Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Some Things Are Better As Fantasy


In my Intensive Narrative class we are currently reading Bram Stoker's Dracula.  I have read the book probably three times before this.  I absolutely love it.  Only this time, I think the book is starting to get to me.  I mean, this is the second night in a row I've waken up thinking something was knocking on my window.  Really creepy.  I'm no Lucy by all means, but I still enjoy the story.
The big thing we have been hitting on in class is the amount of male suppression expressed and how it can be interpreted into sexual contexts.  So Dracula is supposed to be the alpha dominant male and yet he carries out the projects of a common woman.  He is always indoors, until he gets to London.  He is quiet and passes through the crowd without ever getting noticed.  So many female qualities in a male master.  What is Stoker saying?  Is Dracula supposed to be the entity created by an equality society?  I'm not too sure, but either way, he still is a great character.  He freaks us out because he is beyond the male and female perspective.  He is something else.  We fear the possibility of his kind being real, and we are comforted in knowing it is only a story.  It is because of the story we are drawn in.  And if you are like me you will keep coming back.  No matter how freaky it might be.


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