Story Keeper
Persistent Member
There's a wild wind blowin', down the corner of my street[Mo0:1]
Posts: 1,129
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Dracula
Dec 14, 2010 19:22:46 GMT -8
Post by Story Keeper on Dec 14, 2010 19:22:46 GMT -8
Self explanatory.
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~vola!
Member
I am Rasputin. Let me draw you in. Take this evil grin and love me for my sins.[Mo0:10]
Posts: 429
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Dracula
Dec 14, 2010 20:35:10 GMT -8
Post by ~vola! on Dec 14, 2010 20:35:10 GMT -8
Dracula! I read it and I'm glad I did, but I probably won't again. The fact that it took a hundred pages and four blood transfusions for the characters to figure out what the fuck was wrong with Lucy kind of pissed me off. Also, it seemed like the characters stopped what they were doing to have breakfast or something every other fucking page.
"Alright, gentlemen, let's form a committee and kill this vampire menace once and for all. But first, breakfast!"
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Dracula
Dec 15, 2010 15:52:17 GMT -8
Post by Lady of Himring on Dec 15, 2010 15:52:17 GMT -8
I love this book.
^I think the point in that, in a way they hoped it wasn't Dracula. Instead an illness that could be cured. I found this page, which makes analysis of the characters. Dracula
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FlyingMintBunny
Persistent Member
Ponies rock my socks. [Mo0:9]
Posts: 1,143
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Dracula
Dec 19, 2010 17:14:26 GMT -8
Post by FlyingMintBunny on Dec 19, 2010 17:14:26 GMT -8
I'm reading it for school at the moment. It is slow moving, but REAL VAMPIRES. YES. The character of Lucy does bother me a bit though. It's like she's just a sacrifice to the plot. Is she supposed to be some innocent, pure angel, like some sort of Victorian ideal? We never really learn much about her, apart from how much everyone adores her. And for no apparent reason- she just seems like a bit of an airhead to me. It just seems like her character is never fully developed.
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Dracula
Dec 19, 2010 18:13:06 GMT -8
Post by Lady of Himring on Dec 19, 2010 18:13:06 GMT -8
^Mina is suppoused to be the Victorian Ideal. Lucy's "sexuality" is her downfall. She's pretty, she knows it and flaunts it; in a way that paves the way for Dracula to prey and turn her.
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~vola!
Member
I am Rasputin. Let me draw you in. Take this evil grin and love me for my sins.[Mo0:10]
Posts: 429
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Dracula
Dec 19, 2010 18:25:39 GMT -8
Post by ~vola! on Dec 19, 2010 18:25:39 GMT -8
@purple Rose: I understand the purpose of doing it that way, but I felt like I read the same 20 pages over and over AND OVER again. If I had read the book for pleasure I probably wouldn't have minded as much, but I read it for a class and had to write a paper on it. Under those circumstances, if a book is going to waste my time, I'd like it to at least try to be interesting. Victorian writing style tends toward the wordy and repetitive to an almost unnecessary degree.
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Dracula
Dec 19, 2010 18:48:19 GMT -8
Post by Lady of Himring on Dec 19, 2010 18:48:19 GMT -8
^Oh I know what you mean. I once had to read a book for class that was *way* overdescriptive, so I really understand where you're comming from.
btw, got my pm?
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FlyingMintBunny
Persistent Member
Ponies rock my socks. [Mo0:9]
Posts: 1,143
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Dracula
Dec 20, 2010 4:22:01 GMT -8
Post by FlyingMintBunny on Dec 20, 2010 4:22:01 GMT -8
^Mina is suppoused to be the Victorian Ideal. Lucy's "sexuality" is her downfall. She's pretty, she knows it and flaunts it; in a way that paves the way for Dracula to prey and turn her. I suppose that adds depth to her character, to some extent. Maybe it's the angel/whore dichotomy- stereotypical Gothic portrayals of women as either of these. I just saw her as more the naive, angellic character, but I guess that's open to interpretation. All that "Poor, sweet Lucy" shizz. Still doesn't change the fact that it seems like her main purpose in the novel is to be killed off. (And I agree, this happens painfully slowly. Especially for the modern reader, cause it's pretty damn obvious what's causing her to lose blood.)
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Dracula
Dec 20, 2010 18:27:09 GMT -8
Post by Lady of Himring on Dec 20, 2010 18:27:09 GMT -8
^What also counts it's the year the book was written. For us now, it's a very clear madonna/whore thing; back then it was in a way a cautionary tale.
You have Mina, pure at heart, naive, who's stedfast on Jonathan and has abilities that can aid him. Thus cementing her place at his side. The submissive woman, the Victorian Ideal.
Then there's Lucy, she's 19, she's pretty, she's flirty and she has three suitors. She's the opposite of Mina, which made her the opposite of the Victorian Ideals. And when she's turned, she goes after children. She terrorizes people, thus, she needs to die in order to be "saved".
