As it’s Halloween season once again, I think it’s an appropriate time for a discussion revolving around a book I just finished re-reading for the umpteenth time: Dracula. My dad read this out loud to me as a kid, and when I was in the 6th grade, I remember reading it over and over until the cover fell off and pages fell out. It’s rare indeed that you can find a book that you love as much as a 12 year old as you do as an adult, yet for me Dracula is definitely one of the few.
Dracula was one of the many English language books left in the apartment that my cousin George inherited upon his arrival in Korea, and as he wasn’t interested in it (!!) I snapped it up.
Of course, you view any book, however beloved, differently when reading it as an adult, and I have to admit that I’ve been analyzing a tad too much. Let’s see what you think about my train of thought:
In Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the Count and other vampires are held off by crucifixes and communion wafers. Would talismans of other religions have had the same effect? Or had Count Dracula set off east from Transylvania instead of west, would his depredations have been allowed to continue unabated – at least until the arrival of some adequately equipped Catholic missionaries?
Moving on. Are any of you True Blood watchers? I only started watching the show shortly after returning to Korea – but as they show two episodes every Friday night, I’m already about six episodes into Season 2. (Don’t give me any spoilers!!) I recently watched the episode in which the following interaction takes place between Jason Stackhouse and other members of the Fellowship of the Sun:
Jason: I don't know who Lazarus was but he sure as hell wasn't the first vampire. Everybody knows it was Dracula.
Luke: It's in the Bible, moron. Jesus brought Lazarus back from the dead.
Jason: So Jesus made the first vampire? Maybe Jesus was the first vampire. I mean he rose from the dead too, and he told people "Hey y'all drink my blood. It'll give you special powers."
Luke: Jesus never said that.
And this segue, via the reference to communion, brings me back to Catholicism. I don’t know much of anything about Bram Stoker, other than that he was born in Ireland and that he wrote Dracula. I don’t know if he was a Catholic, Protestant, or an Atheist – although I would infer Catholic from his writings.
Now, England (unlike Ireland) is not a Catholic country, nor was it at the time Dracula was written – and surely I need not remind you of the long history of conflicts between the Catholic Irish and the Protestant English – but I do wonder if there might have been some evermore subtler message from Irish Bram Stoker to the general literate British public. After all, only those utilizing Roman Catholic talismans are able to triumph in the battle against evil.
There is only the briefest of hesitations with regard to the use of non-Anglican “idols” near the tale’s beginning:
She then rose and dried her eyes, and taking a crucifix from her neck offered it to me. I did not know what to do, for, as an English Churchman, I have been taught to regard such things as in some measure idolatrous, and yet it seemed so ungracious to refuse an old lady meaning so well and in such a state of mind. She saw, I suppose, the doubt in my face, for she put the rosary around my neck, and said, “For your mother’s sake,” and went out of the room. I am writing up this part of the diary while I am waiting for the coach, which is, of course, late; and the crucifix is still round my neck.
Following this tiny episode of doubt regarding non-Anglican “idols” (occurring on page 5 of the book, no less!) all the protagonists cling tightly to their crucifixes…
Food for thought.
I shall leave you with two humorous videos, from Sesame Street of all places – although if you’re not a True Blood fan, you probably won’t understand the first one. Enjoy!
Dracula was one of the many English language books left in the apartment that my cousin George inherited upon his arrival in Korea, and as he wasn’t interested in it (!!) I snapped it up.
Of course, you view any book, however beloved, differently when reading it as an adult, and I have to admit that I’ve been analyzing a tad too much. Let’s see what you think about my train of thought:
In Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the Count and other vampires are held off by crucifixes and communion wafers. Would talismans of other religions have had the same effect? Or had Count Dracula set off east from Transylvania instead of west, would his depredations have been allowed to continue unabated – at least until the arrival of some adequately equipped Catholic missionaries?
Moving on. Are any of you True Blood watchers? I only started watching the show shortly after returning to Korea – but as they show two episodes every Friday night, I’m already about six episodes into Season 2. (Don’t give me any spoilers!!) I recently watched the episode in which the following interaction takes place between Jason Stackhouse and other members of the Fellowship of the Sun:
Jason: I don't know who Lazarus was but he sure as hell wasn't the first vampire. Everybody knows it was Dracula.
Luke: It's in the Bible, moron. Jesus brought Lazarus back from the dead.
Jason: So Jesus made the first vampire? Maybe Jesus was the first vampire. I mean he rose from the dead too, and he told people "Hey y'all drink my blood. It'll give you special powers."
