The Dawson Family

A forum for discussing fan fiction related to Let The Right One In
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rgh
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Re: The Dawson Family

Post by rgh » Sat Apr 02, 2011 12:49 am

WhiteBackground wrote:
PeteMork wrote:Believe me, I’ve thought about it. But who wants to read a story about a normal, everyday family living outside London, none of whom are vampires any more? :lol:
Doesn't it strike you as oddly unfair? :? Eli would probably be happy (would she?) growing up and stuff, but she would probably not be as interesting to us, as she was when she was a vampire and struggling. There is somehow a feeling of wrongness about it.
I prefer to think of it as giving Eli some privacy now that she's cured and can have a more normal life and just be happy.

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PeteMork
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Re: The Dawson Family

Post by PeteMork » Sat Apr 02, 2011 1:01 am

WhiteBackground wrote:
PeteMork wrote:Believe me, I’ve thought about it. But who wants to read a story about a normal, everyday family living outside London, none of whom are vampires any more? :lol:
Doesn't it strike you as oddly unfair? :? Eli would probably be happy (would she?) growing up and stuff, but she would probably not be as interesting to us, as she was when she was a vampire and struggling. There is somehow a feeling of wrongness about it.
QFT. I really gave this a lot of thought before I wrote the final epilogue. I thought they were happy enough at that point that I could leave them in peace, as rgh suggests. And it was a strong enough ending, I thought. But I couldn't resist. I enjoyed the interaction between them all so much that I just had to write a bit more. But I WAS afraid no one would read it, just for the reasons you state above. Normal life IS a bit boring to read about; especially if it's someone else's. ;)
We never stop reading, although every book comes to an end, just as we never stop living, although death is certain. (Roberto Bolaño)

nsampino
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Re: The Dawson Family

Post by nsampino » Sat Apr 02, 2011 4:42 am

PeteMork wrote:
WhiteBackground wrote:
PeteMork wrote:Believe me, I’ve thought about it. But who wants to read a story about a normal, everyday family living outside London, none of whom are vampires any more? :lol:
Doesn't it strike you as oddly unfair? :? Eli would probably be happy (would she?) growing up and stuff, but she would probably not be as interesting to us, as she was when she was a vampire and struggling. There is somehow a feeling of wrongness about it.
QFT. I really gave this a lot of thought before I wrote the final epilogue. I thought they were happy enough at that point that I could leave them in peace, as rgh suggests. And it was a strong enough ending, I thought. But I couldn't resist. I enjoyed the interaction between them all so much that I just had to write a bit more. But I WAS afraid no one would read it, just for the reasons you state above. Normal life IS a bit boring to read about; especially if it's someone else's. ;)
I would be REALLY REALLY interested to see what you have to write. There life normal or not, i would read enthusiatically:) lol and on another note why are half of the posts blocked with red?

thestich
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Re: The Dawson Family

Post by thestich » Sat Apr 02, 2011 4:45 am

Text covered is considered spoilers for the Dawson stories.
While wandering here between posts and FF, I am gradually getting convinced, that I haven't seen anywhere more beautiful madness than on this forum. Clubmeister

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Nicro
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Re: The Dawson Family

Post by Nicro » Sat Apr 02, 2011 5:05 am

click on the red to reveal
Death changes everything, sweeps everything away. Even mistakes.

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Clubmeister
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Re: The Dawson Family

Post by Clubmeister » Tue Jul 26, 2011 7:57 pm

A nice story and I cannot help myself without quoting some pieces, which blew my mind.

After Oskar has beat tough the bully, which has harmed Eli almost to death.
“I’m afraid of you.” He said softly. “I can never do enough for you. There’s never enough. I feel like there is something I just have to give you, but whenever I try, it’s not nearly enough.”

