#Laura watches Bram Stoker's Dracula

[lauralot89]

So I just watched Bram Stoker's Dracula for the first time since I was a child and what is even the fuck

(I have NO idea how I watched this as a child, it must have been an edited version on TV because there is no way my parents would have rented it for us)

It's incredible really. Nearly every choice made in this film was the wrong choice, and yet it was wrong in ways that fascinated and delighted me

(I'm not including the costuming/sets/sound design as wrong choices, those were all great)

At one point, Mina is crying and Dracula touches her tears and turns them into DIAMONDS with the vampire turning-tears-into-diamonds power I guess I forgot they have

I have rarely seen such levels of camp in a movie that I think I was supposed to take seriously, but there you go

did Terry Gilliam ghost-direct every scene in the asylum, that shot composition was straight out of Twelve Monkeys

there is no earthly reason that this Dracula/Mina romance plot makes any sense, but somehow Gary Oldman and Winona Ryder made it seem almost believable

I think it worked for me because

a) Their meet-cute is Mina reading Dracula to filth for being a creepy fuck, roasting him for thinking that moving pictures are science, and only giving him the time of day because he has a sick ass pet wolf

b) The blood-drinking scene is straight up Mina being such a monster fucker it actually weirds out Dracula, he's like "No I love you too much to condemn you to a life of vampirism" and she's all "shut up and bleed"

also like

imagine filming that scene and just having to lick all over your coworker's chest for like a dozen takes, awkward

It's truly bizarre how this is both the closest film I've ever seen to the source material and yet also is full of noncanonical nonsense and everyone's personality is replaced by horny, how am I supposed to reconcile this

Highlights of the film for me:

The aforementioned costuming, sets, and sound design

The fact that all the effects were done in camera

Dracula randomly waving a sword in Jonathan's face

Arthur Holmwood is the Dread Pirate Roberts

Instead of Dracula breaking a wolf out of the zoo to throw at a window, the wolf just breaks itself out to hang with him

Vampire Lucy

Dracula has a turning tears into diamonds power

Mina is like YOU KILLED LUCY for fifteen seconds and then immediately starts demanding to get vamped in the very same conversation

Jonathan spent weeks as the brides' juice box

Gary Oldman being ridiculously melodramatic and half of his lines sounding like they were delivered on the brink of an orgasm

Dracula's ridiculous Peter Pan shadow

The closest I think any movie has come to the Dracula death from the book

Dracula crying blood, always wonderful

My Mom's Complaints

Everything

Seriously, like every fifteen minutes or so she'd ask why we're even watching this

During the "Dracula and Lucy fucking in the garden" scene she asked if this movie actually had a theatrical release, and if it was the biggest bomb of all time

She did not like Old Dracula's hair

She did not like his motivation for becoming a vampire

She did not like his wolf form or his bat form or his old form

My Grandmother's Complaint:

Van Helsing would not have been so cavalier and undignified in telling Mina and Jonathan about Lucy's beheading

[thenightling]

Last night I heard a great quote from Maven of the Eventide (Vampire media critic).

She said (Paraphrasing here) "Vampire romances are supposed to be uncomfortable and taboo. The fact that it's problematic and creepy is not a bug, it's a feature."

It made me think of all the times I've seen people online complain about the Louis / Lestat romance, or Dracula and Mina in the movie Bram Stoker's Dracula or Fred Saberhagen's Dracula books (Yes, I know they weren't lovers in the Dracula novel by Bram Stoker) or Carmilla and Laura, or even Bella and Edward from Twilight.

In fact, I, myself, am guilty of complaining about the Twilight one but then I realized how hypocritical it was because when I was fifteen I was perfectly fine with shipping Buffy and Angel and he liked to watch her sleep and look at that age gap. And I'm still a sucker for a good Dracula / Mina story even though I know that's very different from what was in Stoker's novel.

Again, the creepiness is not a bug, it's a feature.

Vampire love stories are supposed to make you a little uncomfortable.

[sgtpeppers]

Thank you for the tag @tavolgisvist! <3 I feel like I change my mind all the time on this stuff but at the moment...

Favourite Movie: When Harry Met Sally and Whisper of the Heart are probably my two most watched! But I also have a massive soft spot for all the Beatles' films obviously, especially A Hard Day's Night! Also I haven't stopped thinking about Nosferatu since last week so...

Favourite TV Show: Six Feet Under (but also basically any British comedy, did a Derry Girls rewatch over Christmas so that's at the front of my mind)

Favourite Musical Artists: Beatles of coourse, solo Beatles (primarily Paul and John though), Wings, Bruce Springsteen, Taylor Swift, Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Laura Marling, and The Amazing Devil.

Favourite Colour: GREEN 💚

Favourite Season: Summer, I just want to lay in sunshine for hours at a time, I should have been a lizard

Favourite Book: this is so hard! Dracula by Bram Stoker, The Ballad of the Sad Café by Carson McCullers, and The Perfect Golden Circle by Benjamin Myers all spring to mind first. I also just finished Mrs S by K Patrick which was gorgeous and I'd highly recommend if anyone wants to read more queer literature this year.

Do you have any Funko Pops?: Nope

Do you play any instruments?: Yeah, flute and piano are my main instruments, I've been learning guitar for about a year and I'm definitely getting somewhere with it. I also used to be able to play the drums decently but I haven't had access to a kit for a long time so I don't know how I'd be now.

Do you have any pets?: no :(

Do you read or write Fanfiction?: both! although gonna take a bit of a break on writing front for a while, I need to focus on other projects for a bit

What song(s) have you had on repeat repeatedly?: Junk by Paul McCartney, Go Your Own Way by Fleetwood Mac, The Captain and the Hourglass by Laura Marling, and Strawberry Fields Forever by The Beatles have all been on a lot recently!

Tagging: @longing4yesterday @forthlin @idontwanttospoiltheparty @deadpoets and anyone else who wants to! (please tag me though, I wanna be nosy)

[malunk]

it’s my birthday :)

i had the flu this week so it’s a bday at home but! got to celebrate last weekend w my family and my friends so i am very happy :)

this week while sick i watched a bunch of movies: bram stoker’s dracula (perfect), a brief history of time (good, documentary), mulholland drive (great), pulp fiction (fine/good), portrait of a lady on fire (perfect)

also i finished reading how can i help you by laura sims which i really enjoyed! however i did feel like patricia’s final transformation/descent/action/etc was a little rushed for what the rest of the book was like. but it was good it was great i enjoyed the split povs. mona awad is thanked in the dedication/acknowledgments and i can see how this is kind of tonally in conversation with bunny.

[nyasbrain]

Week 2: My obsession with Vampires. Past, Present, Future

My eternal love for vampires (vampyes? vampirs?) began when I saw him for the first time.

One of my first media-related memories is The Little Vampire (2000), largely forgotten by non-vampire-obsessed normies.

The Little Vampire follows Tony Thompson, a nine-year-old who moves with his family from California to Scotland. The Thompson family moves into a small castle (because there are only castles in 2000s Scotland). Tony gets picked on in school by his father's boss's son and begins having nightmares about vampires and comets.

One night, while dressed as a vampire, Tony is mistaken for one by Rudolph (pictured above) who attacks him and fails due to blood starvation. There starts the classic 2000s tale of friendship and adventure as Tony saves Rudolph and his family from the local vampire hunter and returns them to their human form.

In 2000 (or whenever I watched this movie) all my little sexually confused brain could think was:

Wow, that little vampire is hot.

In 2025 however, I can see the movie for what it is. Bad but formative.

To my surprise, The Little Vampire is not DCOM but I most likely watched it on my retro Disney princess CRT TV, which counts for something.

