#I do love my good friend Jonathan Harker

[danascullysjournal]

I petition- nay I IMPLORE- the Distinguished Creator of Dracula Daily to make the real time reading and subsequent meme explosions an annual thing.

I may be outing myself as a sad little human but this has been one of the highlights of my year.

#dracula daily #dracula #the memes #the suspense #I know what’s going to happen and yet I am so invested #jonathan harker #I do love my good friend Jonathan Harker

[somethingsupwithdrac]

Ahh, 16 May, wherein our good friend Jonathan meets the Sisters and encounters terrifying heterosexual urges ....Okay, I joke but really, this is where the real horror shit starts to kick in and things get harder to laugh about. Nebulously weird vibes, a bit of casual wall-crawling, yeeting a mirror out a window because foul bauble of man’s vanity? That’s all kid stuff. Now we’re getting into some real unsettling horror shit.

It’s morning and Our Good Friend Jonathan is still Going Through Some Shit. ‘I’m going mad here, everything is terrible, this place is full of nightmares, oh god I’m going to die. Somehow the Count is the least terrible thing here and I hate that, and I know I’m only safe as long as I’m useful to him and I AM NOT OKAY OH GOD HELP ME’ My poor guy is having a breakdown in real time here, just trying desperately to calm down and taking a moment to say ‘Okay, yes, I am losing it, I need to take some time here and write this down so I can focus on something besides how terrified I am and retain a shred of sanity.’

Jon still frightened of the Count’s warning (as he should be) and ending up worrying and writing himself into exhaustion. :( YES GOOD JON YOU HOLE THE FUCK UP IN THE NICE SAFE DUSTY ROOMS AWAY FROM THE TERRIFYING OLD MAN. Just stare out the window at the pretty landscape and don’t think about anything right now except the much less creepy vibes and the long-ago ladies pining for their men who went off to war, Just get some sleep because my friend, you are going to need it if you intend to live through all of this.

“I was not alone.” CHILLS. God, that line is horrifying no matter how many times I read it. Going to sleep thinking you’re safe and hidden because obviously there isn’t anybody else around, and then suddenly discovering that actually someone was there the whole time and now they’re here for you is such a great horror trope when it’s used well, and I love it here. Jon, baby, remember that warning that frightened you so? THIS IS WHAT IT WAS ABOUT.

GOD THIS IS SO CREEPY. Three ladies appearing out of nowhere, casting no shadows, being all otherworldly and predatory, beautiful and terrifying to our poor Jon. (They’re going to eat him, and not in a fun sexy way.)

‘I felt in my heart a wicked, burning desire that they would kiss me with those red lips. It is not good to note this down, lest some day it should meet Mina’s eyes and cause her pain; but it is the truth.’ Oh, Jon. :( Still thinking of Mina and how you love her and don’t want to hurt her even when in imminent danger of being eaten. My sweet, sweet cinnamon roll. I could make more jokes here but tbh I love this whole section so much that I don’t want to. There’s such a surreal, languid, dream-fading-into-nightmare-sleep-paralysis quality to all of it-the beautiful ladies, both strange and familiar to Jon; the simultaneous fear and desire for them, the latter of which might well be something imposed as much by their obviously inhuman influence as his own mind and which he can do nothing about and feels incredible guilty for; the whole sequence where he can only lie there frozen with fear and anticipation while they discuss how there are enough “kisses” to go around, and then as one of them actually moves to bite him and-

the surreal bubble he’s trapped in is quite abruptly burst by the Count. This whole scene is incredibly effective, because there the Sisters are, about to kill Jonathan and there’s absolutely nothing he can do, utterly trapped in the moment and experiencing all of these conflicting feelings, and then in comes the Count, who he’s also terrified of, just to make everything that much more nightmarish.

I'm going to leave other reactions to “This man is mine" to the rest of tumblr and just say that holy shit that is terrifying from the lens of ‘mine' as in “my prey to kill/do with as I please", and that this entire paragraph where we really see the Count lose control and display his inhuman nature in front of Jonathan rather than make any attempt to pretend to be a human is great.  

