Dracula Daily - Tumblr Posts
Alright, I'm somewhat mollified by today's entry.
I canNOT be the only one who is CONVINCED Quincey must be played by Jensen Ackles in the next adaptation, right? Just think of him delivering THAT LINE fjjgjfhehdjfjjvjjhgf
Why garlic? I asked a while back and today I read this:
“Straining the Limits of Interpretation: Bram Stoker's Dracula and Its Eastern European Contexts” by Ludmilla Kostova, published 2007
So...yeah. I did not see the phallic aspect at all, but now that you mention it...
In the article, Kostova argues that part of what's unsettling about Dracula is that he is both masculine and feminine. The efforts to defeat him ultimately force him into full feminization through staking (I hope that's not a spoiler at this point but I'll tag for it just in case).
Also fyi if you want to read the article, be warned, it does spoil something we haven't run into yet reading Dracula Daily.
I've been fiddling with a Dracula-adjacent story idea and I won't say much about that just yet bc who knows whether it'll develop. In any case I was pondering the whole "adaptations make Lucy out to be a lascivious and willing victim" thing, and puzzling over where that comes from.
And granted, the obvious answer is that Stoker describes Vamp!Lucy as voluptuous and seductive.
I'm not sure I'm going to be able to put this idea into words that make sense, so please bear with me.
I was thinking about having a character see Lucy at her window not long before the wolf incident, and I was imagining how to describe the look in Lucy's eyes. Grief and fear, but overlaid with profound weariness, much like the eyes of sex workers the character knows in the dark alleys of London, who've been dealing with predators like Jack the Ripper since forever.
This made me contemplate the ways Lucy's life is both very different from a London sex worker (she has the privilege of wealth, for one thing) but also how it is similar (she has very limited agency).
And that's when I thought of how the adaptations (Coppola is my main one) have made her out to be "the devil's whore." And I thought, "Huh, it's funny, it's like they think sex workers enjoy the sex they sell."*
(*I know some sex workers do, however my guess is that that was rarely the case among impoverished sex workers of the time. I'm pro-SW and have no intention of generalizing, however.)
And that's when the idea I had came. That's exactly it. These people are mostly male, I'm assuming, though who knows maybe not always. They think people (women for simplicity's sake since I think male and trans SWs add another dimension I'm not confident in discussing right now) who sell sex must enjoy it, bc they *need* that to be true. Coppola et al. believe Lucy is a whore (their word) who wants sex because all whores must want sex because if they don't that's just too awful to contemplate. They fantasize about these women and if the women aren't into it the fantasy doesn't work anymore.
Of course there are those who like the idea of it being bad for SWs too, but we're not dealing with them here.
I hope I'm making sense. Let me try to sum up.
I think Coppola and people like him want Lucy to be a whore because it's titillating and they believe whores must want sex (and in her case, Dracula) because otherwise their fantasy can't survive the implications. SW must be willing, eager even, for it to be hot. So they throw out pure Lucy not bc she made the shocking comment about wanting to marry three men (they can see just as well as we can that it came from a place of wanting to make everyone happy, not a place of frivolity or lust) but bc she won't fit with the fantasy.
I wonder if that was like, obvious to everyone else? To me it was a realization.
Still keeping up 😅 with Dracula Daily. I've never read it before.
i know a substantial number of people stopped following dracula daily after johnny harker got out of the castle so lemme just check out a thing. fandom population census, if you will
pls reblog if you are still actively following dracula daily/have read dracula before <3 thank
"and one of them Keeps Shooting At You With A Gun Every Time You're In Bat Form" made me snort-laugh so loud I woke up my kids
okay but dracula thinking that the random mild mannered solicitor who had the unfortunate pleasure of dealing with him had died,, after all he disappeared at exactly the time he would have been disposed of
and then coming back to your new home in england (the one he set you up with) only to find some dudes Absolutely Ready To Kill You
and one of them you know hung around renfield
and one of them you might have heard of (if you had any awareness of vampire hunters)
and one of them you know hung around lucy
and one of them Keeps Shooting At You With A Gun Every Time You're In Bat Form
and then one of them comes at you with a knife and youre like wtfwtfwtf whompst and he got a new hairstyle and a new depressive state but Mr. Solicitor?? The Blorbo from my Real Estate Company??