Speaking of DCOMs, Mom's Got a Date with a Vampire (2000) was likely my second piece of young vampire media.

As the title implies, the movie follows Lynette (mom) and her date with Dimitri (vampire).

Adam (13) and his sister Chelsea (16), think all is well until their brother Taylor (8) sees Dimitri (eternal) turn into a bat. There starts the classic 2000s tale of adventure and mayhem to save their mom from the vampire's thrall.

Before we move on, I want to talk vampire lore.

Modern vampires (or traditional vampires) are all the children of Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897). Of course, there is a long folk history of vampires pre-Drac, but Dracula adaptations popularized attributes such as fangs, vulnerability to sunlight, transforming into a bat, fancy coats, capes, and garlic repulsion.

The mommy and daddy of Stoker's Dracula are The Vampyre (1819) and my favorite, Carmilla (1872).

Let's start with The Vampyre.

In a short story by John William Polidori, Aubrey, a rich guy, meets the illusive Lord Ruthven at a party in London. Audrey sees Ruthven as a bit of an incendiary. He travels to Greece where he meets his (short-lived) lover Lanthe and tells her about the legend of vampires, which kinda sounds just like that Ruthven guy.

Lanthe is killed, Aubrey is hurt, and the whole town has vampire hysteria. While Aubrey is ill, Ruthven kindly (suspiciously) offers to nurse him back to health. Aubrey, feeling the 1819 catholic guilt, feels obliged to Ruthven and joins him on his travels.

Surprise, another attack, this time Ruthven is mortally wounded. On his deathbed, Ruthven makes Aubrey swear to not speak of his death for a year and a day (oddly specific) which Aubrey agrees to. Aubrey returns to London and finds Ruthven, alive and well.

Ruthven reminds Aubrey of his oath not to speak of his death, all the while he courts, marries, and kills Aubrey's sister, leaving her drained of blood.

My lesbian queen, Carmilla.

Laura recounts her eerie encounter with Carmilla, starting with a dream at age six, where she’s bitten—though there’s no evidence. Twelve years later, a carriage accident brings Carmilla into Laura’s life, and they instantly recognize each other from their childhood dream. Carmilla is weird for the average girl in 1872: she sleeps all day, sleepwalks at night, and avoids prayers.

As girls start dying in nearby towns, Laura dreams of a cat-like beast biting her. The truth is revealed when the General, a family friend, recounts the mysterious death of his daughter, killed by the same girl Carmilla, who’s really Mircalla, the vampire.

Carmilla's hidden tomb is found, they drive a stake through her heart, cut her head off, burn her body into ashes, and throw them into the river. Laura is forever changed by her encounters with Carmilla (she's a lesbian, but of course, you couldn't be a lesbian in 1872).

The man we know and love, Dracula.

Told through letters, journal entries, and news articles, Dracula begins with Jonathan Harker, a solicitor (lawyer), who travels to help Dracula buy a house in London. The locals warn him, but he goes anyway, only to get trapped in Dracula’s castle.

Meanwhile, in London, Jonathan's fiancée Mina travels to see her friend Lucy. When Mina arrives, a ship is wrecked on the shore, its crew missing and its captain dead, the only cargo is a set of fifty boxes of dirt shipped from Dracula's castle.

Lucy, sleepwalking and sick, has two tiny red marks on her throat which no one can explain. A rag-tag team of god-fearing Christians is formed including Dr. Steward, Mina, Professor Van Helsing, Lucy, and Jonathan to figure out wtf is going on.

Blah, blah, blah, Drac attacks Lucy. They try to save her, and a wolf breaks in (???) killing Lucy and her mother. They are convinced Lucy is not dead, but undead (gasp) and they find her feeding on a child (double gasp). They kill her (again), returning her soul to "eternal rest" and pledge to do the same to Dracula.

Everything is going well until Renfield, Dracula's assistant (???), lets Drac in and he feeds on Mina. Mina starts to turn, and the men sterilize the dirt forcing Dracula to flee. They track him and drive a knife through his heart, killing Dracula and freeing Mina from his curse.

Following? The following family tree of vampires looks a little like this.

So, when did vampires become vegetarian? Unclear.

People seem to think Interview with a Vampire (1976) was the first depiction of vegetarian vampires with Louis feeding from animals rather than humans.

Vampires who drink animal blood are not as strong or fast, and they don't heal as quickly as traditional vampires. When a vampire drinks blood, they are consuming life and the essence of life itself, something you just can't get from animal blood.

Vegetarian vampires are popular these days. I like to think of this as the family-fication of the modern-day vampire. Count von Count possesses only a thirst for numbers. Count Chocula a craving for chocolate milk. And while there are vegetarian vampires who possess the urge to drink human blood, they are "good" and remain "strong" due to their restraint. Which I think is a bunch of purist bullshit.

Vampires are supposed to be hot and irresistible. If not, they are nauseating and off-putting. They are immortal, frozen at the age they are turned (often early teens to late twenties), and possess control over humans WHICH NO ONE IN MEDIA TALKS ABOUT ANYMORE! Drinking human blood is an inherently sexual act, but drinking animal blood is about as sexy as eating a steak.

Where am I going with all this?

Twilight (2005)

The year was 2005. I was nine years old reading at an 11th-grade level. Getting my hands on this book was like drinking water (or blood if you're a vampire) for the first time. I don't know what about these books gripped me, but have I been sat since.

You know the story of Twilight. Bella Swan moves from sunny Arizona to cloudy and cold Forks, Washington with nothing but a cactus and a dream.

She's immediately the new hot girl in town (because no one moves to Forks) but she doesn't want the other boys, she wants Edward, a vegetarian vampire who reallyyyyyyy wants to drink her blood.

Twilight vampires are not like the other vampires I've described above. They aren't hurt by sunlight, they sparkle. Animal blood doesn't make them weaker, it's just harder to resist the urge. No fangs, all their teeth are piercing. Super hard skin. You get it.

My favorite part of Twilight is how deeply unserious the Cullens are. Vampires are the ultimate predators. They look like us, talk like us, and sometimes even go to school with us, but in Twilight they never act as predators.

Edward's whole thing (besides purity because, Mormon) is if he tastes one drop of Bella's blood, he will drain her dry. In the first book, Carlisle says "bet" and MAKES EDWARD TEST THE THEORY, which is wild, especially in the room with everyone else.

In the New Moon, Bella gets a tiny cut on her finger and Jasper nearly kills her, but wasn't he in the ballet studio when Bella was bleeding out???

In Breaking Dawn, the Cullens bring 100 VAMPIRES to Forks and not a single "wild and barbaric" vampire kills anyone in town because they all respect Carlisle too much.

We aren't even going to dip our toe into the racism disguised as a vampire-werewolf feud, but we will talk about the problematic nature of the book.

Stepanie Myer says Black vampires can't exist in her world because the venom eats their melanin (brunette vampires exist so...).

Jasper was in the Confederate Army (and proud of it).

Rewriting and appropriating the culture of an existing Native American tribe.

Making Jacob a literal pedo.

So much misogyny.

And honestly, this is just the start.

Stephanie Myer (mormon) does not use any of the above for her Twilight inspiration. She instead uses Jane Eyre, Lincon Park, and My Chemical Romance as her literary muses, which okay??? I wouldn't be me if I didn't bring up the connection between My Chemical Romance, 9/11, Twilight, and Fifty Shades so, here ya go.

Other vampire books I've loved and consumed over the years include:

House of Night Series by P.C Cast (I read these between Twilight, and they are so bad but this is my vampire history recap so I had to mention it).

