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IVE BEEN WAITING ALL YEAR TO POST THIS YOU DONT EVEN KNOW

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You know

I don't have a lot positive to say about the re-staged version of the ALW musical.

But I will admit I do kind of like the fact that Raoul barges into Christine's dressing room as she's undressing.

I like this because, on the surface its very ha ha, so awkward uwu, but it also highlights how very scandalous this very action is.

In 19th century theatre culture (especially in France) there's only one reason a man (the patron of the Opera, who is the main financial backer of the establishment) goes into a singer's dressing room with a bottle of champagne. Whether that is Raoul's intention doesn't matter: he's a man of society, he's the responsible one here, or he should be.

But setting that aside, this really makes me think about how Raoul is never thinking about Christine in a circumspect fashion. He is not thinking about the fact that this is a private area he is entering uninvited--a private area that is private for the very specific reason: at any point, Christine could very well be naked or otherwise in a state of vulnerability and/or undress behind that door. He does not knock, or announce himself. He either is not thinking about this or does not care. Both are bad.

(And yes I am conscious of the fact that Christine is not only undressing, but undressing in front of the mirror; the mirror that Erik is, in all likelihood, hiding behind, even as she does so).

To Raoul, as much as (perhaps even more so than) to Erik, Christine is an object. An object to be, by turns, admired, pitied, placated and protected.

Perhaps I find this so interesting because in the book, Raoul is shown to invade the sanctum samctorum of Christine's dressing room without her knowledge or consent several times.

"When you were pitying him the other night, the night of the masked ball. When you came into your dressing room, didn't you say 'Poor Erik'? Well Christine, there was Poor Raoul who overheard you!"

"That is the second time you have listened at my door, M. de Chagny!"

"I was not at your door! I was in the dressing room! In your boudoir, mademoiselle!"

An interesting contrast to Erik, who, in spite of abducting Christine, holding her against her will etc. always knocks three times on her door before entering her bedroom in the house by the lake, and gives her his word that in that apartment and in her dressing room she is assured of privacy from him.

"How can you believe yourself safer here in the theatre?" Raoul asked. "If you can hear him through the walls, then he can certainly hear us."

"No. He gave me his word that he would not be behind the walls of my dressing room again, and I trust Erik's word. My dressing room and my room in the house by the lake are mine exclusively, and are sacred to him.

Also very interesting to me is that on my fourth read of various English translations of the book [1911, 1911 restored, 1990 Lowell Bair, and 1996 Leonard Wolf] there is never any indication that I've noticed that Christine's mirror is two-way glass. It does not slide to the side as depicted in movies/ the musical. The mirror is built into the wall itself and turns with the wall on a pivot like a revolving door. There is never any mention of him looking at her through the mirror, only listening and speaking to her through her walls.

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“Seeing from his violent demeanor that he was English” is the most Irish thing Bram Stoker ever said.

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i just reread the strange case of dr jekyll and mr hyde in its entirety in forty-five minutes and thirty-nine seconds instead of reading my book i have to read for school before the beginning of the first semester. i have no regrets…. for now.

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i would totally get into cosplaying, but i have a bit of a personal problem: i wear glasses. it’s not like i can just take them off, i have very bad vision that isn’t even perfect with my glasses on (i have 20/25 vision in my left eye with glasses). there aren’t that many characters i can easily cosplay with this obstacle. either my face needs to be completely covered or the character already wears glasses. plus i mostly like period pieces/classics/fantasy media, making the glasses a bit out of place and i’d need those circular wired frame glasses. it’s just a nuisance. not to mention most of the cool and recognizable characters i know of don’t have glasses.

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Fanfiction Work-In-Progress Guessing Game

Send me a word, if it’s in my wip document I’ll answer your ask with the sentence that it appears in

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honestly, i love the frankenstein musical. one of the things i don’t love about it is the fact that the female creation actually comes to life. it makes more sense on why adam is angry, but it’s one of the few changes from the original text i was upset about.

The Frankenstein musical actually drives me mental, because so much of it is corny asf, but it’s JUST GOOD ENOUGH that I’m SO serious about the fact that with revisions, it could be really fucking good, I just don’t know what those revisions are and it makes me so mad 😭

Is this going to be my new obsession. “How to make the Frankenstein musical actually good”.

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i love romeo and juliet because it’s just a play about two dramatic teenagers who fall in love and make stupid decisions. a fine comedy.

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Darcy: *confesses his love to Elizabeth*

Elizabeth: 

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Why did no one tell me that Dracula was a fucking COMEDY.

The book opens up with Jonathan experiencing a paprika overload. Dracula pretends to be the coachman and drives Jonathan around in circles until he decides he's established enough of a dramatic atmosphere. By day three in the castle Jonathan has picked up that there are no servants and Dracula is secretly doing all the chores, including driving him there. The first time Jonathan tries to shave, the count barges into the room, yeets his mirror out the window, refuses to elaborate and leaves. Jonathan also notices that he is a prisoner in the castle but doesn't dare to bring it up, which... is a mood, but also hilarious. A week into his stay he sees his employer/kidnapper crawling facedown out a wall

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There goes the count, scaling lizard style, out of the castle... AGAIN. Hes just showing off at this point

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Mina thinks she's in a period drama. Jonathan is slowly but surely coming to terms with the fact that he's in a horror film

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i’m so obsessed with the way he says “come on, come on!” it literally sounds like he’s up on the mausoleum giggling and kicking his feet

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I never realised that Dracula was fucking with Jonathan Harker from the very second they met. The driving in circles to make it seem like Jonathan was so far away from everyone and everything? The wolves obv, but the way it's all so terrible and scary that Jonathan thinks he might have dreamed it all? "the dead travel fast" the woman in the coach said but Dracula made a point of reaching his destination as slowly as possible, while going fast.

Thank you @re-dracula , i read this novel twice before but only now am I really scared

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Different ways to interpret Frankenstein

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Hey let’s go to Switzerland and maybe have a ghost story writing competition and maybe witness the birth of the next great gothic novel and maybe

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TAG YOURSELF AS A MEMBER OF THE GENEVA SQUAD!

Parts of it are very cringe but parts of it - well, still cringe, but worth sharing I think