[ 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

[(Anonymous)]

Well, it is kinda, if you consider Dracula being a commentary on the rampant syphilis epidemic of the time (Stoker himself died from it). Syphilis is a sexually transmitted disease and thereby closely and tragically connected to romance.

[(Anonymous)]

The idea that Stoker died of syphilis comes from Daniel Farson's catty error-riddled 1975 biography, which insists the the term "Locomotor Ataxia" on his death certificate conclusively means he died of syphilis. While scholars and enthusiasts with more medical knowledge than I have debated whether or not this is a reasonable diagnosis, Stoker's syphilis wouldn't have impacted Dracula as a novel if he had it, given that the time frame for his death meant he would have contracted it in the late 1890s at the earliest, around the time or after the novel's publication date. It's not really feasible that his own disease would have impacted the creative process, given that his notes outline that he had rough outlines of the book as early as 1890.

[(Anonymous)]

DA

Wow, this is interesting. Thanks!

And now I want to read biographies of Stoker...I still have a bunch on Russian royalty and some on Edgar Allan Poe to read first though. Suggestions for biographies on Stoker?

[(Anonymous)]

SA

I've heard that From the Shadow of Dracula: A Life of Bram Stoker by Paul Murray is the most accurate biography available, but I haven't read it yet. The best I've personally encountered thus far is Barbara Belford's Bram Stoker and the Man Who Was Dracula, which is less snippy than Farson and less obviously unscholarly than Ludlam, but still makes a lot of weird leaps in logic and seems a little over-intent on its theory that Henry Irving was the primary inspiration for Dracula.

I'd also just recommend reading or browsing through Stoker's Personal Reminiscences of Henry Irving, as its the closest thing to an autobiography that he left and is really more about his personal opinions on every person that he ever met at the Lyceum Theatre than an actual account of his employer. Also, you should totally read his letters to Walt Whitman (http://www.whitmanarchive.org/criticism/disciples/traubel/WWWiC/4/med.00004.30.html) because they are absolutely freaking adorable.

[tree_and_leaf]

Also: I'm not a doctor, but one thing I do know about syphilis is that it was known as 'the great imitator', because it had so many possible symptoms that it was easily confused with many other diseases. So I'm always very suspicious about retro-diagnoses based on someone having one of the symptoms - locomotor ataxia MIGHT be a symptom of tertiary syphilis, but it might not. It's a bit like that recent biographer who decided that Benjamin Britten died of syphilis because of his heart condition, even though one of the doctors who was involved in his heart surgery is adamant that there was nothing to suggest Britten had syphilis, and plenty to suggest he didn't.