House of Hunger by Alexis Henderson

Fang Fiction by Kate Stayman-London

Thirst by Marina Yuszczuk

Immortal Dark by Tigest Girma

Hungerstone by Kat Dunn

If I'm being honest, I'm only scratching the surface of my vampire obsession. I didn't talk about watching True Blood at an insanely young age, Vampire Academy, Vampire Diaries, Blade, Supernatural, how I missed Buffy, and still think about how cool I would have been if I'd seen it air live.

So, let's talk about what I want to see as a 60-year-old vampire fan girl.

I hope we can return to why humans are so drawn to vampires in story and IRL.

Bring back hedonism. The teen vampire is played out (maybe because I'm 28), I want to see adult vampires on screen being sexy.

Deep, emotional vampire stories are back with Nosferatu (2024). Nosferatu is not just a vampire; he's a metaphor as was Carmilla and Dracula. Ellen Hutter speaking of Nosferatu says "He is my shame. He is my melancholy. He took me as his lover then, and now he has come back." Vampires are more than the heartthrob, they are death, desire, fear, and addiction.

Most of all, I want to see more lesbian vampires.

If this wasn't enough vampire lore, watch Monstrosity & the Vampire: A History by Jess of the Shire. She did 4 months of research; I just watched her video.

Here is a very short list of things I'm into this week:

Reading: And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

I'm not really a mystery girlie, but I can see why Ms. Christie was popping off. What I don't understand is how she wrote almost 80 books in her lifetime.

Eating: Mezze Family Style

It's restaurant week in the city and I highly recommend dressing up, going out, and gossiping with the girlies.

Playing: Interview with the Vampire

I'm watching Interview with the Vampire (2022) for the first time and holy shit why didn't anyone tell me about it?

This show is everything I want to see in the future of vamp media. Gay, sexy, scary, and funny with commentary on race, class, human curiosity, community, and mortality. My only complaint is everyone is so mean and uncharitable to my queen, Claudia!

Obsessing: Vampires (Duh)

A large portion of my week has been spent doing this. I've been writing, reading, watching, and dreaming vampires for 6 days. Honestly, I'm not mad about it.

Recommending: Valentine's Patterns

If you're making things for Valentine's Day, start now!

I leave you with this because this album is still on repeat.

[astrangergivingthestrangewelcome]

I am so fed up with the Coppola film like I really hate what's it's done to Dracula analysis like look at this

And look. People are allowed to like the Coppola film. They can enjoy a dark Mina x Dracula love story if they want to, it's a firm ruling of "let people enjoy things" from me. But the author clearly watched the Coppola film, then read Dracula and superimposed the movie onto the book bc that's what she was expecting and wanting from the story and that's what I find so annoying. I hate that he called the movie *Bram Stoker's* Dracula bc people start to think it really is. Like dude just adapt Carmilla. She actually was supposed to be in love with Laura.

No he isn't he's a rapist in love with his own power stoppppp

[onebluebookworm]

Ranking the Books I Read in 2021:  35-31

35. Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me by Mariko Tamaki

What I liked: Lovely artwork. Cute, simple story. The story doesn’t end with Laura Dean being revealed as a secret sweetheart who just needed love and time to become a better person, and that’s honestly very refreshing. What I didn’t like: As cute as the story is, it’s just kinda boring. The characters didn’t really stand out, to the point where I legit cannot remember their names.

34. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

What I liked: Some beautiful imagery and language. Short and simple. The relationship between Janie and Tea Cake was honestly very cute and lovely and I felt horrible when Tea Cake died. What I didn’t like: I hate dialogue written in dialect (it makes every book it shows up in feel one thousand times longer than it actually is). The middle of the book was incredibly boring.

33. Dracula by Bram Stoker

What I liked: Dracula being portrayed as an actual threat and monster as opposed to the modern portrayal of him as sexy and misunderstood. The pretty progressive view of female characters (Lucy isn’t a sexualized tart like most modern portrayals, but rather a sweet, naive girl who’s love dearly by her family and friends, and the minute Mina is excluded from helping with Dracula, shit goes wrong). Some moments are actually legitimately unnerving. What I didn’t like: The sheer amount of detail that dragged the story to an almost unbearable pace.

32. The Promised Neverland, Vol. 1 by Kaiu Shirai

What I liked: Great tension. Isabella is probably one of the most terrifying sociopaths I’ve read in recent memory. Some pretty scary imagery that’s great for a sicko like me. What I didn’t like: All the other characters were kind of boring (I get that it’s the first volume, so that’s likely to change, but I wasn’t invested in them enough from the onset to continue).

31: A House for the Season series by Marion Chesney

What I liked: Usually as funny as Chesney’s other regency romances. The romances themselves were usually pretty fun and fluffy. The romance between Angus and Mrs. Middleton absolutely sent me. What I didn’t like: The found family element wasn’t nearly enough to make the servants an enjoyable cast (I would kick Joseph down a flight of stairs if he were a real person). I hate family of choice stories where none of the characters stick together or even seem to like each other all that much. A couple of the books just seemed to end.

[forthegothicheroine]

american psycho, the company of wolves, beauty and the beast (og disney), beauty and the beast (disney remake), tim burton's sleepy hollow, the over the garden wall miniseries, disney's legend of sleepy hollow (lmao i want it to be fall so bad), sofia coppola's marie antoinette, sofia coppola's the beguiled, the innocents, fire walk with me, crimson peak, coppocula

Hoo boy! Stuffing this big series of answers below the cut.

American Psycho:

never seen | want to see | the worst | bad | whatever | not my thing | good | great | favorite | masterpiece

Love it! I don't think the book would do it for me (I don't do well with graphic torture) but I thought the movie did a good job of showing us the kind of things he was doing, while also leaving enough ambiguity even before the twist at the end, and letting us sympathize with his depression (even if he can't name it) while also making him deeply unpleasant.

The Company of Wolves:

never seen | want to see | the worst | bad | whatever | not my thing | good | great | favorite | masterpiece

Do I like it as a big feminist statement? Honestly, not really- there's no sympathy for any women who aren't Rosalie or maybe her mother, and I think we are supposed to be conflicted over whether the choice she makes at the end is the right one. Do I like it as an exploration of an adolescent female id? Absolutely. Sex and violence and terror and quests are all on her mind and are all equally awful and thrilling, and Rosalie wants what's bad for her and isn't sure it's actually bad for her and the balance of power is always see-sawing and the whole thing feels like the most amazing dream.

Beauty and the Beast (original):

never seen | want to see | the worst | bad | whatever | not my thing | good | great | favorite | masterpiece

I thought the Beast was too mean when I was a little kid and forming my Disney opinions- I might actually like it more now. This is probably why I like the Cocteau version, even though what he does is basically still just as bad, because at least he's not a dick about it (and Panna a nevtor, which plays it all for gothic horror.)

Sleepy Hollow:

never seen | want to see | the worst | bad | whatever | not my thing | good | great | favorite | masterpiece

In retrospect, this one shows a lot of the problems that would later kill my love for Tim Burton, but it's still a lot of fun. The Hessian is genuinely scary, Johnny Depp is mugging a bit but it's not as bad as it would eventually get, and I want all the dresses.

Over the Garden Wall:

never seen | want to see | the worst | bad | whatever | not my thing | good | great | favorite | masterpiece

Pure distilled autumn in its aspects of both harvest and death, fun and fear. It's a world based on vintage Halloween postcards and fairytales that don't actually exist but feel like they do. I love every character, and that momentary flash where we see what the Beast looks like haunts my nightmares. My only caveat is that I do sometimes have to tell other people to keep watching after Schoolyard Follies, there will be a plot I promise!

