#historical context

[thethirdromana]

Travels with Jonathan Harker, in pictures

If our good friend Jonathan Harker had sent us some photos along with his lovely email, here's what he might have included. All photos are as close to contemporary as I could find.

Left Munich at 8:35 P. M.:

arriving at Vienna early next morning:

Buda-Pesth seems a wonderful place, from the glimpse which I got of it from the train and the little I could walk through the streets:

We left in pretty good time, and came after nightfall to Klausenburgh:

All day long we seemed to dawdle through a country which was full of beauty of every kind. Sometimes we saw little towns or castles on the top of steep hills such as we see in old missals:

sometimes we ran by rivers and streams which seemed from the wide stony margin on each side of them to be subject to great floods:

The women looked pretty, except when you got near them, but they were very clumsy about the waist. They had all full white sleeves of some kind or other, and most of them had big belts with a lot of strips of something fluttering from them like the dresses in a ballet, but of course there were petticoats under them:

(on the left: the Romanian royal family in peasant cosplay in the early 1900s; on the right, a photoshoot of Romanian national dress in 1868)

It was on the dark side of twilight when we got to Bistritz, which is a very interesting old place:

Bonus: a postcard Jonathan might have picked up for Mina.

[oldshowbiz]

Just a bunch of irrelevant pamphlets from 1946...

[alwaysbewoke]

[immediatebreakfast]

I hadn't the heart to write last night; that terrible record of Jonathan's upset me so. Poor dear! How he must have suffered, whether it be true or only imagination. I wonder if there is any truth in it at all.

Mina writes this as a response after reading Jonathan's journal all by herself, without any outside influence, and oh how beautifully merciful it is.

This book, this novel came out in 1897 right in the middle of queen Victoria's diamond jubilee in england. The first successful self driving taxis go through the streets, the public has noticed the national decline as urban poverty had rised more, and the Lunacy act has been introduced just seven years ago (1890) in which the only people who could ever have access to victorian england's psychiatric treatment were the certified as "mentally insane", which then were admitted to an asylum* shortly after.

(*different rules for different socioeconomical classes apply.)

Of course this being victorian england meant that stigma, and prejudice ran rampant after the poor people subjected to these treatments in order to place them outside of what was deemed polite society. Moreso when the actual label given to you once you were admitted was "pauper lunatic", or whatever your doctor decided for you if you were wealthy enough to escape the label. In all of this social climate, this stigma, this prejudice, here comes Mina, recently married woman to Jonathan who comes from a harrowing experience marked by a brain fever coming all the way from Transylvania.

It was not recommended to marry men like Jonathan because of his illness, and Mina did it anyway. The mere concept of ptsd (and everything that comes with it) is only applied to soldiers who are thrown into the psychiatric system by their families, yet Mina guided and cared for Jonathan after he had a panic attack without caring who might see. Jonathan wrote about the most horrifying events that a young person could see done by a supernatural monster, and Mina (despite being on the fence about the truth of the journal) expresses empathy for his suffering.

For Mina, it doesn't matter if what is written on the journal is real or the terrified ramblings of her traumatized husband, she knows that what matters is that Jonathan suffered greatly, and that she has to help him. Even if Mina debated to herself about the possibilities of everything, she decides that she can't just do nothing with all of this information, she can't simply ignore, so Mina wipes out the typewriter... Just in case.

[thegoatsongs]

Now some Vampire Lore, which explains why Lucy mainly attacks children and is Voluptuous. Other than children being a much easier, vulnerable target for a new vampire, especially at night, and vampires being attractive to lure people to them:

One of Stoker's primary sources was Ármin Vámbéry, a Hungarian-Jewish traveler and orientalist. Van Helsing even gives him a shout-out in the book later. Stoker consulted him a lot about the legends in the Balkans and Austria-Hungary (which Transylvania was part of at the time).

Dracula is heavily based on the area's Strigoi. And partly on the Estries (who are associated with the Succubi: Beautiful, blood-thirsty female demons, with succubi thought to favor babies and young children as prey.) The Strigoi are closer to what we know as vampires due to them rising from the grave, or being created by something unholy. So Lucy turned into a child-drinking succubus.

