[Clichè Sherlock Reference]

Like I said in a previous post, I have seen many adaptations of Sherlock Holmes, either through a theater film or a cartoon, but I’m kind of glad I didn’t because the original source material is boring in comparison. It’s possible that I could just be whining because I’m forced to read this for class, idk…My favorite adaptation is “Case Closed”, and ever since, I’ve never come across an adaption that really matches how well the series embodies Sherlock Holmesiness. So, when we were told to watch the “Elementary”, I went into it with an average expectation (maybe a little less than that).

Honestly, the show was pretty dope. The one thing that really makes this adaptation stand out is the new way they decided to portray the traditional characters that we’ve all come to know. First of all, “Holy fuck, Watson is a woman? Lmao, that’s new.”

Were pretty much my first thoughts once the character was introduced. It was definitely a nice little change to the story, and bound to happen eventually. Though I would have been more appealing to me if Sherlock was gender swapped rather than Watson, but cool nonetheless. Her reason for being with Sherlock is also interesting. The stories have Sherlock as a roommate to Watson, and in the series, Watson is a companion both professionally (drug rehab buddy) and socially (roommate and possible love interest??). Which may not seem interesting by itself, but with the fact that she’s his rehab companion, it brings to light problems that Sherlock has. The adaptations that I have seen of Sherlock (excluding the movie with Robert Downey Jr. and the Netflix series) have mainly targeted children or younger viewers, so I don’t imagine a Sherlock with health issues, just a really smart dude that solves mysteries. I do applaud the show for that though. All in all, the show captures what Sherlock would be in our society pretty well. He’s hella observant, but that comes with several issues.

mr dracula

In middle school I participated in the play Dracula and thought it was a pretty cool story. Now reading it again, I think it is awesome. All the girls I went to middle school with pretty much ruined vampires and stuff for me when Twilight was the big thing. I just always had to think of vampires as sissies that sparkle in the sunlight or whatever they do lol. But after reading most of Bram Stoker's Dracula, vampires are pretty badass. Dracula brings so much fear and curiosity to everyone in the story.

I did become pretty surprised in class and reading fellow classmates' blogs on how Dracula is a representation of immigrants raping english women (if I have that right) back in the day. It all made sense and made me sad because now I can't look at vampires the same :/

mess with pupper you will be supper

So So

I loved the beginning of Dracula. Stoker did a fantastic job describing the trip to the castle, Dracula and his scary and gloomy castle. I felt as if I was with John Haker on his journey throughout this novel. I also loved the format Stoker used. Going from Pride and Prejudice too Dracula was a real change. Being able to hear different stories form each character was great. Listening to each characters journey and opinions give me insight into each of there life's. the descriptive writing used completes Dracula's image. It allows the reader to visualize everything happening in the novel.
My only issue with the novel is the ongoing couple of chapters where there is no action. I was reading and reading and wasn't at all intrigued in the story line. 

*sigh* Let's Talk about Rape

I wanna start by saying that I enjoyed this book. It was really interesting, it was thrilling, and creepy as all get out. But going from Pride and Prejudice to Dracula really made the disappointing quality of the female characters in this novel glaringly obvious. So, who are the female characters in this novel? Lucy, Lucy's mother, Mina, and the three vampire brides. First, Lucy's mother is just a bafoon, and largely one of reasons that Lucy ends up dead. Then, let's look at the remaining five characters. The main purpose they serve in this universe was to be figuratively raped by the Count. Yes, I said rape. What the Count does to them is an unwanted, penetrative act that leaves these woman forever changed. There has always been a sexual tone to vampire stories, so the scenes between Mina and Count Dracula have a very "rape-y" feeling to them. Additionally, after the scene with Mina, Dracula, and Jonathan, when Mina is burned by the Communion wafer,  she claims that she is "unclean." This idea is one that is often shared by many initial sexual assault victims because of the trauma that has been forced upon them.

Then, lets think about the differences between the male vampires (the only one we have in the novel is Dracula) and the female vampires (Lucy, the brides, and sort of Mina). Dracula is sentient. He is aware of his surroundings and he is smart. He plans things out meticulously enough to transport 50 boxes of dirt to 4 different locations for safe keeping. Meanwhile, the female vampires are animalistic. They don't seem to be able to control themselves.  Lucy especially does not attempt to hide herself when she is hunting and is see by so many that she earns a nickname for herself. I've always been a big fan of the movie Van Helsing and I really love the Vampire Brides in that movie, but now because of this book, I worry that I'm never going to look at them the same way again because they are just not strong characters.