Disney's Legend of Sleepy Hollow:

never seen | want to see | the worst | bad | whatever | not my thing | good | great | favorite | masterpiece

I think this is one of those where I never saw the whole thing, just the main song on one of those Best of Disney compilation videos. I'll at least give it credit for preserving the original story rather than making the Headless Horseman actually real (which I think most adaptations do because frankly the original story isn't long enough for feature length.)

Marie Antoinette:

never seen | want to see | the worst | bad | whatever | not my thing | good | great | favorite | masterpiece

This seems like one of those movies where you've supposed to get into the mood of the music and the visuals more so than the plot or characters? I can get into that.

The Beguiled:

never seen | want to see | the worst | bad | whatever | not my thing | good | great | favorite | masterpiece

I still don't know if I want to see this or not! The concept sounds cool and creepy, but I don't like the idea that these ladies are the good guys. Or maybe I'm wrong and nobody's supposed to be a good guy? Or maybe I should watch the grimier original since I unfortunately find young Clint Eastwood hot?

The Innocents:

never seen | want to see | the worst | bad | whatever | not my thing | good | great | favorite | masterpiece

I'm personally of the opinion that the ghosts in The Turn of the Screw were real (it's just that screaming at a child is not a good way to exorcise them), but the deliberate ambiguity/unreliability of this version is also creepy in its own way. It's a much darker ghost story that you'd get from most big studio films of the time, certainly.

Fire Walk With Me:

never seen | want to see | the worst | bad | whatever | not my thing | good | great | favorite | masterpiece

This really did a good job of portraying its protagonist as a real person rather than just an object of clinical observation or perverse whimsy (which I think Twin Peaks the Return fell into.) It's just so heartbreakingly sensitive and Sheryl Lee does such a good job of portraying Laura as both kind and mean, loving and hateful, and absolutely the victim of someone she should have been able to trust. And then the end, where Cooper is smiling gently at her and the angel has come back and she's laughing in relief? Oh my god.

Crimson Peak

never seen | want to see | the worst | bad | whatever | not my thing | good | great | favorite | masterpiece

I didn't love this as much as I thought I would (maybe because I was spoiled about what was up with the Sharpes, or maybe because I didn't like the implication that Edith should have gone with the nice boy best friend she didn't love) but I'd still say it's a good entry in the gothic romance genre. Stunning clothes and scenery, great actors, scary ghosts, an ending open enough for fanfiction. If I picked this up as an Avon Satanic Gothic at a thrift store, I'd definitely be happy!

Coppocula (Bram Stoker's Dracula)

never seen | want to see | the worst | bad | whatever | not my thing | good | great | favorite | masterpiece

Oof. I don't want to be a snob about this. I've definitely liked Dracula movies that were wackier or dumber than this (looking at you, 2004 BBC version!) This one just breaks my heart because there's so much talent on display and I just. fucking. hate it! That soundtrack deserved a better movie. That red dress deserved a better movie. All the characters deserved better writing. Whenever someone tells me they love this movie, I have to nod and say that it's certainly beautiful looking, because I don't want to be a terrible gatekeeper, and if it was an original vampire story it might well be a guilty pleasure of mine. I just fucking hate it. On the bright side, it did give us Vlad the Poker in the What We Do in the Shadows movie, a pitch-fucking-perfect parody of Gary Oldman's Dracula, and the Nadja/Gregor plot in the What We Do in the Shadows tv show, a pitch-fucking-perfect deconstruction of the reincarnated wife trope.

[alicenthighstower]

hii aish! can you give some good book/musical recommendations? if you have any, that is. remember to stay safe and healthy <3, justa passing anon.

hi anon, thanks for the ask!! since you didn’t specify genres or styles, I’m just going to suggest some of my favourites :)

books

YA (mostly fantasy) The Young Elites trilogy by Marie Lu: beautiful writing!!! astoundingly intricate worldbuilding!!! complex characters!!! deliciously dark!!! representation!!

Strange the Dreamer duology by Laini Taylor: BEAUTIFUL writing!!! beautiful worldbuilding!!! beautiful characters!!! representation!! these books are just so pretty and magical

The Kingdom of Back (standalone) by Marie Lu: historical fiction, wonderfully whimsical and fantastical, again very pretty and lovely

Heartless (standalone) by Marissa Meyer: the queen of hearts’ story, very well-executed (that’s a brilliant pun and you must laugh) and I loved it

Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy by Laini Taylor: very wonderful, lots of angst, magic and angels and demons, what more do you want?

Six of Crows duology by Leigh Bardugo: heists!! wonderful characters!!! angst!! representation!!! you probably know this already so I’ll keep you from having to read more cringy descriptions than you have to

The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins: so nuanced and powerful and just AAAAAA; again, you probably already know this

classics (I’ll just list these)

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde All of Jane Austen except for Mansfield Park Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald Frankenstein by Mary Shelley Dracula by Bram Stoker 1984 by George Orwell To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

musicals

Hadestown: my favourite musical, it’s so poetic and beautiful and artistic and wonderful alsdkajdl

Falsettos: stephanie j block? stephanie j block. a moving, heart-wrenching musical about family and love and loss and all the forms it can take and an all-around masterpiece

She Loves Me: so cute and beautiful and wonderful, very Austen vibes also laura benanti <3

The Band’s Visit: so. underrated. such a genius creation. it’s built around silences and it’s so heartfelt and real and please watch this for the love of all things wonderful. also katrina lenk <3

Wicked: a classic, GORGEOUS costumes, very gay story about two girls better known as Glinda the Good and the Wicked Witch of the West and how they grew up together and just alsdkajdl. it’s loved for a reason.

Anastasia: based on the movie, very magical and beautiful and I love it <3

Les Miserables and Phantom of the Opera: both, such classics, so grand and wonderful, based on books centred in France

I’m going to stop here, but feel free to ask for more if you’ve already covered most of the things on here!! a lot of them are quite well-known so I really won’t mind

hope you have a lovely day!!

and if you want bootlegs for the musicals, DM me

[solo-bolo-trollo]

EVERY MOVIE I WATCHED IN 2019

(the orange ones are films I really, really loved)

1. 20th Century Women (2016, dir. Mike Mills)

2. 6 Underground (2019, dir. Michael Bay)

3. A Dirty Shame (2004, dir. John Waters)

4. Absence of Malice (1981, dir. Sydney Pollack)

5. Anima (2019, dir. Paul Thomas Anderson)

6. Ánimas (2018, dir. Laura Alvea & José F. Ortuño)

7. Antiquities (2018, dir. Daniel Campbell)

8. Apocalypse Now (1979, dir. Francis Ford Coppola)

9. Aquaman (2018, dir. James Wan)

10. Badlands (1973, dir. Terrence Malick)

11. Barbary-Coast Bunny (1956, dir. Chuck Jones)

12. Batman and Robin (1997, dir. Joel Schumacher)

13. Between Two Ferns: The Movie (2019, dir. Scott Aukerman)

14. Blackfish (2013, dir. Gabriela Cowperthwaite)

15. Bound (1996, dir. Lana & Lilly Wachowski)

16. Bon Iver: Autumn (2019, dir. Andrew Swant)

17. Booksmart (2019, dir. Olivia Wilde)

18. Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992, dir. Francis Ford Coppola)

19. Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018, dir. Marielle Heller)

20. Casino (1995, dir. Martin Scorsese)

21. Cher: Live in Concert from Las Vegas (1999, dir. David Mallet)

22. Chinatown (1974, dir. Roman Polanski)

23. Christine (2016, dir. Antonio Campos)

24. CinemAbility (2013, dir. Jenni Gold)

25. Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962, dir. Agnès Varda)