The Strigoi and Estries both:

Gain vitality by drinking human blood

Can shapeshift

Influence people's minds

Mainly feed on infants and children

the Strigoi also target young girls, the Estries target all genders but mostly men

On the child feeding, Wilhelm Schmidt reports in 1865 the tradition "upon the birth of a child, when one tosses a stone behind oneself and exclaims "This into the mouth of the strigoi!" Note the stones found in the skulls of people suspected to have been vampires.

There are striking similarities between them and the Estries. Note the common "strix" root. Screaming is also a feature that they have, which is similar to the banshee.

More about the Count and less about Lucy: The Strigoi are associated with sorcery, which is very relevant in Dracula, as he used to be a sorcerer of Scholomance. The Strigoi influence people's minds, especially those who are ill, have sleeping issues, suffer from alcoholism, and more. This is shown by Dracula's influence on the sleepwalking Lucy and on Renfield.

[cliozaur]

Hugo had a classmate named Joly. The boy was from a rich and respectable family, but he started gambling, spent his family fortune, and ended up in prison for forgery. Thanks to Hugo’s intervention, his sentence was shortened to four years. In the mid-1840s, a white-haired man in ragged clothes approached Hugo, and he hardly recognized Joly. He gave him money once, twice… and as it continued for some time, Hugo decided he had enough.

As a result, he used Joly’s story for several purposes. His life story became a kind of antithesis to Valjean’s: a tale of moral degradation and loss of money was reversed into a story of moral reform and upward social mobility. Joly, like Valjean, broke his parole and instead of the ascribed place of residence, he arrived in Paris where he met Hugo. Finally, his name was given to one of Les Amis.

[treespen]

Jonathan Harker praises the bottle of Tokaji wine he was served at Dracula's Castle on his first night there.

Tokaji is one of the oldest dessert wines. Sweet, intense in flavor, and prestigious. Produced in Tokay, Hungary since the 16th century. Most often paired with spicy and hot dishes.

Apparently Jonathan enjoys sweet, intense wines.

Erik in The Phantom Of The Opera novel offers Tokaji to Christine Daaé during her first visit in his lair.

Mephistopheles in Goethe's Faust serves it to the young lovestruck Siébel. (Siébel: 'No wine for me can ever be too sweet.' Mephistopheles: 'My best Tokaji shall presently appear.')

In the 19th century it was used as a remedy for plague and anemia

(all this occurred to me thanks to @wheresjonno while thinking about what Jonathan would enjoy in a euro food tour)

[dallasgallant]

Time period post: General slang

Im going to keep my time period posts going, and since I pulled my “tough slang” up out of the depths of my blog I thought I’d also do a quick guide for more general 1960s slang that’s not greaser/JD specific.

Quick note:

There was also a greater use of expressions or sayings than we use today. Same goes for sarcasm, yes it still gets used but there’s a slight difference. People have always cursed even if it wasn’t the social norm/polite issue— so there was a a lot of creativity in insults, being rude or telling someone off.

This is just sort of a “quick guide” there is a lot out there and I recommend looking into more if you’re interested. Some sites repeat a lot of stuff but it’s neat to go digging

Amped - maximum, excited

Around the bend- crazy or strange

Ate it- wounded/got hurt

Back off- stop, leave alone

Bad scene- unpleasant place or event

Bag- someone deal

Bail- leave

Ball- Sex [Certain context]

Beats me- don’t know

Blast- good or great

Bitchin- good or great

Boss- cool / great

Book- leave fast

Cancer stick- cigarettes

Chick- female

Chicken- coward ; game of bluff usually played with cards

Chill/chill out - calm down

Cop a feel - second base with a girl

Crash- go to sleep/pass out

Dig- understand/agree

Establishment- part of status quo

Flake- quirky or weird

Full of it - wrong or lying

Groovy- something good

Heat- police

Hip- cool, with it

Hit- take a drag

“It’s been real”- it’s been nice (usually sarcastic)

“It’s a gas”-

Knock out- really good looking girl

Kiss off- stop or leave

Later- short for see you later/by

Lit- high/loaded/intoxicated

Loaded- high or drunk

Lump it- learn to live with

Mess around- to be playful in a general or in a sexual way

No sweat-

Preppie- someone who is well dressed in expensive conservative clothing and has a private education (becomes more common in 80s)

Ride- car/vehicle

Tube/boob-tube- television

Wig out- freak out

Wow-

[vickyvicarious]

hey, wtf is physiognomy and why does it keep being brought up in dracula for seemingly no reason? it sounds like one of those racist pseudosciences but i've literally never heard of it anywhere else. why was it a thing some characters engaged with?