Om Nom

Alright so I have really mixed emotions about vampires. Part of me think that they're super cool and Halloween is lit and stuff, and another part of me thinks their super cheesy and glitter and all that disaster. However, I absolutely love Dracula. He's so scary and creepy and I love it! I love Halloween and creepy stuff so I'm not gonna lie, I nerded out a little bit when I found out that we were reading a book about creepy stuff.
In regards to the actual writing style of Dracula, Bram Stoker outdid  himself. In my opinion, I think his descriptive writing is the best we've read thus far. It is so easy for the reader to visualize exactly what is happening, which is part of the reason why I think that this book goes down in history. One of my favorite lines is "The Castle of Dracula now stood out against the red sky, and every stone of its broken battlements was articulated against the light of the setting sun" It's so descriptive and beautiful. I think that this book is a work of art, which also makes sense as to why this book has resonated for so long,

I Couldn't Think of a Clever Title

I’m not going to lie. I used to be obsessed with vampires. I’ve seen every single Twilight. I’ve watched almost every single episode of Vampire Diaries. True Blood and The Originals were good ones as well. I was first introduced to vampires from a True Blood episode. I was scrolling through iTunes when I had my blue iPod Nano and there was a free episode. (I loved the word FREE even at a young age). Once I was introduced, I was lowkey hooked for all middle school.

When I began this book, I imagined Harker as the human from Hotel Transylvania and Dracula as Dracula from the movie. The movie kind of mirrors the book. Jonathan stumbles upon a hotel strictly for monsters. NO HUMANS ALLOWED! Dracula did his best to hide Jonathan from the other hotel residents, but Jonathan ended up falling in love with his daughter.

            Like all the other books this is my first time reading Dracula. I immediately expected it to be like all the other vampire stories I’ve encountered. But that wasn’t the case. The way the book describes Dracula shows almost immediately THAT HE ISN’T HUMAN. Harker is very stupid and he literally put himself in the position be captured and fed on. Yeah I understand that he was sent there to close a transaction with Dracula, but if a man looking like that answered the door. I would be going in the opposite direction.

            Harker reminds me of people in horror movies. He went exploring, basically seeking danger. Honestly if I would have seen a human CLIMBING on a wall like a lizard, I would have dipped. There was no way I would go try to find out what’s up. He saw Dracula IN HIS COFFIN and he still didn’t go anywhere. Why? My guy you have got to do better.

            Dracula in fact was a bit spooky. I think it portrayed vampires in the way they were meant to be portrayed. Vampires now are sometimes depicted as soft. Like in twilight and Vampire Diaries. The Vampires in each of the vampires are softies because of a female. It’s cute and all, but if you’re a vampire shouldn’t you be a ruthless being?

            All together I like the way the book was composed. I like the way it jumped from journal entry to journal entry. It kept me intrigued. I also like how EVERYONE kept a journal. Only because not a lot of people keep journals now.

            

When I saw, we were assigned to read Dracula I was excited. I will have to admit that Twilight is my guilty pleasure. However, once I begun reading Dracula I realized the extreme was it differed from twilight. For starters, the vampire in Dracula does not sound similar to Edward. With the easy the vampire is described in the book with pointed teeth and ears and red lips I feel like any human dumb enough to enter a house with Dracula needs some serious common sense.

I thought the way this book was written was interesting. Today we have so many blogs and journal entries out there that this was a neat experience to read such an old book in this format. It did take some getting used to for sure. Jonathan really irritated me. He was just like the dumb main character in every horror movie. You can yell and yell for them to not go through that door but they do it anyway.

Overall the beginning of this book is good. It just blows my mind that Johnathan did not catch the warning signs in the very beginning like come on dude! I don’t know many people that have howling wolves outside of their house. Also, there’s the fact that the horses are spooked just from being near the house. I had little to no sympathy for Johnathan because the warning signs were so there! However, to each their own. If we didn’t have the stupid main character in horror movies the movie would be pretty short as this book would have also been. We need the oblivious guy/ girl to walk through that door for the story to begin.

Dracula the perv

This is not the story I expected. I thought I had no expectations for this novel, but it turns out I was wrong. I thought Dracula would be a more active character, and although the whole story is about him, the main character in my opinion is Mina. I definitely did not expect this to turn into a weird sexual thing. What in god’s name was Mina doing drinking Dracula’s blood? Did I miss something? Was he forcing her in some way? To my understanding she had not turned into a vampire, and now I know she never does, but what was that scene all about? If someone could shed some light as to what Stoker was getting at in this part of the novel, I would be very appreciative. I cannot imagine how awkward this scene would be in a movie. I made the mistake of googling “Mina sucking Dracula’s blood” and this came up! As if reading it wasn’t weird enough, sorry I had to share the horror with you.

Overall, I enjoyed the story. It was hard to get into and often hard to keep reading; this book was somewhat of a roller coaster for me. Luckily, narrowing down the focused reading helped and spark notes cleared up the bits I did not read. Often after reading a novel for this class I watch youtube videos of summaries/character analysis’/funny parodies. It helps me gather my thoughts and clear up any parts of the plot I did not understand. I came across this dude who makes summaries of a bunch of classic novels, and it is not only hilarious, but pretty helpful- check him out…

 I have never seen any of the movies, so I am excited to check them out, and talk about possible adaptations of this one. I wonder if they choose to always keep in the details of the crazy dude and the creepy ship, or if those are just secondary to the main plot.

Speaking of the creepy dude aka Redfield, why did Dracula kill him? Didn’t Redfield want to help Dracula? Some of my favorite bits of the novel involved Redfield; I thought his character was the most interesting. He is crazy enough to eat flies, although still sane enough to be embarrassed by it. I look forward to seeing his character in another adaptation the most.

Thanks to any commenters that can answer my questions! I appreciate the help!