26. Close (2019, dir. Vicky Jewson)

27. Country Music (2019, dir. Ken Burns)

28. Drag Me to Hell (2009, dir. Sam Raimi)

29. El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie (2019, dir. Vince Gilligan)

30. Female Trouble (1974, dir. John Waters)

31. First Man (2018, dir. Damien Chazelle)

32. Flesh + Blood (1985, dir. Paul Verhoeven)

33. Gloria Bell (2018, dir. Sebastián Lelio)

34. Gosford Park (2001, dir. Robert Altman)

35. Greta (2018, dir. Neil Jordan)

36. He Got Game (1998, dir. Spike Lee)

37. Her Smell (2018, dir. Alex Ross Perry)

38. Hereditary (2018, dir. Ari Aster)

39. High Flying Bird (2019, dir. Steven Soderbergh)

40. High Life (2018, dir. Claire Denis)

41. His Girl Friday (1940, dir. Howard Hawks)

42. I Am Easy to Find (2019, dir. Mike Mills)

43. I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House (2016, dir. Oz Perkins)

44. If Beale Street Could Talk (2018, dir. Barry Jenkins)

45. Inherent Vice (2014, dir. Paul Thomas Anderson)

46. Jenny Slate: Stage Fright (2019, dir. Gillian Robespierre)

47. Joe Pera Talks You to Sleep (2016, dir. Kieran O’Hare)

48. John Mulaney & the Sack Lunch Bunch (2019, dir. Rhys Thomas)

49. Late Spring (1949, dir. Yasujirȏ Ozu)

50. Long Day’s Journey Into Night (2018, dir. Bi Gan)

51. Lyle (2014, dir. Stewart Thorndike)

52. Ma (2019, dir. Tate Taylor)

53. Magnolia (1999, dir. Paul Thomas Anderson)

54. Man with a Movie Camera (1929, dir. Dziga Vertov)

55. Maniac (2018, dir. Cary Joji Fukunaga)

56. Marriage Story (2019, dir. Noah Baumbach)

57. Maudie (2016, dir. Aisling Walsh)

58. Mean Streets (1973, dir. Martin Scorsese)

59. Metropolis (1927, dir. Fritz Lang)

60. Miami Vice (2006, dir. Michael Mann)

61. Michelle Wolf: Joke Show (2019, dir. Lance Bangs)

62. Midsommar (2019, dir. Ari Aster)

63. Mike Birbiglia: My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend (2013, dir. Seth Barrish)

64. Molly’s Game (2017, dir. Aaron Sorkin)

65. Move Over, Darling (1963, dir. Michael Gordon)

66. Nowhere (1997, dir. Gregg Araki)

67. Okja (2017, dir. Bong Joon-ho)

68. Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood (2019, dir. Quentin Tarantino)

69. Pet Sematary (2019, dir. Kevin Kölsch & Dennis Widmyer)

70. Pink Flamingos (1972, dir. John Waters)

71. Possession (1981, dir. Andrzej Żuławski)

72. R.E.M.: Road Movie (1996, dir. Peter Care)

73. Reality Bites (1994, dir. Ben Stiller)

74. Rocketman (2019, dir. Dexter Fletcher)

75. Roman J. Israel, Esq. (2017, dir. Dan Gilroy)

76. Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975, dir. Pier Paolo Pasolini)

77. Sátántangó (1994, dir. Béla Tarr)

78. Serial Mom (1994, dir. John Waters)

79. Scandal Sheet (1952, dir. Phil Karlson)

80. Scooby-Doo (2002, dir. Raja Gosnell)

81. She’s All That (1999, dir. Robert Iscove)

82. Shocker (1989, dir. Wes Craven)

83. Song to Song (2017, dir. Terrence Malick)

84. Sorcerer (1977, dir. William Friedkin)

85. Southland Tales (2006, dir. Richard Kelly)

86. Suspiria (2018, dir. Luca Guadagnino)

87. The Age of Innocence (1993, dir. Martin Scorsese)

88. The Aviator (2004, dir. Martin Scorsese)

89. The Beach Bum (2019, dir. Harmony Korine)

90. The Bellboy (1960, dir. Jerry Lewis)

91. The Blackcoat’s Daughter (2015, dir. Oz Perkins)

92. The Box (2009, dir. Richard Kelly)

93. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920, dir. Robert Wiene)

94. The Dead Don’t Die (2019, dir. Jim Jarmusch)

95. The Farewell (2019, dir. Lulu Wang)

96. The Fast and the Furious (2001, dir. Rob Cohen)

97. The Favourite (2018, dir. Yorgos Lanthimos)

98. The Fourth Man (1983, dir. Paul Verhoeven)

99. The Goodbye Place (1996, dir. Richard Kelly)

100. The House That Jack Built (2018, dir. Lars von Trier)

101. The Invitation (2015, dir. Karyn Kusama)

102. The Irishman (2019, dir. Martin Scorsese)

103. The King of Comedy (1982, dir. Martin Scorsese)

104. The Little Hours (2017, dir. Jeff Baena)

105. The Long Day Closes (1992, dir. Terence Davies)

106. The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (2018, dir. Terry Gilliam)

107. The New World (2005, dir. Terrence Malick)

108. The Polka King (2017, dir. Maya Forbes)

109. The Queen (1968, dir. Frank Simon)

110. The Rainmaker (1997, dir. Francis Ford Coppola)

111. The Skin I Live In (2011, dir. Pedro Almodóvar)

112. The Lonely Island Presents: The Unauthorized Bash Brothers Experience (2019, dir. Mike Diva & Akiva Schaffer)

113. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948, dir. John Huston)

114. The War Room (1993, dir. Chris Hegedus & D.A. Pennebaker)

115. The Warriors (1979, dir. Walter Hill)

116. True Romance (1993, dir. Tony Scott)

117. Unedited Footage of a Bear (2014, dir. Ben O’Brien & Alan Resnick)

118. Us (2019, dir. Jordan Peele)

119. Under the Silver Lake (2018, dir. David Robert Mitchell)

120. When I Get Home (2019, dir. Alan Ferguson, Solange Knowles, Terence Nance, Jacolby Satterwhite & Ray Tintori)

121. Widows (2018, dir. Steve McQueen)

122. Zach Galifianakis: Live at the Purple Onion (2006, dir. Michael Bliedevn)

[lauralot89]

now I mentioned that my mom did not enjoy this movie

I did not mention that when we got to Van Helsing's introduction she went "Oh my GOD" because I guess she couldn't believe they got Anthony Hopkins to be part of this

I mean, this is neither the first nor the last time Anthony Hopkins ended up in nonsense movies, mom

[labime]

which are your fav tv series, movies, book (and ships if you have them) and why?

favorite shows: alias, american horror story (season 1-3), big little lies, billions (season 1 only), black mirrors, breaking bad, buffy the vampire slayer, charmed, criminal minds, dexter, doctor who (season 5-7), game of thrones (season 1-7), good girls, gotham (season 1-3), grey’s anatomy (season 1-8), hannibal, how to get away with murder (season 1 only), jessica jones, law & order: special victims unit (season 1-10), medici: master of florence, mindhunter, nikita, once upon a time, peaky blinders (season 1-2), prison break, rome, sense8, sharp objects, sons of anarchy, spartacus, supernatural (season 1-5), taboo, the affair (season 1 only), the borgias, the handmaid’s tale, the musketeers, the tudors, the walking dead, true blood, true detective, victoria (season 1-2), vikings (season 1-4), westworld.

favorite movies: 12 years a slave, anna karenina, batman v superman, black swan, cinderella (2015), crazy stupid love, cruel intentions, dracula (1992), dracula untold (2014), gangster squad, gladiator, gone girl, gone with the wind, harry potter, inception, interview with the vampire (1994), it, la la land, le fabuleux destin d'amélie poulain, lolita (1997), moulin rouge, red eye, scarface, schindler’s list, sinister, star wars: the last jedi, stoker, suffragette, the dark knight, the devil wears prada, the great gatsby, the godfather, the help, the mummy (1999), the shape of water, the shinning, troy, wake up and die, wonder woman (2017), wuthering heights (1939; 1992; 2009).