Luke: Jesus never said that.
And this segue, via the reference to communion, brings me back to Catholicism. I don’t know much of anything about Bram Stoker, other than that he was born in Ireland and that he wrote Dracula. I don’t know if he was a Catholic, Protestant, or an Atheist – although I would infer Catholic from his writings.
Now, England (unlike Ireland) is not a Catholic country, nor was it at the time Dracula was written – and surely I need not remind you of the long history of conflicts between the Catholic Irish and the Protestant English – but I do wonder if there might have been some evermore subtler message from Irish Bram Stoker to the general literate British public. After all, only those utilizing Roman Catholic talismans are able to triumph in the battle against evil.
There is only the briefest of hesitations with regard to the use of non-Anglican “idols” near the tale’s beginning:
She then rose and dried her eyes, and taking a crucifix from her neck offered it to me. I did not know what to do, for, as an English Churchman, I have been taught to regard such things as in some measure idolatrous, and yet it seemed so ungracious to refuse an old lady meaning so well and in such a state of mind. She saw, I suppose, the doubt in my face, for she put the rosary around my neck, and said, “For your mother’s sake,” and went out of the room. I am writing up this part of the diary while I am waiting for the coach, which is, of course, late; and the crucifix is still round my neck.
Following this tiny episode of doubt regarding non-Anglican “idols” (occurring on page 5 of the book, no less!) all the protagonists cling tightly to their crucifixes…
Food for thought.
I shall leave you with two humorous videos, from Sesame Street of all places – although if you’re not a True Blood fan, you probably won’t understand the first one. Enjoy!
6 comments:
I've seen it argued fairly persuasively that Dracula is partly about fear of immigration (nasty dude from eastern Europe turns up, messes with virginal Anglo-Saxon girls, lowers property values, works as a shoddy plumber - plus ca change, in other words) but also about... well, Victorian England had a fairly morbid culture, the Queen was in mourning for 20+ years, spiritualism was very much in vogue, and so on. The sanctity of the grave was a big deal and Dracula represents the ultimate threat to this. There's also all the sexual repression stuff too of course.
I hadn't thought of the immigration angle... but I can definitely see that there is an argument to be made in that respect. I've heard/read a lot about the sexual analysis of Dracula (well, nowadays the accepted view in acadaemia seems to be that everything written in Victorian England was all about repressed sexuality) - I know Buffy took a cue from this; they totally snuck Buffy's whopper orgasm when Angel bites her past the censors. And of course with vampy stuff being en vogue now, there's all the sexual tension in the Twilight series (I don't know this myself, I refuse to read) - and True Blood... well, the sex is just out there. I mean, here in Korea it's advertised as "True Blood: Hard Core Sex Vampire Series"
I discovered that an American channel here shows "True Blood" reruns on Saturday nights, and I am now totally hooked. I would guess I'm halfway through the first season. I would like to think that all the blatant sexin' is at least partly a tongue-in-cheek response to all the stupid repressive virginality in "Twilight", but it's probably not. It is HBO, after all. They might just do it because they can.
Incidentally, I have also heard the theory about Dracula having something to do with immigration.
It's probably just because it's HBO and they can - although the fact that HBO is airing a sexy vampire series is surely in response to the Twilight mania. Also, True Blood is based on a series of novels - I'm curious as to whether they're as hard core sextastic as the show or not.
I bailed out of True Blood after two episodes as a) it seemed to be very much a case of style over substance and b) what wasn't, may have been new and original to a mainstream audience certainly wasn't to a long-term horror/vampire reader and viewer, and anyway c) it was all a bit disappointing given it was from the same creator as Six Foot Under. Sort of wishing I'd hung around long enough for Anna Paquin's nudie scenes, but c'est la vie...
If the repressed Victorians produced Dracula, Jekyll and Hyde, and the collected works of Dickens, Eliot, and the Brontes, while one of the bestselling writers in the UK today is a former porn-star turned celebiquity, then that's a big argument for repression in my book. (I was much more creative back when I was repressed.)
I think one of the reasons the vampire legend has lasted so long is that every new generation gets to reimagine it to reflect their own concerns. Fairly ineptly in the case of Stephenie Meyer (or so I'm told), but you can't have everything.
I'm quite enjoying True Blood. In the same way that Buffy used vampires to address teen/college issues, TB uses them to address a lot of the issues that are still big problems in the American South: racism, homosexuality, religious fundamentalism, drug use, and the acceptance (or not) of people who are different. Also, Vampire Bill and Vampire Eric are super hot.
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