It's sooo close but it's looking like Jonathan will win... But this is "All Man" Quincey, guys! Guys?
Round 11
We lay our scene on this cold, clear autumn evening, where I have the honor of declaring tonight’s victory as well as the terrible task of announcing another elimination. Here are the results!
[ID. Mina Harker: 992 votes (81%) and Lucy Westenra: 226 votes (19%). END ID.]
The winner of Round 10 is Mina Harker!
[ID. An illustration of Lucy Westenra kissing Mina Harker’s forehead. Lucy wears her hair up in a loose Gibson-girl style updo, and a muted yellow tea gown with a high ruffled collar and an olive wrap. Mina wears an all-black walking suit and her hair in twists arranged into a low bun. She has an open-mouth smile, showing her small fangs. END ID.]
The young Miss Westenra admitted defeat to her bosom friend, though she appeared, if it is possible, happier by far than the victor herself. She wished oceans of love and millions of kisses to Madam Mina as she took her bow, now happily cheering on her sweetheart from the sidelines. This marks the second contest won in a landslide by Mrs Harker, and it’s very likely we may see a #MinaSweep if her momentum continues! But who will be her next challenger?
It seems just yesterday that they clasped hands in a warrior’s bond… now they must face each other to qualify for semifinals!
Jonathan Harker vs Quincey Morris
VOTE HERE
Lord *born into a life of wealth and privilege* Arthur Holmwood Godalming: ok cool I'll go to the Vice-Consul tomorrow and make sure he'll tell us when the Count's boat has arrived. I'll just stop at the bank first to get enough money.
Jonathan *orphan who not six months ago walked into what he knew full well was a very sketchy situation bc he couldn't afford to lose his job* Harker: yes. Yes. Yes! We shall use money to ensure a favorable outcome! Ha-ha! People will do the things we want them to because we'll financially compensate them. Normally they wouldn't but propriety and things like professional confidentiality can all be circumvented with Money!!! Money that we can give them!!! Judge Moneybags will settle the case! *maniacal laughter*.
Arthur:
Arthur turning to Quincey: do normal people not bribe when they want something done that's against the rules? What do they do instead?
Quincey *taking a British holiday for an undetermined amount of time* Morris: I have no idea
Jack Seward: they just don't get to do the thing.
Arthur and Quincey:
Arthur: well that's just uncivilized.
I saw someone call Renfield Dracula's ghoul and it stopped me short for a moment.
Was Renfield Dracula's ghoul?
First of all, big disclaimer, I have only the vaguest notion of the origin of the word ghoul. I think it's Turkish? Middle Eastern? Persian? And very likely the authentic meaning differs significantly from the meaning I associate to it, which comes from... DnD, I think. Maybe some urban fantasy novel I read ten years ago, too.
In my mind a ghoul is a human who is magically linked or in thrall to a vampire and who takes care of the vampire's business during the day. They may also be a (willing?) donor if the vampire gets peckish. In the interests of this meta speculation, I'm going to use the word thrall instead of ghoul bc I suspect ghoul has been appropriated disrespectfully. Maybe I'm wrong, please feel free to comment and tell me so.
Anyway, was Renfield a thrall?
He certainly is portrayed that way in at least some adaptations, but I would argue that he's not a thrall in the book.
Best word that comes to mind for what Renfield is in the novel is fan, followed closely by tool. Tool in the sense that Dracula used him to gain entrance, not in the sense of like, "Chris Pratt is such a tool."
Renfield is fascinated by Dracula until close to the end. He is worshipful of him. So he's certainly primed to become a thrall. But I recall no evidence that Dracula takes the step of turning him into one. Renfield is a wannabe, although no doubt he'd prefer (before he realizes the whole soul consuming thing turns him off) to be a vampire rather than a thrall.