favorite couples: achilles/briseis, angel/darla, anna karenina/alexei vronsky, ares/aphrodite, beth boland/rio, cassandra of troy/apollo, catherine earnshaw/heathcliff, cesare borgia/lucrezia borgia, charlie stoker/india stoker, count dracula/mina harker, daenerys targaryen/jon snow, gannicus/melitta, helen of troy/paris, jaime lannister/cersei lannister, jessica jones/zebediah killgrave, klaus mikaelson/caroline forbes, lisa reisert/jackson rippner, marya morevna/koschei the deathless, mia/sebastian, olivia pope/fitzgerald grant, rhaegar targaryen/lyanna stark, spike/buffy summers, tom riddle/hermione granger, will graham/hannibal lecter.

favorite books: a song of ice and fire by george r.r. martin, american gods by neil gaiman, anna karenina by leo tolstoy, bone gap by laura ruby, coraline by neil gaiman, deathless by catherynne valente, dracula by bram stoker, forbidden by tabitha suzuma, gone with the wind by margaret mitchell, gone girl by gillian flynn, hunting season by beau taplin, it by stephen king, keturah and lord death by martine leavitt, lolita by vladimir nabokov, notre-dame de paris by victor hugo, practice makes perfect by julie james, sharp objects by gillian flynn, spinning silver by naomi novik, the bloody chamber by angela carter., the farseer trilogy by robin hobb, the girl next door by jack ketchum, the handmaid’s tale by margaret atwood, the husband stitch by carmen maria machado, the iliad by homer, the mists of avalon by marion zimmer bradley, the shining by stephen king, the silver devil by teresa denys, this secret we’re keeping by rebecca done, wuthering heights by emily brontë.

i know it sounds awfully generic but most of the time the movies and shows i prefer are just the ones that grab my interest. character-driven stories are my favorite but if it’s done well plot-filled and action movies/shows can be extremely good too. i also very much appreciate the cinematography, music, and direction, so much that i can watch and enjoy movies only for that. in some cases, like in schindler’s list and la la land the music is so beautiful it can be distracting and yet so carefully chosen it simply immerses me in the scenes.

when it comes to books i enjoy the writing above all. even the most interesting, unique concept will fall short if the writing is contrived and the execution poor. i prefer prose poetry but the themes and messages conveyed in the books are what really captivates me.

the couples i ship are usually relationships that allow me to explore certain dynamics i find intriguing—either because of the writing or the chemistry between the actors/actresses—and that further the general plot or their individual characterization. i tend to to be more intrigued by enemies to lovers and gothic romance but it’s mostly the complexity of the relationships that fascinate me.

[nightingveilxo]

Mark Gatiss says Dracula TV series will be "a while yet" – but will he be playing The Count?

"I think it's time for a female Dracula!"

Last we heard, Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat will begin work on their first post-Sherlock project in early 2018, though Gatiss has now warned not to expect Dracula any time soon.

The pair will be turning their talents to a reinvention of the horror legend, but – on set for the Doctor Who Christmas special – Gatiss cautioned that the planned series is still "a way's away".

The show was announced in June, with Gatiss admitting, "It was an amazing reaction to basically just putting a flag in the sand. [But] it'll be a while yet."

Of course, Gatiss has played Count Dracula himself – starring in a four-hour audio adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel, released by Big Finish in May 2016.

So we couldn't resist asking.... is he planning to take up the cape and fangs again for the new TV series?

"It's the big one, isn't it?" he said with a grin, before quipping, "I think it's time for a female Dracula!"

We'd be up for either option, tbh.

Dracula will adopt the same format as its predecessor Sherlock, airing as shorter series comprising feature-length episodes.

Despite all those Sherlock similarities, though, the show will categorically NOT reimagine Vlad the Impaler as a sexy genius crime-solver. "[It's] Dracula solves crimes!" Moffat joked at a Doctor Who event in June, before adding: "I just made that up – it's not that, it's not that!"

Dracula will be co-written by Moffat and Gatiss and will be produced by Sue Vertue's Hartswood Films.

He also gave the interview below where he was discussing it, and mentioned “or herself” then backpedaled, concerned fans would run with that, but it was after this piece, so ???

And in this interview, that it’s a stablemate of Sherlock Holmes. He also goes on about Mary and the scene of Sherlock and John running from Rathbone Place.

The Vampire Lovers is a 1970 British-American gothic horror film directed by Roy Ward Baker and starring Peter Cushing, Ingrid Pitt, Madeline Smith, Kate O'Mara and Jon Finch. It was produced by Hammer Film Productions. It is based on the J. Sheridan Le Fanu novella Carmilla and is part of the so-called Karnstein Trilogy of films, the other films being Lust for a Vampire (1971) and Twins of Evil (1972). The three films were somewhat daring for the time in explicitly depicting lesbian vampire themes.

Plot: In early 19th century Styria, a beautiful blonde (Kirsten Lindholm) in a diaphanous gown materializes from a misty graveyard. Encountering the Baron Hartog (Douglas Wilmer), a vampire hunter out to avenge the death of his sister, the girl is identified as a vampire and decapitated. Many years later, a dark-haired lady leaves her daughter Marcilla (Ingrid Pitt) in the care of General Spielsdorf (Peter Cushing) and his family in Styria. Marcilla quickly befriends the General's niece, Laura (Pippa Steel). Laura subsequently suffers nightmares that she is being attacked, and dies of a gradual sickness; whereupon Marcilla departs.

Faking a carriage break-down, Marcilla's mother leaves her (now using the alias 'Carmilla') at the residence of a Mr. Morton, where Carmilla befriends and seduces Morton's daughter Emma (Madeline Smith). Thereafter Emma suffers nightmares of penetration over the heart, and her breast shows tiny wounds. Emma's governess, Mademoiselle Perrodot (Kate O'Mara), becomes Carmilla's accomplice. The butler and a doctor suspect them; but Carmilla kills each one. A mysterious man in black watches events from a distance, smiling (his presence is never explained). Having killed the butler, Carmilla takes Emma prisoner and departs. When Mademoiselle Perrodot begs Carmilla to take her too, Carmilla kills her. Emma is rescued by a young man named Carl (Jon Finch), and Carmilla flees to her ancestral castle, now a ruin. All this coincides with the arrival of the General, who brings a now-aged Baron Hartog. They find Carmilla's grave, which reveals that her true name is Mircalla Karnstien, where the General forces a stake into Carmilla's heart, and cuts off her head. Thereupon Carmilla's portrait on the wall shows a fanged skeleton instead of a beautiful young woman.