Your instinct to call it a racist pseudoscience is spot on.

Essentially, physiognomy is the 'science' of figuring out a person's true personality/nature based on their appearance. Ideas like this been around in various forms for a long time. A super simple example that springs to mind is the way that, in fairytales, people often can tell someone is royalty because of how good-looking they are. But of course it goes the other way too, and assigns criminals and villains "ugly" features. Eventually, people inspired by Darwinism latched on this idea and proposed that certain people were, essentially, less fully evolved than others and thus were destined to be savages/criminals. This might be meant in a larger sense against a whole race of people, but also often used individually on specific persons.

Both physiognomy and phrenology (a similar concept but based on interpreting the bumps and shape of someone's skull) were quite popular in the late 1800s. For example, I distinctly remember one Sherlock Holmes story where he speaks to someone who is a phrenologist (or at least, a hobbyist at it) and really wants to measure his head. He believes that someone with such an incredible mind would show it in the shape of his head. Though you may not have seen the word elsewhere, if you read classic lit (at the least, classic Western lit), you've probably unknowingly run across it in a few character descriptions. Specific descriptions of characters would make a point to mention features which contemporary readers could pick up on as signs to their character. For example, Jonathan tells Van Helsing, "you don't know what it is to doubt everything, even yourself. No, you don't; you couldn't with eyebrows like yours." The Professor recognizes his meaning and puts a name to it ("So! You are physiognomist."), but while we modern readers might not see the link without this line, many people probably would when it was published. Both Jonathan and Mina make detailed descriptions of Dracula and Van Helsing, respectively. (Actually, Mina also describes Dracula.) These descriptions can be seen at least partially as a code to readers in the know about what type of people they are and how they will likely act. I personally don't know many specifics about what traits were supposed to correspond to what features, but I believe that eyebrows, foreheads, and noses (both size and shape) were pretty commonly emphasized, and those are all mentioned for both men. I know there was a post that talked more specifically about what these were likely intended to 'mean', but I haven't been able to find it for you, sorry. (I do have descriptions of all main characters collected here, but the post includes spoilers.)

So that's what physiognomy is. As for why the characters are engaging in it... well, it's another way to show them being cutting-edge and scientifically minded. In fact, Mina later namedrops Cesare Lombroso, who was an important figure in the 'science' of physiognomy. He is sometimes called the father of criminology and had influential theories (and even, I believe, guides) as to what features said what about criminals. He also had theories about the different way criminal brains work. So by showing certain characters having an interest in physiognomy, the association is built between them being on top of new science and psychology, being interested in criminology and perhaps even having a detective's mind. Themes of modernity are quite prevalent in this book, and this would probably fit in that category because of the more recent emphasis on it as a science.

[cometomecosette]

"Authenticity" is hard to capture when adapting Les Misérables, because as @secretmellowblog, @pilferingapples, and others have pointed out, it was already a period piece when it was published, and Hugo used events of the past to address current social issues.

Hugo used the 1832 June Rebellion to comment on the 1848 Revolution and as a veiled call to arms against Napoleon III.

A century later, Boublil and Schönberg wrote the musical, and as @pilferingapples has said, they seem to have let the student protests of May 1968 (which took place in their youth) influence their view of the June Rebellion. Hence the lines in the musical that seem to paint it as a naïve endeavor by inexperienced schoolboys, which ignore the historical fact of the 1830 Revolution.

So what we see in the stage musical is 1832 through the lenses of 1848 and 1862, through the lens of 1968.

Then when the 2012 film version of the musical was released, Tom Hooper cited Occupy Wall Street as a source of inspiration. So what we get is 1832 through the lenses of 1848 and 1862, through the lens of 1968, through the lens of 2011.

Of course this just shows that the themes are always relevant. But if the real revolutionaries of 1832 were to see all of this, I'm sure they would point out some distortions in each new telling.

[absolutebl]

I Feel You Linger In the Air

You ready for this?

The quickest of quick thoughts: I loved this show and hated the ending, but not for the reason you think.