That whole argument between Dracula and the Sisters, about love and whether he is capable of it, all while nearly hissing at each other over Jon like he’s a prime cut of steak is very. Eugh. Repulsive in the best way because it makes it super clear that they are not human and they do not care about Jonathan for any reason other than when he can do for them: for Dracula he’s a useful tool to get to England and settle amongst a whole new population of unsuspecting, unprepared prey, and for the Sisters he’s fresh meat to feed on, and the only quibble here, really, is who gets him first.

“Well, now I promise you that when I am done with him you shall kiss him at your will. Now go! go! I must awaken him, for there is work to be done.” I like that this line makes it well and truly clear that Jonathan is disposable and he’s only safe as long as the Count finds him useful, and once he’s outlived that usefulness, he’s gone. He actually twigged pretty quickly in the beginning of all of this to the fact that something was off about his client, that feeling only grew, and now he’s just pretty much heard outright that he’s going to die. 

And then the Count feeds the Sisters a goddamn baby because this is Dracula and they’re all literal monsters.

And poor, sweet Jonathan has finally hit his limit and passes out, waking up back in his room and realizing that, if the entire experience wasn’t some horrible nightmare, the Count must have carried him back to it. Annnd there he goes again, straight back into the land of coping mechanisms, because okay, I don’t have proof this happened, I need to approach this calmly and rationally and look for evidence, and dealing with the new knowledge that as bad as it is to be here in his room where’d he previously been so terrified of being trapped with the Count, it’s comparatively safe and secure, and really not so bad because what’s out there in the rest of the castle is worse.

Also, the thing I couldn’t mention until now because spoilers: I like the contrast between Jonathan’s thoughts yesterday about this room as having once been a soft, comfortable place where sweet, presumably chaste noblewomen lived and dreamed about their beloved beaus, and the current day reality where it’s occupied by this dangerous corrupting force in the form of the Sisters, who are noblewomen in physical appearance only and in reality are decidedly not chaste, delicate, or innocent in any way. 

Jon, please write again soon, hopefully saying that you’ve found a way out of that terrible place. We are all very worried about you.

#dracula daily #daily dracula #it got worse #jon do we need to send the police #yes we do #and some holy water stakes and crucifixes #jonathan harker #my good friend jonathan harker #boy u in danger #this will end badly #i keep setting out to say something funny and then the post devolves into me just commenting on the bits i really like #and ending with *plz stay safe jon we love u*

[liennalei]

I'd been meaning to read Dracula for YEARS now, even gifted it to my bf for his bday

So yea, Dracula Daily is the best thing to happen this year so far

I am enjoying myself like a child and happy stimming every time i get a new email or look at what tumblr book club has to say

So thanks-a-lot for giving me an excuse to stop putting it off :>

#dracula daily #i dont know what im gonna do once the emails stop coming #my good friend jonathan harker #and mina???? god i love mina and ive only read a single letter #also i love the tumblr book club. its been such an experience

[blujayonthewing]

no one's talking about how the Harkers' son is named something like Jonathan Quincy Arthur Abraham Johnathan Harker

#you were named after the five bravest men I've ever met #probably they wouldn't double up the jo(h)nathans but it's a funnier post if they do #also maybe quincy is the actual first name it just kinda feels like probably it wouldn't be...? vibes I suppose #god it just occurred to me that they could have split all the names up amongst two or three sons #but they had One kid and were like 'NOT TAKING AN CHANCES. THE WHOLE POLYCREW IN CASE WE DON'T GET ANOTHER SHOT' #I also love that they are fictional characters and bram stoker could have just said they have two sons but opted for one kid with every nam #my good friend jonathan harker

[devilswalkingstick]

[id: a picture of jonathan harker as portrayed by keanu reeves in bram stoker’s dracula (1992). he is looking up and to the left of the frame. a white badge has been edited onto his lapel that reads “tumblr’s new best friend.” end id.]

oh i do so love getting emails from my very good friend jonathan harker! i sure do hope his trip goes well!

