little Funny Fictions:)

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dongregg
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Re: little Funny Fictions:)

Post by dongregg » Thu Feb 05, 2015 7:29 pm

GK, this adds so much to the poignancy of when Eli finally got a real friend in Oskar.
“For drama to deepen, we must see the loneliness of the monster and the cunning of the innocent.”

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Re: little Funny Fictions:)

Post by gkmoberg1 » Thu Feb 05, 2015 11:28 pm

Thank you.

The limit is found in this statement by Eli: "This sounds a bit ... but ..." the corners of Eli's mouth twitched, "... I haven't had a ... normal friendship with anyone in two hundred years." (pg 349) This rare bit of insight on his past sets the bounds on how far any prequel can go towards Eli having a friend. Of course I want him to have friends and lots of good adventures to fill up such a long lifetime but am limited by things such as this.

So yes, it does provide a poignancy towards the setup of his eventual friendship with Oskar.

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Re: little Funny Fictions:)

Post by dongregg » Thu Feb 05, 2015 11:41 pm

I respect the canon too, although I don't read it. I get an understanding of JAL's world from what I read here, and then I imagine how it informs the film. It's good to know that you respect the canon. Your discussion around the story of Eli and that woman (Kristina) made it clear how you are working honestly with what you've got to work with.
Last edited by dongregg on Fri Feb 06, 2015 2:28 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: little Funny Fictions:)

Post by gkmoberg1 » Fri Feb 06, 2015 12:06 am

This story really fell into place as I went. Serendipity is my word of the day. I started out touring the coast of Sweden, esp near Norrkipping using google maps and from this found Oxelösund. I then looked it up on wikipedia and from there found the website for the famous local manor/castle: Stjärnholms slott. If you check out the history of the manor estate, be sure to check out the 1822 entry; this is where I found Louis.

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Re: little Funny Fictions:)

Post by PeteMork » Fri Feb 06, 2015 2:17 am

gkmoberg1 wrote:This story really fell into place as I went. Serendipity is my word of the day. I started out touring the coast of Sweden, esp near Norrkipping using google maps and from this found Oxelösund. I then looked it up on wikipedia and from there found the website for the famous local manor/castle: Stjärnholms slott. If you check out the history of the manor estate, be sure to check out the 1822 entry; this is where I found Louis.
Wow! What a great idea. And, as a result, your little tale has the ring of truth to it. Poor Eli! And just remember: in one (or more) of an infinite number of parallel universes, it could easily be true. Even Louis. :ugeek:
We never stop reading, although every book comes to an end, just as we never stop living, although death is certain. (Roberto Bolaño)

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Re: little Funny Fictions:)

Post by dongregg » Fri Feb 06, 2015 6:31 am

Good site, where one reads about the strict disciplinarian that was Louis De Geer's father. You made good and concise use of the info you gathered as you wove your tale from such finds. I look forward to exploring the other sources you mentioned, such as Google Maps. I would like to go back to "Kristina" and use that wonderfully written tale as a point of departure for additional exploration. Just a really impressive and growing body of work that you have shared with us. THANK YOU! :D
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Re: little Funny Fictions:)

Post by dongregg » Sat Feb 07, 2015 12:13 am

There had been that potential of being able to share time with somebody and to do things that were fun once again. But these were whisked away, much like how the waves on the shore would take away the shells it had deposited the day before. Friendship with Louis was never allotted the chances needed to build; there was never more than the odd encounter. Years later, Eli had returned to the same town, the same manor, the same window. He had looked for the lined up shells inside the window sill where he had handed them through. But the room had long been re-purposed and the shells were long since cleaned away.
Nice that you left open what event or (more likely) what circumstances brought the meetings to an end. One first imagines that it is hard to do anything with stability for long if one is a vampire. Perhaps things got too hot and Eli had to move to a new area. Perhaps he counted the days until he could begin meeting Louis again at night, but things happen, and then it's years before he gets back to the manor. Touching to think that, when Eli returned, Louis could have been about age of the friend he finally found 140 years later.
“For drama to deepen, we must see the loneliness of the monster and the cunning of the innocent.”

