Literary References in the Novel

[Jw5x5]

Hello all

This month I came back to Let the Right One In for the first time in a few years in the spirit of a winter storm that hit my town. I did the typical circuit, reading the novel and watching both of the movies, and what a different experience it was this time around. When I first came across LTROI, and when the story first latched itself to my heart, I was a freshman in highschool coming off my first break up. You can imagine the emotional currents of the novel hit me very hard while, due to my age, the literary references flew right over my head. Fortunately, this novel stands on its own without a prerequisite background in western literature, but having picked it back up after recently completing university and having vastly broadened my literary background, Ive come to appreciate the nods to the stories that inspired JAL dropped throughout the novel.

The one which I was most pleased to pick up on was the reference to Ovid's Metamorphoses made on page 205 when the restaurant gang goes to tell Gosta about Jocke's body being found. The following exchange occurs:
"Lacked scratched the cat - still in Gosta's arms - behind the ears.
'Nice cat. What's its name?'
'Its a she. Thisbe.'
'Nice name. Do you have a Pyramus as well?'
'No."

A very short exchange, but one in which Lacke references a story which had inspired JAL in writing the novel.

The story of Thisbe and Pyramus, as stated, appears in Ovid's Metamorphoses. The two are lovers from rival families in Babylon. Their houses share a wall, but the wall has a hole in it, through which they are able to talk to eachother through in secret. The two decide to run away from their families and their conflict, to be together. They agree to meet at a grave in the desert, but when Thisbe gets there, she sees a bloodied lion and runs away, dropping her cloak behind her. When Pyramus arrives, he sees the bloodied lion next to Thisbe's cloak and assumes that Thisbe has been killed. So he kills himself. When Thisbe returns, she finds Pyramus and kills herself with the Pyramus' sword.

The influence of this story is quite evident. We can see where the idea of secret lovers communicating through a wall comes from. The story was also one of William Shakespeare's inspirations for Romeo and Juliet, which of course is also referenced through Eli's notes to Oskar.

Id also argue that the exchange undercuts a thematic difference between Lacke's gang and Oskar and Eli. Gosta only had Thisbe, no Pyramus, which the literary Thisbe would find to be an unbearable existence. Gosta intentionally named his cat after one half of an archetypal pair of lovers, which speaks to an inner loneliness and lack of connection which is pretty easy to see in Gosta and the restaurant gang. Not only that, but Gosta forces his cats to remain in the apartment, so there is no chance for his Thisbe to find her Pyramus. Gosta's Thisbe is confined, just as the restaurant gang is, and thus is unable to find the meaning and connection they crave. In contrast, Eli is also confined by his relationship with Hakan, but chooses to break those restraints and explore outside his confines, which allows him to find his Pyramus in Oskar.

Uncovering the deep meaning of the simple interaction really gave another layer to a story I thought I had completely charted. Im going to be reading the other works Lacke and Hakan mention in order to hopefully find even more to appreciate in the story, but in the meantime are there any other references you guys want to analyze?

[metoo]

I have no additional literary references, but the episode where Lacke asks Gösta about having a Pyramus has an additional purpose, I believe. Both of them apparently are familiar with the tale of Pyramus and Thisbe, which usually requires a degree of cultivation one might not expect from such characters. Thus JAL tells the reader not to judge the characters at the Chinese restaurant (and by extension people in general) too soon. They may seem to live deplorable lives, but they still have dignity and are worthy of our respect.

[Siggdalos]

What an excellent analysis. I knew about the Pyramus and Thisbe inspiration behind O&E's messages through the wall, but I'd never previously stopped to think about how it could relate to Gösta, Lacke and co.

I've long had C. J. L. Almqvist's The Queen's Diadem on my list of books I want to read, since it's Håkan's favorite novel and JAL mentions on the Swedish commentary track for the movie that Håkan views the androgynous protagonist Tintomara as something of a personal ideal, and that this partially explains his feelings for the androgynous Eli. I haven't gotten around to reading it, but a bunch of other users had an interesting discussion about it in one of this forum's earliest threads.

Another detail that comes to mind is that when taking the subway home from his dad's, Oskar notices the ticket collector in the Blackeberg station reading a book. In LTODD, the book is revealed to be Kafka's The Metamorphosis, which foreshadows the reveal at the end of the story about Oskar having undergone a metamorphosis of his own.

