right now, I'm reading Dracula (yes, the original) by Bram Stoker, and it seems like he wrote it thinking of me. while you might be skeptical about the book (i vant to sook your blood! and other stereotypes) i think that you should hold your judgement. most of what people think is Dracula was created by movie spin-offs or parodies. (how sad! for the original to be completely concealed behind infinite reference! but i digress) the real Dracula is not scary like you would think, it is more creepy and uncertain; horrors in dreams and behind locked doors instead of standing shouting above pretty girls in nightgowns.
here is a summary of the plot so far: **SPOILERS** (and keep in mind that I'm not even halfway finished yet.)
it starts out with a man, Jonathan Harker, going to Transylvania. he has been invited to castle Dracula to talk to the count about a piece of property that the count wants to buy in England. the villagers are perfectly nice to him, but when they find out that he is going to the castle Dracula they stop talking to him and start crossing themselves a lot. then he goes in a coach to the castle, and it's the dead of night, and all these wolves come and surround the coach. but the driver does something to make the wolves stop. when Harker gets to the castle, Dracula seems perfectly nice, if a bit sharp toothed, and keeps prolonging Harkers stay. Harker's no idiot, and he realizes that something's awry pretty quickly. but dracula keeps the doors locked. Harker realizes that he is trapped, and it goes downhill from there. there's some pretty creepy stuff, but i won't get in to that now. Just when Harker realizes that he's got about one day left, it switches to his fiances (mostly vampire free) story.
one thing that kept bothering me while i was reading was that instinct, the one that say 'no, you twit! don't go into the haunted castle! it's Dracula for gods sake!' but then i realized that no, it wasn't Dracula for gods sake at the time. at the time that this was written, dracula was a normal Transylvanian name. everyone has that voice in their head, that alarm saying 'things are about to go bad'. we have very little use for it in real life, but comes in handy when reading scary stories. i've had this instinct for as long as i can remember. but did the first readers of dracula have it? because, as i am constantly realizing, this book not only follows but sets many standards for horror novels. other then frankenstein, it is one of the earliest classic horror stories. so is that voice natural? or something developed over 14 years worth of watching tv and reading books?
Hey clara, i think this post is really well done. Its interesting and definitely makes me want to read the book. I think you did a really good job! I'm not one for vampire and scary stories, but what you are saying about 'Dracula', i presume, is that it's really about this guy who's not accepted by society, lurks in the shadows, a real creeper type of guy. The voice that you were talking about, how we read things in our head, i think that comes from accumulated living time. I mean, in literature, art or theater, you don't see people making classics ALL the time anymore, you see a lot of spin-offs and interpretations of the basis of that art. Dracula was really one of the first of its kind, and the idea of breathing life into the text comes within the subtleties of our own perception. I mean movies like Psycho and books like Dracula wouldn't be seen the way they are if we didn't have any other indication of their replicas, simpler forms. I think that voice in the back of the text is really something coming from what we pick up from not only the original, but its copiers.
ReplyDeleteClara, Avoid so much retelling. What does this make you think about the genre of "scary stories"? I liked the questions you begin to address about the iconic status of Dracula, but I think you could elaborate on that instead of the plot.
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