We, The Infected

i am curious about Eli's hibernation. the only other example that comes to mind at the moment of any such vampire hibernation is in Anne Rice's vampire chronicles. if my memory serves me (it's been a while since i read those books) the vampire Lestat went into a self induced hibernation because of his own despair and grief. i believe it was stated that the self induced hibernation was a way that vampires could survive the ages and basically retain their sanity.
that leads me to Eli. she claims to sleep for months and not understand why. i wonder if her own despair and grief leads her to subconsciously "give up" during times of low will power and self esteem only to reawaken when her body demands it for sustenance. if that is the case i would think Oskar has rescued her from such hibernation. if the hibernation is an involuntary symptom of Eli's vampirism i feel for Oskar having to endure such long spells without his Eli, although some say absence makes the heart grow fonder. as always if this topic is an old one i apologize. (i just remembered about the vampire hibernation in the Underworld saga and i think it was self induced for rest and terms of coven government.)

I've wondered about this myself and I tend to think that Eli, being a child, has a few symptoms of a child having suffered a severe mental trauma, and with good reason. Memory problems, the hibernation, and the way she thinks of herself as nothing, "not a girl, not a boy, nothing".
Either Eli's subconscious or her vampires conscious mind (or the two in concert) know she's skating on thin mental ice and gives her mind a rest, by shutting her mind and body down and then selects what what she will remember when she wakes.
Human minds and bodies work this way, going into a coma when the body or mind is damaged badly. Selective amnesia.
I like to think of JAL's vampirism as an intelligent disease, maybe Eli's vampire realizes that an immature host needs a little more rest to continue living.

My guess is that Eli has spent most all of her life in the company of adults. And any child who had no one but adults to associate with would probably be bored into a state of depression. She needed adults to do those things that she just couldn't do for herself, but could you imagine being around such deadly-serious characters as Håkan all the time?

Also, I think JAL probably adopted the hibernation idea from Anne Rice.

Overwhelmed by life? Just take a nice long nap.

In terms of the story, Lindqvist seemed to like the metaphor of Eli laying moribund for part of the year, and then coming back to life with help of human beings and their blood. Also their is the seasonal aspect to the story, which moves from fall into winter. As the world seems to die, Eli seems more alive. "I drink blood to live," is not an idle comment. Eli just seems completely contrary to normal human life.

thanks for your responses. as always they are insightful and offer different perspectives. more food for my thoughts.

by moonvibe34 » Wed Jan 06, 2010 12:33 am

i am curious about Eli's hibernation. the only other example that comes to mind at the moment of any such vampire hibernation is in Anne Rice's vampire chronicles. if my memory serves me (it's been a while since i read those books) the vampire Lestat went into a self induced hibernation because of his own despair and grief. i believe it was stated that the self induced hibernation was a way that vampires could survive the ages and basically retain their sanity.
that leads me to Eli. she claims to sleep for months and not understand why. i wonder if her own despair and grief leads her to subconsciously "give up" during times of low will power and self esteem only to reawaken when her body demands it for sustenance. if that is the case i would think Oskar has rescued her from such hibernation. if the hibernation is an involuntary symptom of Eli's vampirism i feel for Oskar having to endure such long spells without his Eli, although some say absence makes the heart grow fonder. as always if this topic is an old one i apologize. (i just remembered about the vampire hibernation in the Underworld saga and i think it was self induced for rest and terms of coven government.)

hi,

in the modern vampire lore - which is largely based on White Wolf's vampire rpgs (recommended to everyone, quite a great universum as well) - there are two kind of sleeps that a vampire experiences.

The first is the normal "daily" sleep. It's like a human's sleep, lasts for approx 8 hours.

The second is called "torpor". Torpor is the deathlike sleep common to the undead, particularly among ancient vampires. Torpor may be entered
voluntarily (certain undead, weary of the current age, enter torpor in hopes if reawakening in a more hospitable time) or involuntarily (through wounds or loss of blood). By voluntary torpor it depends on the vampire's will, how often he enters it, mentally strong vampires can endure hundreds of years without it, but this may lead to mental derangement.
Torpor may last from couple of weeks/months till hundred of years, depending on the vampire's nature (mental and physical health, humanity, etc.), and the circumstances under he entered torpor. Torpor has a healing effect as well, but rather to the vampire's psyche, than his body. In fact, being around when a vampire reawakens from torpor is a risky business, coz he mostly enters into frenzy, because of his hunger for blood (he did not eat during torpor). Of course a vampire must carefully choose the time and place to enter torpor, because of his human and supernatural enemies, and such simple things like problem of becoming one very stable point in some building's concrete foundation.
And there is another problem. Vampires tend to dream during torpor, and their memories fade and get mixed up with their dreams. Intelligent vampires know this, which makes it even worse, coz they know that they cant tell apart dreams from memories, and this makes them more paranoid ("Now was he plotting against me, or was that just a dream? I better be cautiuos!")

I do not know if the writer used (or knew) this scheme, but without proper information this may be an answer as well. I personally rather think, that the writer did not elaborate fully the aspect of vampirism in the novel. I guess it was not neccessary for him, making Eli into a vampire was just another element to bring the readers to wonder and to have uneasy thoughts.

Anyway, if you want a comparison between Eli's vampirism and the one in the "Big Books", drop me a line and i will type it in.