This is gonna be one of my big meta beast-sized posts, skip to the end for the final review.

Some Historical Context for I Feel You Linger In The Air - Thailand 1925-1932

I love history and so here's some info that any Thai watcher would likely know, but the rest of us might not... ready?

The Historical Stage:

Burma (now Myanmar) to the west is occupied by the British.

The French hold Vietnam to the east.

Everyone is bickering over what would become Cambodia & Laos.

China occasionally gets involved from the North (also, lots of immigrants from China at this time accounting for a large percentage of the merchant/middle class)

Eventually, Japan would invade during WWII.

In part, The Kingdom of Siam was kept a "neutral" party because none of the surrounding colonial powers wanted to risk offending any of the other players in the area.

Siam re-negotiated sovereignty in 1920 (from USA) and in 1925 (from France & Britain). But during the time of this show (late 1929) it was back to it's customary type-rope balancing act of extreme diplomacy with the allied western colonial powers that surrounded it.

Recognizing that Thailand was never colonized (although it was invaded), it's boarders were constantly nibbled at and it was "ambassador-occupied" off and on by westerners whose military backing and exploitive business concerns simply outmatched the monarchy, especially in the technology department (as well as by reputation on the global stage at the time).

In other words, the farang in this show (James & Robert) were always gonna be both the baddies and the power players of the narrative. (Farang is the Thai word for non-Thai's of European descent, the word means guava.)

The king of Siam at the time (Vajiravudh AKA Rama VI) was initially somewhat popular but also regarded as overly extravagant since Siam had been hit by a major postwar recession in 1919. It should also be noted that King Vajiravudh had no son because he was most likely gay (which at the time did not much concern the Siamese popular opinion, except that it undermined the stability of the monarchy leaving it without an heir).

He "died suddenly" in 1925 (age 44) with the monarchy weakened and succession handed off to his younger brother.

In 1932 a small circle of the rising bourgeoisie (all of whom had studied in Europe, mostly Paris), supported by some military, seized power from the monarchy in a practically nonviolent Siamese Revolution installing a constitutional monarchy. This is mentioned in IFYLITA in the last few episodes but did not (apparently) appear in the original novel.

Siam would then go through:

dictatorship,

WWII,

Japanese invasion,

Allied occupation,

democratic elections,

military junta,

the Indochina wars,

communist insurgency,

more democracy and popularization movements,

multiple coups,

more junta,

more monarchy,

eventually leading us to the somewhat chaotic insanity of Thai politics we have today. (Which is, frankly, a mix of monarchy, junta, democracy, egocentric popularism, and bribery.)

The Filming of I Fell You Linger in the Air

The director if this show, Tee Bundit (Hidden Agenda, Step by Step, Lovely Writer, TharnType), has never particularly impressed or offended me as a director. I would have called him simply "workmanlike" in execution: not offensive, serviceable.

So much so that I spent some time hunting for info on IFYLITA's cinematographer (who remains uncredited on MDL) because this one, of all Tee's pantheon, is ultra stylish. It, frankly, felt too good for him.

Specifically, there is a repeated visual motif in intimacy scenes of either Yai or Jom being filmed from behind a screen/drape/curtain making them seem more translucent, like a ghost or spirit. While the other half of the pair is filmed with sharp clarity. In the first half of the series this is more likely to be Yai (an unknown and mysterious element), as the show progresses, it's more likely to be Jom (the person outside of place and time, destined to vanish all together). This cleverly conveys story, tension, and foreshadow (future shadow?)

Occasionally we shift over so they both become obscured and then clear again.

This stylized version of dirty framing and filters is used to foreshadow and then constantly remind us about that Jom slipped (and is slipping) through time and the disconnect that causes to his sense of reality and purpose, and to his burgeoning relationship.

For example, the scene where Yai is drunk and asleep in his bed. The first time Jom is sitting in a chair drawing him. Yai is blurry behind the screen while Jom is solid and sharp.

This filming technique combined with dirty and peekaboo framing is being used to give the watchers the impression of looking at something we maybe shouldn't, like we are being creepy and intruding on their private time. After all, they can see EACH OTHER clearly, it's only us who have the visual impairment.

