Set Me as a Seal Part 3

A forum for discussing fan fiction related to Let The Right One In
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intrige
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Re: Set Me as a Seal Part 3

Post by intrige » Tue Dec 15, 2015 9:42 am

LTODD is just my cup of tea. BRING IT ON!!! :D
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dongregg
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Re: Set Me as a Seal Part 3

Post by dongregg » Wed Dec 16, 2015 6:23 pm

metoo wrote:Eli understands English in the novel. I envision him to have been abroad for long periods - perhaps in Spain as well...
In the film, Eli hasn’t been anywhere. She doesn’t speak English or Spanish.
metoo wrote:I find your idea that Eli needs to become urbanised hard to grasp. Personally, I would think Eli would have lived most of his life in cities, the bigger the better. More people there, you see..
.
In the film, which this fan fiction is based on, Eli is as she appears to the viewer – neither socialized nor urbanized. Where in the world did you see in the film that Eli has lived most of her life in cities? She and Håkan treat the apartment on Ibsengatan as though it were a cave in the woods. It takes Oskar to give her a hint that walking around in minus weather in her shirt sleeves would draw unwanted attention, and she hasn’t lived for this long without being aware that drawing attention is the last thing she wants to do.

I saw in one of your recent posts that you’ve seen the film once. Best way to enjoy fan fictions based on the film is to immerse yourself in the experience as presented so successfully by TA by way of JAL’s script. :)
“For drama to deepen, we must see the loneliness of the monster and the cunning of the innocent.”

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metoo
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Re: Set Me as a Seal Part 3

Post by metoo » Wed Dec 16, 2015 8:53 pm

dongregg wrote:In the film, Eli hasn’t been anywhere. She doesn’t speak English or Spanish.
Now, 'to speak language X' may mean two different things:
1. To engage in the activity of speaking in language X.
2. To understand and know how to speak language X.
In the first, and trivial, sense you are right. In the second sense - there is no way to tell.
metoo wrote:I find your idea that Eli needs to become urbanised hard to grasp. Personally, I would think Eli would have lived most of his life in cities, the bigger the better. More people there, you see..
.
dongregg wrote:In the film, which this fan fiction is based on, Eli is as she appears to the viewer – neither socialized nor urbanized. Where in the world did you see in the film that Eli has lived most of her life in cities? She and Håkan treat the apartment on Ibsengatan as though it were a cave in the woods. It takes Oskar to give her a hint that walking around in minus weather in her shirt sleeves would draw unwanted attention, and she hasn’t lived for this long without being aware that drawing attention is the last thing she wants to do.
I have never said that I have seen in the film that Eli had lived most of her life in cities. I wrote that I think that Eli would had lived most of his life in cities, since there are more people there. A clarification: with "more people" I referred to the population density, which is indeed higher in cities than elsewhere. For someone who needs to kill people to survive, a denser population would plausibly be preferable. It would also be easier to hide in the denser crowd of a city, where people tend to be strangers to each other, than in a rural environment. For the same reason, sudden disappearances might be more likely to go unnoticed in cities than elsewhere. Finally, it would plausibly be easier to find capable helpers in cities - a greater variety of people, less social control, etc, etc. All these reasons make me think that Eli would have spent most of his life in cities. But my view is a result of contemplating the question, rather than watching the film or reading the novel.

Besides, it might be a comparatively recent phenomenon that people notice ill-dressed children on the streets. For most of Eli's life that sight might have been sadly common. And Eli would be out on the streets at night, when people generally are not, so he might not have had such a great problem with going unnoticed even in unsuitably thin clothes.

The novel presents another reason why Eli's way of dressing might have been a non-issue. When Oskar went out into the courtyard to stab the tree, Eli was already there, hiding inside the jungle gym (which apparently was a more enclosed structure in the novel than in the movie). The next day the same, Eli was hiding in the jungle gym. This seems to be Eli's normal behaviour, literally keeping in the shadows most of the time, out of sight.
dongregg wrote:I saw in one of your recent posts that you’ve seen the film once.
You did not, since I have never written that. I did, however, recently write that I have watched the film three times from beginning to end, and selected scenes many times.
dongregg wrote:Best way to enjoy fan fictions based on the film is to immerse yourself in the experience as presented so successfully by TA by way of JAL’s script.
Perhaps. But I, and many with me, maintain that the experience of watching the film is virtually the same as one gets when reading the novel.
Last edited by metoo on Wed Dec 16, 2015 10:57 pm, edited 3 times in total.
But from the beginning Eli was just Eli. Nothing. Anything. And he is still a mystery to me. John Ajvide Lindqvist

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Re: Set Me as a Seal Part 3

Post by Drakeule » Wed Dec 16, 2015 10:45 pm

metoo wrote: But I, and many with me, maintain that the experience of watching the film is virtually the same as one gets when reading the novel.
Eh... Eli is more fun in the novel.

