Metoo. I mean, I agree! I think of Eli as 'he' but stuck eternally in that hinterland, the railroad waiting-room of pre-adolescence, waiting for life to 'kick-in'. A train, that (sadly for Eli) will never arrive.metoo wrote: For me, the novel is most important, and for me Eli is "he".
I would disagree with this. In the Peek scene, we are given a brief glimpse of what Oskar sees, and what Oskar sees is quite clearly a horizontal scar across Eli's pubis. It difficult to interpret that scar as being from anything other than a castration. It is easy to miss, but it also definitely gives Eli of the film the same history as Eli of the novel. Both Elis were born boys.cx1138 wrote:I was influenced by the movie. The movie gives no clue that Eli used to be a boy.
When discussing or thinking about the novel, I refer to Eli as "he", but Lina's performance leaves me no other choice than to refer to film Eli as "she". As I understand it, the original Swedish text is written without using gender-specific pronouns. Using masculine pronouns to refer to Eli up until the reveal and then switching to feminine pronouns was an innovation of the English translator.It was almost a month after I saw the movie ( a few times) that I found out Eli used to be a he. By then it was ingrained in my mind that Eli was a she. Plus in the Lina interview she calls Eli a she and said Eli would be a good friend if she was real. In the book JAL didn't refer to Eli as a he until the last half of the book. So for me Eli is always a she/Lina because of the movie/interview. Sometimes I try to think of Eli as post op gender change, but that thought doesn't really sit well with me. One example is Chaz Bono, everyone calls her a him now and I don't even know if Chaz had surgery to change anything. I also think that even though Eli thinks she is neither boy or girl she leans more towards a girl because in the movie she dresses and acts like a girl. If I had read the book before the movie I would probably think of Eli as a he now because the book gives no visual reference like in the movie. Does anyone still else think of Eli as a she because they saw her first in the movie?
Wolfchild wrote:I would disagree with this. In the Peek scene, we are given a brief glimpse of what Oskar sees, and what Oskar sees is quite clearly a horizontal scar across Eli's pubis. It difficult to interpret that scar as being from anything other than a castration. It is easy to miss, but it also definitely gives Eli of the film the same history as Eli of the novel. Both Elis were born boys.cx1138 wrote:I was influenced by the movie. The movie gives no clue that Eli used to be a boy.
Like most fiction characters, if we are to believe the scarcity of seeing them in that kind of situation.cx1138 wrote:... I thought it was some kind of opening vampires have since they don't really need to use the restroom. ...
It seems that a term castration has been liberally used here to describe what happened to Eli without correct application of the true meaning of the word. I am guilty of this as well.Maybe it's just me but when I saw the scene with the scar I didn't relate it to a scar. I thought it was some kind of opening vampires have since they don't really need to use the restroom. I know that sounds pretty dumb but that's what I thought. It didn't look like Eli used to be a boy or girl. You would think the scare would be lower with castration. But I didn't really take a close look at the scene.
I think you're probably right. But in "Once Bitten" by a_contemplative_life, a much different possibility is explored...Nightrider wrote:It seems that a term castration has been liberally used here to describe what happened to Eli without correct application of the true meaning of the word. I am guilty of this as well.Maybe it's just me but when I saw the scene with the scar I didn't relate it to a scar. I thought it was some kind of opening vampires have since they don't really need to use the restroom. I know that sounds pretty dumb but that's what I thought. It didn't look like Eli used to be a boy or girl. You would think the scare would be lower with castration. But I didn't really take a close look at the scene.
Castration is any action, surgical, chemical, or otherwise, by which a male loses the functions of the testicles or a female loses the functions of the ovaries.
According to book's description, Eli was horribly mutilated by possibly both castration and penectomy leaving no traces of sexual organs of any kind. Penectomy is the surgical removal of the penis for medical or personal reasons.
It must be noted that individuals who went through this procedure could still pass urine....So, since Eli is a humanoid creature(with a few supernatural upgrades) it should come as no surprise that most of her/his internal organs function pretty much the same way as our mortal, fleshy vehicles.
Vitaly
(much to JAL's delight, I might add)
True, it is an awesome story, Joe-Bob says read itPeteMork wrote: I think you're probably right. But in "Once Bitten" by a_contemplative_life, a much different possibility is explored...
