glyph' that organizes every forward activity of the film into a single shot, which just so happens to be his second image of the film (eg: Star Wars' key glyph is the realization by the occupants of the Millenium Falcon that the Death Star is 'no moon'). Sully's first view (staring also at us in the audience) upon entering Pandoran space is of two water droplets, ostensibly from his own respiration, merging at an angle under purple light (dawn). The brilliance of this glyph is that it easily summarizes key themes of the film without ever calling excessive attention to it (ecology, biology, transformation, motion). Every gesture (whether destructive or constructive) that follows in the film stems from this basic, elemental merging of micro-spheres. His transferring with each sleeping-awakening into his avatar, the Na'vi's merging with their flying horses, his merging with 'the last-shadow' and the tree of souls to call for help.  And since it is the first of only a few motion-action images pushed deeply into our side of the 3-D screen, the audience has filed this as a memory, a clever, first-stages splinter of the mind's eye. As the film ends with Sully's Na'vi eyes staring back at us, these water droplets from his first shot are now gone, transformed by his movement into Na'vi throughout the film and now are subtly connected to us as a memory to this first shot. An ingenious transference, somewhere structurally we are unconsciously recalling those droplets.

Beyond this basic glyph, Cameron has also staged his Pandoran cosmologies simply: through a bi-level conquest of the air. Humans and Na'vi, both flightless bipeds, are shown as requiring flight for communal growth and effective biome dominance. The difference is clear though, humans duplicate flight mechanically, their extensions (fingers) and eye-movements are augmented by on-board computers that compensate for the vagaries of flight-thinking. The Na'vi use their Matrix-like dredlock tail to interface with their flying biogenetic cousins, they leap from tree-branch or mountain overlook into flight, and on some level, the Na'vi are hardwired into the flight plan in a manner humans aren't. These are the ingrained consciousness 'plateaus' of these two species, humans jump from solid ground aboard stable floors that fly (he shows you Quaritch on his flightdeck amblin' around). Cameron cleverly uses Sully's disability as a doorway to his conquest of the Na'vi's own plateau (untethered, bypassing his own easily), what Sully conquers is leaping from in motion to moving creature, a leap not unlike Neo's (but without the almost unbearable parody stiffness of Neo), a hero's conquest he achieves while being both human and Na'vi: he conquers the upper realm by leaping onto the sky's alpha dragon (with its red-flames as corollary).

'Racism' vs. enthnicism. The backlash stirs a question. A great many reactionaries have labelled the film 'racist' as a reaction to the film's allegories with our own adventures in colonialism here on planet earth. Wildly, and Lucas is accused of this as well, Avatar (as well as District 9) are sly paradox-parodies of our ethnic struggles finally mapped onto actual racism, since the definition of our skin color and tribal groupings here is technically ethnicism. Racism is a holdover from the likes of Kant and Gobineau, instigators of 'racial science' that has long been discredited. Cameron (strangely) is making a film about what we've been mislabelling all along.  Race technically means species and as far as genetics are concerned we are all part of the same strata; the terms application onto skin-tone was a bizzare post-enlightenment attempt by the west to change the stakes for world dominance: scientific devolution employing dogma that outweighed proof. What we practice here on earth is ethnic warfare and is a phenomena we will no doubt map onto any sentient race we do encounter. (Anybody remember calling Planet of the Apes racist?)

Pandora's dueling tale-in-one:

"Woman was not yet made. The story is that Jupiter made her, and sent her to Prometheus and his brother, to punish them for their presumption in stealing fire from heaven; and man, for accepting that gift. The first woman was named Pandora. She was made heaven, every god giving something to perfect her...in the alternate tale Pandora was sent in good faith to bless man; that she was furnished with a box, containing her marriage presents, into which every god had put some blessing. She opened the box incautiously, and the blessings all escaped, hope only excepted...the first age was an age of innocence and happiness called The Golden Age"

-The Age of Fable Bulfinch

first stab at it.

Allen Stanford, perhaps the most unusual criminal of the banking bubble of the 2000's, was finally perceived by the S.E.C. as indictable through the work of a little known but highly aware blog named Inca Kola News, devoted to the dubious adventures of banking and resource exploitation in Latin America (Inca Kola is a yellow bubble-gum flavored soda sold throughout the region originating in Peru).

The site, though poorly designed, is filled with inside jokes, underlines of unusual data spikes (check out the 'graffiti' on the COMEX chart below), and rumors of the raiding of coffers, illustrating to the planet how bankers really operate at the edges of law-enforcement.