Memories of the Castle

[jkwilliams]

Just another dumb theory...

Even though it's been over two hundred years, Eli's memories of him and the vampire lord seem just as vivid as the day they happened. He's still able to remember just about every sight, sound and smell in almost perfect detail. That's strange because this is a person who can't remember his own birthday but he can recall this scene with so much detail it feels like something that just happened to him.

From Eli's point of view, maybe it did.

What if the reason this particular memory remains so vivid is because it was the last one Eli had before being turned. What if this is a side effect of the infection halting the changes to his body. A memory that's permanently frozen in his mind and can never fade with time.

[dongregg]

Always exciting when an new understanding turns up on the forum. Good deal. It makes a lot of sense to me.

[gkmoberg1]

Woah, you are mixing remembrance of dates versus events.

Eli might remember birthdays, such as they might have been celebrated (or not) back in the 1770s in rural Sweden. But does he? We don't know; the novel does not say.

What we do know is that he has forgotten the calendar date.

Remembering the date is different than remembering the event itself.

To me it makes sense Eli would have forgotten the date (presuming he ever knew it). If across 200 years nobody really cared when my birthday was, I might well forget too. Especially when the date or the event were not likely that played up for birthdays.

Similarly, Eli's relaying of the nightmare story of the castle events are not presented as "on 24 May ...". Rather the event itself is presented.

Okay, now might he remember it after all this time in such detail? Dunno. I can say I remember pretty clearly some events that occurred to me at that age. Uhh, it's not been 200 years though! But in one case I was very frightened (I rode my bike right into a moving car, ended up flying across the hood of the car and landing on the windshield, people screaming, my bike being wrecked, the driver being frantic, the police car and officer arriving, etc.) and in the other I was very excited (went to see Leonard Nimoy; he gave a talk about his writings and television career and of course his experiences as Spock). These events I recall very well. But will I remember them in 2194? Dunno. Maybe? But in both cases I don't remember the date. I can't even exactly recall what year it would have been.

[jkwilliams]

Compare the castle scene to what we know about Eli's life after he was turned. Which is almost nothing. We know he met another vampire once but most of his life up till meeting Håkan has been left blank. That always made me wonder if being turned may have affected his memory.

[a_contemplative_life]

Maybe we just tend to recall traumatic events. For Eli, the castle was the defining event of his life, and it would be unlikely that he would ever forget it.

[dongregg]

Just another dumb theory...

Even though it's been over two hundred years, Eli's memories of him and the vampire lord seem just as vivid as the day they happened. He's still able to remember just about every sight, sound and smell in almost perfect detail. That's strange because this is a person who can't remember his own birthday but he can recall this scene with so much detail it feels like something that just happened to him.

From Eli's point of view, maybe it did.

What if the reason this particular memory remains so vivid is because it was the last one Eli had before being turned. What if this is a side effect of the infection halting the changes to his body. A memory that's permanently frozen in his mind and can never fade with time.

This is the part I like because it would be specific to vampires. As for remembering traumatic events -- sure. And one function of memory is to remember unique events, whereas the mind tunes out routine events, or merges them into a generalized memory. Our attention (hence to some extent our memory) thrives on novelty.

[PeteMork]

What if the reason this particular memory remains so vivid is because it was the last one Eli had before being turned. What if this is a side effect of the infection halting the changes to his body. A memory that's permanently frozen in his mind and can never fade with time.

This is the part I like because it would be specific to vampires. As for remembering traumatic events -- sure. And one function of memory is to remember unique events, whereas the mind tunes out routine events, or merges them into a generalized memory. Our attention (hence to some extent our memory) thrives on novelty.

I also suspect jkwilliams has it right. I have always felt that vampire healing would include healing of the soul also -- especially if survival were at stake. Each time Eli kills, the trauma of the murder heals; otherwise she would be unable to kill again, because she would go insane. Totally unacceptable if the vampire infection is to survive. But all Eli's memories before being turned would remain, clear as crystal (at least if they were traumatic, as were her memories of the Dark Lord who turned her.)

[jkwilliams]

Each time Eli kills, the trauma of the murder heals; otherwise she would be unable to kill again, because she would go insane.

Perhaps Eli did go insane...

Only once after he had been infected did Eli meet another infected person. A grown woman. Just as cynical and hollow as the man with the wig. But Eli received an answer to another question that had been nagging him.

"Are there many of us?"

The woman shook her head and had said with theatrical sadness: "No. We are so few. So few."

"Why?"

"Why? Because most of us kill ourselves, that's why. You must understand that. Such a heavy burden, oh my." Her hands fluttered; she said in a shrill voice: "Ooooh, I cannot bear to have dead people on my conscience."

For some reason Eli is immune from the kind of guilt that causes other vampires to kill themselves. True, he gets no pleasure in killing people but it doesn't seem to bother him very much either. He knows it's wrong but he's still able to live with it. The question is, was that always the case?

When Elias was finally on his own and had to kill for himself he may have been just as tortured by guilt as the others. The difference was he was still a child and couldn't bring himself to commit suicide the way an adult would. So he dealt with it in his own way. He became Eli.

Eli is a survivor. Someone who can deal with any problem and do whatever is necessary to live. A person not bound by the rules anymore so they can be whatever they want to be. Even if that means being "nothing". Eli is everything Elias could never be.

He may not have physically killed himself but he had to let Elias die in order to live.

[dongregg]

+1 jk!

[Jameron]

So he dealt with it in his own way. He became Eli.

Eli is everything Elias could never be.

This is interesting.

This strikes me as very similar to what Oskar goes through in the novel.

Oskar found himself in a terrible situation, incapable of fighting back, so he dealt with it in his own way. He became Piggy.

Later when he meets Eli and realises that he doesn't know anyone from Oskar's school, or anyone else that knows him (or knows of him), he can be a whole new person when he's with Eli. Whoever he wants to be. He could be Oskar, but better. This new Oskar is everything Piggy could never be.

Oskar turned to the wall, to Eli. The two faces peeked out from between the trees in the wallpaper. His cheek was still swollen and tender, a crust had started to form on top of the wound. What would he tell Eli, if Eli came out tonight?
It was all connected. What he would tell her depended on what he was to her. Eli was new to him and therefore he had the opportunity to be someone else, say something different from what he said to other people.
What do you do anyway? To make people like you?

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