After Eli lost Oskar in scrabble
“Where’s Oskar?”
Oskar’s bed moved slightly and Papa heard a muffled “Umph” coming from the darkness beneath it.
“Pay no attention to that…thing under Oskar’s bed.” Eli waved her arm slowly in front of him.
Papa leaned down and reached under the bed, felt a bare foot and gently pulled a bound and gagged Oskar out into the room. He did a double-take as he realized that Oskar was upside down in his own clothes. His legs were sticking out the sleeves of his sweater, and his pants were over his head. His hands were sticking out of the rolled-up pants legs, and his head was scrunched up in the crotch of his pants. His hands and feet were tied together with his shoelaces and his socks were in his mouth. Papa laughed in spite of himself. “How did you do that so fast? He was still pleading for his life when I put the key in the door!”
“You continually underestimate my powers!” she said darkly.


After Eli's experiment with blood
And she was wrong, wrong, wrong! It was as though her mind were in flames! Everything hurt so much! There was nowhere to turn for solace. The stark reality of it all was overwhelming her.
Papa came rushing into the room, “Eli…”
She couldn’t take any more! She tore off her shirt, fled to the window and leaped out, even before her wings were fully formed. She fell, rolled off the roof and, with a dull thud, landed hard on the concrete patio two floors below. With blood running down her face, she stumbled to her feet, took a few awkward steps and took off like a wounded butterfly, tearing her wings on the tree branches and almost falling again. Finally with a few powerful thrusts of her tattered wings, she cleared the trees and disappeared from sight.


Eli about her victims
"how many can you possibly remember?” He came around the desk, sat in front of her and took her hands firmly in his.
“All of them! I remember all of them! I can’t even remember my birthday, or my Mother’s face, …but I can remember ALL of them.”


Törnkvist jr. about his father's victims
“Did you know that you are the only innocent still alive? I searched everywhere, but you are the only one.” His voice was soft and gentle. “Some of the innocents died at my father’s hands as you would have, had you gone home; others because they weren’t as clever or careful as you. Some died because they hadn’t enough respect for the sun. Some sweet ones, a bit older and softer than you, died of broken hearts. Some not-so-innocent older ones, left intact by my father for dark reasons he never shared with me, embraced what they were and went their own way.” He paused a moment and ran his hand unsteadily through his hair, “And some of our ‘kind, loving’ God’s very young ones starved to death crying in the darkness, alone and afraid, impossibly far from the warm loving arms of their mothers. You alone among all the innocents survived.”

Oskar about their grow. Context is absolutely not funny but sounds so. :)
“You say we should trust you because you can control your parasite. Yet you won’t trust me to control my…” he searched his memory for the right words, “‘sexual appetite.’”

After Elaine is cured.
Because I love you, because you can hear me and know that I love you, and I can know that you love me. That will all go away. Elaine has already gone away and she already hates what I am. She was disgusted by what I have to eat; what she had to eat only yesterday! And I can’t tell her how I feel anymore. She’s gone and she’ll never come back. And she doesn’t care! She can’t fly and she doesn’t care! She can’t hear and she doesn’t care! She can’t see those beautiful things we saw together in the darkness when she painted and she doesn’t care! And once we’ve changed, once you’ve changed, I won’t be able to talk to you or Papa like this ever again. I’ll be all alone again, just like before. All I’ll have is my strength and my wings – and my beautiful sounds and beautiful night things. I won’t give them up too. If I do, I’ll have nothing. Nothing! I’ll be lonely and I’ll be weak besides. I can’t do it Oskar! I can’t!

Eli about cure herself.
“I can’t do it! It would be like if Oskar poked out one of his eyes, cut off one of his legs and punctured one of his eardrums. And all he got for it was a walk in the sun and a bowl of soup.”

Beautiful story and nice happy end!
But why I’m not happy? Everyone of main characters feels good and happy…
May be because of this last quote? PeteMork has not focused attention here, but as for me, it is the most sad and painful moment in all story.

