[ SECRET POST #2504 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2504 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 04 pages, 88 secrets from Secret Submission Post #358.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ], [ 1 2 - posted twice ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[khronos_keeper]

I think this is where a lot of the historical and cultural context comes in. Stoker was of the nationality and authenicity where there was a lot of speculation about the demi-sexual perversion of nature, philosophy, and science speculation going on in larger culture and the nature of progress. You have to remember this was where a lot of inventions were starting and being implemented, and there was sort of a pretty big moral and ethical crisis mode, where the agricultural society starting to become a heavily industrial society.

Many writers decided to go a supernatural route to to this; including elements of folklore, like golems or vampires called back to old beliefs, and then throwing in science and romance helped create a further unsettling picture. The sense of romance or sexuality was more metaphorical than literal-- sort of a rape of the natural order of things going on.

So... I mean, yeah I agree with you on one hand, but on the other Stoker was trying to present a vaguely erotic image, and then using that as a weapon against his reader. You were supposed to feel aroused, and then ashamed and horrified, because that was sort of the whole point of his book. Progress was happening, and it messed with a lot of society's values, and this was supposed to get readers to think about that.

/off literary soapbox sorry D:

[(Anonymous)]

Well... that's one interpretation.

[khronos_keeper]

Yeah, agreed, it's very much just my interpretation of the book and the larger social themes.

[(Anonymous)]

it's actually a pretty commonly accepted interpretation in academia. a lot of critics have deeply analyzed what they believe to be "new woman" rhetoric in the story for example. there's also been a lot written about how the novel can be interpreted as social commentary about the decline of the british empire

[gondremark]

You have to remember this was where a lot of inventions were starting and being implemented, and there was sort of a pretty big moral and ethical crisis mode, where the agricultural society starting to become a heavily industrial society.
You do realise the book was published in 1897 and that the industrial revolution was not a new thing, yes?

Anyway, a lot of people have said a lot of things about Deeper Meanings in Dracula (I once read an entire introduction once that was nothing but "Dracula's about fear of female sexuality, because Stoker was horrible and skeered of da wimminz"), and to me it looks like academia will go to great lengths to find Important Themes in works, just like Fandom will go to similar lengths to validate headcanons and bizare ships.
Heck, academic interpretations of literature is mostly just a bunch of far fetched headcanons, anyway.

It'd be nice if more people could just read a well-constructed vampire story for what it is, and if you want to get posh about it, go on about why it's scary, how the story works, why the characters are so sympathetic (or not). There is a lot in a story (any story, not just Dracula) to wax intellectual about without getting silly.