1/30 Romeo and Juliet 1&2

So I've read this play multiple times, and no matter how many times I read it, it astounds me just how fast Romeo and Juliet fall in love with each other. What never clicked however, is that Romeo is actually super depressed at the beginning of this play. I know it's there in the text, but for some reason, it just was never a thing in my head. I also find it interesting that all this time, I never realized that Juliet actually had a brain and realized they were moving too fast.

I think I literally dismissed any possibility of it because well, the ending where they both decide it's a great idea to kill themselves.

I do think, however that this play is faaaaar better as a performance than as reading material. I saw at least one performance of R&J and it left quite the impression on me. Not because of the plot (because all I retained was guy and girl fall in love on sight, then kill each other three days later. A testament to our species -_-), but because of the performance itself. I remember loving the way the actors moved (there were bars they could climb around on) and the way they held themselves. Mercutio and Tybalt, especially, were phenomenal. Absolutely my favorite actors, which carried over to being my favorite characters. I remember being incredibly depressed that they both died, but damn they did an amazing job. I think this performance is probably the reason why I love seeing plays (each performance is different and unique and I love to see how actors and directors put their own spin on plays that have been done for hundreds of years), and its probably the reason why I love Shakespeare (not because of R&J, mind you - didn't even like them in the play), but because of the actors and performance itself. I owe a lot of thanks to this play and performance. 

2/13 West Side Story

I don't know what to say except that I did not like this movie and it was waaaay too damn long. This is definitely an adaptation of Romeo and Juliet though. All the death. All the dramatics.

All the DANCING! Seriously, give these kids an award for the dancing.
I honestly can't though. just the sheer amount of drama makes my head hurt. The fact that Anita blames Maria for Bernardo's death (if I'm remembering this correctly) is just asinine. Maria is Bernardo's sister. Show some respect and compassion for the girl who just lost family. Yes, love was involved, but it's not like Maria woke up that day and was like, "Hey, you know what? Today seems like a great day to have my brother killed."

I can't.

2/27 The Speckled Band, Final Problem, CAM, and Dancing Men

So my favorite story of this collection is absolutely The Speckled Band. This isn't the first time I've read it, but it's been over a decade since I did that I could only remember that there was a monkey involved (my memory is fantastic sarcasm). There were various things that I liked. For one, raise of hands, who loved the fact that Sherlock straight up bent a piece of iron back into it's perfect position.

Borderline Super Soldier that man is.

But also, what the heck is up with the uncle keeping a monkey and cheetah on his lawn? Who does that?

I would have been seriously surprised if it turned out that it wasn't the uncle who killed the sister. Not only does he have insane anger issues

but practically all his actions are suspicious. He might as well have had a glowing neon sign above his head saying, "It's me! I'm the killer!!!!"

Something else that I just remembered is my heart beating really fast when Sherlock and Watson heard the growling. When I first read it, I thought is was a demon or something (me and my brain, round of applause), but it just turns out to be the monkey riding the cheetah. lolololol

Anyways, 10/10 would read again. Sucks about the wife and husband dying before Sherlock could get to them in Dancing Men. sad face

4/24 Concluding thoughts on Dracula and Vampy things

Well, this was all sorts of what I wasn't expecting. Besides not being set in the country (Transylvania in specific), for most of the novel, Lucy's three suitors aiding in killing Dracula was not lurking in my mind. Also, what the hell? Why did Quincey have to die??? Rude. More importantly, where the hell was Van Helsing getting all of the communion wafers from? The man must have bags up bags that he pulls out of nowhere. Is he like Legolas and constantly having arrows even though, visually, he clearly only has a handful?

Also, am I right in reading that Dracula could turn into a wolf? Is he a mixture of vampire and werewolf? If so, it would make sense as to why he has hairy palms. Otherwise, I can only guess that he's like a spider, and the hairy palms are how he sticks to walls. =_=

On another note, apparently vampires having arithmomania is a thing? You apparently always have a bag of rice on you and if you come across a vampire, you throw rice and they'll be compelled to count the grains, giving you enough time to run away.

Another fun fact, apparently in the Balkans, vampires didn't have any bones and that's how you would identify them, or so I've read. And apparently if a vampire and a human have a child, a dhampir, the child will also be boneless. It's a strange notion, but this got me thinking, it was never mentioned if Dracula and his brides had offspring. Were they unable to because they're undead? I know in Van Helsing, they did have offspring (and lots of them).

If the women are no longer able to have children due to being dead, then logically the male vamps wouldn't be able to as well, so how would vampires have children (for the Balkan mythology)? Would it then be like with Blade and his mother being bitten by a vampire while she was pregnant with him?

It's amazing just how much vampire lore has expanded and been built upon since Dracula, but also very confusing as there are conflicting viewpoints and "facts," although conflicting myths have always been a thing (looking at you Greek mythology).

4/10 Lizzie Bennet Diaries and Fanfics, Oh my~

So, wow...that was a super intense last few episodes of The Lizzie Bennet Diaries. Holy hell, the whole sex tape and a Lydia we've never seen. Just...wow. Petition to keel haul Wickham, because that man is repulsive beast (and not beast in the good way either).

I have to say that I actually love this representation of Lydia, though. In Austen's novel, I hated her. There wasn't a single redeeming quality about her. In the LBD, we can actually see her as the child that Wickham took advantage of and it's not okay in any sense. While I hated what happened to Lydia, I loved that she showed another side of herself and was no longer a flat character. I also loved that she didn't end up with Wickham and that she might actually be able to have a bright future, instead of a miserable one that she no doubt had in the novel.