When Dracula does use him there's no exchange. My understanding of a vampire thrall (what I associate to the world "ghoul", however erroneously) is that they get perks. Extended life, certain comforts... Dracula probably offered these in exchange for Renfield opening the door, but by then Renfield had become resistant and Dracula had to force him to cooperate, using him like a tool.
Is my tool versus thrall distinction valid? I'm not sure. If anything, I guess I'm inclined to prescribe more willingness to a thrall. So Renfield of the novel never got to become one when he was willing, and resisted it by the time the opportunity came.
Thoughts?
Has anyone developed any resources to help with writing Dracula stories? A list of places such as where Lucy's house in London is (just one example)? A calendar that briefly tracks what happens when? Other cool stuff?
In addition to wrestling Dracula to try and save Mina, Renfield indirectly ended up helping the team with the hunt for Dracula's missing boxes of dirt bc while they would have noticed that several boxes were missing at Carfax during their search, they never would have been able to track them down, or at least not easily and quickly, if Renfield hadn't escaped from his room to try and kill the two men who had been hired to move them back in September, as that incident was what had lead to Patrick Hennessey having to record their names, addresses, and employer in the report left for Seward while he was busy with Lucy, which was then included in the manuscript compiled by Mina, and then Jonathan used that information to track down the two men and the locations of the missing boxes; otherwise, no one would have noticed their removal early on, or known where to start looking for them.
I truly can't empathize with people who find Seward attractive. I can barely stand to read his entries and today is a very good example of why.
Ok wtaf is going on with the Czarina Catherine?
Train obsessions in Dracula. Hmm.
I think for many of us, Dracula and Mina's interest in trains seems a little odd. Maybe cute. Maybe surprisingly relatable to some who have their own hyper fixations.
I think it's more than that and I would be surprised if I'm the first to come up with this. Trains were world-changing technology in the latter half of the 19th century. In fact, Dracula as a story was only conceivable because of trains. In Jane Austen's time, there was no railway connecting British solicitors to the darkest reaches of the Carpathian mountains. Trains make Dracula's invasion of England possible.
So...why Mina? Was Stoker trying to provide balance somehow? Like, he didn't want to have the message be "trains bad, abolish trains" so he had the beloved Mina be into them and the Crew of Light use them to reach Dracula and defeat him (no spoiler, I'm guessing). Is there more to it?
Trains in Dracula represent the good and the bad of modernity. Civilization makes trains which reach too far into the land of the Other and endanger civilization. But then civilization, personified by the Crew, uses trains to bring civilization to victory.
I'm not sure Stoker knows what he wants to say, given all of this.
Thoughts?
I made a Dracula Daily questionnaire! To see how you're all experiencing this internet phenomenon. It is a bit long, I think, but it might be fun as well.
Please reblog this so it also reaches people who don't look in the tags as much. I want as many responses as I can, of course.
A deranged and exhausted-looking white haired British man, shining a giant fucking light on my boat while nervously fingering a kukri knife in a sheath at his belt: Hello yes my companion and I are official Romanian officials we are here to officially inspect your boat’s contents.
Me, a Romanian barge worker who does not want to die on a cold night in the middle of nowhere while shipping wool and turnips: Yes of course you are. Welcome aboard and take all the time you need, sirs.
The other British guy, also clearly packing heat, handing me a giant pile of money while the white haired guy furiously digs through my turnip crates: Thank you for your compliance with the Romanian Shipping Authority here is your official customary processing payment please say nothing of this encounter to anyone in port.
HEY. HEY MINA. HEY. COULD YOU ABIDE GARLIC BEFORE????? OR NAH???? HEY. HEY MINA THIS IS IMPORTANT. HEY.
As is typical of me I bailed three days before the end of dd because I didn't want it to be over. 😅
Tonight I caught up and I'm mad at myself bc I missed the responses in real time. Oh well. I'll read it all now I guess.
Can I just express that both my favorite blorbos DIED gtofugiygtoktgk
Ugh.
I hope a lot of y'all are going to read Frankenstein. Is that the one most people intend to move on to next? Or Moby Dick? Or another?
I hope enough people choose the same one to keep a community feel here at Tumblr University.
