TheVoxHumanus wrote:oh hey, I just found this thread.
It makes me feel better about the rape scene to know that John had trouble writing it and no joy was had in torturing Eli like that (I never REALLY thought John took any joy in it, but...you never know).
I agree and i'm very glad John admits this. It makes me feel better knowing that it wasn't easy for him. It would never be easy for me. If i tried to write the rape scene or the castration, it would destroy me. I'm very empathetic, it makes it too difficult for me to do it. I may do sadistic stuff, but never anything below the belt.
I can appreciate the artistry involved in driving such a horrible point home too -- Eli's past victimizations are alluded to earlier in the book and described vaguely enough that the reader fills in their own details about the specific horrors involved, but it's all thrown into sharp relief during the Zombie rape scene. Skillfully done, fun to read.
I certainly had trouble reading it (in a good way -- it is a horror novel, after all), and sped through that part of the book as quickly as I could and skipped it altogether when re-reading.
It's still a bit puzzling to me why Eli doesn't seem to suffer any emotional effects from this experience...is he just so used to being treated this way that it's "normal" to him?
In my opinion, i think Elias had had worse for 200 years of living. He probably thinks, "This isn't anything new to me."
If so, that's pretty much the most horrible thing I can think of. Being numb to horrible abuse is a kind of suffering I don't like thinking about. Realizing that Eli has long since resigned himself to a very long life of suffering I can only begin to imagine -- and then for him to find respite in Oskar's love and friendship is an honestly revelatory and more joyous thing than I'd previously imagined.
Same feeling here. I think of their relationship as a new, bright life for them and that Elias would no longer suffer anymore.
I never thought Eli was stupid or unaware, but I thought maybe his age might've saved him from the capacity to fully comprehend just what he was in for in his life.
For a twelve year old, they don't focus on one horrible thing as deep as adults do. But i can be wrong. Maybe for what Elias went through for so long, it doesn't effect him anymore. I suppose that if you've been living for two hundred years of pain, loneliness, horrible things being done to you, you might not feel the effect as you had at the beginning. Like a sharp knife becoming dull.
IF Eli had resigned to an eternity of abject suffering at the behest of both his condition and of people who'd do horrible things to him and was fully aware of everything that meant, then his capacity to choose love in spite of all of this is a very, very powerful message.
Well i am not sure if he resigned to an eternity of pain, but might have felt like there was no hope for him, until he met Oskar. It is a powerful message indeed.
I would also like to say that i very much would never want to know what John originally wrote on that scene. (Shudder)
. I am all for making the readers siding with Eli. Myself however, I had already have sided with Eli long before I read the book thanks to Lina's wonderful acting. I cannot thank you enough for creating my favorite fictional character, only a genius can come up with a character like Eli, I wonder how you did it 
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