When Eli becomes a boy

[jkwilliams]

I actually view Eli as a boy, I think I am one of the few.

In the novel I tend to picture Eli as a hauntingly beautiful boy.

Everyone who saw him said he was the most beautiful child they had ever seen...

Unfortunately, I think that's what doomed him. In the flashbacks at the castle, the vampire lord seems much more drawn to Elias than to the other boys. You kind of sense that a choice has already been made before the dice have even been rolled.

[sauvin]

I'd like to offer a different interpretation as to why some people did not take well to finding out Eli was biologically a boy. My first post on this site was about that exact topic and that is because I did feel uncomfortable. Discomfort with homosexuality may play a part in it for some, but there's another possibility as well.

I'm sure many of you have seen Brokeback Mountain with Jake Gyllenhal and the late great Heath Ledger (his memory lives on in our hearts...). I am certain that I, as well as many others, would have been shocked if, over half way through the film, we learned that Ledger's character Enus was just a very masculine looking/sounding female. In that case, the shock would be far from homophobia, but from having been lead to look at the relationship a specific way, become very attached to it that way, and then learn you were wrong. You'd have to adjust and become comfortable with the change in your perspective of the relationship. What you used to think was a relationship between two men, you now realize is the relation ship between a woman and a man.

So, even though it is not based on any general biases about the way things should be, it still shows that biological sex and gender is very significant for some people. Perhaps there are those who don't care either way and are able to become solely attached to the love between the people completely separate from biological sex or gender, but for me, and some others, that is not the case. But, that doesn't make it homophobia

Caroline Cossy (Tula) might have had some rather bitter things to say in resonance with this post. An undeniably beautiful young woman who hadn't been a woman, and not only the very first transsexual I'd ever known anything about, it was new stories about her (and her appearance on Arsenio Hall) that even alerted me to the existed of such people.

I wish I could remember where I'd seen (in movies) scenes where the girl finds out her boyfriend isn't a boy, or where the boyfriend finds out his girlfriend isn't a girl, but there's been more than one such scene. It's probably even been handled "sideways" through other kinds of transformation (people's spirits jumping from one body to another, for example). The consistent initial reaction depicted is: "Who are you? Are you really the person I thought I'd known?" As I recall, there had been some squicking at the (implied) homosexual angle, and it challenged my own views on homosexuality because I had initially claimed that a snip here, a tuck there and the man who became a woman is now a woman in every way that matters - except, something in the back of my mind keeps saying "there's something flawed with that argument".

The problems in these cases aren't necessarily just "between the two of them":

Cossey met Elias Fattal, a Jewish businessman, who was unaware of her history until he proposed marriage on Valentine's Day 1988. When she told him, rather than rejecting her, he merely asked if she would convert to Judaism. She agreed. They were married on 21 May 1989, just weeks after the European Court of Human Rights decided legally to recognize Cossey as a woman. They returned from their honeymoon to find that The News of the World had published a story on their wedding. Fattal's family was angry and persuaded him to have the marriage annulled.

[jcckidz]

Sauvin, if you have the opportunity, please explain what you believe I was trying to say in my post. I think there may be a misunderstanding. Maybe not, but maybe.

[sauvin]

Sauvin, if you have the opportunity, please explain what you believe I was trying to say in my post. I think there may be a misunderstanding. Maybe not, but maybe.

I thought you were fairly clear about it. Relevant snippets:

... the shock would be far from homophobia, but from having been lead to look at the relationship a specific way, become very attached to it that way, and then learn you were wrong. You'd have to adjust and become comfortable with the change in your perspective of the relationship...

... even though it is not based on any general biases about the way things should be, it still shows that biological sex and gender is very significant for some people. Perhaps there are those who don't care either way and are able to become solely attached to the love between the people completely separate from biological sex or gender, but for me, and some others, that is not the case...

You pointed out very clearly that a "reaction" to Eli's turning out to be a boy wasn't necessarily a homophobic one.

[Ash]

Perhaps to better judge our reaction to the Eli gender revelation, would be to consider the reverse.
What if Eli was portrayed as a boy, but revealed as actually a girl mid-way through the novel?
I guess that would be easy to handle, and our sensibilities not offended because....
Society (us) has far less problem with a masculinised female (Lara Croft, Ripley, Eli etc.) than a feminised male. Interesting.
Note I'm trying to not use the term "normal", because I don't think JAL was trying to make us feel comfortable at all, quite the reverse. That's why he's so good.

[jcckidz]

It's interesting the way the English version makes the switch. I just looked at it again. It's on page 349 in the English version. It reads like this:

Took her right hand out of the pocket, stretched it out toward the record, and pushed her finger on it so it came to a stop.
"Watch it. It can get...damaged."
"Sorry."
Eli quickly pulled his hand back and the record sped up, kept turning.

I don't know Swedish, but I've been told that JAL only referred to Eli with gender words when necessary. Based on what I've read on this site about the Swedish language, it seems that all of the times Eli is referred to with a gender word in the above passage are avoidable in Swedish. I'm under the impression that "Took her right hand..." would be something like "Took the right hand..." in Swedish. So too, "...pushed her finger..." could be "...pushed the finger...." Along with this, "Eli quickly pulled his hand..." seems like it could be "Eli quickly pulled the hand..."

This leads me to believe that the way it is worded in English in the above passage is a creation of the translator, not JAL. It, therefore, seems that the symbolism based on the gender change revolving around Eli placing the finger on the record and then taking it off was not something JAL himelf intended. In the Swedish version (i.e. the real version), the record player passage may not have been the focal point like it is in the English version. In the Swedish (real) version, there may not be a moment where the reader thinks, "Whoa, a couple of sentences ago Eli was being referred to as a girl and now Eli's being referred to as a boy!" In the Swedish version, the separation between referring to Eli in the feminine and masculine may have been paragraphs or even pages long, unlike the English version.

I could be flat out wrong and JAL could have purposefully referred to Eli with gender words in the above passage to create a symbolic moment of stark contrast like I experienced in the English version, even though it could have been avoided had he wanted to. It could be that, in the Swedish version, Eli was being referred to with gender words in that passage because it was coming from Oskar's perspective. Even though Oskar learned Eli was a boy a couple of pages earlier, he still had the image of Eli as a girl imprinted in his mind, but when Eli took the finger off of the record, something clicked and Oskar saw Eli as a boy, so JAL referred to Eli in the masculine. Then again, it may be the way I inquired previously, thus rendering this entire paragraph null and void.

If it's ultimately true that the quick change from "she" to "he" revolving around the record player is only a creation of the translator and not JAL, why did the translator choose to make the record player the focal point of that change instead of a few pages earlier where Eli reveals being a biological boy?

It would be great if someone who speaks Swedish could please let me know how it is in the Swedish/original/intended/real version

[metoo]

You are correct. See my reply to this here.

[BloodyMary]

@Ash:

Yeah... I had the same problem throughout the book. It was... interesting.
Curse me for not knowing Swedish!! >:(