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Re: Set Me as a Seal Part 3

Post by dongregg » Wed Dec 16, 2015 11:34 pm

Drakeule wrote:
metoo wrote: But I, and many with me, maintain that the experience of watching the film is virtually the same as one gets when reading the novel.
Eh... Eli is more fun in the novel.
I think both of you have a wonderful outlook. Let's be clear about mine. The fan fictions in my head and that I write are me hanging out with our two little pals as seen on the screen.
“For drama to deepen, we must see the loneliness of the monster and the cunning of the innocent.”

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Re: Set Me as a Seal Part 3

Post by Drakeule » Thu Dec 17, 2015 12:15 am

dongregg wrote:
Drakeule wrote:
metoo wrote: But I, and many with me, maintain that the experience of watching the film is virtually the same as one gets when reading the novel.
Eh... Eli is more fun in the novel.
I think both of you have a wonderful outlook. Let's be clear about mine. The fan fictions in my head and that I write are me hanging out with our two little pals as seen on the screen.
I know dongregg. You've made that perfectly clear. As many times as I've pushed the novel, you just won't bite. :lol:

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Re: Set Me as a Seal Part 3

Post by dongregg » Thu Dec 17, 2015 1:18 am

Ha ha! Well, "Never say never." I've started to order the book 3 times and then got sidetracked. That's an average of once a year, so you never know.

My great friends GK and PeteMork have put their shoulder to the wheel a few time, too, but I'm still a virgin.

P.S.: If I were to name names, you would be surprised to find out how many WTI members haven't read it. Not many, but it's some really infected members. LTROI is a big enough world for all of us.
“For drama to deepen, we must see the loneliness of the monster and the cunning of the innocent.”

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Re: Set Me as a Seal Part 3

Post by PeteMork » Thu Dec 17, 2015 7:13 am

metoo wrote:...Perhaps. But I, and many with me, maintain that the experience of watching the film is virtually the same as one gets when reading the novel.
I agree. Except for the part where Eli is a girl in the film and a castrated boy in the book. :D (Which ultimately didn't matter, other than to make their journey to find each other more thought-provoking.) I also think that Eli is a bit more complex (and consequently even more sympathetic) in the book. As is Oskar; he has a worse time of it in the book. But, just as I replay certain scenes in the film because they move me, I have marked many passages in the book that move me just as deeply. JAL has a real way with words, even after some have been lost in translation. :wub:
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: Set Me as a Seal Part 3

Post by dongregg » Thu Dec 17, 2015 7:09 pm

PeteMork:
JAL has a real way with words...
Donald:

I read the short story "Let the Old Dreams Die" and declared it to be one of the best stories I've ever read. It is as moving as anything in the film, and John weaves different threads together masterfully. You can see every setting as though you were there, and the interaction among the characters allows you to observe and to feel the interactions.

However, my occasional urge to buy LTROI is mostly motivated by a desire to know more about Eli's background. Even though that might be sketchy -- or so I gather from discussions here -- it would give me a better understanding of how, where, and when Eli lived before Blackeberg.
“For drama to deepen, we must see the loneliness of the monster and the cunning of the innocent.”

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Re: Set Me as a Seal Part 3

Post by metoo » Thu Dec 17, 2015 8:56 pm

dongregg wrote:However, my occasional urge to buy LTROI is mostly motivated by a desire to know more about Eli's background. Even though that might be sketchy -- or so I gather from discussions here -- it would give me a better understanding of how, where, and when Eli lived before Blackeberg.
There is some stuff about Eli's background in the novel, yes. But what might be more interesting to you is that JAL uses Eli's perspective a couple of times, giving us a few glances into Eli's mind.
But from the beginning Eli was just Eli. Nothing. Anything. And he is still a mystery to me. John Ajvide Lindqvist

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