Are we really done already? I should think not.
1) Mina Harker really does kick ass. She's some kind of crazy riot grrrl and I just dug her. Every time the guys think she's too weak or not worldly enough to handle the "man stuff" they suffer for neglecting her. It seems awfully progressive.
2) Wasn't Renfield just the best? Although I never imagine Keanu Reeves as Jon Harker I always see Tom Waits as R.M. Renfield. Always. I can totally imagine Seward sitting in his office hearing Renfield down in his cell singing "The Earth Died Screaming" or "Clap Hands." But that's just me.
3) also just me (in a Crisis Intervention Team member sense) was the irritation I had with the appalling condition of the mental hospital. Sure, it was probably a lot more fact than fictional but still. We've come a long way. Then again today Renfield would have been chemically restrained with Haldol and Ativan then discharged later with some Risperdal or Zyprexa. Chances are he'd stop taking them and he'd be back into the story at about the right point. Oh well, six of one…
4) When in
5) I sort of had this moment when Lucy was writing to Mina about all of her proposals where I wondered what Lucy's mom was thinking. I can image her telling Linda Richmond on Coffee Talk something like "Oy, I said 'Lucy, bubele, you turned down a proposal from a doctor? Don't be meshugeneh., you're killing your mother."
No, it never said Lucy's mom spoke broken Yiddish but we all take our own bags on this trip, right?
7 comments:
Dead on with the Irish connection, Eric - at least that's what they claim in the notes of my edition. There are all kinds of references to Ireland - plays on words: Transylvania = land beyond the forest which they tell me is a play on "beyond the pale" which originally referred to all areas of Ireland not under British rule, Dracula being a play on droch fhola which is literally bad blood. So you get an idea that the British (rational people) feel their ideas and beliefs are superior to those of the superstitious people (those not under British rule in the vast, scary countryside).
Maybe the asylum gives us a look at these two belief systems - superstitious vs. rational. Renfield is stuck between these two places. He doesn't get attacked by the Count, so his blood isn't tainted, yet he is fascinated by the blood's power and recognizes that power for both good and evil. He is trying to reconcile the evil power of blood with the good (why is Jesus' blood okay, while man's only has the power to corrupt?)- the shit that drives people insane.
And, if you like seeing dead mummified people, try Guanajuato, Mexico. Weirdest museum of newly dead & mummified people I've ever seen.
you mean renfield doesn't get his blood sucked ... that kind of attacked? cause he gets totally killed by him for NOT doing what the count wants, right? i mean, i don't quite get the deal with that anyway (i read WAY too fast ... i should go back) ... i mean, something was up with him, cause that's why he'd get increasingly crazy around sunset and sunrise and all of that, right?
i mean did he not really officially invite dracula into the asylum or what? you know?
also, my reading group question DOES talk about christianity stuff. i guess i didn't really see that, either.
Renfield is the classic vampire helper. Dracula needs helpers in the day so he corrupts them with the promise that he will eventually grant them the gift of eternal life. Of course that never ever happens. This is where Dracula takes on the role of the devil for many. Promises to his followers, but eventually never coming through and casting them aside in the end.
regarding eric's comments on mina, i couldn't agree more. and, really, for the victorian era, she is extremely progressive. she puts jane austen's fiesty protagonistas to shame.
yeah, my bad - renfield does get killed, I was thinking earlier in the book.
No Julene that's not your bad. Renfield is hoping the count grants him eternal life, when he knows that isn't going to happen he turns on him and gets killed.
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