Book Review: Dracula

“There are darknesses in life and there are lights, and you are one of the lights, the light of all lights.” 

 “How good and thoughtful he is; the world seems full of good men--even if there are monsters in it.” 

"I want you to believe...to believe in things that you cannot." 


We're catching up!  I just need to stop reading them as fast as I "catch up."



I didn't get vampire literature.  The entire concept of it was fairly lost on me, especially since the myths probably come from a few highly mentally ill individuals such as Elizabeth Bathory, and people with porphyria (werewolves, too).  And I especially didn't get the whole Twilight vampire romance thing, which is becoming more and more of a thing. But, I felt the need to maybe give the whole vampire literature genre a chance.  I figured if I went to someone who loved vampire literature and asked them what book I should read to give it a chance, they would choose the apex of vampire literature, which is probably Dracula. 

On top of this, last year I read a non-fiction book called Five Quarts  which was about the cultural history of blood (fascinating topic--okay book).  They talked about Dracula in the book, and I thought that, from what they were saying, it sounded like it might actually have some legitimate philosophical and literary merit.  So, I gave it a chance, not really expecting to enjoy it too much.

I was mistaken.  I still don't really get the whole vampire obsession (but I get it more than the zombie obsession and always have), but I get the point of vampire literature.  There were some serious differences between Dracula and modern takes on vampires, which I might go into in depth someday, but it really was a good book. 

I'm sure we all need very little summary of Dracula, the story that everyone kind of knows.  It follows the efforts of a team of forced-vampire hunters to take down Count Dracula, who has decided that he needs a new stomping grounds and comes to England.  

I wouldn't call it a great book, mostly because there were two types of parts of Dracula. First, there were times when you read a passage and think, "That has a lot to think about in it," or the occasion when you read a passage and say, ''That was a gorgeous sentence." 

Then, there is the second part. The thirty-five page sections of letters between Mina and Lucy and you just want to burn those stupid letters.  Or the news articles about heavens-knows-what. 

I think that, overall, it was a good analysis of so many important questions:  faith and logic, women and men, marriage, love, attachment, sacrifice, insanity, good and evil, right and wrong, the difference between good and right and evil and wrong, etc. 

It was long, and there were a couple of somewhat gory parts (though not nearly as many as most vampire novels), but I would recommend the book.

Four stars for Dracula.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Over-analyzing Disney Movies: The Little Mermaid--Why Eric is White.

Image
I have recently noticed a trend of just purely over-analyzing Disney movies.  In this category, I also include the fascination with photoshopping Disney characters to swap genders, races, or eras, as well as making princesses have "realistic" body shapes (which is something I could write a whole other post about, and it wouldn't be pretty.  Spoiler alert:  I find it to be one of the most unempowering trends of recent years).  However, I sometimes wonder at how much people are reading into Disney movies.  Today, I'm going to over-analyze their over-analysis. I recently read that the fact that Eric is a white prince is a representation of how we white-wash racial expectations for our children.  I'm not even sure what that sentence means.  It seems to have a lot of buzz words.  But I'm going to show you today, using evidence from the film, why Prince Eric is, in fact, the correct color. (I will, however, say that Eric is the only Disney prince wh...
Read more

Derevaun Seraun! Derevaun Seraun!

James Joyce is my kind of guy. He made puzzles that I like to think are just for me. He was a great lover of languages, and he is sometimes called the father of a literary technique called polyglotism. This is when you insert other languages in there. Just 'cuz. So, in James Joyce's wonderful story, "Eveline" there is a phrase that nobody knows what it is. Even to this day. "Derevaun Seraun! Derevaun Seraun!" Many people believe it to be corrupted Irish Gaelic. Needing a break from homework, I have approached this by taking the words and then transliterating them into Irish Gaelic, trying to create Irish Gaelic that would be spoken by someone of this status in this time in Ireland. Nationalist, but not educated enough to actually understand all the ins and outs of the language. I came up with two possible phrases that I find very probable. And I'm not pretending to solve the mystery. If Joyce experts over the years have not discovered the mean...
Read more

What does it mean to be a Russell?

Image
As many know, most European families (not all, but most) have a coat of arms, a crest, a motto, all that good stuff. So, I decided to look a bit into what being a Russell means. And maybe I'll do the same for Hatches, because I am a Hatch too. The last name Russell is Scottish and means "Red-headed" and derives from the Norman name of Roussel. The Russells are a well-respected Highland Scot clan, complete with Scottish crest and tartan: The motto on the crest "virtus sine macula" means "Virtue without blemish." As Scotland incorporated more and more into England, the Russells became nobility in that world as well, and were thus presented with a coat of arms: And yes, the motto written on that one is "che sara sara." You've got to admit, that's pretty gosh-darn cool. It really does mean "Whatever will be, will be." And in honor of that:
Read more