Also, what the heck was with the super cheesy last couple of episodes? Both Lizzie and Darcy were waaaaaay too lovey dovey and it was unsettling. On the plus side, I agree everyone in the comments section that Darcy is Lizzie's biggest fan.

crying It's freaking perfect lol. And Gigi ships Lizzie and Darcy so hard.

Speaking of Gigi, it seriously hurt the parallel between Gigi and Lydia with that fucking shitfuck Wickham. Just seriously?

 Why must you hurt me this way????

With the fanfiction, the one that stuck out the most was A Most Convenient Mishap. I've read that sort of fanfic before (there are numerous fanfics using that sort of situation), and every time, it's amusing. I honestly thought that it was going to end up as smut or at least a lime, but I guess that's a bit too much if they're trying to keep with the period and that Lizzy hated Darcy. Now she really has a reason to hate him, what with him presuming that she was trying to seduce him. Whop whop, mate. Better luck next time, and good luck getting on her good side now.

3/27 Pride and Prejudice Nasty, Filthy Wickham

So this is the first time I'm reading Pride and Prejudice and strangely enough, I'm rather enjoying it. I had trouble getting into it at the beginning, but after watching the BBC series, things are making more sense. I think the biggest problem I had was that I couldn't tell their tone of voice, and Austen rarely helped with that, so it clicked with the actors performance. I love Elizabeth, and Charlotte is super down to earth, which I appreciate (but hate the fact that she ended up with Mr. Collins because that man is a tool). At first, I severely disliked Darcy, but he grew on me after his personality switch in Pemberly.

It doesn't hurt that in the BBC series, he's played by Colin Firth, who I absolutely adore (and especially loved in Kingsman.

Such deliciousness~!)

Speaking of which, what the hell? That was quite the 180 in what seems like a rather short time. Did what Lizzy say really shock him that much?

But wow, the whole Lydia/ Wickham situation slapped me upside the head. I was not expecting that. I knew Wickahm was sleazy and suspicious, but really bro? And Lydia, what the hell? Does she not have a brain? Or eyes? Or maybe she has eyes and that's the problem because Wickham is some sort of gorgeousness, I guess? Seems nasty. Either way, sucks to suck for both of them because they'll both be miserable. Lydia will because Wickham is a two-face sack of shit with a debt problem and Wickham will be miserable because Lydia is a lot to handle (and I have the distinct feeling she'll have an affair, but then again I can see them both having affairs. Maybe it'll work if they agree to have an open relationship?) Either way, I'm not sorry for either of these characters.

pRiD3 & Pr3jUDicE

Ahh, the end of the Lizzie Bennet Diaries, and Pride and Prejudice along with it. I can see why a lot of people liked the diaries. I mean the jokes and dialogue were pretty corny for my tastes, but nonetheless still entertaining. It also serves as a pretty true Pride and Prejudice adaptation. With the characters names and attitudes still present and the storyline progressing in the same way the book does (with some changes here and there), it does pretty well to adapt the novel.

The few changes to the story are also nice. With the story taking place in our generation, having the story unfold via YouTube vlog is entirely appropriate. However, that limits how many characters can be in the story at one, which leads to characters being mentioned rather than seen in some parts of the vlog. Also, without actually seeing what’s going on in the lives of the characters, we only have Lizzie’s point of view which kinda makes the audience’s judgement of other characters a little biased.

The way they also try to modernize the story leads was bound to lead to some changes in the way the story progressed, but I don’t think any of them were undesired or really out there, and I think that’s what makes the diaries so popular. Also, I wonder how many people actually thought this story was real. Like…the acting wasn’t terrible, but I found it really hard to believe that this was someone’s actual life and that all this stuff was really happening to “Lizzie”. Idk…It could just be because I knew that this wasn’t supposed to be real, but I really can’t imagine anyone else thinking otherwise.

Overall, I can’t say that I’m more enamored with Pride and Prejudice or The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, but I’m glad I read it. At the very least, if a random person asks me if I have read the novel or if I know anything about the story, I could say “Why do you care? I don’t even know you…?”

Judging a book by it's cover

Pride and Prejudice…I can’t really say I see what has people so hyped about this book, but this wouldn’t be the first book in that category. I guess I’ll just chalk that up to the fact that I am not a humanities major. I swear the hardest thing to keep track of is who is talking and when since the women are referred to as Miss. or Mrs., and if you don’t pay attention, well…shit, you either reread the entire page, or you just hope you’re thinking of the right person.

The characters are aight, but other than Jane Bennet, Wickham, and Mr. Darcy, the other characters are uninteresting. Jane Bennet is an interesting character because she is like this optimistic, ever-so-pleasant girl in the series. Remember Lila from Hey Arnold?

Yeah, she’s basically what I would imagine Jane Bennet to be like (same voice too). Being raised in the same society as all the other women, she’s different. She chooses to see the bright side in everyone (which obviously is a double-edged sword), but she’s also not phony, which can be appreciated.

Wickam is just interesting because of his motives. Like most of the things he does seem to be driven by wealth. He attempts to elope with Mr. Darcy’s sister in order to become wealthy, and I understand why that’s wrong, but what about Mrs.Bennet? I’m sure she wants her daughters to be happy, but she wants to pimp her daughters out the richest man in the town. In that sense is she much different from him?

Now Darcy…lmao, he seems to cause pretty much all the problems in the story. His past strife with Wickham brings him to Hertfordshire, he suggests that Mr. Bingley break up with Jane, and his prejudice towards Elizabeth (and really everyone else) makes her (and everyone else) resent him, driving her towards Wickham and then later Lydia. Like imagine, if he was as nice as Mr.Bingley…story coulda been a lot shorter.

[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!