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Re: little Funny Fictions:)

Post by gkmoberg1 » Sat Feb 07, 2015 12:58 am

Yeh, let's try some math on this. (btw, it is curious that http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Gerhard_De_Geer does not mention that Louis told anyone that he reportedly confided of a nighttime friend who visited him in his youth from outside his bedroom window at the sluss... hmmm. An omission, perhaps? )

Louis was born in July 1818. So at the age of eight, which was Eli's remembrance this little scene, it would be the later half of 1826 or the first half of 1827. This comes four years after the mention at http://www.stjarnholm.se/en/OmStjarnholm/Historia.aspx that Louis lived there starting in 1822. I have no idea how long Louis would have lived at Stjärnholms slott, but it sounds plausible that Eli and he could have met in some shard/variant of JAL's fictional universe (channeling PeteMork for a moment!).

As for why it ended? Eli's hibernation periods plus the relative infrequency of of nights where he was able to chatter through the window with Louis and his siblings probably did things in. I wanted to keep all this fragile. Eli likely spent hours outside that window for many nights without getting to see them. And then upon a return some time later he found that the family, or at least Louis, had moved on. It's difficult to contemplate and realize the desolation Eli would have faced across so many years, never being able to make or keep a friendship.

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Re: little Funny Fictions:)

Post by dongregg » Sat Feb 07, 2015 4:14 am

But these were whisked away...Friendship with Louis was never allotted the chances needed to build; there was never more than the odd encounter. Years later, Eli had returned to the same town, the same manor, the same window.
The limit is found in this statement by Eli: 'This sounds a bit ... but ..." the corners of Eli's mouth twitched, "... I haven't had a ... normal friendship with anyone in two hundred years' (pp. 349). This rare bit of insight on his past sets the bounds on how far any prequel can go towards Eli having a friend. Of course I want him to have friends and lots of good adventures to fill up such a long lifetime but am limited by things such as this.
Right, and now your story has given us a new limit, a reasonable space within the canon where other things might have taken place, between Eli and Louis' sporadic little times together and when Eli returned. "Years later, Eli had returned to the same town, the same manor, the same window," right? And "whisked away" doesn't sound like hibernating. And "years later" doesn't sound like one night she waited for him but the family or Louis had moved "like a watch in the night" (Psalms).

So, okay that gives space within those limits for what? How about, one of Louis' 8 siblings threaten to tell. Or he or she did tell and, with the window being so inaccessible and Eli so pale, the domestics (or parents) jumped to the conclusion that the strange night visitor was somehow connected with the gruesome deaths that had been going on. The manor and the good people and clergy of Oxelösund rose up, searching for any place that might shelter an evil spirit or, God forfend, a vampyr. Eli had to leave the area.

Too campy? Peasants with torches and pitchforks too overdone in vampire flicks? Yes and yes. It also doesn't fit the gentleness and quiet sadness of your tale.

But whatever happened, it leaves years to pass for other adventures, perhaps all dreary as ever as he yearned to see Louis but didn't make it back for too long a time. (Or he left after Louis stopped coming and just returned to the manor years later for nostalgic reasons?).
As for why it ended? Eli's hibernation periods plus the relative infrequency of of nights where he was able to chatter through the window with Louis and his siblings probably did things in. I wanted to keep all this fragile. Eli likely spent hours outside that window for many nights without getting to see them. And then upon a return some time later he found that the family, or at least Louis, had moved on. It's difficult to contemplate and realize the desolation Eli would have faced across so many years, never being able to make or keep a friendship.
I guess that will do. I'm hanging too much on "whisked away," aren't I? And you're the writer, one whom I admire more than you can imagine.
“For drama to deepen, we must see the loneliness of the monster and the cunning of the innocent.”

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Re: little Funny Fictions:)

Post by gkmoberg1 » Sun Feb 08, 2015 4:19 am

You are too kind, sir! :blushes: Uhh, really, I am little compared to the remarkable efforts set here by others. Look at all EEA, intrige, ACL, PeteMork, DMt., metoo and so many other have written - amazing.

As for your thoughts on further plot entanglements - I like them all! Please write one out for us :D Yes, how did it come to be that Eli lost track of Louis? Your explanation sounds good.

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