Reading Dracula for class
Nov. 3rd, 2005 05:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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darkling_talesLJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY marlowe1)
Yeah I'm in a graduate program where I get to read Dracula. Aren't you jealous?
But I'm struck by the effective way Stoker works the tension in the opening chapters. Some of it's cliche (the doomed castle, the scared villagers, the wolves) and I'm not sure if it was cliche then as well as now or if he created these cliches, but at heart there is the tension of Harker trying to be polite to a man (well not a man) whose veneer of civility allows him to make the most ridiculous demands upon Harker (stay for just a bit longer, writing three letters to lie to Harker's relations in England, making him stay later even after Harker sees the three women) and how much Harker's need to be liked and be civil overcomes his natural fear reflex and need to flee this situation.
Of course I'm just starting the post-Harker parts with John in the mental hospital talking to his patients and that's an even better tension inducer. And the ship is going to be coming into harbor without a crew any moment now.
I remember when I first read this book that I was very impressed with the buildup - they have done it fairly well in the movies - but the book really gets to the heart of the fact that Dracula is originally just a strange noble with a thing for old tales (when Transylvanians were warriors and not slaves to a hypocritical peace - or so he says AFTER Harker knows that he's doomed - Dracula is still playing the part of the happy nobleman) - of course Dracula looks strange (long white hair, long white mustache, angular features - no movie ever gets that mustache) but not too strange.
Which might be why Dracula endures - because it's based on the fear of the familiar turning into the unfamiliar and dangerous - but the danger doesn't jump at you from the bushes. The danger is right there in your home. The danger invites you in and you don't recognize it as such until you're too embroiled in it.
Which is why 80% of murders (give or take) are committed by people that the victims know.
Pleasant dreams, kids.
marlowe1)Yeah I'm in a graduate program where I get to read Dracula. Aren't you jealous?
But I'm struck by the effective way Stoker works the tension in the opening chapters. Some of it's cliche (the doomed castle, the scared villagers, the wolves) and I'm not sure if it was cliche then as well as now or if he created these cliches, but at heart there is the tension of Harker trying to be polite to a man (well not a man) whose veneer of civility allows him to make the most ridiculous demands upon Harker (stay for just a bit longer, writing three letters to lie to Harker's relations in England, making him stay later even after Harker sees the three women) and how much Harker's need to be liked and be civil overcomes his natural fear reflex and need to flee this situation.
Of course I'm just starting the post-Harker parts with John in the mental hospital talking to his patients and that's an even better tension inducer. And the ship is going to be coming into harbor without a crew any moment now.
I remember when I first read this book that I was very impressed with the buildup - they have done it fairly well in the movies - but the book really gets to the heart of the fact that Dracula is originally just a strange noble with a thing for old tales (when Transylvanians were warriors and not slaves to a hypocritical peace - or so he says AFTER Harker knows that he's doomed - Dracula is still playing the part of the happy nobleman) - of course Dracula looks strange (long white hair, long white mustache, angular features - no movie ever gets that mustache) but not too strange.
Which might be why Dracula endures - because it's based on the fear of the familiar turning into the unfamiliar and dangerous - but the danger doesn't jump at you from the bushes. The danger is right there in your home. The danger invites you in and you don't recognize it as such until you're too embroiled in it.
Which is why 80% of murders (give or take) are committed by people that the victims know.
Pleasant dreams, kids.
