Would you donate blood to Eli

[Gavin]

About Jocke? Did he get any answers to his questions? Oh, wait, I forgot, he met the wrong Eli. Are we all bullied twelve year old's? I meet Eli and I'm thinking one thing and one thing only, I'm her next meal. Maybe you guys are talking about the next Twilight movie where Eli sparkles and leaps tall trees in a single bound. With that said, if I do give my blood would she be the one to give me my juice and cookie? Because that would be kind of cool.

[Wolfchild]

I think that main burden in Eli's existence is not having to kill for blood, it is the lack of someone to love her. In the novel Eli has this exchange with Håkan, and while we are talking about the Eli of the film, I think it may still be germane:

"You only love me to the extent I help you stay alive."
"Yes. Isn't that what love is?"

As Eli comes to learn though Oskar, real love is not about the things another person gives. Real love is about the motivation for the giving, about acceptance, and about giving without demands. In fact she must have known this all along - otherwise how could she yearn for it as she so obviously does? With this as the context, I would definitely be inclined to donate blood to Eli if in some small way it make her feel loved as Oskar does, instead of like Håkan did.

As for not telling, I already have things that I will take with with me unspoken to my grave.

I suppose I could ask JAL, but I don’t think he would be of much help, for he has written himself that he does not really understand her and for all he knows she could well be an Abby.

Indeed? I don't recall him saying something like that. Can you point me to it?

[WhiteBackground]

I think that main burden in Eli's existence is not having to kill for blood, it is the lack of someone to love her.

Definitely so. Even if we feed Eli bloos as much as she needs, she would still be miserable and lonely without a soulmate.

In fact she must have known this all along - otherwise how could she yearn for it as she so obviously does?

Thinking like this makes her "Isn't that what love is?" feel darkly and depressingly sacarstic.

[sauvin]

I think that main burden in Eli's existence is not having to kill for blood, it is the lack of someone to love her.

Definitely so. Even if we feed Eli bloos as much as she needs, she would still be miserable and lonely without a soulmate.

In fact she must have known this all along - otherwise how could she yearn for it as she so obviously does?

Thinking like this makes her "Isn't that what love is?" feel darkly and depressingly sacarstic.

Darkly? Profoundly so. Sarcastic? No. More like disastrously misinformed. Sarcasm implies knowledge, and the Eli that comes across to me at this point of the novel is fundamentally clueless.

[lombano]

About Jocke? Did he get any answers to his questions? Oh, wait, I forgot, he met the wrong Eli. Are we all bullied twelve year old's? I meet Eli and I'm thinking one thing and one thing only, I'm her next meal. Maybe you guys are talking about the next Twilight movie where Eli sparkles and leaps tall trees in a single bound. With that said, if I do give my blood would she be the one to give me my juice and cookie? Because that would be kind of cool.

The premise of the question seems to be that she's asking for it rather than attacking you. You're not so much in Jocke's shoes as in Tommy's. In case of attack, of course, if I could I would use a stake on her.

My problem with this sort of questions is that I know not just one Eli but many. There is, for example, Sauvin’s Eli (or perhaps many Elis, one of whom is a “stone cold murderess”), there is Lombano’s Eli, there is Drakkar’s Eli, and many others and then there is even an Abby (!).

Actually it's even worse; there seem to be many Abbys. In fact the actress herself seems to have changed her version of who Abby is - in some interview she essentially said that Abby was essentially half-mad but not evil, whereas in a more recent interview she has painted her as being cold and manipulative. I think Abby is the only version of Eli I know of that I wouldn't donate blood for.

[drakkar]

Of course I would.
Problem is how - Eli's modus operandi in the novel seems to be spending only a short time in any particular place, so she will go unnoticed. By me as well. You could of course have a near fatal situation bringing her out in the open, like ACL's FF Once Bitten, but sticking to the novel, I'm not the person to be contacted by Eli (possible except for a brief, fatal one). Maybe the epilogue will help.

[gattoparde59]

Indeed? I don't recall him saying something like that. Can you point me to it?

In the concluding sentence of the "about Eli's gender" Johnadjvide writes:

But from the beginning Eli was just Eli. Nothing. Anything. And he is still a mystery to me.

That could be read to mean that Eli could be evil as well as good, except that the title of this is "About Eli's Gender" and not "Is Eli evil?" (a post I have been meaning to write, but it requires some work on my part) Earlier in this same post:

"I didn´t even know that they were going to fall in love." So they do fall in love. He adds that "Yes, this is quite different from the Let me in movie version, even though I actually don´t have any problem with that."

[DMt.]

'Is Eli Evil?', you say? - I've been contemplating such a post too, for a long time; but now I shudder at the mere thought of it, after all the recent [and thoroughly inconclusive] moral debate.

I think it best now to hold Eli undefinable, a most fruitful mystery, as JAL apparently does.

[Wolfchild]

Indeed? I don't recall him saying something like that. Can you point me to it?

In the concluding sentence of the "about Eli's gender" Johnajvide writes:

But from the beginning Eli was just Eli. Nothing. Anything. And he is still a mystery to me.

That could be read to mean that Eli could be evil as well as good, except that the title of this is "About Eli's Gender" and not "Is Eli evil?" (a post I have been meaning to write, but it requires some work on my part) Earlier in this same post:

"I didn´t even know that they were going to fall in love." So they do fall in love. He adds that "Yes, this is quite different from the Let me in movie version, even though I actually don´t have any problem with that."

Well, while Eli may still be a mystery to johnajvide, he is certainly much less of a mystery to him than to any of the rest of us.

Vive le mystère!

[EEA]

I would also donate blood Eli even if she still remains a mistery. After reading the novel and watching the film I still feel that Eli is good even if she kills in order to survive. Its true. There are many Elis. Hakan, Lacke, Oskar see her each as someone different.