#dracula #daily dracula #jonathan harker

[toaster-trash]

It’s always so interesting to me how so many people tend to look at protagonists’ reactions in 19th century gothic media and immediately slap a label on them as “over-dramatic” or “weak”, when in reality I don’t think we (as a society) know what we’re talking about. I think our society is collectively desensitised to concepts, and what I mean by that is that the concept of a story like Dracula or Frankenstein isn’t something that we’d ever bat an eye at because it’s been so ingrained into our very understanding or the concept of basic modern horror premises that we no longer appreciate it for what it is, and I’ve been guilty of it too. So a lot of people take the protagonists reactions to their circumstances, and paint it as melodrama or even worse, get high and mighty and claim that if THEY were in that scenario, they would NEVER do something so stupid, right?

But I need you to take a minute to actually think about the positions these characters are in. We’ve become so desensitised to these concepts, but if we were actually in those positions in real life we would probably not be able to handle them half as well as some of these characters. For example, Dracula. Sure, guy goes to stay in spooky castle, client turns out to be a vampire, pretty standard, easy to point at Jonathan Harker’s decisions and blame him. Oh Jonathan, don’t you know walking through an abandoned castle when your client tells you not to is bound to get you hurt? Don’t you know going to a remote area with villagers crossing themselves every five seconds is dangerous?

But actually think about this. You’re a solicitor, you have a fiancée back home and you need this job. You meet your client, he’s a little creepy, you feel unsafe, but you need this job. What are you going to do, turn back and tell your employer you couldn’t do it because the vibes were off? Obviously not. You suck it up. Then slowly, your world starts collapsing around you and slowly getting smaller as you find yourself trapped inside this man’s house and you slowly come to the realisation that you are being held captive in the house of a creepy old man who has access to all the rooms in the house, including your own, and can enter it at any time, in a secluded area far away from everyone, and with no hope of reaching out for help. He has the power to do anything to you, and you’re completely helpless, and does. You are going to die there and none of your loved ones will ever know what happened to you. Your abuser might even fabricate your identity or conduct a lie to ruin all memory of you forever. Then things get worse, and you realise that your abuser and captor isn’t even human. Throw in the infanticide and assault scenes, and that is a horrifying scenario, and I don’t think some people fully recognise that when they read it.

The very same with Frankenstein, oh haha, Victor gets ill often, look at him fainting every five minutes, what a whiny bitchboy, right? But Jesus Christ, again, think about this scenario that he’s in properly. My guy digs up corpses, brings them to his dorm room and stitches them together, only for him to bring said corpses to life and watch his inanimate amalgamation of dead bodies come to life in your house. Now again, imagine cutting up corpses and sewing them together. If you can’t manage that, imagine a friend of yours came to you and told you that they’d been stealing corpses, cutting them up, and sewing them together, and they now have an 8ft tall giant amalgamation or corpses in their room. Now imagine going to their house and seeing that amalgamation of corpses. Good luck not passing out and vomiting all over their bedroom floor, and extra good luck not needing extreme psychiatric care afterwards. Again, corpses. I’m willing to bet half the people here have never even seen a corpse, and this isn’t even freshly-dead-grandma-in-the-coffin, these are decomposing and rotting corpses of real human beings. Observed. And some corpses cut up. And pieced together. Into a giant corpse. Genitalia included. Intestines included. Everything else included. And then that corpse then starts killing everyone you’ve ever loved and you have the added guilt that it IS it’s own person and you’ve abandoned it.

Which of course, could lead me into a whole separate rant, on how I believe that Victor’s flaw doesn’t lie in his horror at his own actions, and his fainting and illness and whatnot, but rather at his deliberate avoidance of the consequences of those actions – (horrifying as they may have been to come to terms with, his avoidance ultimately led to the mental distress and death of tons of completely innocent people, and his avoidance, however difficult, was still very much wrong and Victor is still very much to blame for it) – as well as the mania and obsessive justification he kept using to reach that goal. Although again, it could be argued there was avoidance in that as well – Victor pasting clinical lenses over all his actions, ignoring his family and friends, which ultimately all caught up with him. It’s my reading that Victor isn’t to blame whatsoever because he’s “over dramatic” or that “whiny”, he has every right to be severely traumatised by his experiences, however much his own fault they may be, he is to blame because at every turn where he could have faced his actions and confided in a friend or likewise, he did not, and it led to the deaths of everyone he loved. Except for Ernest, who likely then had to live with the death of his entire family.

