vailian

The usual scandals and so on that feed the sensational newspapers are normally so tedious... but I find myself strangely moved by the Natascha Kampusch story from Austria. What must it be like to go through the formative years locked up in a dungeon? It is extremely rare to witness a case like this. The only parallel I can think of offhand is the case of a young girl in Victorian England who was kidnapped by a primitive tribe in Africa and grew up among them, rescued at a similar age.. I cannot remember any details, but it was quite a media frenzy even back then.

The question is, will she be able to lead some sort of normal life? Will she ever be able to find the normality she so obviously craves? She is determined to live a clean life, emphasizes again and again that she doesn't want to fall into the traps of modern living (alcohol, etc) but on the other hand I suspect that her parents may be alcohaulics themselves. She developed a bond with her jailer, shown by the simple fact that she insisted on going to the funeral home and sitting alone with his body and lighting a candle. How does she reconcile this with his actions? The question of his sexual actions (I assume he did sleep with her) is more beside the point. Her evident intelligence and astonishing clear-headedness despite the ordeal makes me hope that at some point she does write her story, I think it likely that she will, but the chances of her being able afterwards to have normal relationships seem slim.