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Original poster

Bram Stoker's Dracula

68 replies

suzywong · 01/04/2006 15:10

Anyone care to join me and spacedonkey for a reading?
That's a reading in private without lips moving and a discussion online?

Hmmm?

Any takers?

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spacedonkey · 02/04/2006 11:19

Rationale being, if I read the introduction I won't draw any conclusions of my own. Because I am a sheep.

Original poster
suzywong · 04/04/2006 10:27

OK let's get this started:

Chapters 1 - 3

Style
What devices does Stoker use to isolate Harker from his comfort zones other than the physical Journey to Dracula's Castle?

Legend
It can be argued that owing to the many representations Count Dracula on film and in popular culture it is impossible to view Stoker's Dracula with fresh eyes even one is reading the novel for the first time. Were you disappointed with Stoker's Count and in what way and to what ends do you feel his image has been bastardised and embellished over the years?

Symbolism and Meaning
The description of Harker's encounter with the 3 Vampire women at the end of chapter 3 is at once terrifying and erotic. Does Stoker direct this scene as terrifying because it is erotic or erotice because it is terrifying. And which way do we think the Count swings?

OP posts:
spacedonkey · 04/04/2006 10:28

golly Blush

Original poster
suzywong · 04/04/2006 10:30

yeah I know, and I am blowing up balloons for the fragrant boys at the same time

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spacedonkey · 04/04/2006 10:46

Am v impressed. Will mull on questions and report back.

I haven't even got to chapter 3 yet!

Original poster
suzywong · 04/04/2006 10:47

chop chop come on

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spacedonkey · 04/04/2006 10:48

It is impossible not to be influenced by the popular representations of Dracula when reading: it's actually rather distracting as I find myself thinking about portrayals of the count on film and wondering what the rationale was behind their interpretation as compared to the book's portrayal.

motherinferior · 04/04/2006 10:53

(Also difficult to impossible not to conflate this with other popular representations of vampires and/or the Gothic tradition more widely. Many people get Dracula and Frankenstein confused, despite the fact they operate - and arguably to some extent define - 100-plus years of Gothic tradition.)

spacedonkey · 04/04/2006 10:58

I rather enjoy the added dimension this gives the book, although it does make it hard to appreciate the impact the book must have had on those who read it at the time of publication

spacedonkey · 04/04/2006 10:58

although that's something you can't appreciate in any case really isn't it?

Original poster
suzywong · 04/04/2006 11:00

yes that's it isn't it, it is hard to imagine the initial impact but by the same token it must have been thrilling for readers to see the first filmic representation, Nosferatu ( which made me roar with laughter first time I saw it)

hello MI, are you joining us? Smile

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motherinferior · 04/04/2006 11:04

I will be very boring if I do Grin Dracula is one of those things I used to know about, long ago.

spacedonkey · 04/04/2006 11:07

Oh do join us MI!

I've never studied literary criticism, so please excuse any duncery in my posts

Original poster
suzywong · 04/04/2006 11:09

all duncery and dullardry excused

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spacedonkey · 04/04/2006 16:19

I have now decided Dracula is my bathtime reading. Read up to Chapter 5, when the narrative of Harker's journal ends.

Oh my gosh, that scene at the end of chapter 3 really is erotic isn't it? Harker is both repelled and seduced by the promise of the three vampire women - it sets up a deep conflict in him (and I'm guessing that conflict was felt throughout Victorian society?).

Harker seems to me to be a straight-laced lower middle class sort of young man, one to whom propriety is important. Did Keanu Reeves really play Harker??? It seems impossible. I'd cast someone like David Tennant myself.

spacedonkey · 05/04/2006 09:33

I'm on Chapter 6 now (Whitby) and frankly the old man and his Yorkshire dialect is a bit tiresome to wade through.

Original poster
suzywong · 05/04/2006 12:12

steady on there

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spacedonkey · 06/04/2006 11:23

Do hurry up wong, I am scared to discuss it any further now!

CarolinaMooncup · 07/04/2006 13:23

you can't approach this book without preconceptions, but it's imho surprising how subtly it's done in the book - most of the horror is suggested rather than blatant gore. The end of Ch.3 is one of the more in-your-face bits, but even that's over almost as soon as it starts. The eroticism makes it thrillingly terrifying rather than repulsively horrible, which sets up the pattern for the rest of the book.

SD, re Keanu, him playing Jonathan seemed pretty damned impossible when watching the film, never mind reading the book.

Original poster
suzywong · 07/04/2006 13:37

hello CMC, nice to see you back again

I'm wading through Lucy Westenra's letters at the mo, nearly there

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spacedonkey · 07/04/2006 16:08

I've stopped reading in favour of course books and "How to be Idle" while you catch up

FastasleepInABunnySuit · 07/04/2006 16:11

I started reading, but got my job as soon as I got past chapter one and haven't had chance to pick it up again Blush

(got too much on!!)

Original poster
suzywong · 07/04/2006 16:13

well where are you up to big shot? I am about to retire to my boudoir and speed read?
hello fastasleep

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spacedonkey · 07/04/2006 18:01

I'm on Mina's journal, so not much further than you

ItalianJob · 09/04/2006 19:45

have finally got hold of a copy! will start tonight...