But that’s a side rant – my primary point is, I genuinely do not remotely believe that authors in the past were really any more “emotional” or “melodramatic” than we are today. The only difference is that because the premise of these plots have been so deeply engrained into our society, we do not understand how horrifyingly traumatising these situations are by nature and dismiss them out of hand. Dracula did not exist yet when Dracula was being written. Frankenstein did not exist yet when Frankenstein was being written. Don’t come looking to read old gothic literature expecting a camp B-list horror film, and then call the characters over-dramatic when they react like average actual human beings to absolutely horrific scenarios.

And what’s more with regard to general more open affection between friends in older books, no it isn’t unrealistic, we’re all just cynical assholes now. (There’s a limit, obviously. Some characters are just raging homosexuals and there’s no other explanation. “His form so divinely wrought and beaming with beauty” my ass alright now just admit you had gay sex and be done with it)

#gothic lit #classic literature #gothic literature #goth lit #classic lit #frankenstein #frankenstein weekly #dracula #dracula daily #frankenstein or the modern prometheus #re:dracula #re: dracula #victor frankenstein #Jonathan Harker #clervalstein? #clervalstein

[freuleinanna]

I'm always fuming at adaptations because they dare insult the original not by adding modern details, but by completely erasing the original message. Like now, when I'm in my Dracula feelings yet again, I keep thinking how the tendency for the UnExPecTEd PLoTtwISts hurt the story. Because it's always the same, always the 'ooh let's fuck it up and make everything exactly the opposite hehe'

Van Helsing? No, not an old doctor who's exploring the possibilities he himself doubts because he must, because it's his duty. Make him a sexyman doing backflips and hunting vamps since he was in a crib

Lucy Westenra? Yawn on the sweet innocent girl fallen to tragedy. Let's fucking hammer that voluptuousness into her, why not? She got what was coming to her

Mina Harker? Who even wants to see good, loving women caring for her friends and husband with all her heart, even when literally damned. That's so 19 century. She's obviously hot for Drac and is, in fact, his reincarnated love

Jonathan Harker? What do you mean he used to have character?

QUINCEY MORRIS WHO THE F-

And on it goes. By turning the story inside out they ruin any message, and speck of true light. That's partially why I'm so into Dracula Daily and now Re: Dracula too, because they prove just how equally entertaining the original can be. You don't have to reverse the characters for the shock effect. The story shocks you with emotions and is doing it all by itself.

#also drac being the sex symbol omfg #dracula #dracula daily #re: dracula #abraham van helsing #mina harker #jonathan harker #quincey morris #lucy westenra

[vickyvicarious]

Dracula Declarations of Love

There is so much love, and so much talk of love, in this book. It's extremely hard to pick a favorite, but let's give it a go (or just get emotional over a bunch of quotes lined up together).

I tried to stick mostly to declarations/talk about (rather than acts of) love, primarily to focus on specific quotes and help me narrow it down to just twelve (still a big challenge). Before anyone asks, no, "I too can love" is not on here because Dracula's version of love doesn't stack up to the others for me in terms of emotional impact. And these were definitely chosen by my personal preference of specific quotes; there are a bunch of other great words of love that didn't make it in. Also, important note - this is not exclusively romantic love by any means.

The whole quotes don't fit in the poll, so please read below before you vote.

Full Quotes:

11 May, Lucy: "Oh, Mina, couldn't you guess? I love him. I am blushing as I write, for although I think he loves me, he has not told me so in words. But oh, Mina, I love him; I love him; I love him!"

24 May, Quincey: "If that other fellow doesn't know his happiness, well, he'd better look for it soon, or he'll have to deal with me. Little girl, your honesty and pluck have made me a friend, and that's rarer than a lover; it's more unselfish anyhow."

19 August, Mina: "I have cried over the good Sister's letter till I can feel it wet against my bosom, where it lies. It is of Jonathan, and must be next my heart, for he is in my heart. [...] I must write no more; I must keep it to say to Jonathan, my husband. The letter that he has seen and touched must comfort me till we meet."

24 August, Jonathan and Mina: "Then he took my hand in his, and oh, Lucy, it was the first time he took his wife's hand, and said that it was the dearest thing in all the wide world, and that he would go through all the past again to win it, if need be. [...] Well, my dear, what could I say? I could only tell him that I was the happiest woman in all the wide world, and that I had nothing to give him except myself, my life, and my trust, and that with these went my love and duty for all the days of my life."

