Moss

Kind of obsessed with Scottish history right now.

Trollheart

Well maybe, but he made no attempt to, unless you include Lucy. And it certainly was not mentioned. Dracula just says I want to move to London, and that's it. No explanation. And as for you, Batty...
Weak weak weak premise. I'm bored so I'll go to London? As if.
Not to mention misogynistic. Five women in total, three are vampires, one becomes a vampire and the other is basically window dressing. No character development or independent interaction at all for the ladies. Course, he was gay, so I guess, but still...
That was bull****. All made up. Dracula saw a picture of Mina and lusted after her, sure, but there was never any intimation that she was a reincarnation of anyone. They just turned the movie into a love story. Puke.
Giving night classes only, presumably?

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Janszoon

Of course!

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The Batlord

Dracula was an old world monster in a place where peasants were still peasants, lords were still lords, and science was something that happened to other people. It's kind of natural that anyone would at least want to explore some brave new world with electricity and steam engines. If it seems like a weak premise then it's probably cause any ol' person deciding to leave their hometown is not interesting, but when it's a being who can only sleep in a coffin filled with soil from their native land then it becomes something of an interesting logistics problem (and Stoker loved him some tedious logistics).

But the old world vs. new world theme was pretty evident in the book (even aside from the racist, anti-Eastern European aspect). The people fighting Dracula were involved in, at the time, new technology and practices such as psychology, blood transfusions, that recording thing they used for a diary in the last half of the book. All going up against Satan and peasant superstitions basically.

I'm not going to pretend like Dracula was a brilliantly written book or anything, but the premise of a vampire wanting to leave his backwoods obscurity for a land far advanced is perfectly reasonable (real people do it all the time), and even interesting, as it paints him as something other than just a blood fiend. Now he's curious. It doesn't have to be about some plot using phlebotinum to turn all the world into daywalkers to be good.

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Trollheart

Yeah, I take your point, but you really should read that Sherlock Holmes novel I was talking about. The author really gets into the huge plot holes in the novel, and while his resolution is a little out there, he makes some good points which shows that Dracula was, really, pretty poorly thrown together.

Mind you, I'm still re-reading Dracula and it's been a while, so I probably shouldn't talk too much about that until I have finished it. Again.

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Janszoon

Elantris by Brandon Sanderson
I'm about halfway through. Interesting concept, though there's something a little cheesy about it. Curious to see where it's all going.




Ulysses by James Joyce
I've read about a third of this so far, and as expected, it's a slog. Thank heavens for online chapter summaries or otherwise I'd have no idea what the fuck is going on. That said, in the moment I do enjoy Joyce's way of describing things and his turns of phrase, even if all taken together it's pretty incomprehensible. (Sidenote: I was surprised to discover that Foetus is actually quoting a line from this book in his song "Water Torture" when he sings "The snot-green sea, the scrotum-tightening sea". That made me laugh.)




Rabbit, Run by John Updike
Not too far in, but it seems good so far. It's definitely a product of its time (the late 1950s), but the writing is great.

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Moss

Picture was supposed to be a book about the Jacobites, 1745. Screw it.

The Batlord

I've never read any of Stoker's other books, but I've not heard good things. I don't have any illusions about Stoker's skill as a writer or Dracula's technical quality. It's a book that had to have been written by a hack, cause who else was gonna do it? But Stoker was still pretty good as far as hacks go. It's not about the wonky structure of the book, or the awkward shifts in tone, it's about that atmosphere of dread that's pretty constant throughout the book. And Dracula also has some of the most memorable scenes ever, so it's got that going for it I guess.

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Frownland

The wonky structure is what brings me back to the book tbh.

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innerspaceboy

Read three books these past few days -

Began with Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom by John O'Donohue. Really enjoyed it and I'm tracking down copies of his other writings on ancient spirituality, philosophy, and poetry. I'd like to read Divine Beauty: The Invisible Embrace next.

Next, I read The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love That Lasts by Gary Chapman. It was interesting to apply Chapman's principles to various relationships in my life and to explore how to better those interactions.

I followed that up today with Solitude: In Pursuit of a Singular Life in a Crowded World by Michael Harris. Published this April, it's by far the most current non-fiction I've ever read. Harris' examination of social media and technology really emphasized the importance of unplugging and reconnecting with oneself.

Tomorrow morning I'll read The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom by Miguel Ruiz.

But the real excitement is en route to my home from a little bookshop in Liverpool - The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu's 2023: A Trilogy - the first work produced by The KLF upon the completion of their 23-year contractual moratorium. I've 105 pages of notes on the spectacle surrounding its release so far, and I haven't even cracked the cover yet. It's the kind of music journalism piece a gent waits a lifetime to author.

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