Eli's vampirism as mental disorder not physical

[Pissball]

Hi folks, I came back with this question that flew in my head recently. Did anyone here, either for fan fiction, re-imagination of the story, whatever reason thought of a scenario in which Eli's vampirism is ambigous, and how that affect the core of the story?
Let's say schizofrenia (not sure if it's possible in preteens) personality or bipolar disorder, drepession etc, or a combo of diseases(a la Mr Burns) product of an abuse-mutilation-etc and/or/because a bizarre encounter with a "vampire" sadistic psycho (like Peter Kürten or Fritz Haarmann), who lead him to allucinations (man in wig, etc, 200 years of life, even believing he was a boy and not a girl, or neither, or both) hearing voices, and of course developing a "vampiric" behaviour, with a irrational fear of sunlight, ectasy in blood-drinking, etc. Always in a fiction context.

I think the story could be pretty much the same, with clues to either hypothesis (if Eli is actually a vampire or not) at least most character interaction, including Oskar's, he could A)trying to "heal" Eli, e.g. by showing there's no risk in standing in sunlight, leading to catastrophic results, like Eli burstinig in anxiety, and a nervous crisis with bloodnose-bleeding etc(pararell to invitation rule) or B) being scared-convinced by Eli, in his innocence/credulity too, that s/he's a "vampire" indeed.

Now, for Eli being ambigous in this matter makes him/her much more vulnerable, and the story more disturbing, beacuse we witness a unstable character, even more, a child, who obviously need help (not Hakan's type of help) if we assume that there's no vampirism at all, and just a mental disease, real-vampire Eli is empowered by it, total acknowledge of his condition and mostly in full control, a mentally-ill Eli on other hand is auto-destructive.
Hakan, to follow Eli's "game" and kill for her, in order to have sexual retribution, or because some irrational-bizarre "love/loyalty" for that child who might think it's a vampire, should also be a total maniac,and not just a pederast in disgrace and on the road to hell.

Does the fascination for Eli lie more in his power or in his vulnerability? Or maybe in his strength to survive and overcome life despite his condition ? It is clear that for Oskar, it is the first option
Also, is it his charm/innocence or its danger/eeriness what catch us/the characters in the story?


PS: Does JAL in his other works deal with mental insanity, or disorder, or any story with non-supernatural elements?

[sauvin]

Part of what's motoring the story is Eli's dualism. She's an outcast, guarded and vulnerable little girl; she's a monster. She's defenseless; she's damn near invincible. She's clueless and out of touch; she has an abiding understanding human predation. She'd like nothing more than to live as a perfectly ordinary child because she's an unwilling angel of death.

Dualism means opposites, and she's attracted to Oskar partly for precisely that reason: he's everything she's not. He can, for example, afford the generosity of heart to lend her his Rubik's Cube, thus implicitly (and sincerely) offering friendship where she has to remain on guard for any sign of duplicity. She has to remain on guard every waking minute for any sign of duplicity because she can never tell who might have somehow gotten a clue as to her true nature, whereas Oskar is exactly what he seems, and knows he can't hide or disguise it. Some part of her has to respond to his fundamental guilelessness.

If the story's major premises were to change to have her merely suffering some kind of mental illness that makes vampirism an hallucination rather than fact, the story's chemistry wouldn't necessarily (much) change until its final moments. I can't off-hand re-engineer the final scene in which the monster (or the madness) comes to the fore so dramatically, so definitively and with such finality. Here's where all the ingredients that'd been chucked into the slow cooker in measured drips and dribblets are finally all stirred up and served flash-fried: who or what was it that really saved Oskar from being murdered that night at the pool, was it the beautiful little girl, or was it the hoary old bloodthirsty beast? Without the short story codicil, we're left wondering: with whom (or what) has Oskar fled into the night to live?

Mental illness isn't what it once was. Many forms of it are treatable or controllable, and very, very few compel sufferers to the one act most people probably feel even more transgressive than what Haakan's condition would demand: cannibalism. Without that compulsion, Eli wouldn't have to live exclusively in the dark, forever barred from more than the most superficial forms of human contact. It's this ineluctable overarching darkness that lends the story we know its profound impact.

[dongregg]

Thanks Pissball and sauvin. Don't be surprised if some of your ideas and wording show up in future fan fictions! This is great stuff!

[sauvin]

[PeteMork]

Sauvin has spoken!

[dongregg]

And I have listened.

sauvin, there is a condition called dissociative identity disorder (multiple personalities). This thread started me thinking how that would work with such a one as Eli. Of course, she can claim to not go in the sun. Challenged, the personality would offer a non sequitur and turn the session in a new direction. The same somehow with the blood she thinks she must have but never kills or drinks blood.

I think that would be a hard sell, but a thoughtful fan fiction night explore the ramifications of an Eli who is not a vampire but is suffering from DID.

Okay, it's just an idea this thread shook loose.

[Pissball]

This existential/psychological LTROI came after watching Edvard Munch's works, other expressionists paintings and artworks in general that reminds me such mental states.



Those paintings by E.L. Kirchner also game the idea of Hakan as an obssesed fail artist with Eli being his big "muse" with his particular "androgynous" body/beauty and such.


Aboout Eli's mind, the only thing I can't come up with is the forever 12 plus 200 years old, I need to read something about human mind, biology and memory
Withouth thinking too much, the best idea I have is an amnesic Eli, if he forget everything after each hybernation with the only memory of his inmediate past life which would be forgotten in the next one (like a memory card) which would explain the "being little and weak again" and make her mind as a puzzle