24 August, Mina: "Lucy dear, do you know why I tell you all this? It is not only because it is all sweet to me, but because you have been, and are, very dear to me. It was my privilege to be your friend and guide when you came from the schoolroom to prepare for the world of life. I want you to see now, and with the eyes of a very happy wife, whither duty has led me; so that in your own married life you too may be all happy as I am. My dear, please Almighty God, your life may be all it promises: a long day of sunshine, with no harsh wind, no forgetting duty, no distrust. I must not wish you no pain, for that can never be; but I do hope you will be always as happy as I am now."

7 September, Arthur: '"What can I do?" asked Arthur hoarsely. "Tell me, and I shall do it. My life is hers, and I would give the last drop of blood in my body for her."'

17 September, Mina: "Jonathan asks me to send his 'respectful duty,' but I do not think that is good enough from the junior partner of the important firm Hawkins & Harker; and so, as you love me, and he loves me, and I love you with all the moods and tenses of the verb, I send you simply his 'love' instead."

30 September, Mina and Arthur: '"I loved dear Lucy, and I know what she was to you, and what you were to her. She and I were like sisters; and now she is gone, will you not let me be like a sister to you in your trouble? I know what sorrows you have had, though I cannot measure the depth of them. If sympathy and pity can help in your affliction, won't you let me be of some little service—for Lucy's sake?" [...] "I know now how I suffered," he said, as he dried his eyes, "but I do not know even yet—and none other can ever know—how much your sweet sympathy has been to me to-day. I shall know better in time; and believe me that, though I am not ungrateful now, my gratitude will grow with my understanding. You will let me be like a brother, will you not, for all our lives—for dear Lucy's sake?"'

3 October, Jonathan: '"Nonsense, Mina. It is a shame to me to hear such a word [unclean]. I would not hear it of you; and I shall not hear it from you. May God judge me by my deserts, and punish me with more bitter suffering than even this hour, if by any act or will of mine anything ever come between us!" He put out his arms and folded her to his breast; and for a while she lay there sobbing."

3 October, Jonathan: "To one thing I have made up my mind: if we find out that Mina must be a vampire in the end, then she shall not go into that unknown and terrible land alone. I suppose it is thus that in old times one vampire meant many; just as their hideous bodies could only rest in sacred earth, so the holiest love was the recruiting sergeant for their ghastly ranks."

11 October, Mina: "You are nearest and dearest and all the world to me; our souls are knit into one, for all life and all time."

31 October, Mina: "We are truly in the hands of God. He alone knows what may be, and I pray Him, with all the strength of my sad and humble soul, that He will watch over my beloved husband; that whatever may happen, Jonathan may know that I loved him and honoured him more than I can say, and that my latest and truest thought will be always for him."

#dracula daily #dracula daily spoilers #polls #my polls #jonmina and mina especially are kind of taking over. they're just too damn romantic/she's so damn good at talking about love #sorry to those who didn't make it on here. doesn't mean i don't love em too but it these are some of the individual lines that hit hardest #/make me personally most emotional #even then i have added on/taken off a couple #spoiled for choice i guess! #anyways posting today since two of the options are from today

[see-arcane]

Dracula Dailiers we have a LOT to unpack

-RIP to the Captain, Whitby loves and misses you

-Surprise RIP to Mr. Swales, I know you died shit-talking the Count so mercilessly the ancient bastard had to snap your neck*

-*Alternatively, it was because you were sitting over the grave he wanted to use for his camp-out resting place. Hence why yet another dog got its hackles up when passing near the spot, having sensed the atrocious Dracula-vibes within. Also, shout-out to the asshole dog owner who kicked his own pup, I hope you get gangrene in that foot.

-Lucy is still sleepwalking. We can be pretty sure there’s some extra influence going on there. But what gets all my hairs standing up is that Mina knows Something More is up and Lucy refuses to talk about it. Worse, it’s something that implies a miserable camaraderie with the dog’s terror when touching the gravestone; the inarticulate dread, the fear that comes with Knowing There is a Threat and Not Knowing the Threat’s Name.

-Good cows!