This gives us a sense of doom and discomfort and slight sensation that we shouldn't be there. We shouldn't be watching. But ALSO that we too are outside of time, filtered by the future.

In other words his sense of displacement is being used to trigger ours visually.

It's all quite clever.

It's both beautiful and atmospheric and discomforting and touch stressful. Meaning that it is ALSO a visual vehicle to drive narrative tension. As effective as scary music, perhaps more so in this show (since I personally found the musical motifs and refrains somewhat overused.)

Linguistic corner

The word for reflection and shadow is the same in Thai.

Note on the por/phor/phô honorific in Thai

I have not encountered it before in BL. I am indebted to @embraceyourfandom for the following information;

Phô is a paternal honorific, luang phô is used for respected monks. It basically means father. And is oft seen as male honorific for village elders. It's also used as a male prefix in the names of several occupations like:

พ่อครัว phô khrua (khrúa= kitchen -> chef)

พ่อค้า phô khá (khá= trade -> merchant)

พ่อมด phô mót (mót= person of occult knowledge -> wizard)

พ่อบ้าน phô bân (bân =house -> butler) - most relevant

So, Yai's use is probubly foreshadowing that Jom will be a butler for his house, and is primitively referring to him with this title.

All that said, phô can also be used by a "man who is older/higher on hierarchy to refer to a younger/lower on hierarchy man with intimacy and/or affection."

I think all this has to do with Jom's demonstration of education. Yai figured out early on that one of the reasons Jom doesn't belong and cannot fit in with the servants is that he is more educated than a peasant (of this time period), which for Yai adds up to him being originally from a higher status and possibly wealthy family, especially since Jom speaks English and has travelled (he has a non-northern accent).

There is very little Thai middle class at the beginning of the 1920s since trade is being dominated/dictated by the West, or Chinese merchant operations, and Siam is a monarchy. So for a nationalize Thai citizen educated means military, landed gentry with trade operations (like Yai), royal/political/diplomatic connections, or... none of the above. This changes, especially in the south, throughout this decade (as it did in other parts of the world). So there is a rising bourgeoisie going on in the background but it's not that obvious in Chang Mai at this time.

What Jom's educated lack of status means to Yai is that Jom's family either got wiped out or politically disenfranchised possibly as part of the 1912 attempted coups (or even WWI)? This would be mystifying for Yai because Jom doesn't act like he comes from a military family at all. So his background and status is very confusing for Yai, but Yai does know one thing...

Jom is NOT lower class by the standards of Yai's temporal worldview and existence.

For a young man to be educated and yet entirely alone is very dangerous and suspicious. Also, let's be clear, Jom doesn't look or act like a laborer. He red flags "cultured" all over the place.

Yai is paternalistic and caring towards Jom out the gate because Yai has a big ol'crush but also because he recognizes "his own" is trying to survive while isolated and scared.

Yai wants to rescue Jom. Yai is an ineffectual 20 year old gay intellectual. But poor thing sure tries.

Let's Talk About How I Felt About I Feel You Linger in the Air

The historical aspect was great.

I adore historical romances and we almost never get them in BL. I was always gonna be biased towards this show. (As indeed I am towards Nobleman Ryu's Wedding, Tinted with You, and To Sir With Love.) Aside from some classic Thai BL production issues (less than normal, this is very high production value for Thailand) and my issues around the sound track and repetitive repriens (which frankly were more noticeable because I binged the last half) I have no complaints on that score (heh heh).

The surrounding support cast were all quite good and we even got us some lesbians!

The emotional and narrative tensions were excellent.

Any issues I had with pacing came from focus on characters that didn't interest me, but probubly did interest others. I wasn’t wild or particularly interested in the family drama or the side characters/couples, but they were necessary to make this a fully fleshed story with historical context and to give Yai much needed characterization. Also this use of a ensemble cast is very close to Thailand's lakorn heart, even thought this one had way less scenery chewing ludicrous soapy drama (thank heavens).

I was delighted that external threat, stressors, and conflict drove this plot. That's refreshing in BL.

I have no arguments with the chemistry and kisses and sex scenes were tasteful and lovely, occasionally even heart-wrenching, and it's nice to see Thailand especially use physical intimacy to drive plot, and not the other way around.

