Wolfchild wrote:
Which way do you feel that I am going in my piece? Tomas left a lot of room to interpret Eli, and John did as well - at least in the script. I feel as though my impressions of the character are almost as heavily influenced by things that John has said as by anything that I saw in the film.
I have plans to make up one line of character dialog, but otherwise I want to stick explicitly within the bounds of what was shown to us on the screen. That still leaves a lot of room for debate, but I charge you with keeping me honest.
OK, but difficult to tell, because my view of JAL/TA's Eli is of course coloured by my view!
If I should say something, I think your interpretation of Eli is a bit too much cynical and aggressive, and she is also a bit to fluttering in the shifting between "human Eli" and predator "vampire Eli". She is old in the business, so I feel she should have more relaxed self confidence about this. I agree she that the human Eli and vampire Eli can be struggling, but not quite that much. Vampire Eli is of course strong when hungry, but can be put into the background by e.g. curiosity or other impulses.
To elaoborate more on this, I'd like to go into the novel (and now I'm into JAL again...
), where Eli nearly kills Oskar three times. What is Eli thinking in those events?
First time - at the third meeting, when Eli returns the cube - Oskar unwittingly stops the attack by patting her cheek, startling her. Eli seems to be sort of coming to herself, like the human Eli suddenly notices something (out of curiosity or importance) and subdues the vampire impulses.
Second time - at the candy store, Eli again hungry - she comes to herself and stops the attack without any external impulses. She steps back, startled, almost like she is afraid of herself and what she was about to do.
Last time - the blood mixing scene - Eli is able to restrain herself even when Oskar is literally tempting her with his blood.
She is mostly to some extent controlling and fighting the vampire personality inside her, and her deepened feelings for Oskar, and maybe practice, is making human Eli stronger when she is together with him.
When Eli's about to attack/feed she let vampire Eli take over. The three times in the film Eli is attacking/feeding, the attack starts with a cry, and she is acting like a pure predator. Look at the expression in her face when Lacke kicks her off Virginia, she is now is back to human Eli mode again, and actually have to think for a second or two to find out what the heck has just happened.
So to sum up: I like your fiction very much in viewing the events from Eli's point of view.
I also agree with the personality struggle going on in Eli, but I like it a bit and more relaxed with "longer lines" in the shifting between human Eli and predator Eli, and less "fluttering" or indecisive (she is little both all the time). But - my point of view. You're the writer.