Bringing these back, after discussion with @yorkiepug

[falling-through-lost-spaces]

Books Owned But Unread

Fiction:

Joe Hill - The Fireman

Patricia Highsmith - The Talented Mr Ripley

Emma Cline - Girls

Kirsty Logan - The Gracekeepers

Seth Patrick - Lost Souls

Slyvain Neuval - Waking Gods

Mark Z. Danielewski - The Familiar Vol 1

Graeme Macrae Burnet - His Bloody Project

Austin Wright - Tony & Susan

Patricia Highsmith - Carol

Darcie Wilder - Literally Show Me A Healthy Person

Tracy Chevalier - New Boy

Andy Weir - Artemis

Michelle Paver - Dark Matter

Robert Daws - The Posisoned Rock

Laura Lam - False Hearts

Italo Calvino - If On A Winter’s Night A Traveler

Megan Bradbury - Everyone Is Watching

Sunil Yapa - Your Heart Is A Muscle the Size of A Fist

George R.R. Martin - A Clash of Kings

Sarah Moss - The Tidal Zone

Matthew Blakstad - Lucky Ghost

Toni Morrison - Tar Baby

Jeff Vandermeer - Annihilation

Colson Whitehead - Zone One

Kathy Reichs - Death Du Jour

Ann Cleeves - The Crow Trap

Ward Moore - Bring the Jubilee

Lisa McInerney - The Glorious Heresies

Chuck Palahniuk - Haunted

Michael Crichton - State of Fear

Neil Gaiman - How the Marguis Got His Coat Back

Agatha Christie - The Double Clue

James Patterson - NYPD Red 2

Maud Pember Reeves - Round About A Pound A Week

Paul Torday - Salmon Fishing In the Yemen

Jonathan Safran Foer - Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

Daniel H Wilson - Robopocalypse

Yann Martel - Life of Pi

David Wong - John Dies At the End

Lauren Weisberger - The Devil Wears Prada

James Joyce - A Portrait of the Artist As A Young Man

John Ajvide Lindquist - Let the Right One In

Gregory Maguire - Wicked

Richard Yates - Revolutionary Road

Paul Beatty - The Sellout

Jane Shemilt - Daughter

Jane Isaac - The Truth Will Out

Karin Slaughter - Genesis

S.K. Tremayne - The Fire Child

Isaac Marion - The Burning World

Adrien Bosc - Constellation

Laura Power - Air-Born

Laura Power - Earth-Bound

Keith DeCandido - House of Cards

Wayne Simmons - Flu

Harper Lee - Go Set A Watchman

Dean Koontz - The City

Charlotte Bronte - Jane Eyre

Ali Smith - The Accidental

John Burnside - Glister

Lauren Owen - The Quick

Tom McCarthy - Satin Island

Dave Eggers - The Circle

Donna Tartt - The Secret History

Robert Harris - The Ghost

Michel Faber - The Fire Gospel

Michel Faber - The Book of Strange New Things

James Patterson - Pop Goes the Weasel

Jeff Lindsay - Dexter’s Final Cut

Gaston Leroux - The Phantom of the Opera

Banana Yoshimoto - Kitchen

Sinclair Lewis - It Can’t Happen Here

Kurt Vonnegut - Cat’s Cradle

Joseph Heller - Catch 22

Mark Twain - The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Bram Stoker - Dracula

Cory Doctorow - Makers

YA/Children's Fiction:

A.S. King - Still Life With Tornado

Patrick Ness - More Than This

Andrew Smith - Stand Off

Andrew Smith - The Alex Crow

Johan Harstad - 172 Hours on the Moon

Ernest Cline - Ready Player One

Tommy Wallach - We All Looked Up

Karen Thompson Walker - The Age of Miracles

Tess Sharpe - Far From You

Leila Sales - This Song Will Save Your Life

Darragh McManus - Shiver the Whole Night Through

Rachel Cohn & David Levithan - Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist

Laura Lam - Pantomime

Laura Lam - Shadowplay

Cassandra Clare - The Bane Chronicles

Cassandra Clare - Tales From the Shadowhunter Academy

Cassandra Clare - The Shadowhunters Codex

Cassandra Clare - Lady Midnight

Cassandra Clare - Lord of Shadows

Andrew Smith - 100 Sideways Miles

Karen Nesbitt - Subject To Change

Anna Day - The Fandom

Brendan Reichs - Nemesis

Chinelo Okparanta - Under the Udala Trees

Nina LaCour - We Are Okay

Sarah Alexander - The Art of Not Breathing

Liz Kessler - Read Me Like A Book

Lisa Williamson - The Art of Being Normal

Laurie Halse Anderson - Wintergirls

Marie Lu - Legend

Eve Ainsworth - 7 Days

Lesley Walton - The Strange & Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender

Malinda Lo - Ash

Larry Duplechan - Blackbird

Makina Lucier - A Death Struck Year

James Patterson - Witch & Wizard

Jandy Nelson - I’ll Give You the Sun

Nick Burd - The Vast Fields of Ordinary

Libba Bray - Beauty Queens

Jack Cheng - See You In the Cosmos

Jennifer Niven - Holding Up the Universe

Becky Albertalli - The Upside of Unrequieted

Lauren Oliver - Replica

Ken Catran - Deepwater Black

Will McIntosh - Burning Midnight

Tahereh Mafi - Shatter Me

Libba Bray - The Diviners

Emily M Danforth - The Miseducation of Cameron Post

Carolyn Jess-Cooke - The Boy Who Could See Demons

Bali Rai - Killing Honour

Gayle Forman - If I Stay

Andre Aciman - Call Me By Your Name

E. Lockhart - We Were Liars

Katie Coyle - Vivian Versus the Apocalypse

Leah Thomas - Because You’ll Never Meet Me

David Arnold - Mosquitoland

Laure Eve - The Graces

Lisa Heathfield - Paper Butterflies

Ransom Riggs - Hollow City

Em Bailey - Shift

Francesca Haig - The Map of Bones

Rainbow Rowell - Carry On

Bryony Pearce - Phoenix Rising

Lou Morgan - Sleepless

Graham Marks - Bad Bones

Jess Vallence - Birdy

Teri Terry - Slated

Non-Fiction:

Brian Cox - Human Universe

D’Arcy Jenish - The NHL: A Centennial History

Greg Oliver - Don’t Call Me Goon

Andrew Hodges - Alan Turing: The Enigma

Susan Cain - Quiet: The Power of Introverts

Carl Sagan - Cosmos

Rebecca Skloot - The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Brian Cox - E = mc“?

Stacey Schiff - The Witches

Julian Sayarer - Interstate

404 Ink - Nasty Women

Lynn Povich - The Good Girls Revolt

Michael Finkel - The Stranger In the Woods

Kent Russell - I Am Sorry To Think That I Have Raised A Timid Son

Luke Harding - Snowden

Mary Roach - Stiff

Yuval Noah Harari - Homo Deus

Bill Bryson - The Lost Continent

Naomi Klein - No Is Not Enough

Dave Cullen - Columbine

Ian Nathan - Inside the Magic: The Making of Fantastic Beasts

Bob McCabe - Harry Potter Page To Screen

Adharanand Finn - Running With the Kenyans

Aurellien Ferenczi - Masters of Cinema: Tim Burton

Steven Levitt & Stephen Dubner - Think Like A Freak

Olivia Lang - The Lonely City

Michelle Tea - The Chelsea Whistle

Simon  Singh - Big Bang

Tristan Taormino - The Feminist Porn Book

Kurt Vonnegut - A Man Without A Country

Nick Frost - Truths, Half Truths & Little White Lies

Russell Brand - Revolution

Robert M Pirsig - Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Francis Spufford - The Child That Books Built

Dominic Hibberd - Wilfred Owen

George Vecsey - Baseball

Richard Wiseman - Paranormality

Neil Gaiman - Adventures In the Dream Trade

Nicola Field - Over the Rainbow

Jaclyn Friedman & Jessica Valenti - Yes Means Yes

Elizabeth Kolbert - The Sixth Extinction

Eddie Izzard - Dress To Kill

Stephen Smith - Underground London

Plays/Poetry/Short Story Collections:

Tom Hanks - Uncommon Type

Joe Hill - Strange Weather

Dean Atta - I Am Nobody’s N*****

Amerlle - Because You Love To Hate Me

Roxanne Gay - Difficult Women

Mark Gatiss - Queers: Eight Monologues

Graphic Novels/Manga:

