Dracula

            Like the rest of the topics we’ve read/discussed about—aside from Romeo and Juliet, Dracula is a popular subject with which I’ve never actually read the original story of, so I was excited to read this novel for our class. Naturally, I’d assume we will have all heard about this idea of vampires (much like zombies and werewolves), whether it be portrayed within a movie, TV show, fanfiction, you name it. So when details about Jonathan Harker receiving a garlic charm from one of the locals or not seeing Count Dracula in a mirror was interesting to just have these little, but commonly-known, features about vampires being mentioned.

            I’ll be blunt here by saying that I’m not the most observant person (at least not in terms of reading). There were some things discussed from our previous topics that I thought to myself, “I probably would’ve never seen it that way.” Well, either me being unobservant or just not a big reader to see things from different perspectives. When I was reading Dracula, I picked up on some of the basic plot that was occurring when Harker was staying at Dracula’s prison… But when they were talking about the history of Transylvania, the business side of Harker’s visit, and the questions Dracula had on basic societal notions, I felt a bit lost. Maybe just too much information at one time? But I honestly wasn’t sure if there were subtle cues to pick up on, or I was merely trying to better understand minuscule details irrelevant to the story as a whole.

            Nonetheless, it’s an enjoyable story so far, and I am intrigued to see what others think to possibly better understand the story as a whole. Because with all of the journal entries from different people at different times, I tried going back to understand what happened in their lives in a previous chapter in order to make connections (although I’m still not sure). Also, was there a reason we read Mina’s journal entry for August 1 early? Meaning there were journal entries for July 24 and August 1 in one chapter, then starting from July 26 in another chapter… Maybe I just missed something but that part struck me as a “Wait, what?” moment. As a note, I don’t mean for this blog post to sound like I’m just saying I’m confused about this part, that part, these other parts… That was kind of how I felt afterwards, so I’ll looking forward to our discussions.