#like that. we'll see. there are 2 more issues left anyhow

[themyscirah]

ALYSSA WONG SPIRIT WORLD IS SO GOOD OMG

[yvesdot]

August 1-10. In a rush this fine Friday, November 4th in the hopes of finishing in time to be together with everyone for the last day on Monday, November 7th...

AUGUST 1

I came up here an hour ago with Lucy, and we had a most interesting talk with my old friend

"It be all fool-talk, lock, stock, and barrel; that's what it be, an' nowt else. These bans an' wafts an' boh-ghosts an' barguests an' bogles an' all anent them is only fit to set bairns an' dizzy women a-belderin'.

Remember when I said that I do this for fun? This is a great example. I am wholly ignoring all of this text. I am skipping it. I am not going to try to read this, and I'm not going to try to analyze it. That is up to everybody else; I am going to avoid a headache.

(Though I've written my own short story wholly in dialect, this is why people often advise you to avoid it. Everyone has their own standards for what makes dialect in prose unreadable vs. enjoyable.)

AUGUST 2

AUGUST 3

"You had better come too, captain, before it is too late. He is there. I know the secret now. The sea will save me from Him, and it is all that is left!"

It does drive me insane how this man manages to dance all around the issue without arriving directly at it. The word "vampire" is more than old enough to be commonplace in this setting and, even if not that... well, anyhow, we all know I have my little snips with this book. I do think this is a subjective one.

Lucy has not walked much in her sleep the last week, but there is an odd concentration about her which I do not understand; even in her sleep she seems to be watching me. She tries the door, and finding it locked, goes about the room searching for the key.

Oh I love this! See, I wish there was more of this. I really do enjoy abridged versions of the text. Maybe I should harass it into abridgement myself sometime and then print my own copy just for me.

AUGUST 4

But I shall baffle this fiend or monster, for I shall tie my hands to the wheel when my strength begins to fail, and along with them I shall tie that which He—It!—dare not touch; and then, come good wind or foul, I shall save my soul, and my honour as a captain.

I'm not even going to try to deny it. This is one of the coolest things ever to occur in horror.

AUGUST 6

Another three days, and no news. This suspense is getting dreadful.

You're telling me. Jonathan's probably been pegged by every one of those vampire wives by now. I'd be shocked if Dracula wasn't wiping down his best harness.

"I can't make her out," he said; "she's a Russian, by the look of her; but she's knocking about in the queerest way. She doesn't know her mind a bit; she seems to see the storm coming, but can't decide whether to run up north in the open, or to put in here. Look there again! She is steered mighty strangely, for she doesn't mind the hand on the wheel; changes about with every puff of wind. We'll hear more of her before this time tomorrow."

This is adorable with the context we have. I do love the effect of leaving off here for the day, even if I may be reading it all at once. (At which point one has to ask, yves., can you even still call it Daily...?)

AUGUST 8

One of the greatest and suddenest storms on record has just been experienced here, with results both strange and unique. The weather had been somewhat sultry, but not to any degree uncommon in the month of August.

This is an example of why Dracula activates my skim-rage. Sometimes Stoker writes these big long things just to make the text feel big and long, and it works, but then it's also boring! We don't need all of this!

Unfortunately, there is also a reversal of suspense here: in the original organization of the text, we read the log after the ship is found, so we naturally find it more interesting because we want to know what happened. In this case, there's no suspense at all-- it's not like we read the log and thought, "oh, man, wonder what will happen AFTER all these people have died and when the ship is found."

This next bit may sound completely insane, but I'm insane for this novella, so if you want to understand this form of climax and plot structure more, go read Duodecimal by Max Franciscovich. Imagine if that was restructured chronologically-- it would be awful!

(Which is not remotely to diss DD or anyone involved in it, because I think this was objectively the right choice, and I love to see how things change when purposefully executed this way. I'd read a Duodecimal Daily. )

And yet I still feel that some of the fault lies with Stoker for originally diverting us here anyhow. First you have Harker in Castle Dracula, and then Stoker goes no wait look at this! and you find yourself reading about Lucy and Mina's social dramas. Then Stoker goes no wait look at this! and you find yourself reading about a boat. Large casts are, obviously, a wonderful way to tell a story, but I just don't find everything coming together cohesively here the way I'd like it to. He just keeps adding and adding and adding, and I don't think it's to our benefit... but I'll say more about this when I start talking about whether readers of the time would have known Dracula was a vampire. (Yes.)

"As idle as a painted ship upon a painted ocean."

A reference to a rhyme! Had to look this one up.

It is a very strange thing, this sleep-walking, for as soon as her will is thwarted in any physical way, her intention, if there be any, disappears, and she yields herself almost exactly to the routine of her life.

I feel as though this must be analyzable through the lens of gender and rebellion... but I am working at a bookstore during the Thanksgiving-Christmas season powered by two cheese sandwiches and four Kit-Kats so I will not do it myself. Again-- please tell me your thoughts!

AUGUST 9

AUGUST 10

We had a capital "severe tea" at Robin Hood's Bay in a sweet little old-fashioned inn, with a bow-window right over the seaweed-covered rocks of the strand. I believe we should have shocked the "New Woman" with our appetites. Men are more tolerant, bless them!

Aha! Thanks, Mina, for introducing explicitly the concept of the New Woman to the text, because it is vital to understanding what the female characters are doing and what Stoker believed. Coworker K from previous updates says she likes Dracula in part because Stoker hated the New Woman, but essentially reproduced her in Mina as a protagonist-- what did he mean?? I agree with that. Also a great reference in Kate Beaton's Dracula comics (though they are spoilery for later entries!) And I will say once again that I've done zero deep analysis on the matter because Dracula simply doesn't personally call to me, so I'm leaving things at the simplest of thoughts.

Some of the "New Women" writers will some day start an idea that men and women should be allowed to see each other asleep before proposing or accepting. But I suppose the New Woman won't condescend in future to accept; she will do the proposing herself. And a nice job she will make of it, too! There's some consolation in that.

ONE OF THE DELIGHTFUL RESULTS OF BLOOMERISM...

(Real satirical comic about those horrifying women wearing PANTS instead of SKIRTS! Why, any day now they'll start PROPOSING TO MEN!...)

On and on we go. See you next update!!

Alright fine after FOUR PEOPLE asked me about Dracula Daily I will in fact be participating if only to satisfy the masses. Instead of memes I am going to be talking about what’s going on subtextually and my varied vampire-as-metaphor thoughts. Also, I really do not like Dracula. Alright? Alright. See reblogs for later additions.

NAVIGATION:

May 7 (here) | May 8 | May 9 | May 11 | May 12 | May 15

May 16 | May 18 | May 19 | May 24 | May 25, 26 | May 28 | May 31

June 5 | June 18, 24, 25 | June 29, 30

July 1, 8, 18, 19, 20 | July 22, 24, 26-30

May 7: In which Jonathan Harker is racist about books, and the Count declares his intent to fondle England.

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