Eli doesn't have to kill for blood

[mikelikesyou]

I came up with this idea suddenly from nowhere........
So the novel states specifically that Haakan had to get blood for Eli and it must be FRESH like fart gases. It somehow has some sort of chemical that dissipates with storage. And Eli IS rich, like enough to buy a nuclear plant.

If Eli can get Haakan to be a loyal servant by simply letting him put his hands on her thigh and implicitly promising him sex, surely she can buy off one or two nurses in the what's-that-called...blood-donation centre. There you go. Fresh blood straight from the donors and what's more, Eli now has the choice. Instead of taking Haakan's acid produce or some old woman's cancer-flavoured blood, she can choose the tastiest pack of blood, like a buffet: blood-type A, B, O and so on, perhaps with some interesting flavour if the donor ate something like rotten eggs beforehand.

So, do you guys think that's going to work?

[Lacenaire]

See (for example):

http://www.let-the-right-one-in.com/for ... ent+#p7906

The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.

[lombano]

See (for example):

http://www.let-the-right-one-in.com/for ... ent+#p7906

The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.

"Money answers all things."

[thestich]

"Money answers all things."

Except the great equalizer - Death.

At least so far.

[lombano]

"Money answers all things."

Except the great equalizer - Death.

At least so far.

Like the Death of the Discworld says: 'There's no justice, there's only me.'

[StefL]

Like the Death of the Discworld says: 'There's no justice, there's only me.'

To be specific he puts it somewhat differently: "THERE'S NO JUSTICE, THERE'S ONLY ME"

[Lacenaire]

I think the significance of Eli’s money and jewels has never been given as much attention as it, in my opinion, deserves. In fact, both in the case of the film and the novel the fact that Eli is so wealthy (or at least believes herself to be, which actually amounts to the same thing) argues strongly against the view of Eli as a mature, wise and sophisticated "person" (OK, a vampire) who detests killing innocent people, that some people (including myself at certain times) have advocated.

For I have no doubt that sufficient wealth, provided that it was skillfully used, would provide the means for Eli to obtain the blood she needs without herself having to do any killing and actually without anyone else doing it for her. There is a huge number of ways to go about it, from the kind of thing that I tried to describe in some old posts (if Eli really wanted to avoid anybody being killed) to hiring a whole army of professional assassins instead of the incompetent and guilt written Hakan, if all she cared about was not doing the dirty work herself.

So why does she not try any of this seriously (not counting the incident with Tommy in the novel)? One possibility is that somehow this idea never occurred to the author but I think this is so obvious that this possibility can be safely dismissed. The only other reasonable possibility that occurs to me is that Eli is essentially a child, in spite of the occasional flashes of maturity that she displays, and that, in spite of these 200 years, she really does not know how to go about this (her attempt to buy blood from Tommy is very clumsy and tends to confirm this view). It seems to me that this provides a strong argument against viewing Eli as intellectually mature .

There is also the question why Hakan never thinks of or even suggests this idea. The most obvious answer is that being a social outcast, he would not be the best choice for Eli’s intermediary and, of course, turning to someone else eliminate Eli's need for him.

[N.R. Gasan]

...Eli is essentially a child, in spite of the occasional flashes of maturity that she displays...

I agree with Lacen. Even in the film, Eli tells Oskar, "I'm 12...But I've been 12 for a long time." The implication is -- and this is further addressed in the novel -- that Eli is, in fact, a child; a very old child. As such, she simply doesn't see the world the way the average adult would. Believe me, I see enough adults in the real world who live their lives in such a way as to make me say to myself, "Wow...there really are people on this planet who are too stupid to live." So if the obvious eludes card-carrying adults in the real world, a child vampire of the JAL universe might be forgiven for missing same. :)

[Hume]

From what I see in the film I don't assume Eli is very wealthy. What evidence is there? We see the egg, a few old rings, and a little cash. Eli's statement about the egg is absurd, something said by a child to impress another child. The cost of a nuclear power plant is on the scale of billions. Even if we assume the egg is a Fabergé, as one reviewer commented, its worth is at best on the scale of millions, but I don't even think the egg is a Fabergé (have a look at the eggs below). Sure, it's a beautiful egg, maybe worth a hundred thousand or so, but not enough to set up this blood-gathering plan presented here.

Review with the egg comment:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/apr ... ght-one-in

Fabergé eggs:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faberg%C3%A9_egg

Cost of a nuclear power plant:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economics_ ... wer_plants

[Lacenaire]

From what I see in the film I don't assume Eli is very wealthy.

Well,as I wrote, I don't think it makes any difference. If she really has no idea how wealthy she is she must be a child. If she mistakenly believes she possesses jewels worth an enormous fortune but does nothing with them than would make it possible for her not to have to kill and not to live in miserable squalor, then again she is a child. The idea that she has the intellect of a 200 year old and yet is so naive about wealth or so incompetent at handling it seems pretty hard to support.