The Tadpole

[genie47]

Only here could we be discussing such minutiae.

Hey. Don't look at me. I just wanted to talk about the tadpole.

[TΛPETRVE]

Maybe he chewed his cheeks a bit too much .

[ked101]

I'm not claiming to be an expert on kissing, but it says in the quote above that "Oskar feels a flap of skin on the inside of his cheek, which comes loose right at the end of the shared kiss with Eli." There is no way that could have been Eli's lips, as it's not physically possible (well it isn't for me anyway ) to make physical contact between person A's lips and person B's inner cheek. Assuming that 'inner cheek' is refering to somewhere inside the mouth, there might be something lost in the translation...

yeah your right - this is very confusing: - I cannot even imagine what that might be - it seems the author must know this was not written for nothing it must mean something - damn - Any more ideas people???????

[gary13136]

I'm not claiming to be an expert on kissing, but it says in the quote above that "Oskar feels a flap of skin on the inside of his cheek, which comes loose right at the end of the shared kiss with Eli." There is no way that could have been Eli's lips, as it's not physically possible (well it isn't for me anyway ) to make physical contact between person A's lips and person B's inner cheek. Assuming that 'inner cheek' is refering to somewhere inside the mouth, there might be something lost in the translation...

yeah your right - this is very confusing: - I cannot even imagine what that might be - it seems the author must know this was not written for nothing it must mean something - damn - Any more ideas people???????

Oh, I could think of other ideas. That's no problem. The problem is that Eli was involved in a bizarre blood ritual which involved losing all of his external sex organs. However something occurred that involved those sex organs. I'm thinking that "something" is so gross that JAL wouldn't even put it in the book. I would go so far as to suggest that even if you cornered JAL and asked him what it was, he wouldn't tell you. I think the "flap of skin" is as far as it goes. If you want to go farther, you could get into some really gross ideas.

I'll just stick to my "French Kiss" theory. It's a lot more pleasant to think about.

[Balb Kubrox]

I dont remember this part but now that I'm on my 2nd reading I guess I will get to it.

[covenant6452]

I think it's just a piece of skin. Maybe he just bit the inside of his mouth during one of his bullyings. Why does it have to be more than that?

[kaonto]

I'm not claiming to be an expert on kissing, but it says in the quote above that "Oskar feels a flap of skin on the inside of his cheek, which comes loose right at the end of the shared kiss with Eli." There is no way that could have been Eli's lips, as it's not physically possible (well it isn't for me anyway ) to make physical contact between person A's lips and person B's inner cheek. Assuming that 'inner cheek' is refering to somewhere inside the mouth, there might be something lost in the translation...

yeah your right - this is very confusing: - I cannot even imagine what that might be - it seems the author must know this was not written for nothing it must mean something - damn - Any more ideas people???????

Yay, another old thread where I can complain about the translation! I'll make it my mission to post something negative about in in every thread on the forum ^_^
Actually it's not the pronouns this time, but the anatomy of a kiss. Anyway. Oskar closes his lips on Eli's lower lip. When he is inside Eli's memories, it says:
"en liten köttbit ligger långt framme i hans mun", which translates to "a small piece of meat lies in the front of his mouth". Nothing about the inside of the cheek, so it's Eli's lower lip.

About the tadpole question from the OP, I got the impression that it was only Oskar's imagination that it moved in an organic way. I would have translated "Men den satt stilla där, inte levande" to "But it lay still there, not alive."(period, end of discussion). Maybe that's just my interpretation.

And it reminded me more of the spritus from Harbour than the caterpillars from HtU.

[Raven Eyes]

I always thought the flap of skin was just that from Eli's memories that they had been eating - Eli being a peasant child may not have seen such an amount of food and like all kids decided to try. The loose skin was in my mind simply a bit of food in the mouth. Oskar did not feel any of himself inside Eli's memories and only felt what Eli had felt.

[drakkar]

I read it as a small lump of Eli's coagulated blood stuck with the soap, coming to life for a moment in Oskar's imagination. Remember, Oskar had hard times coping with the reality at that time.