Castration Confusion

[Pevalwen]

(I'm new to the forum so sorry if I break any rules by accident!)

In the novel, Oskar has a flashback to the story where Eli is castrated; I was wondering, and this may have an obvious answer, why did the vampire invite local children to his castle to castrate one? Was it for some sort of ritualistic reason or perhaps for rather unpleasant desires? Of all the things a vampire in a castle could do, picking a child to castrate is a rather peculiar thing to do. I understand that there is no clear answer in the novel, unless I have missed it, and maybe my guesses are the most probable answer, but it's just something I've been wondering about. Any views?

[Harls]

(I'm new to the forum so sorry if I break any rules by accident!)

In the novel, Oskar has a flashback to the story where Eli is castrated; I was wondering, and this may have an obvious answer, why did the vampire invite local children to his castle to castrate one? Was it for some sort of ritualistic reason or perhaps for rather unpleasant desires? Of all the things a vampire in a castle could do, picking a child to castrate is a rather peculiar thing to do. I understand that there is no clear answer in the novel, unless I have missed it, and maybe my guesses are the most probable answer, but it's just something I've been wondering about. Any views?

Welcome to the forum Pevalwen!

To answer your question (and this is strictly MY point of view), given the immense age of the Vampire Lord, I should think he did it purely to get off on the boys' humiliation and because he could. Remember, we talking about one sick, eternally undead individual here, so inflicting what is probably the most humiliating thing that could happen to a male on these young boys who then have to go through eternity without their todger was probably all in a night's entertainment for him. It's obvious from the way the game was shown as fixed in the flashback that Elias was hand-picked from the start (being the prettiest boy in the neighbourhood). It was also shown in Eli's hallucination that she/he had escaped from the Vampire Lord's clutches and that there were countless others calling him back, so he may even have created a harem of castrated boys to keep him company through eternity. It does make you wonder why the families never rose up against the Lord, but I suppose in those days people were more deferential to their Lords and Masters...

This a part of the story I'd very much like to see expanded upon by JAL (unlikely, I know).

[Stangarlins]

Well, I'm not sure as well but, here we go: When Eli goes to the woman's house to get her blood, there is a moment where the woman lies on Eli's lap and ask her to tell her a story, that's when Eli tells that, a long, long time ago, all the boys between the age of eight and twelve had to enter a competition, and, on the day of the competition, Eli's mother brought her to the lord's castle, among with the children of the other families. On the castration subjetc, I believe it was somekind of ritual that the lord performed since he rolled the dices and, chose Eli to castrate her and drink her blood the way he did, first drinking from the bowl, and when he bit her on the neck. If the castration is not part of a ritual, then I'm clueless about what it is. I agree on Harls when he said that Eli was picked on purpose, but I don't know if the competition was just a reason to get Eli to come to the lord's castle, since he was interested on performing the ritual with her.

And yes, it would be nice to see JAL's views on this

[crazychristina]

The idea was possibly based on the real-life Gilles de Rais, who murdered children is a similar ritualistic manner.

[Harls]

The idea was possibly based on the real-life Gilles de Rais, who murdered children is a similar ritualistic manner.

Maybe. I recently read about Gille de Rais in, of all things, a book about werewolves (The Book of Were-Wolves - S. (Sabine) Baring-Gould). Quite a monster by all accounts, but apparently he was uninterested in his victims' genitals, so there the comparison ends...

[Pevalwen]

Thanks You've all got really interesting views!
Yes, I think, after considering it again, that the lord was both being ritualistic (maybe spiritual/religious) in his actions but also perhaps being sadistic and, thinking about Harls' idea, maybe he was taking something from them to compensate for his losses as a vampire (so we see in the novel the vampire who is too 'good' to live, Virginia, the vampire who chooses to live but is consiquently perhaps morally neutral, Elias, and then the vampire who chooses to live and pursuse evil, the lord [maybe reflected by the moral-less zombie Hakan, come back to haunt Eli; just a thought]).
Wow, that Gilles de Rais is really interesting, and quite unbelievable! It's also really interesting how close it is to the vampire in the novel. Just an idea, but if that was an inspiration, maybe the castration was brought in to assist the plot...
I do wonder how long this vampire lived- if he was alive at the same time as LTROI happened... How creepy.
Out of interest, and maybe it's me missing something again, but why was the woman with Eli on her lap so welcoming of her? Was it the morphine in her blood?

[intrige]

I think it's eather the morphine or another abilety on the(What vampires can do) list. Like, how Eli can give other people his memories by kissing, or touching them. (If that's the case, he realy wanted to kiss Oskar ).. Oh but anyhow..

[jonjon_z]

Hi Pevalwen Welome to Infected!

Regarding the man in the wig, I think Wolfchild explained it better than I could in this post;
Re: About Eli's Gender http://www.let-the-right-one-in.com/for ... =20#p28830

I can't speak for johnajvide, but I have mused about The Man in the Wig a lot, and I have come to the conclusion that he was never really intended to be a character - he was really just a plot device. John takes a lot of care and space to balance his characters. No one is all good and no one is all bad. Even Jonny, as cruel as he is to Oskar, is shown as feeling terribly the absence of his father. He and his brother's attempt to drown Oskar is precipitated by Oskar destroying their scrapbook of their father. Likewise Håkan, as repulsive as he is, protects Eli to the last, and offers the last bit of his life to feed him.

However, the Man in the Wig is different. As I see it, Eli sort of embodies the terrible things about Blackeberg, only magnified. So as Eli is worse than anything Blackeberg has to offer, so too does cruelty that Eli has suffered have be to be worse than anything that Oskar suffers. Oskar is nearly drowned, so Eli has to have suffered something even worse than that. I think that JAL did indeed hit on something that was worse being drowned.

The Man in the Wig is the vehicle for bringing this worse thing to Eli. No one wants to see any balance added to The Man in the Wig. No one should want to identify with him. Eli is a little monster, but it is necessary for the story that we still identify with him, or at least have sympathy for him. The story does this by making Elias the victim of unreasoning, inexplicable cruelty, and I think that "inexplicable" is really the key concept. Any attempt to balance or explain The Man in the Wig would give us an escape from sympathizing with Eli. JAL was wise to not allow us such an escape. Thus the Man in the Wig is left unbalanced, pure.

The balance that JAL brings to his characters is largely what makes them feel real. Since this balance is absent from The Man in the Wig, this why I refer to him as a plot device instead of as a character. And as a plot device, JAL makes him seem real by staying away from him. We are given no name, no motivations, no history, almost nothing about him. All we get about The Man in the Wig are the recollections of a terrified and horribly damaged twelve year old. JAL makes the vampire lord seem real by showing him to us only through the lens of Elias' perceptions. It seems reasonable to us that we do not know exactly what was going on or why, because Elias himself would not have known. But we do know that horrible things were done, and Eli himself is the evidence of that. When a tale is told from the point of view of an omniscient narrator, we naturally expect explanations. But when the tale is coming from a child narrator, we feel less entitled to full explanations. As an unbalanced character, I think that the closer we get to The Man in the Wig, the less real he would become.
...the story derives a lot of its appeal from its sense of despair and a darkness in which the love of Eli

[moonvibe34]

Welcome among the Infected Pevalwen.
As you've already discovered, our fellow Infected here have terrific insight and interpretations into all things LTROI and beyond.

[N.R. Gasan]

Welcome to Team Eli, Pevalwen. I like your screen name; it kind of has a medieval ring to it. :)