I love historicals partly because every tiny touch can have such lingering significance, they're very elegant in their chaste physicality. This show didn't need to move into higher heat, but I'm grateful it did because even that was very well done. Thai BLs can often feel clumsy around intimacy, but not this one.

The final sex scene before Jom and Yai separate forever utilizes the ubiquitous director's-favorite-romantic-moments-flashbacks (required of all Asian romance dramas) but with acceleration and tension driven by the noises of sex, which I've never seen/heard done before. In other words: climax of sex = climax of the romance story, I see what you did there, Tee. Clever. Very clever. Bit on the nose… erm… on the… well you know what I mean.

Like all Thai BLs this wasn’t perfect, but for me this is as close as Thai BL gets to high quality romance and that’s what I want the most from my drama watching experience (if not necessarily my Thai BL experience).

But... and you knew the but was coming didn't you?

I absolutely hated the ending.

It wasn't sad, don't worry, but it also wasn't good.

There is a long drawn out separations sequence and then Jom returns to the present, drowning from a car accident. Jom is "rescued" by an moustachioed iteration of Yai from the distant past (who we met once before) and then wakes in hospital. Some time later, Jom returns to the house in Chang Mai where Yai turns up and they reunite.

The end.

There is a stinger featuring Jom once more hurled back in time, only further, meeting the warrior mustache Yai once more.

Okay, that's all I knew and all I saw.

Confused? So was I.

If this had been a regular time travel romance: Yai would have been the EMT or doctor attending Jom when he woke up and their "this time period" romance would commence. With either shared memories, or not.

Had this been set up for audience comprehension in line with the original novel, we should have had flashbacks from both Present Yai (he's not the same one, as it turns out) and deep-past Moustache Yai interwoven throughout the series. Preferably with some focus on Present Yai's quest for reunion with Present Jom AND Present Yai's own experience with visions and memory of his past lives.

A full explanation of the ending is here. This explanation of the 3 different Yais makes me like our ending more. But I shouldn't need to read Cliff's notes from some random y-novel reading fan on Tumblr to understand what's going on in a series!

There is supposedly a special happening with Jom + Present Yai.

There was unquestionably a failure in adaptation in the finale of this show.

As a fan and watcher, what I actually felt was deeply confused and hurt.

I also felt that this was a disingenuous un-earned throw away happy ending, since I had no idea who this new Present Yai was and no investment in his character. I simply didn't believe he was the same Yai (Bright is too good an actor, he was clearly a different older personality).

So the fact remains that past Yai, our Yai, the 20 year old boy we grew to understand and love, is abandoned in the past to suffer alone for the rest of his life. And THAT is an unhappy ending for one half of my beloved pair. Yes Jom gets a new Yai in the present day, but it's not the same Yai. They have no developed relationship, and Jom is doomed to leave even this new Yai and slide into the past once more. That's barely even happy for now for Jom's character.

As a result of my deep sadness for 20-year-old Yai in particular, I'm not going to be able to rewatch this show. The whole thing was rendered not just confusing but the opposite of comforting by the final 15 minutes. I'm tempted to dock it two whole points - one for the ending and the other for the lack of rewatch potential.

But the first 11.5 eps were SO GOOD.

This is one of the only times where I am actually hoping for a second season, while simultaneously being wary of the screen writing and production team's capacity to give us a satisfying one.

Industry wise? I honestly don't think we can hope too hard for a full season 2. This was an expensive show with flawed/limited distribution and little sponsorship. I don't see how they'll get funding for a second season. Unless we see this show up on like Netflix or Viki, I urge you not to hope too hard and be disappointed.

In all honestly?

I started typing up this blog post thinking Thailand was finally, after 5 years, going to earn another 10/10 from me but I just can't in good conscious give it that. It's been days and I'm still upset about that last episode.

And Now My Quick Pitch Review

I truly loved this time travel romance. IFYLITA is an exquisite BL, from filming techniques to narrative framework (much like Until We Meet Again). Steeped in history and family drama it edges into lakorn (but no as much as To Sir With Love and with way less scenery chewing). This is an elegant and classy BL... from Thailand which normally doesn't even try for classy. The main couple (both as a pair and individuals) were excellent, particularly Bright (Yai) whose eye-work acting style is a personal favorite of mine. Pity about the ending. Oh it wasn’t that sad but it wasn’t good either. This show should easily have earned a 10 from me except that it fumbled the… erm… balls. Argh. Whatever. 9/10

(source)

This post is also in My Drama List as a review.