(sorry for the slight rant, we had to do analysis of the characters back on highschool. Oh the memories )
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FlyingMintBunny
Persistent Member
Ponies rock my socks. [Mo0:9]
Posts: 1,143
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Dracula
Dec 21, 2010 11:49:01 GMT -8
Post by FlyingMintBunny on Dec 21, 2010 11:49:01 GMT -8
^ No, that's really useful, thankyou. Ahh.... now I just have to finish reading it XD
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Dracula
Dec 21, 2010 18:58:49 GMT -8
Post by Lady of Himring on Dec 21, 2010 18:58:49 GMT -8
^Happy to help. Glad you find it useful. *Cheers you on, so you can finish it*
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Dracula
Jan 30, 2011 13:30:01 GMT -8
Post by Lil' Raskol LobLaw on Jan 30, 2011 13:30:01 GMT -8
Dracula's one of my favorite books; top five to be exact.
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Dracula
Feb 6, 2011 22:16:12 GMT -8
Post by Mmm Yog-Sothoth on Feb 6, 2011 22:16:12 GMT -8
It's been a while since I read it, but I remember liking that book quite a lot. I'm still not wild about the correspondence format of the book and the book seems to lose some steam from the beginning in the drawn-out middle section, but overall it came together nicely and there are some parts of that book that still come across as genuinely unsettling for me to this day.
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PRINCESS TROLLESTIA
Persistent Member
YER A WIZARD PONY HARRY
AND THEN I SAID, "OATMEAL?? ARE YOU CRAZY??"[Mo0:15]
Posts: 3,810
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Dracula
Feb 9, 2011 16:04:43 GMT -8
Post by PRINCESS TROLLESTIA on Feb 9, 2011 16:04:43 GMT -8
I had to take a university writing course that revolved around this book and monster movies in general. I'm really used to discussing this book from a academic angle.
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makoeyes
Member
I AM LUCIFER GOD OF THE UNDERWORLD AND I WANT YOUR SOUL!
Posts: 896
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Dracula
Feb 16, 2012 11:32:39 GMT -8
Post by makoeyes on Feb 16, 2012 11:32:39 GMT -8
Dracula is definitely one of my favorite books. Some parts are still unsettling, especially when Lucy gets turned into a monster. I never thought Lucy was a whore. I thought she was supposed to be a saintlike and kind-hearted creature. That's the reason why the Count turning her was so monstrous in my mind, because he took something good and beautiful and raped it into something evil and despicable that preys on children. It forevers cements Dracula as something horrifying and evil beyond imagining. It's not wonder he's the archetypal Hollywood Sociopath.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Dracula
Feb 18, 2012 20:25:31 GMT -8
Post by Deleted on Feb 18, 2012 20:25:31 GMT -8
Lucy's destruction is monsterous and definitely cements Dracula's evil status in my mind. I know there are some versions of the story that try to give a more sympathetic version of the character and while that's an interesting concept, it doesn't really gel as well with the rest of his actions.Hard to feel sympathy for such an unrepentant villain.
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Dracula
Feb 20, 2012 0:29:57 GMT -8
Post by Ozymandias II on Feb 20, 2012 0:29:57 GMT -8
Lucy's destruction is monsterous and definitely cements Dracula's evil status in my mind. I know there are some versions of the story that try to give a more sympathetic version of the character and while that's an interesting concept, it doesn't really gel as well with the rest of his actions.Hard to feel sympathy for such an unrepentant villain. I agree. Dracula may have some sympathetic qualities and a fascinating character, I actually think it's a bit of an insult to the character when certain adaptions try to clean it up as "But he had a tragical past and everything he did should be totally excused and pushed under the rug!" OK, so maybe no one's ever gone that far, but point still stands. I'm looking at you, Bram Stoker's Dracula. Turning Mina's metaphorical rape into "but she totally wanted it and it's true love" bull. Ozy-Hulk smash! At least it still has one of Gary Oldman'm hammiest performances ever. Mm, hammy Oldman...
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~vola!
Member
I am Rasputin. Let me draw you in. Take this evil grin and love me for my sins.[Mo0:10]
Posts: 429
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Dracula
Feb 20, 2012 14:14:30 GMT -8
Post by ~vola! on Feb 20, 2012 14:14:30 GMT -8
Bram Stoker's Dracula is an amazing film from a technical standpoint. Everything you see on screen was filmed exactly as you see it; there is no computer trickery. That scene with the book in the foreground and the train in the background, with Oldman's giant crazy eyes in the sky? Projection screen, tiny train, giant book and forced perspective. Gary Oldman as a literal old man? Makeup and latex and roughly a hundred bazillion feet of hair. I think Keanu Reeves might actually emote in that movie, too, for a few seconds. Possibly during the lady-vampire molestation scene.
Story-wise...it's actually pretty faithful to the novel, if a bit over-the-top visually. It changed far fewer things than my personal favorite film adaptation, which is the old Hammer film "The Horror of Dracula," starring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing before Star Wars happened. That one changes a lot of story elements, but I like it because the performances are really solid. Young Christopher Lee may not be as sexy as Gary Oldman, but he just devours the set of every scene he's in.
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