Do it for the vampires

[dhampyresa]

Earlier today I was listening to a podcast about Dracula* and it reminded me that I never talked about the three things I think are really important about Dracula and yet are left out of almost all adaptations.

(㇏(•̀ᵥᵥ•́)ノ)

(0) MINA MVP!

1. BRAM STOKER WAS IRISH. I've been called a pedant for pointing this out before, but I genuinely think the fact that Stoker was Irish is extremely relevant to Dracula. Here is a man from an island deeply traumatised by colonialism, a man who supported Irish self-goverment (specifically home rule), who writes a novel about an invading force from a larger landmass actively trying to cooerce the locals into assimilating through acts of violence. I'm not saying it's necessarily deliberate subtext, but I think removing this subtext changed the text from an anti-imperialism text into an anti-immigration one. And I'm not a fan.


2. Bram Stoker was very probably gay/bi/queer and/or in love with Henry Irving. The subtext between Jonathan and Dracula is barely even sub:

"How dare you touch him, any of you? How dare you cast eyes on him when I had forbidden it? Back, I tell you all! This man belongs to me! Beware how you meddle with him, or you'll have to deal with me."

The fair girl, with a laugh of ribald coquetry, turned to answer [Dracula]. "You yourself never loved. You never love!" On this the other women joined, and such a mirthless, hard, soulless laughter rang through the room that it almost made me faint to hear. It seemed like the pleasure of fiends.

Then the Count turned, after looking at my face attentively, and said in a soft whisper, "Yes, I too can love."

(Chapter 3, Jonathan Harker's Journal, Later: The morning of 16 May.)
To pick one example.

And yet. AND YET. Whenever adaptations add a love story it's Dracula/Mina and not Dracula/Jonathan. Also somehow often reincarnation which has no basis in the book Francis


3. It's a technothriller. It doesn't feel like a technothriller nowadays, because the "thriller" part of "whaaaaaaaat is happen" of people reading the book without knowing Drac is a vampire is not a thing anymore. The "techno" part doesn't read as "techno" because the cutting edge technology of 1897 is extremely dated. Typewriters are old news and a massive step back from computers, not an improvement over the pen.

I feel so grateful to the man who invented the "Traveller's" typewriter, and to Mr. Morris for getting this one for me. I should have felt quite astray doing the work if I had to write with a pen...

(Chapter 26, Mina Harker's Journal, 30 October evening)

Blood transfusions are no longer several years out from figuring out blood groups are a thing. Yes. Dracula predates blood groups!


(4) Renfield did nothing wrong, fuck you. Renfield sacrificed himself to save Mina because she was the only person nice to him. He helps Dracula to get free from the asylum. Dr Stewart explictly wants to dissect him! The British Imperial "mental health system" was the real villain all along!


(5) Jonathan Harker gives good cooking advice. Robber steak is now a staple in my kitchen.

I dined on what they called "robber steak"--bits of bacon, onion, and beef, seasoned with red pepper, and strung on sticks, and roasted over the fire, in simple style of the London cat's meat!

(Chapter 1, Jonathan Harker's Journal, 5 May)


*Dracula ou les Dents du désir which was quite good and interesting although it did contain the boiling hot take of "protestants write vampires more than catholics because their church does not provide enough blood and drama". I really want to see the research on that, no lie.

Comments

[eller]

Ehhhhh. I can't even imagine Dracula/Mina romance. It's clearly all Dracula/Jonathan!

[dhampyresa]

RIGHT?!

[kore]

BLESS I love every single one of your opinions about Dracula and they are also my opinions. Coppola's Dracula was a horrible hot mess, but the art-of book on it did emphasize Mina's technology skills! In that (crappy) scene where she's tearfully strewing pages overboard, they apparently got someone to type out the actual text from the book on a vintage typewriter. Sadly, the movie was still terrible.

The other fanon (is it still fanon if it's professionals doing it?) interpretations I loathe are Lucy as a redheaded slut (altho I do love Sadie Frost) and Mina as some kind of shrinking virgin, and Jonathan/Mina as true love. Jonathan is totally drained by the Drac and his backup singers the Draculettes and Mina is in thrall to Dracula!

