"But now my friend, I have a wonderful idea..."

[GunnyHartman]

Forgive me if this topic has been brought up for discussion in the past. In the novel Eli recalls the only encounter she's had with another vampire since her own infection.

"Can we die?"
"Of course we can. All you have to do is set fire to yourself. Or let other people do it; they are only too happy to oblige, have done so through the ages. Or..." She held out her index finger and pressed it hard into Eli's chest, above the heart. "There. That's where it is, isn't it? But now my friend, I have a wonderful idea..."
And Eli had fled from that wonderful idea. As before. As later.
Eli put his hand on his heart, felt the slow beats. Maybe it was because he was a child. Maybe that was why he hadn't put and end to it. The pangs of conscience were weaker than his will to live.

Maybe the answer is painfully obvious but this question has been bugging me since I first read the book. What was the other vampire's wonderful idea?

[PeteMork]

Forgive me if this topic has been brought up for discussion in the past. In the novel Eli recalls the only encounter she's had with another vampire since her own infection.

"Can we die?"
"Of course we can. All you have to do is set fire to yourself. Or let other people do it; they are only too happy to oblige, have done so through the ages. Or..." She held out her index finger and pressed it hard into Eli's chest, above the heart. "There. That's where it is, isn't it? But now my friend, I have a wonderful idea..."
And Eli had fled from that wonderful idea. As before. As later.
Eli put his hand on his heart, felt the slow beats. Maybe it was because he was a child. Maybe that was why he hadn't put and end to it. The pangs of conscience were weaker than his will to live.

Maybe the answer is painfully obvious but this question has been bugging me since I first read the book. What was the other vampire's wonderful idea?

That perhaps Eli would like to join her for lunch -- at Eli's expense.

[GunnyHartman]

I guess it was never made clear by Lindqvist whether or not a vampire could feed off another vampire without consequence. I know I've seen some vampire movies that make that scenario undesirable for the one doing the drinking.

[sauvin]

And Eli had fled from that wonderful idea. As before. As later.

Whatever this other vampire had in mind, the only other Eli has ever met, it may have been oral, or may not. Somehow, though, I doubt "lunch" was this wonderful idea.

I don't remember the novel well, but seem to recall that the other vampire had been an adult. From this short quote, my impression of Eli's history of sexual abuse is strengthened, and together with the monster Hakan's behaviour in the basement, strongly suspect that Lindqvist's adult vampires do not lose sexual desire.

[drakkar]

My take on this passage is that JAL shows us the difference between a child vampire and an adult one. Adding to the insight we got from the turning of Virginia. This one wasn't capable of, or didn't want to kill herself, but continues on the path Virginia couldn't bring herself to start on (well she had one futile attempt on Gösta).
I do not think Eli was a target here. I don't know what the wonderful idea was, but I believe it was something below Eli's ethical and moral standards, scaring her and making her run away. (like someone saying to me "hey, drakkar, I have a wonderful idea, shall we mug that man?" then also I would have run away from the good idea...)

And, welcome GunnyHartman.

[Microwave Jellyfish]

I always thought that after complaining about how few they are, the vamp lady wanted to create a bloodsucker family a'la Interview with Eli, and encouraged him to infect other kids. You know, immortal "servant-friends" or something like that. Of course she wouldn't need Eli for this in the first place, so this theory doesn't seem to be that reasonable after two sec of thinking.

And, welcome GunnyHartman.

I second that.

[gattoparde59]

Welcome GunnyHartman. Like that screen name Gunny!

That is a reasonable question to ask because like so much else in the story, we are left to fill in the blanks. The implication is that any adult who would choose to live as a vampire must be totally evil. Eli does not like this woman, so she would never consider forming some kind of alliance with her, which is her idea most likely. The purpose of the alliance would be to kill people. It is interesting that what ever this woman was proposing it was still more horrible than the pedophile/serial killer relationship that Eli seems to favor.

[a_contemplative_life]

There's only 1 person who can answer this question fully for us. My view was that the vampire's words, being so closely tied to a description of Eli being afraid of dying, involved either Eli's suicide or their mutual suicide. That's about as far as I could take it. I base my view primarily in the "he had run from the idea, as before, as later" (I'm paraphrasing).

[drakkar]

There's only 1 person who can answer this question fully for us. My view was that the vampire's words, being so closely tied to a description of Eli being afraid of dying, involved either Eli's suicide or their mutual suicide. That's about as far as I could take it. I base my view primarily in the "he had run from the idea, as before, as later" (I'm paraphrasing).

I have problems with this approach, because of the way things are described.
First, the vampire woman talks about suicide as a part ot the expalnation why "we are so few". Then she continues with "But now my friend, I've got a wonderful idea...". For me, this "But" effectively rules out any possibility of common suicide. It just doesn't fit into my impression of JAL's writing style.
BTW, JAL is making Eli more sympatetic towards the end of the novel (priming the pool), and this is one of the small shifts, I believe.

[GunnyHartman]

Maybe assisted suicide? I was thinking that the other vampire proposed some sort of "teaming up" scenario.