thoughts on Dracula
Jan. 18th, 2009 03:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
(because apparently I am not meant to sleep tonight)
I have always loved books.
My favourites, as a child, were unabridged copies of Peter Pan, Black Beauty, and Little Women. (I can't recall exactly when I received these books - it was somewhere between 1st and 3rd grade - and I'm sure this explains much about my psyche.) One of the best gifts I received from my father was a three-shelf bookcase, painted red and white and decorated with my italicized name; and the sum total of my books barely filled the shelves.
Mostly I read borrowed books - novels from the library, or from my mother's rather extensive collection. Due to my love of esoteric subjects, I spent a lot of time in the occult sections of libraries; and I caused more than a bit of upset after my family moved to a new school district and I asked the librarian there for books on the devil.
(I was, in fact, looking for "The Devil and Daniel Webster," but...that didn't endear me to her, either.)
Eventually, I would resort to hand-copying passages out of books into piles of notebooks, desperately wanting to keep the words with me and lacking the resources to buy the actual tomes. But our school district did participate in one of those free book programs, where students were allowed to select a book or two from a smattering of titles spread across a table.
And oh oh oh! There in the midst of all those books was a copy of Dracula.
Keeping in mind my love of horror, and my fascination with vampires since the tender age of 5 or so, this was of course the only book I wanted. Sadly, a boy got to it first. I'm relatively sure I begged him for it; I surely do know I didn't end up talking him out of possession; and I *absolutely* know I did not in fact beat him the way I should have when he later had the audacity to complain that it was a boring story written like a diary..how stupid!
Obviously, I did eventually get a copy of my very own. Several copies - the novel, Dracula: A Symphony in Moonlight & Nightmares
(which is such a beautiful illustrated interpretation of the novel and my poster of Muth's painting of Mina remains one of my most treasured pieces of art), The Essential Dracula: The Definitive Annotated Edition
, and so many other related books - now grace my shelves, which, um, number much more than three...and have, since I stopped living under the roof of a woman who forbade me to buy books.
Still. I've never quite forgotten that feeling of defeat. Silly thing, that.
I have always loved books.
My favourites, as a child, were unabridged copies of Peter Pan, Black Beauty, and Little Women. (I can't recall exactly when I received these books - it was somewhere between 1st and 3rd grade - and I'm sure this explains much about my psyche.) One of the best gifts I received from my father was a three-shelf bookcase, painted red and white and decorated with my italicized name; and the sum total of my books barely filled the shelves.
Mostly I read borrowed books - novels from the library, or from my mother's rather extensive collection. Due to my love of esoteric subjects, I spent a lot of time in the occult sections of libraries; and I caused more than a bit of upset after my family moved to a new school district and I asked the librarian there for books on the devil.
(I was, in fact, looking for "The Devil and Daniel Webster," but...that didn't endear me to her, either.)
Eventually, I would resort to hand-copying passages out of books into piles of notebooks, desperately wanting to keep the words with me and lacking the resources to buy the actual tomes. But our school district did participate in one of those free book programs, where students were allowed to select a book or two from a smattering of titles spread across a table.
And oh oh oh! There in the midst of all those books was a copy of Dracula.
Keeping in mind my love of horror, and my fascination with vampires since the tender age of 5 or so, this was of course the only book I wanted. Sadly, a boy got to it first. I'm relatively sure I begged him for it; I surely do know I didn't end up talking him out of possession; and I *absolutely* know I did not in fact beat him the way I should have when he later had the audacity to complain that it was a boring story written like a diary..how stupid!
Obviously, I did eventually get a copy of my very own. Several copies - the novel, Dracula: A Symphony in Moonlight & Nightmares
Still. I've never quite forgotten that feeling of defeat. Silly thing, that.
Dracula? I barely knew 'a!
Date: 2009-01-18 05:02 pm (UTC)he later had the audacity to complain that it was a boring story written like a diary..how stupid!
So he was confused and tried to mask that confusion by calling it "stupid." Sheesh; don't blame outside works for your analytical inadequacies, bub. That book is a frickin' plot machine. It's so well constructed that way, and Stoker did a good job of varying the prose style to seem like it was the work of many people.
Speaking of...a few years ago
(...I first wrote that as "dracula1987." No, not even The Lost Boys was Dracula 1987! So I'm glad I caught that.)
I was, in fact, looking for "The Devil and Daniel Webster," but...that didn't endear me to her, either.
I haven't read the book, but I'm fond of the 1941 film version: very clever, stylish, and disturbing. Bernard Herrmann clearly had a ball scoring it; Walter Hudson clearly had a ball playing The Devil. Did you ever get to read the original? Do you recommend it?
Re: Dracula? I barely knew 'a!
Date: 2009-01-18 07:51 pm (UTC)Well - we're also talking somewhere around 4th grade. Maybe it was the wrong reading level? I personally cannot judge; as I mentioned, I was reading above my age level.
True story: I reread the Lord of the Rings series in 6th grade and my step-grandmother fussed that I was too young for it. I didn't have the heart to tell her I was in fact RE-reading the books..
re: posting Dracula
[Unknown site tag] has done that, too - it's an interesting experiment!
re: Dracula 1987 - so have you seen Dracula 2000? (Not a huge fan, myself, but the explanation for Drac's real identity is a nice twist.)
re: Devil and Daniel Webster - never saw it on The Big Screen, but I love the story. I thought it was haunting and fascinating. Of course, I've not read it in..what, 20 years?
<- old :(
Re: Dracula? I barely knew 'a!
Date: 2009-01-19 01:37 am (UTC)Okay, I overreacted. But "that was stupid" (or "this sucks!") is very often code for "I don't get it."
re: Dracula 1987 - so have you seen Dracula 2000? (Not a huge fan, myself, but the explanation for Drac's real identity is a nice twist.)
Wasn't interested, though I was aware of it and that Wes Craven was "presenting" it, whatever that meant that time. I'm not a huge horror film fan, though what I've seen by Wes Craven that he's directed, I've liked.
How did Dracula 2000 explain Dracula?
re: Devil and Daniel Webster - never saw it on The Big Screen, but I love the story. I thought it was haunting and fascinating.
So. It's by Stephen Vincent Benét (Thank you, Google!). Noted for future reference; I'd like to read it. And you'd probably like the 1941 film version.
Re: Dracula? I barely knew 'a!
Date: 2009-01-19 02:11 am (UTC)Which has the potential for a whole lot of ugly religious arguing, but is certainly interesting.
(Knowing of my love for vampire films, my ex-husband bought me Dracula 2000 and Count Dracula and his Vampire Brides, which is arguably one of the WORST Hammer Horror Drac films out there. He really liked Drac 2000 so we watched it a lot. My taste runs more to Shadow of the Vampire, which he hated. Sigh.)
I probably would love that film - thank you for the recommendation!