Dr Stewart has always given me the creeps and will forevermore. Ugh.

[dhampyresa]

they apparently got someone to type out the actual text from the book on a vintage typewriter
Ok, that is kinda cool.

I loathe are Lucy as a redheaded slut
THE WORST hisssssssssssssssssss

[kore]

LUCY IS AN ADORABLE SWEETIE and if I ship her with anyone other than Mina, it's Quincy, because he is like the ONLY dude who is sweet to her when she turns him down and wants her to consider him a friend and that she can rely on him, IIRC.

[sovay]

it's Quincy, because he is like the ONLY dude who is sweet to her when she turns him down and wants her to consider him a friend and that she can rely on him, IIRC.

He tells her that if the man she really loves doesn't get around to appreciating her properly and soon, Quincey will go and personally explain to him why he is being a dumbass and should recognize Lucy for the treasure she is! Zero to sixty from suitor to supportive best friend. And for this he gets short-shrifted by every adaptation I have ever seen.

[kore]

Yeah, he just gets written off as a lol-worthy dumbass, and all the adaptations (that I've seen) are really hooked on Jack Seward, who makes my skin crawl.

[dhampyresa]

he gets short-shrifted by every adaptation I have ever seen.

JUSTICE FOR QUINCY MORRIS

[sovay]

JUSTICE FOR QUINCY MORRIS

*officially requests fic*

[dhampyresa]

I love Quincy so much ;_;

[kore]

Like sovay said, zero to sixty from suitor to supportive best friend! That is pretty fucking rare even in modern novels!

BPAL has a great Quincy scent: "Rough on the edges, but possessing the true essence of valor and nobility of spirit: tobacco, vanilla, white pear, cedar, rugged musk and saddle leather." It's pretty perfect, it's musk and leather, with some low-key sweetness from the vanilla and a bit of a cologne-y note.

[sovay]

It's a technothriller.

YES. I read Dracula for the first time for a class in college and this was one of the points of discussion: the horror of the vampire is doubled in such an ultra-modern setting, full of state-of-the-art science and meticulous documentation, and there's no real way to reproduce the shock of that wrongness in a contemporary adaptation, although in recent years I've seen people claim that Dracula as intercut YouTube blogs and Slack transcripts might do it.

Renfield did nothing wrong, fuck you.

I wrote him a poem. (It's based on the 1931 Dracula, hence the relationships and some of the references, but still.)

I am delighted to know the robber steak works off the page. There should be a lot more queerness in any version of Dracula.

[dhampyresa]

the horror of the vampire is doubled in such an ultra-modern setting, full of state-of-the-art science and meticulous documentation
Yes! The undertone that science is fallible is part of the horror -- all of Van Helsing's science and knowledge couldn't save Lucy.

I wrote him a poem.
OMG SONYA IT'S SO GREAT I LOVE IT thank you for linking/writing it <3
I can't tell what my favourite part is. The decription of the doctor? Terrifying. The Jonathan/Jack the Ripper parallel? NICE. Van Helsing using science like Uno reverse cards? YES. Mina and Renfield's relationship? THE BEST. /adds to headcanon
the lunatic in his shirtsleeves
who grinned like a death’s­head
and sobbed like a broken­hearted boy
and held out his wrists
as candidly as pouring a drink.
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

There should be a lot more queerness in any version of Dracula.
YES

[sovay]

The undertone that science is fallible is part of the horror -- all of Van Helsing's science and knowledge couldn't save Lucy.

It's very close to cosmic horror in that regard: a group of intelligent, competent, educated people trying to fight something where all their understanding doesn't help. They have to learn the hard way, unlearning everything their world has taught them. And it's such a close thing, even so.

OMG SONYA IT'S SO GREAT I LOVE IT thank you for linking/writing it

You're welcome! Thank you! I'm so happy you love it! (You read it exactly as intended, yay.)

[kore]

Yeah, doesn't Van H tell them repeatedly they have to become as little children &c &c and open their minds and not dismissive of what they might think of as superstition? I was never able to decide whether that was anti-science or in the spirit of empirical observation.

[sovay]

I was never able to decide whether that was anti-science or in the spirit of empirical observation.

