#draculee dracula

[lakegenevaslumberparty]

feeling weirdly proud of tumblr tonight

our reading comprehension may piss on the poor but by damn we recognize the best character in Dracula (Mina it’s always been Mina) and that’s something that seems to have eluded the entire 20th century 

[lakegenevaslumberparty]

under a cut for mental health/ableism topics

The circumstances are different and the relationship to Dracula is different, but seeing Renfield screaming at the movers out the window--about Dracula, no less-- and getting laughed off and dismissed as crazy? Really reminds me of Jonathan’s attempts to mail his letter. Here’s someone calling out the window, and the people who hear them accept the word of authority that it’s just a bunch of nonsense and laugh and go on about their day. 

and it kind of reminds me of how all the Polite Silence around Hard Topics has mostly resulted in Lucy (and her mom) dying, so far-- this way that people would rather just ignore anything that doesn’t seem Nice, brush off outbursts or pleas for help as Crazy, and  let whatever’s actually going on keep going on, than look into it and maybe cause Unpleasantness? 

Anyway. Renfield Should Get to Eat Dracula. 

[lakegenevaslumberparty]

Ways to explain your actions when you’re treating a Mysterious Illness that is Definitely Vampires, but You Can’t Say it’s Vampires: - we need to keep watch on the patient at night in case they’re having seizures/ hurting themselves while sleepwalking/etc  - this illness could be the work of a rare parasite!! these garlic flowers are said to keep them away, it’s worth a try, we need to leave them undisturbed to test the effect.  - yeah there’s nothing like fresh air for illness,and there’s nothing like fresh air in London, we are nailing the window shut - we’re moving the patient to another room/house/hotel in case she’s being affected by something in her room we haven’t thought to notice yet  -literally anything because it’s the Victorian era and you are a man and a physician and carry absurd amounts of authority  -very nearly anything that isn’t nothing, even to people who have to know about your plan to carry it out AAAAAAH 

[lakegenevaslumberparty]

too tired to talk about it properly but

(ableism, sexism,general hierarchical prejudicial thinking, Dracula spoilers)

 the way Renfield and Mina have both had their input and experiences utterly dismissed and shut down, “for their own good” , their words and concerns ignored and even held against them by more socially powerful men; the way it’s making Mina doubt and silence, to dismiss her own feelings and observations, even concerning her own experiences, the way it’s driving Renfield to desperation in his attempts to be heard, only for that very doubt and desperation to be taken as “proof” that the more powerful are Right and Correct to dismiss and imprison them 

(the way Van Helsing can say “come onnnnn bros, it’s ME, just TRUST me when I say we gotta commit some grave desecration at least come SEE” and people do, but Renfield begs to just be taken away from the Dracula house-- a reasonable request if anything is!!-- and is mocked , and Lucy can’t even say a word about her nightly horrors or she will lose her only, very conditional, protectors, the way the maids are never checked on again after having been drugged and left in the house with Dracula for who  knows how many hours--and then blamed for taking a crucifix,while no one offers them any shred of protection)

the way that the socially powerful can isolate anyone with less power, putting them in more risk, leaving them to get hurt or killed, forcing them to more desperate measures and then blaming them when they take those measures, writing them off as Mad or Weak, isolating them even more 

I know it’s not what the Point of the horror in this novel is but it’s where the horror of it is for me and it is really effective and also I Hate It, I wanna go back to Lucy and Mina having graveside picnics ;__; 

(and I know the rest of the Drac Attack squad WILL rethink the Mina thing but Too Late and it won’t teach them anything more General; but anyway the problem’s not them! it’s the system! it’s the way people sign off on this automatically, even Mina! I hate it and it’s so well written and I don’t think it’s even remotely the  intended point but AAAAAH)

[lakegenevaslumberparty]

You know who actually can’t afford to talk about vampires or ghosts or horrors? Lucy. 

(cut for discussion of general 19C medicalism , sexism, etc)

Van Helsing is an educated, credentialed professional,a man old enough to have a reputation--maybe as slightly eccentric, but nothing that would raise eyebrows at a university.  The idea that Jack could somehow insta-inter him if he mentioned vampires is absurd, even if Jack didn’t hang on his every word like he was some sort of seer. Arthur might have more social power, but Arthur wouldn’t overrule Van Helsing and  Jack.  

