The castration

[shaggles]

I wonder if this scene and quote may be a translation issue from the original.

Maybe. We would have to see what most Swedish people thought that scene implied and what English speaking people thought. I'm English and to me the lord was drinking the blood and then chewing the contents of the bowl. Like slurp chew sort of thing. Almost like he was eating a chinese dish (but with no rice)

That's what I thought too but maybe thestitch is right and it's a translation issue.

[bore]

... opens his eyes and sees the blond hair unclearly, the blue eyes like distant forest pools. Sees the bowl the man is holding in his hands, the bowl he brings to his mouth and how he drinks. How the man shuts his eyes, finally shuts them and drinks . . . More time.. . Endless time. Imprisoned. The man bites. And drinks. Bites. And drinks.

... öppnar ögonen och otydligt ser det blonda håret, de blå ögonen som fjärran skogstjärnar. Ser skålen mannen håller i händerna, skålen som förs till munnen och hur han dricker. Hur mannen blundar, äntligen blundar och dricker... Mer tid... Oändlig tid. Inspärrad. Mannen biter. Och dricker. Biter. Och dricker.

One notable difference is that the Swedish version use "the" instead of "his".
"... opens the eyes", "Sees the bowl the man holds in the hands, the bowl that is brought to the mouth" through that passage.
If I were to translate the English text back to Swedish I would translate it to "... öppnar sina ögon", "ser skålen som mannen håller i sina händer, skålen han för till munnen".

I always assumed that Elis penis was just disposed, that it never entered the bowl and that the bowl only was used for collecting the blood.

I think this is the part that makes me assume this.

Kalla fingrar griper tag i Oskars snopp, drar ut den.

"Cold fingers grabs Oskars dick, pulls it out." (Hmm.. could be taken directly from a porn-novel.)

Why would the other man drop the package into the bowl after cutting it off?

And this part: "More time.. . Endless time. Imprisoned." makes me think that the biting occurs long after Eli has been released from the table and put in a cell somewhere.

Edit:

And for those who are interested in the Swedish language; Instead of putting "the" in front of words "en", "et" or "an" is placed at the end of the word depending on the grammatical gender.
The male = Hanen
The female = Honan
The banana = Bananen (Neutrum 1)
The house = Huset (Neutrum 2)

[a_contemplative_life]

It seems to me that the biting of Eli would need to occur fairly close in time to the castration to avoid Eli bleeding to death. Presumably the internal pudendal artery would have been severed, and it would not be in the vampire lord's interests for Eli to lose a significant amount of blood onto the floor. Infecting Eli would presumably result in him acquiring the vampire's healing powers. On the other hand, there's a lot of speculation here.

[gattoparde59]

I always assumed that Eli was repeatedly bitten by the vampire after he had been castrated.

The castration scene did not put me off because I was expecting it, having learned about it earlier. What is interesting is the other parts of that scene when Eli sees his mother washing clothes etc. Also interesting is that this is transmitted to Oskar as a telepathic experience, and experience so vivid that Oskar comes to believe that he is Eli, he is so lost in Eli's experience. Those were the things that surprised me more so than the castration.

[Legion1983]

I saw LTROI first, the when I had to research the peek scene, I got the spoiler (before reading the book). It didn't stop me from reading and enjoying the novel. In fact, it made me more curious. The events in the novel just created greater sympathy for Eli. What freaked you out most? That Eli was a boy or the sheer brutality of the scene? Frankly, I would have thought Håkan's activities would have turned people off quicker than Eli's castration.

As for the LMI peek scene, I believe Matt Reeves has made it fairly clear that he intended Abby to be a girl, so I think Owen was just reacting to his first, real life naked girl (not scene through a telescope).

When you responded to this i really couldnt think of a way to back myself up. The first thing i thought when watching this was, " Ohh he is seeing a girl nude for the first." But then when a read the book and watch the movie again i thought, Maybe this is Matt reeves of showing the castration, but only those who read the book would catch that. It really bugged me and needed more confirmation. So out of curiousity i watched the commentaries and Matt Reeves does say that it was to show the castration but only readers of the book might catch it. Though i dont know how to post that part on this forum, i do suggest to watch the commentaries if you have the dvd. So in a way Matt Reeves stayed true to Eli/Abby being a boy, but didnt show it like the original film did.

[lombano]

To me, Abby wasn't a boy. The LMI peek scene conveyed to me that Owen was seeing something unexpected and unpleasant, but not on the level of a castration scar - he didn't seem shocked like Oskar.

[Jeannedeorleans]

Abby is clearly a girl. LTROI had subtle hint that Eli was a boy but LMI had strong suggestion that Abby was a girl.

[Angelmaker]

What do people think the ritual was for? The whole thing from 'the competition' to the dice rolling to the castration and the then unmentioned but obvious infection of Eli?

[Jeannedeorleans]

What do people think the ritual was for? The whole thing from 'the competition' to the dice rolling to the castration and the then unmentioned but obvious infection of Eli?

For nothing other than the lord's pleasure.

by the way, you got infected badly eh? 122 posts in 5 days

[Angelmaker]

What do people think the ritual was for? The whole thing from 'the competition' to the dice rolling to the castration and the then unmentioned but obvious infection of Eli?

For nothing other than the lord's pleasure.

Yeah that is on possibility I thought. I also thought though that the lord had been castrated himself at one time.