[thethirdromana]

I know we've all moved on from Mina's Brief Foray into Misogyny in favour of Jonathan Is Back, Hooray! but

I do think it's interesting to read real contemporary women's views on the early women's rights movement, and honestly Bram Stoker's depiction of how Mina sees things isn't all that far off (i.e. he's not just writing her that way because he's a clueless man).

A while ago, I read the memoirs of Maud Allan, an Edwardian dancer who lived a truly fascinating and often tragic life; it's worth reading her whole Wikipedia page. Her memoirs, published 1908, are not particularly worth reading (they were primarily publicity material), but there is one section where she talks about her views on women's suffrage.

Maud Allan was a highly educated, often controversial figure, who danced topless but for some intricate jewellery. She made her own living, and was most likely a lesbian - so all in all, much like Mina, not someone you would think of as likely to be ambivalent on gender equality. Nonetheless, she argued:

Women should "influence rather than dictate"

Women should be educated; she did not believe there was any difference between male and female intelligence, only in the opportunities they received

The rightful destiny of every woman was to be a wife and mother [even though she was neither]

Women were swayed by emotion more than men, so shouldn't become lawyers

Women would be swayed by the looks and personality of a political candidate, not by his views

As a result, in most areas men and women should be equal - but not in terms of the franchise, or at least not yet.

(The whole chapter is here).

I find this fascinating because from a modern-day perspective, it's so obviously inconsistent and muddled, in particular the sense of gender equality as a kind of grab-bag where women should be equal in some areas but not others. But these were the honest views of an educated, independent woman, and I could imagine a real-world Mina having a similar set of views.

[oldshowbiz]

Life and Liberty for All Who Believe (1982) is a documentary produced by Norman Lear's People For the American Way.

It features Burt Lancaster trashing Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and Heritage Foundation founder Paul Weyrich for their extremism and bigotry.

The film chronicled the first massive meeting of the religious right, held in Dallas, Texas in 1980, where Paul Weyrich famously proposed voter suppression as winning tactic for far-right Republicans.

[alwaysbewoke]

[immediatebreakfast]

I've read before that chloroform used to be described as sweet and bitter. So maybe the vampire hypnosis to bite them resembles chloroforming someone.

https://nj.gov/health/eoh/rtkweb/documents/fs/0388.pdf

Oh! That could be a good explanation, a sweet and bitter aftertaste of a trance that leaves you utterly vulnerable to the dangers of the world after being forced onto you; I could see the comparison between a vampire hypnosis, a soaked rag of chloroform. Also, even if it sounds too out of place, the victorians were no strangers to chloroform, nor anesthesia in general.

In victorian england, chloroform was met with suspicion at first until queen Victoria used it for childbirth which kicked off the popularity of this chemical which we know today as this very cancerous, and dangerous substance.

Dracula as a novel is a very modern piece compared to its gothic peers at the time, so much that some critics said that the inclusion of so many modern devices and theories felt out of place in a vampire story. It's pure speculation, but reading that the after effects of chloroform on humans are dizziness and drowsiness after a jump of excitement, and seeing of both Lucy and Jonathan get worse (and dizzy) after feeling fine on a "good" day; it would not be too much out of reach to say how vampire bites could have the same effect as this chemical.

[thegoatsongs]

On 13 July passed Cape Matapan. Crew dissatisfied about something. Seemed scared, but would not speak out.

On July 13th, the crew of the Demeter gets their very first dark premonition while passing Cape Matapan. The next day the first incident among them happens, followed by the first disappearance.

Cape Matapan, aka Cape Tainaron, is the southernmost place in continental Greece, and gateway to Hades.

There was a sanctuary of Poseidon there (ancient captains sailing past the Cape would stop to ask for a smooth sail), and a Nekromanteion (death oracle) or a Psychopompeion, because the Cape was a threshold to the Underworld.

Greek sailors have been traditionally using the phrase "Stay forty miles away [meaning as far as possible] from Cape Matapan" ("Από τον Κάβο Ματαπά σαράντα μίλια μακρυά"), likely due to it once being a pirate hideout, as it's associated with bad luck.