-Hoo boy, here comes Stoker’s misplaced mouthpiece time with Mina poo-pooing ‘the New Woman.’ Between this sniffing at the independent stance of the New Woman phenomenon and the Lilith-adjacent baby-eating caricature the sexy evil Brides present, Stoker was hitting the gas on the lady prejudice. Ironically, in a way that flies in the face of his main girl being so obviously in line with a lot of the New Woman’s principles. Yes, as the book goes on, there will be some period-typical maidenly fretting and ‘do not fear, this is man’s work!’ moments—which kind of tips Stoker’s hand in a very telling ‘appreciation’ for manful men doing manful men things. With other men.—but when Mina isn’t performing damsel duty?

She’s a worker. She’s a thinker. She’s a doer. She fills 90% of traditional male roles in literature throughout the story just as Jonathan filled out the gothic damsel in distress role at the book’s start. Frankly I think the only reason she or Lucy are able to unironically turn their noses up at the ‘New Woman’ is because:

A)   They’re miraculously surrounded by the most chivalrous men on Earth, let alone in England. They’ve no reason to get ruffled over a lack of respect or care.

B)   Mina’s only solid acquaintance with men beyond a few interviewees so far is Jonathan ‘Mina-Addicted Sweetheart’ Harker and Mr. Hawkins who’s like a second father.

C)   Her social circle really isn’t all that big, period. Yes, there’s Lucy who she’s known since childhood, Jonathan, her students, but who else does she really talk about like they’re close? Least of all any acquaintances who might be or know ~confirmed~ New Women?

D)  Being a newspaper lover, I’d bet money her only real ‘knowledge’ of the New Woman phenomenon comes from Punch comics and mansplained satire discussing outlandish parodies of the actual movement/women. Of course she isn’t like them! How absurd!

E)    She does genuinely want to start a family with Jonathan and this traditional desire likely feels to her like another proof against her being a dreadful (gasp) New Woman.

All the while she’s oblivious to all the traits that make her—the working, intelligent, active, teacher/budding journalist/equal partner to her fiancé—very much part of the New Woman movement. It wouldn’t surprise me if Jonathan was someday stunned to realize she was in earnest about her disdain, leading to him gently, lovingly, claiming he is quite shocked and hurt, as one of his best friends is a New Woman. Would he like to meet her?

Cue him holding up a mirror.

-Lucy is so pretty and full of blood <3

-I too would be happier if only I knew if Jonathan. Where Jonathan. Want Jonathan. Return Jonathan.

#in which there is rambling #dracula #dracula daily #mina murray #mina harker #lucy westenra #jonathan harker #The New Woman #bram stoker

[ri-writing]

Would you survive as Jonathan Harker?

A post on my dash asked whether I would survive as Jonathan Harker. I suspect the question is meant to be: Would I end up captured by Dracula? And to that, my answer is: Absolutely.

With regard to the question "would I survive as Jonathan Harker," though, I know the answer to that, too. But we're going to put a cut and note "cw: abuse." I also moved this to its own post instead of replying to the original because this got pretty heavy.

I lived the real life version of Jonathan's horror. While I did not literally get captured by a blood drinker or imprisoned in a castle with the requirement of completing the hardest parkour session of my life to get to safety, I was a young lawyer who was emotionally abused, manipulated, and controlled by a more-senior lawyer for years. In doing so, that lawyer made a lot of money while keeping me completely dependent on them. Whether I kept my job - and therefore a roof over my head and food on the table - was dependent on this senior lawyer continuing to keep me around. No matter how hard I worked, the vampire demanded more. More nights. More weekends. More holidays. All while telling me I was not good enough to do this without them. Sometimes, the vampire was kind and compassionate. Sometimes, the vampire acted like they were trying to help me succeed. But this was all window dressing (though I couldn't see it at the time) and, in the end, the vampire would do what vampires do.

Until one day, I realized the truth. And then I escaped. Although I got away from the vampire, I had to start over and I had no safety net. I made a deal with a firm where they'd give me a year and I'd need to find a way to build a practice and prove my worth. The entire year, I was on the wall of that castle, wondering if the next foothold I found was going to hold or send me tumbling into the abyss below. Somehow, I made it to solid ground.

