That unnamed vampire woman... (Spoilers)

[Kristi]

Eli meets a vampire woman and we don't know at what point in time it happens. In the English translation of the novel she proposes a "wonderful" idea to Eli. He runs away before anything happens, but it isn't made clear in English what that "wonderful" idea is exactly. I wonder if in any other version it's clearer?

Her proposal, given the content of the book, could be any number of horrible things. I suppose I should just be happy Eli got away, but that brief encounter gave me the creeps.

[gkmoberg1]

The German translation "So finster die Nacht" gives much the same.

Sie streckte ihren Zeigfinger aus, presste ihn über den Herzen ganz fest gegen Elis Brustkorb. »Dort. Dort sitzt es, nicht war? Aber jetzt, mein Freund, kommt mir eine hervorragende Idee...«
Und Eli hatte vor den guten Idee fliehen müssen. Wie zovor. Wie später.

You could drop that into a favorite language translator to see how it does. However, to me, this German is very much the same as the English. You can try to look for variations of how to translate 'hervorragende' (excellent) but that's about all there is.

There were spots in the original publication of the English translation where words or sentences were omitted. Here, through, I don't think anything is missing.

As done so well by others, such as Hitchcock, it is sometimes a better effect to not reveal to much and let the audience imagine an interpretation.

[metoo]

The Swedish original is as ambiguous as the German and English translations.

The only thing we can tell is that the idea was about something that Eli wouldn't do, for whatever reason, and that he would get similar suggestions once in a while.

[dongregg]

Hi Kristi! Welcome to We, the Infected.

[gkmoberg1]

Something else that comes to mind is that we do not know how quickly this conversation took place or even that this event of being in the presence of this woman was a once and done encounter. The way it is presented here in Elias' memories as he recalls them it feels compact, as if he meets her, they have this brief exchange and then he flees. But if he is recalling something that took place a great many years ago, then he might be recalling them as one unit. For example, he might have met her, hung around near her for a while and following that time the quotes in this part of the book are the exchanges he remembers long afterwards. All we know is that in the end, he came to understand and recoil from her "wonderful" idea. A hundred years later or perhaps two hundred years later, the memories are condensed.

[metoo]

Personally, I feel that they spent a few hours together, perhaps even a few days (nights), but not longer.

[sauvin]

Is my memory playing tricks on me, or did the scene with the unnamed vampire woman occur within a few pages of Eli's hunger being greater than the pangs of conscience and/or the scene where Eli screams "why can't I have anything"? I seem to recall that the vampire woman discussed how to destroy a vampire, it just takes a stake in this particular spot. "Any number of horrible things", I'm guessing, includes the possibility that a vampire might not brook the existence of another, more or less in line with Spike (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) bemoaning Stoker's novel because suddenly everybody now knew about wooden stakes, holy water, garlic and et cetera.

[metoo]

Is my memory playing tricks on me, or did the scene with the unnamed vampire woman occur within a few pages of Eli's hunger being greater than the pangs of conscience and/or the scene where Eli screams "why can't I have anything"? I seem to recall that the vampire woman discussed how to destroy a vampire, it just takes a stake in this particular spot. "Any number of horrible things", I'm guessing, includes the possibility that a vampire might not brook the existence of another, more or less in line with Spike (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) bemoaning Stoker's novel because suddenly everybody now knew about wooden stakes, holy water, garlic and et cetera.

Your memory is almost correct - it wasn't Eli's hunger but his will to live that was greater than his pangs of conscience.

[sauvin]

So we're thinking that Eli fled the vampire woman because she was also fleeing the pangs of her own conscience?

[dongregg]

So we're thinking that Eli fled the vampire woman because she was also fleeing the pangs of her own conscience?

Elias was born at a time of widespread faith and religious conformity. By the age of 11, his ideas of right and wrong would have been settled, perhaps as early as age 6.