I always read it as the latter: it strikes me as very close to Holmes' "when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."

[kore]

I think I'm ambivalent partly because the book itself does seem ambivalent about technology -- from what I remember (haven't reread it in a while) the mass of documentation isn't "authentic," none of it is handwritten -- it's just a huge amount of typewritten pages, and Helsing says they don't need objective proof. He keeps asking them to take what he's putting forward on faith, and Gothic novels do have an anti-scientific streak starting with Frankenstein ("pale student of unhallowed arts" etc.). But at the same time there's definitely a kind of scientific method and logical reasoning in the book. Now I'm wondering how many "Holmes tracks Dracula" books there are (....dozens? I'm more familiar with the Holmes vs Ripper genre).

[kore]

the mass of documentation isn't "authentic," none of it is handwritten -- it's just a huge amount of typewritten pages

Which is also sadly something that is completely lost on modern readers, or at least it was on me the first time I read it, because my parents got me my first typewriter when I was six. Kind of Walter Benjamin-esque in the idea that what can be mechanically reproduced/copied is not authentic (probably not remembering that idea right, either).

[skygiants]

It IS a technothriller! I still think Dracula is one of the a very few classics that would actually be really well-served by a modern adaptation told in the 'found footage' format popular with web serials a few years back. The first five episodes are just Jonathan Harker's totally normal travel blog until stuff very slowly starts getting weird....

[dhampyresa]

I still think Dracula is one of the a very few classics that would actually be really well-served by a modern adaptation told in the 'found footage' format popular with web serials a few years back. The first five episodes are just Jonathan Harker's totally normal travel blog until stuff very slowly starts getting weird....

OMG YES

Edit: FOOD BLOGGER JONATHAN! get through the creepy to get to the recipe!

[skygiants]

FOOD BLOGGER JONATHAN!!!!

[sovay]

FOOD BLOGGER JONATHAN!!!!

+2 FOOD BLOGGER JONATHAN.

[kore]

Oh, found footage and blogging are such great ideas for Dracula I'm surprised it hasn't been done already. It would be perfect for a Blair Witch-style "truth or hoax?" thing.

[skygiants]

It's entirely possible that it has been done and I just haven't heard about it, in which case someone should tell me!

[sovay]

It's entirely possible that it has been done and I just haven't heard about it, in which case someone should tell me!

I have a friend who keeps me posted on retellings like The Lizzie Bennet Diaries (2012–13) and she's never mentioned a similar Dracula, so I don't think it exists yet.

[hokuton_punch]

Your Dracula opinions are right and you should say them!

[dhampyresa]

Thank you!

[calliopes_pen]

I agree wholeheartedly with your Dracula opinions.

(And sometimes they do sway more towards heaps of Dracula/Jonathan subtext. It's sadly rare, but it does happen! There's also a ballet where it looks like Jonathan prefers Dracula's attentions far more than that of the brides.)

[dhampyresa]

(And sometimes they do sway more towards heaps of Dracula/Jonathan subtext. It's sadly rare, but it does happen! There's also a ballet where it looks like Jonathan prefers Dracula's attentions far more than that of the brides.)

But sadly only sometimes :(
If you have a link or name to that ballet I would love it!

[calliopes_pen]

The ballet was by Michael Pink--I've seen clips of it on Youtube. Just before I hit post, I found the piece of it I was looking for.

Skip to 2:22, and you'll see a snippet of when Dracula and Jonathan first meet, and Dracula trying to resist flinging himself at Jonathan. A piece of the seduction scene with the brides can be seen at 3:21.

Dracula interrupts at 4:04--somewhere along the way, Jonathan lost his shirt to the brides. Dracula crawls after the shirtless Jonathan at 4:20. 4:53, they're dancing together. Their moment ends at 5:12. From there, looks like stuff with Lucy and her suitors.

(If you want to see everyone fight and kill Dracula, skip to 11:56. I feel like the actor will choke from the fog.)

[dhampyresa]

Thank you!

[dolorosa_12]

Your Dracula opinions are the right Dracula opinions!

[dhampyresa]

THANK YOU

[brigdh]

I support all your opinions and wish to see an adaptation that includes them!

[dhampyresa]

Aw, thank you!