Suddenly, she stood up, pulled her pajama top off and, with great effort, grew her last pair of wings. Oskar grabbed his camera and snapped a couple of quick photos, then stood there a moment, tense. He sensed that something was very wrong. Her wings slowly became dull and lifeless; gray instead of black. He tossed the camera on the bed, then quickly stepped over, put his arms around her neck, and kissed her as her wings gradually became transparent, and without a sound, folded and drifted away in swirling smoky eddies behind Jack just as he stepped past her to check the monitor. The bony spars began to retract, and then fell away and turned to dust as they softly struck the floor. Eli stood there a moment with her head down, then put her arms around Oskar and laid her head on his shoulder. “They’re gone forever now, Oskar.” There were tears in her eyes.

I immediately recall one song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdpc6SyN4-M
It’s in Russian, so I did more or less close translation

The Wings (Butusov&Kormiltsev)
You take off an evening dress
While standing against the wall
I see the fresh scars
On your smooth, as a velvet, back.

I want to cry out in pain
Or forget myself in a sleep
Where are your beautiful wings,
That I loved so much?
Where are your beautiful wings that I loved so much?
Where are your beautiful wings that I loved so much?
-----
We used to have the TIME,
We have only doings now,
To prove that the strong scoffs the weak one
To prove that soot is white.

All of us has lost something
In this mad war.
Where are your beautiful wings,
That I loved so much?
Where are your beautiful wings that I loved so much?
Where are your beautiful wings that I loved so much?
----
I’m not asking about your money,
I’m not asking about your husbands,
I see, you’re afraid of opened windows
And upper floors.

And if a fire starts tomorrow,
And the whole building will be on flames
We will perish without your wings
That I loved so much.
Where are your beautiful wings that I loved so much?
Where are your beautiful wings that I loved so much?

-----------------------------------------------------------
The good thing – I found at least signature. ;)
Last edited by Clubmeister on Wed Jul 27, 2011 5:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.
He is looking at me, silently, expectantly, in the near-dark room, neither smiling nor frowning; gaunt as a Belsen child, proud as the Devil, distant and beautiful as a star. [DMt.]

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PeteMork
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Re: The Dawson Family

Post by PeteMork » Wed Jul 27, 2011 4:28 am

Clubmeister wrote:Beautiful story and nice happy end!
But why I’m not happy? Everyone of main characters feels good and happy…
May be because of this last quote? PeteMork has not focused attention here, but as for me, it is the most sad and painful moment in all story.

Suddenly, she stood up, pulled her pajama top off and, with great effort, grew her last pair of wings. Oskar grabbed his camera and snapped a couple of quick photos, then stood there a moment, tense. He sensed that something was very wrong. Her wings slowly became dull and lifeless; gray instead of black. He tossed the camera on the bed, then quickly stepped over, put his arms around her neck, and kissed her as her wings gradually became transparent, and without a sound, folded and drifted away in swirling smoky eddies behind Jack just as he stepped past her to check the monitor. The bony spars began to retract, and then fell away and turned to dust as they softly struck the floor. Eli stood there a moment with her head down, then put her arms around Oskar and laid her head on his shoulder. “They’re gone forever now, Oskar.” There were tears in her eyes.

I immediately recall one song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdpc6SyN4-M
It’s in Russian, so I did more or less close translation

The Wings (Butusov&Kormiltsev)
You take off an evening dress
While standing against the wall
I see the fresh scars
On your smooth, as a velvet, back.

I want to cry out in pain
Or forget myself in a sleep
Where are your beautiful wings,
That I loved so much?
Where are your beautiful wings that I loved so much?
Where are your beautiful wings that I loved so much?
-----
We used to have the TIME,
We have only doings now,
To prove that the strong scoffs the weak one
To prove that soot is wite.

All of us has lost something
In this mad war.
Where are your beautiful wings,
That I loved so much?
Where are your beautiful wings that I loved so much?
Where are your beautiful wings that I loved so much?
----
I’m not asking about your money,
I’m not asking about your husbands,
I see, you’re afraid of opened windows
And upper floors.

