About Eli´s gender

[lombano]

Thanks, John, for the extra info! It proves just about every theory we had about why you made Eli a boy wrong.

I agree with Wolfie about the vampire lord, basically he's a symbol of evil rather than a proper character, and one of only two pure monsters (the other being undead Hakan) in a book with alot of monstruosities.

[sauvin]

As I see it, Eli sort of embodies the terrible things about Blackeberg, only magnified. So as Eli is worse than anything Blackeberg has to offer, so too does cruelty that Eli has suffered have be to be worse than anything that Oskar suffers.

Isn't that actually closer to reality as we know it? That evil begets evil? That horrible things done to people cause them, in turn, to lose their humanity and inflict injury on others for no good reason? The desire to cut off some kid's genitals in a weird blood-ritual doesn't just spring up from nowhere, does it? If you analogize to real-life child abusers, they have usually been the subject of abuse themselves. I don't feel less sympathy for Eli by thinking that the vampire lord was himself turned by some perverted, vampire [deleted]. It just draws me back into a sense of the pervasiveness of evil. Which I think it is.

In cycles of abusiveness, for example through the generations of a hard-bitten family, yes, evil begets evil. Anecdotally, everybody knows a Republican is a Democrat who'd just been mugged.

What strikes me most about Eli is that what happened to her is tantamount to being hit by some debilitating and disfiguring contagion. Bad things happen to good people. In the novel, this has to be true; what does the twelve year old son of a humble countryside farmer do to deserve this kind of punishment?

The Man in the Wig is something Other, something Outside. Human experience doesn't encompass this Thing. It directly informs no part of our emotional makeup or guides us as part of our experience. We fear it because we know it exists, and we fear it even more because we don't even have a clear label for it. We can't defend ourselves from it, can't even feel confident we'd recognise and avoid it if we passed it on the street. This is the nature of what we call true evil.

The suspicion the Wig man was just [deleted] [deleted] doesn't seem to help.

Edit: 29 Octobre 2011, replaced a "bad word" with [deleted] to comply with renewed restrictions on language.

Edit: 29 Octobre 2011, replaced a "bad word" with [deleted] to comply with renewed restrictions on language.

Edit: 29 Octobre 2011, replaced a "bad word" with [deleted] to comply with renewed restrictions on language.

[PeteMork]

I don't know. Why should the buck stop there? You can still feel bad for Eli, even though the Man with the Wig might himself have been the subject of abuse at some point. Isn't that actually closer to reality as we know it? That evil begets evil? That horrible things done to people cause them, in turn, to lose their humanity and inflict injury on others for no good reason? The desire to cut off some kid's genitals in a weird blood-ritual doesn't just spring up from nowhere, does it? If you analogize to real-life child abusers, they have usually been the subject of abuse themselves. I don't feel less sympathy for Eli by thinking that the vampire lord was himself turned by some perverted, vampire bastard. It just draws me back into a sense of the pervasiveness of evil. Which I think it is.

Of course in real life, you're correct. But in the novel, I agree with Wolfchild; the Man with the Wig is a representation of evil, rather than a real character. What's interresting to me in retrospect, is that in your fan fiction, as well as my own, we don't elaborate on his motives either. I don't know about you, but in my own case I think I instinctively avoided any attempt to do so. JAL did such a good job in creating him as a symbol of evil, that I felt that I couldn't open that door.

I think Sauvin sums it up nicely:

The Man in the Wig is something Other, something Outside. Human experience doesn't encompass this Thing. It directly informs no part of our emotional makeup or guides us as part of our experience. We fear it because we know it exists, and we fear it even more because we don't even have a clear label for it. We can't defend ourselves from it, can't even feel confident we'd recognise and avoid it if we passed it on the street. This is the nature of what we call true evil.

[gattoparde59]

I have to confess to never really giving the Wig man much thought. I agree with Wolfchild and Sauvin that this man is the infection personified, mutilating and corrupting the innocent. There is no rhyme or reason to this character, other than pure sadism. He has much in common with the Wicked Witch of the West and Anton Chigurh.

As I see it, Eli sort of embodies the terrible things about Blackeberg, only magnified.

Why not just follow the food chain back and say the Wig man embodies the nameless horror of infection? We have the sadism of the bullies, and Oskar's fantasies of revenge. I see a clear parallel between what Oskar suffers and what Eli suffers, although as you say Eli's suffering is more extreme. Oskar is transformed into a pig, basically for entertainment purposes. Eli is transformed into a genderless monster, also for entertainment purposes.

All the characters in the story are carefully nuanced with their own set of circumstances, but perhaps what is being said is that as the infection progresses and destroys people it takes on a life of its own, a life personified in the Wig Man.

[a_contemplative_life]

I agree, the vampire lord's backstory was not necessary for LTROI; it would have been a distraction and the story was better without it. No reason to make him anything other than 1-dimensional.

I didn't give anyone too much more in my thing either. Just that he was basically tired of living for x years and wanted to die. I thought about having him describe what'd happened to him, but like I said somewhere, who'd want to hear him whine?

[jun2k]

Any attempt to balance or explain The Man in the Wig would give us an escape from sympathizing with Eli. JAL was wise to not allow us such an escape. Thus the Man in the Wig is left unbalanced, pure.

i just thought that this was an opportune time to ask the remaining questions in our minds. maybe JAL will respond, maybe not. but if i don't try...

[jun2k]

I do have my theories on why the vampire maker did what he did, based on JAL's post yesterday and occam's razor.

[genie47]

I'm late here but after reading thanks John for the insight into your creative process in creating the character that is Eli.

[Flaxx]

An immense amount of ideas and images written in these notes never made it into the novel, but it is funny to see that on that very first day of making notes in december I had also decided that the climax was going to take place in a pool. ”Blood and chlorinated water” I wrote.

Amazing. It's very cool you follow and post on these fantastic forums! :]

[EEA]

Thank you for sharing. Though Eli still remains a mistery.