Tsugumi Ohba - Death Note Vol 6

Tsugumi Ohba - Death Note Vol 7

Tsugumi Ohba - Death Note Vol 8

[laymedowninsheetsoflinen]

ahh thank youuuu 💗💖

last song: Song For Our Daughter by Laura Marling, listening to her 2020 album for a list of my favourite albums of the year

last movie: Despicable Me 3, i saw it in cinemas with 2 friends when it came out, but mum hadn't seen it so we watched it together

currently watching: absolutely loads - it's terrible. okay so there's: The Big Flower Fight, Star Trek tos, Warrior Nun, Merlin, The End Of The F***ing World, Unforgotten, Reign, Poldark, Pride & Prejudice, Carmen Sandiego, Sword Art Online, Jo Jo's Bizarre Adventures (promised my mate I'd watch those last two), Grace & Frankie, One Day At A Time, Horrible Histories (when am i not tbf), The Umbrella Academy. Oh! & I'm meant to be watching the crown for history. This is far too many, jesus christ.

currenly reading: again, far too many things. okay, so there's: Sense & Sensiblity by Jane Austen, Scotland by Terry Deary (a Horrible Histories one), Dracula by Bram Stoker, The Awakening by Kate Chopin, The Turn Of The Screw by Henry James, A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams for english (side note: i didn't know he was gay!), A Very Short Introduction To American History by Paul S Boyer for history, From Blitz To Blair: A New History Of Britain Since 1939 by Nick Tiratsoo also for history

currently craving: non-platonic affection lol, also some motivation to do college work *sigh*, also a good curry

I'll tag: @dandibee @featherwind @teoologe @yagirlcheesely & anyone else :)

I was tagged by @jacrispyretro for this tag game! Thanks for tagging me! It’s been a fun day and I like doing these tag games! :-)

———-

rules: tag 9 people you wanna get to know better/catch up with

last song: Most Wanted Cowboy by Animal Alpha. Just started listening to them yesterday. Bundy is another great song of theirs!

last movie: Die hard! Watched it for the first time last night, really enjoyed it.

currently watching: Rewatching Due South and Transformers Prime. Also watching random Supernatural episodes. Currently watching His Dark Materials weekly.

currently reading: Terminator 2: Judgment day but it’s been sitting on my dresser for weeks. I’m halfway through it, just got distracted by my college semester wrapping up.

currently craving: Bubble tea! There’s a place by me called Chatime and it has this new drink called an Ube Latte with Creme Brûlée topping. It’s so good 🤤🤤

tags: @anbanananna @thatspookyagent @sp0okyprince @meme-streets @cobraking @arabelledesrosiers @vorsque @mayorofsassycity

[steve-rogers-new-york]

Books Released Pre-WWII

This is a list of classic books released before Steve Rogers went into the ice (1945). They are books that Steve would have read before waking up in the 21st century. Books released after 1942 would likely not have been read by Steve or Bucky, as from 1943 they were in the USO or in active service. The purpose of the list is to highlight books and their cultural references that Steve (and Bucky) would already be familiar with in the 21st century.

Also see the Post-WWII book list.

While not exhausted by any stretch, the list includes many best sellers, as well as books which contain popular cultural references or those with notable social commentary. Excluded from this list are books that clearly pre-date WWII, such as the works of Shakespeare. Feel free to suggest other titles you think Steve or Bucky might have read — please include an explanation for the choice.

1600s - 1942

Don Quixote - Miguel de Cervantes | 1605

Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe | 1719

Gulliver’s Travels - Jonathan Swift | 1726

Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen | 1811

Children’s and Household Tales - The Brothers Grimm | 1812

The Swiss Family Robinson - Johann David Wyss | 1812

Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen | 1813

Mansfield Park - Jane Austen | 1814

Emma - Jane Austen | 1815

Frankenstein - Mary Shelley | 1818

Ivan Hoe - Sir Walter Scott | 1819

Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens | 1838

A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens | 1843

The Ugly Duckling - Hans Christian Anderson | 1843

The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas | 1844

The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas | 1845

Jane Eyre - Charlotte Brontë  | 1847

Withering Heights - Emily Brontë  | 1847

Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray | 1848

David Copperfield - Charles Dickens | 1850

A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys - Nathaniel Hawthorne | 1851

Moby-Dick; or, The Whale - Herman Melville | 1851

The Scarlet Letter - Herman Melville | 1851

Uncle Tom’s Cabin - Harriet Beecher Stowe | 1852

Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert | 1857

A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens | 1859

Great Expectations - Charles Dickens | 1861

Les Misérables - Victor Hugo  1862

Journey to the Centre of the Earth - Jules Verne | 1864

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll | 1865

From the Earth to the Moon - Jules Verne | 1865

Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky | 1866

Little Women - Louise May Alcott | 1868

Middlemarch - George Eliot | 1870

Twenty Thousand leagues Under the Sea - Jules Verne | 1870

Around the World in 80 Days - Jules Verne | 1873

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer - Mark Twain | 1876

Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy | 1877

Black Beauty - Anna Sewell | 1877

Ben-Hur - Lew Wallace | 1880

The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoyevsky | 1880

The Prince and the Pauper - Mark Twain | 1882

The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood - Howard Pyle | 1883 Pinocchio - Carlo Collodi | 1883

Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson | 1883

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain | 1884

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Robert Louis Stevenson | 1886

War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy | 1889

The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde | 1891

Tess of the d’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy | 1891

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle | 1892

The Jungle Book - Rudyard Kipling | 1894

The Importance of Being Earnest - Oscar Wilde | 1895

The Time Machine - H.G. Wells | 1895

The Island of Doctor Moreau - H.G. Wells | 1896

Dracula - Bram Stoker | 1897

The Invisible Man - H.G. Wells | 1897

The War of the Worlds - H.G. Wells | 1898

Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad | 1899

Lord Jim - Joseph Conrad | 1900

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz - L. Frank Baum | 1900

The Call of the Wild - Jack London | 1903

Anne of Green Gables - Lucy Maud Montgomery | 1908

The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame | 1908

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice - Hanns Heinz Ewers | 1910

The Phantom of the Opera - Guston Leroux | 1911

Tarzan of the Apes - Edgar Rice Burroughs | 1912

Of Human Bondage - W. Somerset Maugham | 1915

My Antonia - Willa Cather | 1918

Ulysses - James Joyce | 1922

The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald | 1925

Mrs Dalloway - Virginia Woolf | 1925

The Trial - Franz Kafka | 1925

The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway | 1926

Winnie-the-Pooh - A.A. Milne | 1926

To the Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf | 1927

All Quiet on the Western Front - Erich Maria Remarque | 1929

The Sound and the Fury - William Faulkner | 1929

As I Lay Dying - William Faulkner | 1930

The Maltese Falcon - Dashiell Hammett | 1930

The Good Earth - Pearl S. Buck | 1931

Brave New World - Aldous Huxley | 1932

Supernatural Horror in Literature - H.P. Lovecraft | 1934

Little House on the Prairie - Laura Ingalls Wilder | 1935

Gone With the Wind - Margaret Mitchell | 1936

The Hobbit, or There and back Again - J.R.R. Tolkien | 1937

Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck | 1937

Their Eyes Were Watching God - Zora Neale Hurston | 1937

The Sword in the Stone - T.H. White | 1938

The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck | 1939

For Whom the Bell Tolls - Ernest Hemingway | 1940

Native Son - Richard Wright | 1940

The Stranger - Albert Camus | 1942

Also in this set: Book Released Post-WWII and Science Fiction Book Released Pre-WWII

Images

The Sword in the Stone | Source Tarzan of the Apes | Source The Hobbit | Source The Great Gatsby | Source

References