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LeeC:
I finished Dracula on Halloween. I initial picked it up because my Dad was reading it when I visited him in August and figured we'd have something to talk about. I talked with my dad recently on Christmas and, unfortunately he never finished it. Not because he got bored or became uninterested; quite the opposite in fact! He started having nightmares because of the book. It was really nicely written. If you knew nothing of vampires or Dracula going into it, the story would have seemed more like a novel about a serial killer than anything paranormal.
Not unlike Frankenstein, the book is written in the form of letters. In this book it is a series of letters from 4 or so different people's points of view experiencing different things related to Dracula all at the same time. About 2/3 of the way into the story it becomes relevant as Minna collects all of the letters from everyone and transcribes them for the rest of the cast to read. This was interesting because after this moment everyone in the story was now synced up with what the reader knew. I thought that was very clever and a good way of making the story framing device part of the story.
As for the plot:
I am putting it in spoilers as well it is spoilery and also has some possible triggers for those that may have suffered some abuse.
(click to show/hide)The plot was also very interesting. I feel like the myth of the vampire has culturally changed so much since this book popularized them. The Count can do many things and follow many rules that are both common and uncommon in modern Vampire stories. For example, he can not enter a house unless first invited in, which is typical of modern Vampires. What is uncommon is that he can walk around in during the day just fine, whereas contemporary Vampires are harmed by the sun. The daytime has different effects for the Count, but death is not one of them. The Count is a very enigmatic figure through the whole book and comes off like a mustache twirling bond villain at times. If you have seen the movie version from the early 90's with Gary Oldman, it is very similar in many regards but they injected a romance between Minna and the Count for some reason which is completely absent in the book. Minna in the book is metaphorically raped by the Count who wanted to strike back at his hunters. Perhaps the movie was trying to make Dracula more sympathetic? Considering how things happen in the book, Minna acts more like the victim of stalking from the Count and a target of the Count's vindictiveness when the cast starts hunting him. Poor Minna, she was perhaps the smartest of the main cast but her IQ dropped suddenly during a pivotal point in the book I was so upset with her. Her IQ promptly returned soon after. If it was anyone else in the main cast that blundered, it would have been fine, but Minna was the smartest of the group and should have known better at this point.
The themes of the novel were very interesting as well. Not only does it seem like a cat and mouse game with a paranormal serial killer, but also deals with trauma. Lucy becomes like her attacker, Minna becomes distant and feels unclean, her husband Jonathan goes crazy and feels no one would believe him and bottles it up. Even the heroic trio Arthur, Dr. John, and Quincey show how the victim's family and friends would respond to loss and trauma suffered by a loved one. The story also shows those who have been traumatized that they have a support network. Whether is with friends and family, or with medical professionals. There are many other themes too like, what is expected of a woman in Victorian times, science and mysticism, good vs evil, etc. I feel like those are pretty evident and are more talked about than the theme of trauma so I will not go into detail about the other themes here.
All in all I would highly suggest reading this classic novel. A century later it is still just as exciting, creepy, and relevant as when it was published. Reading it around Halloween made it extra creepy, as the days in the novel started to sync up with the days I read them.
LeeC:
Just read Animal Farm by George Orwell. Was really good! I loved the parallels that it shares with the Russian revolutions and how twisted absolute power can be on ideals and good intentions. Many people think it just addresses Stalin-ism and communism, but it really doesn't stop there. It is a critique of autocracy in general and can be applied to multiple political and social systems.
Its also super short. My version was about 112 pages.
Is it cold in here?:
The revolution could have succeeded if it hadn't been for the sheep.
"I Contain Multitudes", a book about microbiome research. Captivating! @Akima, the conclusion that seems inevitable after the first hundred pages, even though the author does not explicitly draw it, is that it's a mistake to think of organisms and their symbiotic microbes as separate entities. Is that dependent co-arising, or just a choice of scientific paradigms?
LeeC:
--- Quote from: Is it cold in here? on 30 Dec 2017, 07:46 ---The revolution could have succeeded if it hadn't been for the sheep.
--- End quote ---
I'd argue it was because:
(click to show/hide)Snowball was chased off; allowing Napoleon to rule unopposed. If Napoleon hadn't abducted and trained his personal guard dogs they would still be butting heads and allowing the farm animals to vote on each resolution. Considering how hot and heavy it got between those two, it was only a matter of time before Napoleon got rid of Snowball. There was no hint that Snowball would have tried to get rid of Napoleon, but I suspect that is because Snowball (like Trostky) believed in the revolution's ideals so much, that he was content with how things were being run. It didn't even cross his mind that Napoleon would do something to get rid of him since one of the animal laws was "all animals are fiends." Snowball was the only hope for the revolution not to get twisted, but there's no real way to tell what would have happened if he wasn't chased off or if Napoleon met an untimely end before Snowball was dealt with.
LTK:
Worm. I've been glued to my screen for the past week.
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