Eli as a Metaphor for Female Genitalia?

Links to interviews, trailers and other media
Post Reply
User avatar
a_contemplative_life
Moderator
Posts: 5896
Joined: Sat Aug 15, 2009 2:06 am
Location: Virginia, USA

Eli as a Metaphor for Female Genitalia?

Post by a_contemplative_life » Fri Mar 13, 2015 1:26 am

So, every now and then I scope out You Tube for reviews of LTROI. Did so today and came across this one. The reviewer suggests at 4:35 that the film, and Eli in particular, represents a girl's anxieties about going through puberty without being able to talk with anyone about the experience. He even goes so far as to say that her bloody, foul, stinky nature means that she can be likened to a vagina (7:34), an image that many young women develop about themselves. Whew! Say what?? :o
Image

User avatar
gattoparde59
Posts: 3242
Joined: Fri Oct 09, 2009 11:32 am
Location: Philadelphia, PA

Re: Eli as a Metaphor for Female Genitalia?

Post by gattoparde59 » Fri Mar 13, 2015 10:10 am

Yes, best to stick with "Scandinavia" rather than Norway. :lol: (He does acknowledge ignorance in geographical matters).

I'll say that even though he overplays the genitalia hand in his review (btw not the first time I've seen female puberty brought up in reference to Eli), I think he is on the right track, especially in his reference to bad parenting. I feel that if there are sexual inferences in the film, they are part of something bigger, which perhaps is intimacy. In this film intimacy comes across as something painful and scary, especially when there is no guidance or frame of reference from the world of adults.

I'll break open the story and tell you what is there. Then, like the others that have fallen out onto the sand, I will finish with it, and the wind will take it away.

Nisa

User avatar
JToede
Posts: 869
Joined: Sun Oct 09, 2011 1:37 am
Location: Sage WY

Re: Eli as a Metaphor for Female Genitalia?

Post by JToede » Fri Mar 13, 2015 1:22 pm

Image
My reaction after watching this video.
I agree with gattoparde way too much with the whole female puberty thing. Sometimes people can view the same thing in a different light.
Veni, Vidi, volo in domum redire.

User avatar
intrige
Posts: 4208
Joined: Sun Oct 24, 2010 5:20 pm
Location: Norway
Contact:

Re: Eli as a Metaphor for Female Genitalia?

Post by intrige » Fri Mar 13, 2015 3:27 pm

I listened to the whole thing, wooah. Very very interesting. I keep seeing the shower scene from the first Carrie movie before me. Where she gets her period in publish shower and goes completely nuts. Interesting. It is always fun to hear a point of view completely isolated from the book or anything else. And it is a very interesting comperason. Even though the vagina part is a bit off, but possible, the rest is just precious. About the parents, about the kids only having each other and how bad that is cause there should have been more. Prety darn good if I must say so.

I must bring up the american steriotype of them being obsessed with sex, and comparing Eli to a menstrating vagina. I have never heard anyone in norway thinking that way about Eli, ever. "Only in america" maybe.. For once..
Bulleri bulleri buck, hur många horn står upp

User avatar
JToede
Posts: 869
Joined: Sun Oct 09, 2011 1:37 am
Location: Sage WY

Re: Eli as a Metaphor for Female Genitalia?

Post by JToede » Fri Mar 13, 2015 6:22 pm

intrige wrote:I must bring up the american steriotype of them being obsessed with sex,
Just like the rest of the planet.
intrige wrote: and comparing Eli to a menstrating vagina. I have never heard anyone in norway thinking that way about Eli, ever.
I'm pretty sure nobody else has either, in any country, here - there - anywhere. I think it is his own unique point of view. People can sexualize anything.
Veni, Vidi, volo in domum redire.

User avatar
dongregg
Posts: 3937
Joined: Sun Jul 21, 2013 10:58 pm
Location: Atlanta
Contact:

Re: Eli as a Metaphor for Female Genitalia?

Post by dongregg » Fri Mar 13, 2015 8:22 pm

"God is beautiful, you are beautiful, I am beautiful." Short version of the Pater Noster. Not a religious post, just a thought to get your heads back to thinking of human beings in a more holistic way. Is that okay with everyone? Sheesh.
“For drama to deepen, we must see the loneliness of the monster and the cunning of the innocent.”

User avatar
JToede
Posts: 869
Joined: Sun Oct 09, 2011 1:37 am
Location: Sage WY

Re: Eli as a Metaphor for Female Genitalia?

Post by JToede » Fri Mar 13, 2015 8:58 pm

dongregg wrote:"God is beautiful, you are beautiful, I am beautiful." Short version of the Pater Noster. Not a religious post, just a thought to get your heads back to thinking of human beings in a more holistic way. Is that okay with everyone? Sheesh.
Sounds good to me.
Veni, Vidi, volo in domum redire.

ElisLove
Posts: 72
Joined: Thu Jan 29, 2015 11:49 pm
Location: Recife, Brazil

Re: Eli as a Metaphor for Female Genitalia?

Post by ElisLove » Fri Mar 13, 2015 10:44 pm

I not think this was the intention of JAL about Eli. but this is a interesting view

User avatar
lombano
Posts: 2993
Joined: Sat Jul 11, 2009 9:56 pm
Location: Xalapa, Mexico
Contact:

Re: Eli as a Metaphor for Female Genitalia?

Post by lombano » Tue Mar 17, 2015 3:36 pm

Very interesting review, though I mostly disagree with it. It's spot-on about the adults though - Avila is the only adult we see even trying, though he fails. Everyone else is just going through the motions (Oskar's mother) or can't manage even that. Interesting way of looking at Virginia turning. I'll write some more when I have more time.
Bli mig lite.

User avatar
gkmoberg1
Moderator
Posts: 4245
Joined: Thu Dec 09, 2010 4:46 am
Contact:

Re: Eli as a Metaphor for Female Genitalia?

Post by gkmoberg1 » Tue Mar 17, 2015 9:54 pm

It takes a certain amount of bravery of confidence or (more likely) foolishness, as a male, to go off ruminating (especially out loud or in any social media format) about the psychology of girls during puberty. IMHO.

Yet, lots of good points. Fun to hear of others arriving in the world of LTROI and talking or writing about it.

Post Reply

Return to “Media”