 geophf 2009-08-07 . chapter 1My dear Angel Ren,
Thank you.
Thank you for present the Canonical Rosalie in her most unvarished, her most loathing, her most hate-filled, her most pride and vain perfect self.
Thank you, that is, for presenting her in this light, but presenting her honestly and sympathetically. This story was the first story that I saw Rosalie as untainted and uncorrupted by the lens of the author's perception, and it was also the story that made me fall in love with Rosalie just as she is.
Sure she bitc-... well, you know, but she's that way for a reason, and I started seeing between the words that you wrote. I saw behind that anger is a Rosalie who is angry for a reason. No, not angry: protective. She's been with the Cullen family the longest after Edward, and they are hers, and, yes, she's protecting her own interest in hating this little slip of a human girl, but she's also protecting her own. She's protecting her family from exposure.
She's even trying to protect that damn foolish Edward.
And her reactions! Perfect. Her scathing sarcasm at Bella's "Vampire 101" education and shock at discovering what Bella already knows is simultaneously spot-on and surprising. Sure, we know what Bella knows, but Rosalie didn't, and the process of her discovery, as the shocks wash over her, and continue to wash over her, is nothing short of pure delight.
Angry, fuming, shocked, hateful Rosalie is just so delicious!
And your characterization of Rosalie as Persephone ... ah! Inspired. Rosalie may see Bella as Persephone: the girl wedded to Death, but still human for a time, but Rosalie as Persephone? Inspired and ... sad. For Rosalie will never again get her humanity back. Not for six months of the year. Not for ever.
This story, along with "Rosalie's Revenge" by Consultant by Day, inspired me to pick up my own pen and write "My Sister Rosalie" and "Rose by a Lemon Tree," studies of Rosalie and Bella and how they see the world, and eventually, how they see each other.
I thank you for that, for it's helped me to see the world differently when I look through Rosalie's eyes. It's helped me to appreciate humanity and the temporal and delicate gifts that humanity gives.
Thank you for writing this story. Thank you for being honest to Rosalie. Thank you for being loving to her, so loving that you portray her as she is, not as how you wish her to be to you.
Persephone's Fury: a terrible and beautiful thing. But, like the myth, without it ... without her ... the world is barren. Without this Rosalie, the world is an emptier place.
Thank you for giving the world this Rosalie.
cheers, geophf |