Triumph vs. Tragedy

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lombano
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Re: Triumph vs. Tragedy

Post by lombano » Sat Jan 17, 2015 7:50 am

metoo wrote:Regarding knowledge of the invitation rule, I think you ask too much of Håkan. He didn't know if he needed to speak, or if making a sign would be equivalent. But he never had had any reason to learn that before, since he had been able to speak. Besides, it seems that he had tried to understand the rule; the novel says "he had never really understood that" (my translation), implying that Håkan had at least thought about it before. Had he asked Eli?
But why didn't he ask? A good first step, if you don't understand something, is to ask an expert. Unless, of course, you don't really want to know, which kind of goes for everything about Eli.
metoo wrote:Furthermore, I think we have a consensus at this forum that Eli did re-learn to be a child from Oskar. When Eli first met Oskar, he talked like an adult. At least Oskar thought so. And even Oskar at least once got the impression that Eli was very old, long before he had heard Eli actually saying so
Yes, but talking like an adult and there being hints of being much older doesn't equate not being a child at all. Oskar always saw Eli as, fundamentally, a kid.
metoo wrote:Maybe Eli showed the old face that Oskar glimpsed more often to Håkan? Maybe he was like that all the time before he met Oskar? Håkan's reminiscences support this view: "He had looked into Eli's eyes and seen an ancient person's wisdom and indifference." (My translation.)
Haakan, who had had a lot more opportunity than Oskar to get to know Eli, did not realize what Oskar knew, that for all the hints of acientness and whatnot Eli remained fundamentally a child. That "ancient person's wisdom and indifference" sounds to me more like the "shell-shocked" response to trauma and perhaps Eli's own dislike of Haakan.
Bli mig lite.

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