Lennart, yes this is a spoiler

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gattoparde59
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Lennart, yes this is a spoiler

Post by gattoparde59 » Tue Apr 30, 2013 12:56 am

Begun a rereading of Little Star, in part because I am trying to figure out the inscrutable Theres.
How does Theres turn out the way she does? We never get a real explanation, certainly nothing like Eli's back story in Let the Right One In.

Here is what we find out about her in the first part of the book.

1) She was abandoned. Lennart tells us she is something like two months old, so this is not your typical new born dumpster baby. Who ever belonged to the mysterious BMW with the tinted windows may have buried Theres because they knew she wasn't normal? Maybe.

2) She was buried in a plastic bag and was deprived of oxygen for a significant amount of time. That would make brain damage very likely. She may even have died and come back to life, Zombie like, as has been suggested else where. Something like Handling the Undead? Or maybe Theres died and her body was taken over by something supernatural, like the water creepers in "Eternal/Love." So maybe Theres is some sort of unearthly demon?

3) Which brings me to Theres rescuer, Lennart. In many respects Lennart has a decisive influence on the little child and his character flaws help to make the monster to to speak. We learn from the very first pages of the book that Lennart is an angry, festering loser. Always the bride's maid, never the bride he hovers on the fringes of success but never quite gets there. It is pretty obvious that he compensates for his own inadequacy by trying to control other people. Laila is an early failed experiment. Remember how Laila ended up a cripple? So it follows that when Lennart seemingly hits the musical lottery with the bizarre singing baby he go to extremes to try to control his new toy. Lennart reminds me of Håken in the way he justifies his own selfish plans as some sort of noble enterprise.

Think of all the ways that Lennart molds, or should I say, warps Theres? He isolates her from the rest of the world. He tries to keep the child from being spoken to at all, although Laila thwarts that idea early on. His only interaction with her is through music, so it is only logical that Theres would see music as the only meaningful form of communication. Theres may actually see herself as a kind of musical instrument. She is seemingly indifferent to human interaction, and even physical pain, but she bursts into tears when she scratches Jerry's guitar "Poor Tarry!"

Most of all, it is Lennart who starts the business of Big People and Little People. He instills this paranoid vision of the world in the young Theres who is first terrified and then increasingly resorting to violence to give herself a sense of control over the warped little world she lives in, in her head so to speak. Lennart also introduces the idea of cannibalism, which becomes a major fixation for Theres in the spiritual if not the material sense.

But I am looking ahead to things we learn later in the book. That is enough for now, except for one other observation, again from our pal Lennart. It is Lennart who first looks into the child's eyes and he describes the sensation as being like "looking into a great abyss." I'd be curious what the original Swedish terms where for this. Is that what Theres really is, an abyss, a void, an empty thing with magical musical talents?

I'll break open the story and tell you what is there. Then, like the others that have fallen out onto the sand, I will finish with it, and the wind will take it away.

Nisa

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EEA
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Re: Lennart, yes this is a spoiler

Post by EEA » Tue Apr 30, 2013 8:54 pm

Interesting points about Lennart. My first impression of him when i read the book was that he was just a person who kept living in the past. Who punish his wife, and he is someone I didn't like that much.
Is almost been a year and some months since I read Little Star. I am planning to read it again next week.

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Re: Lennart, yes this is a spoiler

Post by Opeth » Sun May 05, 2013 5:05 am

Theres seeing herself as a musical instrument, interesting thought I've never really considered that. Also solid points, I agree with you. Laila and Lennart's relationship is truly one of the most disturbing things I have read about, I actually feel that Lennart is almost as equally disturbing as Theres & Teresa but with Theres there is that supernatural element, the unknown. I was planning to do something like this awhile ago, posting thoughts as I read through it but I got totally engrossed in reading Låt den rätte komma in, anyway I started to reread Little Star last week & have just got past Jerry's back-story in the beginning.

I'm not sure about Theres being a totally empty creature, she certainly seemed to me like she knew what she wanted - love. With Teresa I think so though. I'll have a look at my copy tomorrow to see if the sentence is worded differently.

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Re: Lennart, yes this is a spoiler

Post by drakkar » Sun May 05, 2013 8:04 am

I still keep guessing whether Theres is a girl or a supernatural being. JAL balances it just perfectly. She could be a little girl rescued just in time, but then you have the red smoke hinting abut some supernatural being at play. And her singing ability, nearly dead and just two months old. Is this possible for a human being? I have no idea. However, whatever conclusion I happen to land on (it varies), also has implication on how to interpret the ending.
Iirc JAL said in an interview that he thought of Theres as an alien, but then he toned down "the other" during the course of the writing of the story. Just like in LTROI, where the vampirism was toned down to resemble some kind of infection.
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Re: Lennart, yes this is a spoiler

Post by Nightrider » Sun May 05, 2013 10:42 am

I tend to subscribe to a more of an earthbound explanation.
I believe Theres was very much human. Damaged and without empathy, but human. Extremely gifted, charismatic and manipulative, but human. Whatever supernatural aspects that were present in the narrative appeared to be a manifestation of easily influenced minds of her "followers". This is where the novel's theme of fan worship, blind idolatry and cult phenomenon becomes the most obvious and on target. The ending (though slightly ambiguous) is very much a conclusion of a cautionary tale, where unquestionable adoration and devotion could only lead to apocalyptic outcome.
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Re: Lennart, yes this is a spoiler

Post by drakkar » Mon May 06, 2013 5:54 am

Yes, she probably is human, however the little doubt JAL introduces balances on a razor edge throughout the story, always exerting its modifying pressure on it.
For the heart life is simple. It beats as long as it can.
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Re: Lennart, yes this is a spoiler

Post by Opeth » Thu May 09, 2013 5:52 am

gattoparde59 wrote: It is Lennart who first looks into the child's eyes and he describes the sensation as being like "looking into a great abyss." I'd be curious what the original Swedish terms where for this. Is that what Theres really is, an abyss, a void, an empty thing with magical musical talents?
Under en sekund var pupillerna utvidgade och Lennart tyckte att han stirrade ner i en avgrund.