Who else is going to judge him, Lucy??  Lucy who can’t even ask questions about her own medical treatment without being told point-blank to shut up?? Her mother, who didn’t even care enough to call a doctor herself when Lucy was dying, and who they already haven’t told about giving her daughter multiple transfusions  because she’s just considered a weak creature to protect? The maids?? Not a chance. 

Lucy, on the other hand,  is a very young woman, still being treated as a child by Van Helsing, as an inconvenience by her mother, as an invalid by her friends, and just plain as a woman in Victorian England .  Her sanity and perception is granted on a provisional basis and she knows that perfectly well--has internalized it even to the point of disregarding her own perceptions before anyone else can.  It’s all nightmares, the flapping at the window, the horrors that come at night. She discounts it as Just Dreams even to herself.  Never mind not wanting anyone else to find out; she’s been convinced there’s nothing to find out , nothing to say, nothing to ask. Why would she bother anyone with the details of her nightmares when everyone just wants her to be happy and cheerful? It’s what she wants too! No one wants her to be the Sick Girl, least of all her! And it’s not like the doctors asked, so obviously it’s not important, right?  Obedience is Silence, Obedience Is Life, and she wants to live so badly. 

It’s been a long time since I read this book all the way through; I genuinely don’t remember if all this canon era prejudice (the ableism, the sexism, the classism) is being set up to be interrogated or if we’re all just supposed to accept that it’s a 100 percent Good Thing. But wow  this is getting Yellow Wallpaper levels of terrifying about the medical profession’s treatment of the ill.

(also to be clear : I think Van Helsing means well! I think he is doing his 19C Victorian Doctor Best! it is just that that includes a healthy dose of patronization and overriding the patient, particularly when the patient is someone like Lucy, who has already very clearly internalized that her job is to Be Good and Obedient. It’s a Systemic Thing and it’s awful without Van Helsing or Seward needing to be scheming evil villains...but they COULD use a good shake and Mina’s presence right about now.) 

(...I miss Mina.) 

[lakegenevaslumberparty]

I have said this before elsewhere but  I can't get over how bluntly confident Van Helsing is about How Vampirism Works?? or how incurious everyone else is? I mean that whatever Van Helsing says is Up, everyone just accepts that, even though he himself has acknowledged having made errors so far

cut for length, mostly

but their Vampire Facts are based on...what?? Van Helsing has seen ONE  case run from near start to finish and was making guesses about the whole time?  Presumably he did some other research all those times he whipped back to Amsterdam, but what? Collections of folklore? He has to know that vamp folklore varies wildly (everyone who read all the vampire folklore sources they could find for years say heeeyyy!), how can he say anything at all with confidence beyond “well uh they are undead and feed on the life force of the living in some way, looks like actual blood in this case!” What if Jon's right, and Mina’s not doomed to lose herself utterly if she becomes a vamp?

What if Mina , even as a vamp , would gain back her free will if they kill Dracula?  No one knows she won’t, they’ve never met a vampire with no Dracula messing with their mind! And obviously, he IS controlling her right now; what if the problem with vampires is not so much the “vampires” as the “now your Vampire Parent uses you like a puppet?

What if there's just a period post-death when vampires aren't totally Online again yet, mentally?  like morning brainfog but much moreso, and after a few months it would be ok?  what if Mina could still be saved and returned to Mostly Human by a stay with the nuns in Budapest? Don’t we have pretty good reasons to think that Jon is only Mostly Human even now?

why is no one reaching for alternate treatment theories? why is everyone so quick to just Assume They Know Things? Isn’t Assuming We Know Things kind of a flaw that has tripped them up multiple times already? 

my current theories about this: 

Watsonian:  - Dracula is screwing with all their heads somehow, even now. Possibly Mina is acting as some sort of mindmuckity powers antenna? - having Slain Lucy, everyone is now emotionally invested in accepting that they had no other course--even Mina, who is directly in the most danger from the current prevailing theory, and didn’t have anything to do with Lucy’s death, has emotional reasons to want to believe Lucy wasn’t murdered by people she trusted, that there really IS no other way. -somehow this is just. the most trusting and complacent group of adults ever?? - absolutely do not tell me “everyone just accepted Doctor’s Authority then!!” they did NOT, not remotely, yes doctors and professors had more social power but there has never been a time when people universally accepted All Authority and if there was it certainly wasn’t the Victorian era, there are so many accounts, fictional and real,of people arguing with or ignoring doctors, SO many jokes about them, etc. Maybe this group accepts everything but if so they’re really unusual!

