#4 Discuss the role of sexuality in Dracula. Would you say that Dracula attempts to reproduce himself sexually or by some other means? In what ways does the figure of Dracula subvert conventional notions of heterosexuality? Consider, for instance, his predilection for drinking blood and his habit of making his victims feed from his chest.
this is one of the reading group questions from the back of the book. maybe i'm a dummy, but this one seemed to have some obvious answers to me, so i'm attacking it (pun attended). when i was typing this into a draft post, i was looking forward to what this question might lead to as far as plot points. at this point, it was just jonathan harker hanging out(1) with old creepy mccreeperson dracula, and i thought for sure it was going to be *his* life hanging in the balance while everyone ran around trying to save his ass.
but no. it never turns out that way. i don't know how dracula ever subverts conventional notions of heterosexuality in this particular book. i've heard that dracula is totally sexy (2) and will basically charm the pants off (the blood out of?) anyone, regardless of their sexual orientation, but he's pretty much only hitting up the ladies in this book. am i wrong? i tend to read really fast, but he taps lucy, mina and he's got the three vampy ghost broads in the drac-house.
i guess he makes a run at jonathan, but that doesn't really last. in fact, he obviously gets let go (1) and ends up back with his peeps. so when else is he trying to hit up on some guys in this book? the only other time he deals with a dude, he fucks renfield UP!
as far as drinking blood, why is that fucking with heterosexuality? again, we only ever get allusions to it in this particular version. there's not really even too many good descriptions of teeth to neck or sexy bites or kisses, as far as i can tell. there's more god and religion talk, if anything. or husband and wife-ing. oh husband this, oh lover, that. oh good wife, this, oh forever, that.
i didn't do the 'anne rice thing,' but i'd guess she's got some good boy on boy neck sucking. oh, and i didn't know the thing about him making people feed from his chest. i thought he just sort of drained people dry(ish).
(1) what was the point of the jonathan harker visit? to establish how creepy dracula is/was? cause he just ends up getting out with no damage done? and how does *that* happen? there's no mention of that, either. he just skips out of there? and why? why doesn't dracula vampire-ize him?
(2) this dracula doesn't seem sexy AT ALL. at all. he seems more like count chocula than sexy sexy.
thoughts?
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
sex and the vampire
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8 comments:
as far as dracula not being sexy, you have to keep in mind that this book was authored in the victorian era where sexual mores were extremely inhibited. i mean, you couldn't even REFER to such an obvious thing as a woman being pregnant in polite conversation (i guess because it might call to mind how she got that way). so any sexuality in the book would be only very vaguely alluded to.
i'm not sure what your discussion questions are trying to get at here with the homosexuality issues, because it seems a stretch. the only thing i can think of is that blood drinking is consuming the bodily fluid of a another human being, which could be a man-on-man activity which then could be interpreted as homosexual. but, again, that seems a stretch to me.
oh, and i think the purpose of harker's visit it to set the stage for the remainder of the story.
oh, and i move to have the count chocula comment stricken from the record. REALLY!
Without Harker's business trip (he's there finalizing the real estate deal) there's no connection to Mina except via Lucy and she's connected with EVERYONE.
I didn't notice any man on man action although, come to think of it, the guys were proudly sporting some big knives at the end which may have been a little ... compensating... I suppose.
i'm *not* striking it from the record. every time they said 'aqualine nose' i didn't picture anything eastern european and hot and sexy, i thought ... count chocula. i thought, pale, tall, weak yet mean looking count chocula. i thought count chocula meets ... snape's nerdy weak lame ass brother. tall and gangly. i don't know.
also ... does anyone else think that christian bale has vampiro teeth that he's always trying to hide or something?
The only homosexual imagery I had was all the male fluid flowing together in Lucy's body. And I know that is quite a stretch, especially since I think she was pretty much sucked dry by the time they each filled her up. I guess I could conjure up some sapphic overtones with the brides of dracula.
yes please. can we?
The thing is we have to remember Jen's point in when the book was written. That's probably as homosexual or flat out sexual he could be.
clearly, I have a different version with questions/topics to ponder in the front where it's all about blood meaning Christianity or purity of race - so I tried looking at it that way and it seemed very contrived. I can see where one might think that way if you are obsessed with race or religion - the poor women - they can only be truly transformed through the blood of either evil (dracula) or good (all the other guys - note the worry of not telling Lucy's husband of the other guys injecting her with their blood (sexual conquest/purity allusions?)). Nothing about homosexuality crossed my mind, however. That is Anne Rice territory, though - which Dave & I joked should be my next pick.
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