Lennart describes it as staring down into an abyss. Avgrund - abyss.
drakkar wrote:Yes, she probably is human, however the little doubt JAL introduces balances on a razor edge throughout the story, always exerting its modifying pressure on it.
The thing with this is that my thoughts towards Theres are almost always changing. At the moment I think that she's human, most likely brain damaged. I do love how it is on a fine fine edge. :wub:

Something interesting I only somehow just noticed for the first time today:
Theres felt for Teresa's hand, and their fingers intertwined; they sat completely still, gazing into the dark rectangle of the TV screen where they could see themselves as two distant figures, sitting in a room far away. There was a faint overlap where their shoulders met, as if their sweatshirts were sewn together.
When Teresa looked at their hands after a long time, she thought the skin on her fingers was flowing out across the back of Theres' hand, and that the tips of Theres' fingers were beginning to melt into her own knuckles in the same way. She stared at their hands and thought it would take a knife, a sharp knife to separate them; there would be a lot of blood.
This is from when Teresa first meets Theres in person, I always thought it wasn't until the end that Theres broke that physical barrier. It makes the end seem a little bit less significant now but then it is Theres I'm talking about here, so it doesn't change much.
You were supposed to have a bag when you were travelling, weren't you? But what was she supposed to put in it? What did she need? Who am I?
That was another way of putting it. What did she want to take with her to Theres, what did she want to show, who did she want to be? She sat on her bed, staring at the empty bag, and she thought it was mocking her. The bag was her. Empty. Nothing. She had nothing to bring.
Another instance of where she views herself as an empty person, sad..

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Re: Lennart, yes this is a spoiler

Post by gattoparde59 » Thu May 09, 2013 10:05 am

Opeth wrote:Something interesting I only somehow just noticed for the first time today:

Theres felt for Teresa's hand, and their fingers intertwined; they sat completely still, gazing into the dark rectangle of the TV screen where they could see themselves as two distant figures, sitting in a room far away. There was a faint overlap where their shoulders met, as if their sweatshirts were sewn together.
When Teresa looked at their hands after a long time, she thought the skin on her fingers was flowing out across the back of Theres' hand, and that the tips of Theres' fingers were beginning to melt into her own knuckles in the same way. She stared at their hands and thought it would take a knife, a sharp knife to separate them; there would be a lot of blood.



This is from when Teresa first meets Theres in person, I always thought it wasn't until the end that Theres broke that physical barrier. It makes the end seem a little bit less significant now but then it is Theres I'm talking about here, so it doesn't change much.

You were supposed to have a bag when you were travelling, weren't you? But what was she supposed to put in it? What did she need? Who am I?
That was another way of putting it. What did she want to take with her to Theres, what did she want to show, who did she want to be? She sat on her bed, staring at the empty bag, and she thought it was mocking her. The bag was her. Empty. Nothing. She had nothing to bring.



Another instance of where she views herself as an empty person, sad..
I had been thinking about this scene because of the discussion about holding hands. My second reading hasn't got there yet. I'd be curious to see when Theres starts objecting to holding hands, whether there is any reason for that.

I am very interested in the theme of barriers and connections. Your comments suggest Woofie's "A Tale Told by Hands," and that shows up very clearly in the passage you quoted.

Another way to think about Theres: Maybe Theres is in the abyss? Psychologically at least she is at the bottom of an immense well, and that is what it is like for her trying to make some connection with other people. Maybe that is the barrier that Theres is trying to overcome? :think:

I have to go back and re-read the part about "the other girl," but I do remember that Teresa sees herself as a "nothing," or in the quote you give as a void. She seems to be a character searching for an identity.

I'll break open the story and tell you what is there. Then, like the others that have fallen out onto the sand, I will finish with it, and the wind will take it away.

Nisa

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Re: Lennart, yes this is a spoiler

Post by Opeth » Tue May 14, 2013 6:30 am

gattoparde59 wrote: I had been thinking about this scene because of the discussion about holding hands. My second reading hasn't got there yet. I'd be curious to see when Theres starts objecting to holding hands, whether there is any reason for that.

I am very interested in the theme of barriers and connections. Your comments suggest Woofie's "A Tale Told by Hands," and that shows up very clearly in the passage you quoted.

Another way to think about Theres: Maybe Theres is in the abyss? Psychologically at least she is at the bottom of an immense well, and that is what it is like for her trying to make some connection with other people. Maybe that is the barrier that Theres is trying to overcome? :think:

I have to go back and re-read the part about "the other girl," but I do remember that Teresa sees herself as a "nothing," or in the quote you give as a void. She seems to be a character searching for an identity.
I think that I passed something a bit before Teresa goes into the hospital, it might have been when they had finished recording at that studio and then Theres did or said something. I'll have to go back and take a look, I feel like I'm reading through this too quickly so I'll probably start reading less but I have a hell of a lot of trouble putting the book down. :lol:

I had only skimmed some of ATTBH before but today I funnily enough finished it. I've been reading through Woofy's articles the past couple of days, really enjoyable. I Wouldn't be surprised if that quick little skim rubbed off on me or perhaps it is the countless viewings, I've truly lost count. :mrgreen:

Mm, I can definitely see it that way too. She seemed absolutely drained once they finished recording for the day, "They take. They eat." I think is what she says. Maybe she is trying to overcome it, it's hard to say when it comes to her.

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