Doyleist:  -...IDK, either this is getting ready to be a HUGE shut-down on the idea of Following The Leader and Not Interrogating Your Hypotheses or it’s setting up a possibly-unintentional but pretty horrible “find the RIGHT commanding personality to completely obey” vibe  - if the latter, IDK if it’s intentional(if so: weird! bad!!, but hardly the first argument I’ve got with this text) or just Stoker wanting to hurry up and skip to the hunting scenes (unfortunate for me!! I love a good Research Wrangle scene!)

[lakegenevaslumberparty]

...also no. Wait. I’d been thinking, been about to write, that while I am furious with Van Helsing for not telling Lucy his Vampire Theory (SHE COULD HAVE CORROBORATED. SHE CAN’T SAY IT BUT HE COULD HAVE. AAAH) , I don’t see how it would have helped this 

except of course it would , because if they knew-if Lucy knew, if Jack knew, if Arthur knew-- that they were up against an Entity (I don’t think even Van Helsing knows whether a vamp is more a person or a creature or a spirit at this point, and honestly not sure whether the book ever gives a real answer on that either) , they would have acted  like it. They would have had security, they would have had watch rotas, they would at least have called Quincey Morris, who is not much of a doctor but is absolutely a fighter and could have done a HELL of a lot to relieve the exhaustion threat of needing someone to watch Lucy at nights-- it makes sense to not call him if you think you’re just looking for Medical Issues, but if they knew it was a Being?? get Stabby Gunsalot in here, pardner, let’s go! Arthur is LOADED, he could hire security, he could set Lucy up in a hotel! a nice room with NO WINDOWS. SOMEONE could have alerted Mina-- 

but no. Everyone EXCEPT Van Helsing believed they were fighting an illness, and they acted like it. Privacy, calm, quiet.  As little disruption as possible. 

DISRUPTION NEEDED TO HAPPEN, DOCTOR TO THE TENTH POWER VAN HELSING 

AAAAH

[lakegenevaslumberparty]

aside from the somehow-forgotten GOTHIC HOVERWOLF, two things I can’t get over about today’s post:

- Waking up from getting attacked by a giant wolf , dizzy with blood loss, under her mother’s dead body,  Lucy’s first thought as soon as the maids help her sit up is about their comfort.   She wants them to get some sherry and get to feel safe first, she doesn’t ask even one of them to stay with her, just having them leave her, alone, in her now wide-open room.  No wonder they all love her; she treats them like a priority. And I’m sure they’d have stuck with her, if they hadn’t been doped out. 

- who put the laudanum in the sherry.  I may not like Mom Westenra, but I don’t see any reason for her to do that unless she really was Drac-thralled.  it would make it harder to monitor her own dosing, and if she wants sherry with her opiates she could always just drink the sherry?? so Who. How.  Did Renfield do it somehow?? was Lucy’s mom Enthralled? one of the maids?? what happened

- Mina’s letter, ;__;  We’ve never heard a word about the Murray family; at this point I’m completely sure that Mina’s as much an orphan as Jon (or Lucy, now). Mina has no family to share her joy, no one to write to about her stress or her fierce love or her hopes. She has Lucy.  I’m sure she’s been completely swamped with the general Everything, and the nature of friendships is that they allow a certain laxity in correspondence-- Mina knows that Lucy knows she’s been busy with the wedding and Jon, Mina assumes that Lucy’s  been busy with her wedding plans and her mom’s health, there’s no reason at all to worry, she just wants to share joy with her Person, probably the only other person on earth right now who’ll be interested in her news just for love of Mina, the way Mina is interested in all Lucy’s news. But Lucy’s not there. Lucy isn’t dead yet (I am SURE she’s not Gone until Quincey’s given her blood too) but she’s already gone, too weak even to read her best friend’s letter. She won’t even get that proxy joy. Mina won’t be able to share that with anyone, because the friends she’s going make are going to come in a time when that happiness has been blasted apart. Dracula is destroying Mina’s whole life and she doesn’t even know Draculas Exist yet. I’m not really Scared with Dracula right now but I am crying in real life, why is this all so awful, what cursed the Harker family??