Imagine if this had been published earlier, or if Let Me In had been produced later. Imagine if this could have been added as an extra 30 minutes to the end of LMI. I have seen someone comment that after they had watched LTROI the first time, they felt like had been hit in the chest with a cricket bat. I too know this feeling. If LMI had ended with the story from LTODD, I probably would probably have left the theater with that cricket bat feeling.
I have some initial thoughts about LTODD:
I am struck by how much Stefan and Karin could be surrogates for Oskar and Eli. After all, we have seen JAL use such a device before. In the novel, Virginia was sort of a surrogate for Eli. JAL really told us very little about Eli directly. However, by describing in detail Virginia's experience of turning into a vampire, he told us the essentials of what Eli's existence must be like. So too, I think it possible that Stefan and Karin are surrogates for Oskar and Eli. In fact, it maybe that Stefan and Karin represent Oskar and Eli if Eli were a girl and were not infected.
JAL said in the foreword to Låt de gamla drömmarna dö:
[quote]...what is hinted at in the Swedish film is in the U.S. now crystal clear. Håkan has been with Eli since he was a boy in Oskar's age. Thus, it is not hard to figure out the fate that awaits Oskar.
Do not misunderstand me. I think it's an entirely reasonable end, a gorgeous interpretation of history and deliberately open-ended as I left the book. But it's not my end.
...
I wanted to give my version.[/quote]
He tells us in the very first sentence that he wants to tell about a great love. We think he means that of Oskar and Eli, and what he said in the foreword pretty much confirms that, but then he instead tells us about Stefan and Karin.
Some points of similarity that I have noticed between Stefan & Karin and Oskar & Eli:
[list]
[*]Karin and Stefan's love is special enough that captures the attention (and the envy) of the narrator. This also describes the love between Oskar and Eli, which seems to have captured the attention (and envy) of The Infected.
[*]Karin is older than Stefan. Eli has a few years on Oskar.
[*]Despite that, it seems that their love will end when Stefan's life does. This would almost certainly be true for Oskar and Eli - provided that Oskar is not infected.
[*]Karin seems to be the more assertive of the two - Stefan looks to her for permission before relating how they met. Also, Karin has the profession of an assertive person - a police officer. Eli was definitely more assertive than Oskar. Except for the unfamiliar social interactions with Oskar, Eli had the self-confidence of a predator.
[*]In the end, Stefan and Karin disappear together, their fate uncertain. All that is certain is that they are still as enviably in love as ever.[/list]
I have seen people speculate that Stefan and Karin also represent JAL and his wife, Maia. This is certainly possible, but I think that there are really only two forum members who could really make such an assessment. I think that like me, most forum members only know JAL through his work, his posts here, and his public appearances. In other words, no one (except for one of us) really knows him personally. Of his wife, Maia, all I really know is that she is a poet and that she does a good job of walking away from the camera on a dark Blackeberg street. I'm not saying that JAL and his wife do not have a love Stefan and Karin's. I would certainly wish for them that they do, and it is possible that they do. After all, my spouse and I have been together for twenty three years, and we still hold hands. (We don't read aloud to each other, but that sounds like a great idea.
) It's just that almost no one here could possibly know, and I certainly don't.
(About his dad that is.) 