A more light-hearted element running through the story is the references to the Swedish children's cartoon character Bamse, a friendly bear who gets super strength by eating special honey. JAL has admitted to being somewhat fixated on the cartoon and he mentions in Misslyckas igen, misslyckas bättre that he's often had to restrain himself from including more Bamse references in his stories. His role is most prominent in Harbour, but there are nods to him in LTROI as well: like I discussed in the translation errors thread, the title of the first part—Lycklig den som har en sådan vän, "Lucky is He Who Has Such a Friend"—is a line from Bamse's theme song, the introductory quote and (in Swedish) title of the fourth part are from the movie Bamse i trollskogen, and Oskar reads Bamse comics while at his dad's.

I don't think there's much deeper meaning to it, but the title of the novel's first part points to a parallel between Bamse and Eli in that both are monstrously strong but also kind beings who can protect their friends from those who want to harm them, just like the supernatural friend and protector that JAL wished he had when he was Oskar's age. That's where the similarities end, though, since Bamse hates fighting and has the philosophy that giving a bad guy a beating doesn't solve anything, whereas Eli doesn't hesitate about ripping 2-3 heads off for Oskar's sake.

[Jw5x5]

I have no additional literary references, but the episode where Lacke asks Gösta about having a Pyramus has an additional purpose, I believe. Both of them apparently are familiar with the tale of Pyramus and Thisbe, which usually requires a degree of cultivation one might not expect from such characters. Thus JAL tells the reader not to judge the characters at the Chinese restaurant (and by extension people in general) too soon. They may seem to live deplorable lives, but they still have dignity and are worthy of our respect.

I really came to love Lacke as a character for this very reason this time around. He is clearly a very cultured and intelligent person, not only having read the classics but having the ability to apply their themes to his situation, such as when he uses Dostoevsky's Demons to ethically justify killing Eli. He could probably be living in a much higher standard of life, but he deliberately chooses not to. Why this is Ive seen a several people argue about; I saw someone claim he was just lazy, another say he was self pitying, and yet another say he agrees with the lifestyle (sorry for not being able to cite these claim). Personally I think its a form of self harm. I think he has a deep seated self hatred arising from depression, and his self denial (not making an effort to live with Virginia, not using his wealth to achieve his cottage-core dream, not even using his wealth to sustain himself) is sort of him telling himself "this is what you deserve". He has a very poor state in life but its the result of choice, not misfortune, and of course in the end he regrets not choosing to take action. This of course contrasts with Oskar, who chooses to take action in pursuing a life with Eli and as a result finds happiness without regret. I agree with you, I think JAL wanted to give dignity and depth to the gang and Lacke, not to judge them or look down on them, but still to see their stories as cautionary tales. Their poverty isn't why you should pity them, but their unhappiness coming from choosing self denial and inaction.

[Jw5x5]

I've long had C. J. L. Almqvist's The Queen's Diadem on my list of books I want to read, since it's Håkan's favorite novel and JAL mentions on the Swedish commentary track for the movie that Håkan views the androgynous protagonist Tintomara as something of a personal ideal, and that this partially explains his feelings for the androgynous Eli. I haven't gotten around to reading it, but a bunch of other users had an interesting discussion about it in one of this forum's earliest threads.

Another detail that comes to mind is that when taking the subway home from his dad's, Oskar notices the ticket collector in the Blackeberg station reading a book. In LTODD, the book is revealed to be Kafka's The Metamorphosis, which foreshadows the reveal at the end of the story about Oskar having undergone a metamorphosis of his own.

I had never heard of The Queens Diadem before reading this novel, I have more background in Anglo/American and Russian literature, but I will have to add that novel to my reading list. I dont have much to say about that, but it does remind me how much Hakan's idealism disturbed me during this read through. All the fluffy language and literary references serve to convince us that his love for Eli is some epic romantic drama. But then you realize, hes talking to himself when he makes these allusions, and really he is trying to delude himself into believing his love has depth, not us. From zombie hakan we know this is not true, its purely physical. Reminded me of Jung's ideas of repression and the shadow, which Im sure JAL had in mind.

I just finished LTODD for the first time last night and I was so happy to see Kafka referenced, hes one of my favorites. That said, I didn't actually pick up on the meaning of the reference until you mentioned it, but thats a great explanation. In Metamorphosis, if I remember correctly, the transformation is painful and isolating, so it makes me wonder if that reveals anything about how how Oskar's transformation went.

[Siggdalos]

In Metamorphosis, if I remember correctly, the transformation is painful and isolating, so it makes me wonder if that reveals anything about how how Oskar's transformation went.

I think that, based on Virginia's story, becoming infected is by definition always going to be a more or less painful and unpleasant process. Of course, the difference between Virginia and Oskar is that Oskar chose it himself and has someone he can always look to for help and guidance, which would probably make the experience a lot easier. Probably.