Love Story paperbacks

I've always wondered this as well, its a number of subtle oddities present in this film that are never explained. One of them is the son's seeming obsession with soup. Seriously, he's drinking it right out of the can the first time we see him, then he throws the can onto the street and soon after that we see him with another can. You see one sitting in his room, he has a Warhol (I think) painting of a Campbell's can hanging above his bed. When the children are taken away to stay at a friends house I believe the sister is seen packing soup for him in a lunch box. Note that this is pea soup he loves so dearly, I see the nod to the Exorcist they were making I guess but thats just kinda weird in my opinion. At first I always assumed it was tomato which I personally could justify maybe drinking plain from a can, but pea? Another thing interesting about the little boy (Ken), is that he's given a birthday present at the beginning of the movie, he never opens it till the very end. Granted this is so the scene with the toy car can play out as it does but he's shown sleeping with the unopened package at one point which felt kinda odd to me. Moving on to Gail the daughter, and her Love Story paperbacks which you posted about. My guess is as good as yours. Its just something else weird going on. In the scene in which she's first introduced it looked like she had maybe fifteen copies, lol. I remember the scene in which she packed them in a suitcase too. Another thing about her I noticed is that she calls her parents by their first names at times and speaks in a kinda hippie lingo thats sounds really weird for a girl her age. Anyway, there aren't really any answers for your questions or mine I guess. The DVD has a interview with the director I think but I don't have a copy, I doubt any questions were asked about these plot points anyway. I certainly would have had plenty of questions if I had been the interviewer. Sorry for running so long, I could go on further but I won't.

I never thought of it was weird that the child would be obsessed with "Love Story" cuz at the time it was a pop cultural phenom. It was everywhere! It instandly launched the leads into the hollywood stratosphere & the book sold millions all over the world. She probably re-read it like people re-watch their favorite dvds today.

"There's my buttercup!"

The pea soup always made me think of the green vomit in The Exorcist. Maybe it's a nod to that movie.

Those were some odd kids. The girl having about 20 identical copies of the same book (though with that filthy mouth of hers she would fit right in with the kids of today) and the boy drinking pea soup with a straw. They were certainly unique and had personalities unlike any others I've seen.

Death lives in the Vault of Horror!

I can't actually answer your question but I myself have a strange obsession with the book The 'Catcher in the Rye.' If I come across a copy of it in a used bookstore or a thrift store (places I frequent often) I have to buy it. Luckily they don't pop up all that often. I now have about 30 copies of it. I do not, however, feel the need to go buy new copies of it, or try to find a copy of it every day. Nor do I even necessarily hunt for it if I'm in those places, but if I happen to spot it, I always buy it.

I know what you might be thinking. I stole this idea from 'Conspiracy Theory,' (starring Patrick Stewart, Julia Roberts, and some other dude.) I assure you I'd been doing this long before that. In fact a girl I was dating when that movie came out told me I had to see it because the lead character reminded her of me.

I didn't really see the resemblance other than the Catcher in the Rye thing, but that character felt compelled to go out and buy a new copy of the book every single day.

For the record I do love the book, and have read it a few times, though I suspect the number of copies of the book I now one probably exceeds the number of times I've read the book.

Love Story was a current best-seller at the time. There may have been a connection between the book, the author and this movie (not sure). Jessica says the girl gets all her curse-words from that book.

"Cum Grano Salis"