And if a fire starts tomorrow,
And the whole building will be on flames
We will perish without your wings
That I loved so much.
Where are your beautiful wings that I loved so much?
Where are your beautiful wings that I loved so much?

-----------------------------------------------------------
The good thing – I found at least signature. ;)
Thank you so much for your kind words! You have actually quoted many of my own favorite parts of the story. They are my favorites, largely because they affected me the most when I wrote them. All together, they helped solidify and clarify my deep love for LTROI and specifically my love for the beautiful relationship between Eli and Oskar, which, contrasted against the horror of Eli's 200 years of loneliness, is even sweeter and more intense than it could ever have been without that ever-present darkness.

And Eli's beautiful wings! JAL didn't give us much to go on, but as I wrote, I fell in love with the idea that she could fly. There was something quite profound to me in the idea that, using only her will, she could grow them, beautiful, black and velvety, and soar far beyond her own darkness with them. I tried to use them in every possible scenario I could think of; from playing, to fighting, to fleeing, and even to saving her soul mate’s life (as well as Oskar's). I even had her use them to destroy herself in the flame of hopelessness and despair in Dr. Dawson's nightmares. To me, they became an integral, indispensable, part of her character. It was Dr. Dawson who expressed this idea most clearly; he felt it himself.

And finally, she used them to reaffirm her desire to rejoin humanity, the night she flew over London and metaphorically, saw the brilliant kaleidoscopic lights of “life’s longing for itself,” and made her final decision, knowing full well what she was going to have to give up.

And no, it wasn’t easy for me to destroy her last pair, either. I wrote and rewrote that section many times before I was happy with it. I was afraid to get too maudlin about them, because I suspected my readers were getting a bit bored with some of my saccharine already. I know I have a tendency to overdo it sometimes, but I simply can’t help it. So I apologize if it appears I didn’t focus enough attention on her great loss. I certainly felt it at the time.

Thanks for posting the beautiful song. It definitely sounds very deeply Russian to me. I spent some time in the old USSR back between 1974 and 1979, installing Earthquake recording equipment in Dushanbe, in western Tajikistan, for the U.S. Government. The radio stations were full of such music, which I’ve always loved, and it brought back fond memories of those days. Some of the best hospitality I’ve ever experienced was shown us by the scientists we worked with and the ordinary people on the streets there. Their kindness to us will never be forgotten.
We never stop reading, although every book comes to an end, just as we never stop living, although death is certain. (Roberto Bolaño)

WhiteBackground
Posts: 453
Joined: Sat May 15, 2010 10:47 am

Re: The Dawson Family

Post by WhiteBackground » Wed Aug 03, 2011 10:58 am

That's the song's music video:
"The one with enough courage and patience to dare gaze all his life into the darkness will be the first one to see in it a glimmer of light" (c)

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Clubmeister
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Location: Kiev, Ukraine

Re: The Dawson Family

Post by Clubmeister » Wed Aug 10, 2011 5:21 pm

Thanks, WhiteBackground, for direct link.
He is looking at me, silently, expectantly, in the near-dark room, neither smiling nor frowning; gaunt as a Belsen child, proud as the Devil, distant and beautiful as a star. [DMt.]

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Daniel Ether
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Re: The Dawson Family

Post by Daniel Ether » Sun Mar 03, 2013 12:39 pm

Wow! I haven't had much time to read in the last few days so i am only at chapter 20 of "The Dawson Family" yet. First my plans were to write in the thread when i am done reading but i cant wait anymore! THIS IS AWESOME! :D
EEA wrote:You are going to enjoy reading The Dawson Family a lot then. :)
like EEA predicted, i LOVE it! The Other One :shock: , Elaine :wub: and everybody! And I am realy happy for the Professor because i always felt sorry for him because he had lost so much.
First i was a little sad that i could not by part of the active discusion because you wrote the chapters like over two years ago :( but then i realized: i can read the whole thing at once if i have time enough. i cant even imagine how hard it must be to wait for the next chapter after such cliffhangers as in "The Dawson Family" :D
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