"I will never become like that" (LTODD spoilers)

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Siggdalos
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"I will never become like that" (LTODD spoilers)

Post by Siggdalos » Fri Dec 04, 2020 1:29 am

Couldn't find any other posts talking about this passage from the "Saturday November 7 (night)" chapter, so here goes.
Gänget med sjungande killar och tjejer hade klivit på vid Hötorget. De var kanske i Tommys ålder. Fulla. Killarna utstötte emellanåt vrål, föll över tjejerna och tjejerna skrattade, slog efter dem. Sedan sjöng de igen. Samma sång, om och om igen. Oskar tittade på dem i smyg.
Jag kommer aldrig bli sån.
Tyvärr. Han skulle ha velat. De verkade ha roligt. Men Oskar skulle aldrig kunna vara, göra så som killarna gjorde.
The group of singing boys and girls had gotten on the subway at Hötorget. They were maybe in Tommy's age. Drunk. The boys occasionally yelled, fell over the girls and the girls laughed, punched after them. Then they sang again. The same song, over and over again. Oskar snuck looks at them.
I will never become like that.
Unfortunately. He would've liked to. They seemed to be having fun. But Oskar would never be able to be, act like the boys did.
Whenever I get to this part of the book, I always think of it as unintentional bittersweet foreshadowing for Oskar's fate in LTODD and the fact that he will remain 12 forever, sort of like "You're right, Oskar, you'll never become like that, but not for the reason you think". Unintentional, because JAL obviously wasn't planning LTODD when he wrote LTROI, but it's still a small thing that retroactively adds more meaning to the text, in my opinion.
De höll om varandra i tystnad. Oskar blundade och visste: detta var det största. Ljuset från lyktan i portvalvet trängde svagt in genom hans slutna ögonlock, la en hinna av rött för hans ögon. Det största.

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