Those fangy drama queens with their Victorian fashion sense...

[lyricality]

Today hasn't been the most marvelously productive time ever. I set aside time for myself to write, and sat in front of the computer for half an hour unable to get into the right headspace for it--I couldn't concentrate in the slightest. I blame Dracula, which I've never read before this week. While I have an excuse for that--in high school AP Lit we were given the choice to read either Dracula or Frankenstein, and I chose the latter, which I love--I'm terribly sorry that I didn't read it earlier, given how much I'm liking it. I've always hated vampires, mostly because of Anne Rice and the whole progression of awful copycats, hanger-ons, and LARPers who followed her, but Dracula itself still seems fresh. It lacks the tortured and frankly whiny 'pity me for I am woez immortal and painfully sensual' attitude that characterizes so much of the fiction that followed it.

Since I've been so interested, I looked up CrimeLibrary's article on Vlad the Impaler, the historical basis for the Dracula character. The author of the article has this interesting opinion of the book: "The atmosphere it creates is, in this writer's opinion, spookier than any Stephen King novel." I'm inclined to agree. Dracula is more evocative than calculatedly scary, and it allows more room for imagination on the part of the reader. This isn't much of a surprise, since the requirements of the reading audience have necessarily changed on the whole since 1897, when Dracula was first published. In his own On Writing, King admits his debt to Stoker, with the obvious conclusion that "without Dracula....I think there is no 'Salem's Lot." Certainly It might have been markedly different as well, with its central idea of a group of chosen people bound by a higher purpose to destroy a great evil.

As for me, I especially love Mina Harker. I'm seriously considering bringing her into the_blank_slate sometime soon, following my application for Sherlock Holmes in March. I have a hundred or so pages left, and since I can't bear to put the book down long enough to write my OWN book, I'll surely finish in the next day or two. =P

[Edit: To correct the exact wording of King's statement, once I had the book in front of me.]

Comments

[andersenmom.livejournal.com]

I listened to it - book on tape - and loved it. The people who did the voices were extremely good. I've never read Frankenstein, but I own it. It's just a matter of picking it up and reading.

I'm just not in the mood to read anything right now....

[lyricality.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I saw your post. I was feeling like that for the last several months, really, and now suddenly I've read three books this month, which is fairly average for me. Maybe you just have to wait for the mood to pass?

I think my friend may have listened to the same version on tape that you did. She loved it so much that she lent me her sister's copy of the book and commanded me to read it, heeeee.

[andersenmom.livejournal.com]

The only thing to do is wait (and make sure I keep up with the schedule for my book group), but it's so frustrating to be surrounded by books - and not want to read a single one of them.

I own that one, too (Dracula), but I haven't ever read it... I mean to, though, eventually. I have to say - the ballet they did a couple years ago was awesome. Absolutely wonderful.

[ceilidh]

Data is just going to die when he meets Sherlock Holmes. :D

[lyricality.livejournal.com]

HEEEEE. ♥

[justperverted.livejournal.com]

That's a book I've always wanted to read as well. Just another thing I keep putting off :) I hope you get un-distracted soon, dear. ^^

[lyricality.livejournal.com]

Well, I did succeed in writing 700 words last night, so maybe writing down my thoughts here helped. ^_^