Even once I was safe, I mentally struggled. I questioned whether my abuser was right - whether it was only a matter of time before I failed and be in dire straights without them to protect me. But I embraced the support of my friends. I did the work in therapy. I grew stronger. I realized I was an excellent lawyer. I built my practice stronger, and in a way that I would never again be dependent on a single source of work so that no vampire would again control me.

Still, I would dread what would happen the next time I ran into my abuser. Finally, it happened. My path did cross once again with theirs. And I realized I wasn't scared of them any longer. I'd escaped. I'd healed. I'd built a community. I survived. And my vampire could no longer harm me.

So - would I survive as Jonathan Harker?

I did.

A lot of people have called Jonathan weak or stupid. Adaptations remove him or water down his role. Those people and adaptations are wrong.

Jonathan is why I love Dracula. His character arc is a metaphor. It's also hope. Jonathan finds love and support among his friends and family. They do not reject him when he struggles with his trauma, but support him and uplift him. Jonathan grows stronger. Jonathan survives. And it is Jonathan who, with Quincey, finally kills Dracula.

Thank you, Bram Stoker, for giving me Jonathan Harker. Through reading Jonathan's story, I was finally able to make peace with mine.

#dracula #emotional abuse #lawyer stuff #dracula is a metaphor for the practice of law #would you survive as jonathan harker

[yallemagne]

The way Mina emphasizes Harker. The way Jonathan sounds so vulnerable and scared. The way Lucy sounds just as vulnerable and scared.

She loves the way it sounds: Wilhelmina Harker. In the eyes of God, he's finally hers, and she's finally his.

She's so thrilled to finally wed Jonathan even if it isn't how they imagined, even if he can't stand for the ceremony, even if their only witnesses are strangers. She forgets that she's already referred to him as her husband because she's just so delighted that now it's true.

It doesn't matter to her that it isn't picture-perfect. In all likelihood, she never expected picture-perfect. Even in her immense joy, she still lets slip a little of her insecurity that she has no dowry to provide to him. But dowries, pah! Who cares! He'd marry her no matter what, and the same can evidently be said about her.

I gotta go into Jonathan's whole speech I---

'Wilhelmina'—I knew then that he was in deadly earnest, for he has never called me by that name since he asked me to marry him—'you know, dear, my ideas of the trust between husband and wife: there should be no secret, no concealment. I have had a great shock, and--'

The sound that plays! It swoops down like a bat over his head as he tries to think of what happened to him. There are also his ideas of trust-- they're very similar to Lucy's "A woman ought to tell her husband everything—don't you think so, dear?".

'--when I try to think of what it is I feel my head spin round, and I do not know if it was all real or the dreaming of a madman. You know I have had brain fever, and that is to be mad.'

His voice gets deeper, more solemn. It feels reminiscent of the way Renfield talks. It's very haunting and it shows his dire understanding that, were they in England, he would be denied his right to marriage even if Mina still wanted him.

'The secret is here, and I do not want to know it. I want to take up my life here, with our marriage.' 

Such ease in those words! "With our marriage"! It's like a weeping sigh of relief.

'Are you willing, Wilhelmina, to share my ignorance? Here is the book. Take it and keep it, read it if you will, but never let me know; unless, indeed, some solemn duty should come upon me to go back to the bitter hours, asleep or awake, sane or mad, recorded here.'

The words both read and sound just like wedding vows and the passion he has to muster for them is too much for his mind and body to handle, and he falls back asleep. But then all that uncertainty is deeply contrasted by his firm "I will."

Lucy speaks in a constant whisper, even while she's alone, she's so quiet. It is like how Mina says writing is like whispering to herself, but now, it's less comforting. Lucy's taken to writing in imitation of Mina because she misses her and wants to emulate the same behaviour that kept her friend thinking on her feet, but she really closely resembles Jonathan, noting others' feelings and privately planning what she may do to keep herself safe.

I don't know that she realizes Arthur is concerned for her. I think she believes he's still anxious for his father's sake, but she can't muster the gaiety needed to cheer him up in the same way Jonathan mustered all that passion for Mina. Because Jonathan is recovering, and Lucy is now suffering a relapse in her health. They both have the same beliefs about telling the truth in marriage, but in practice, it is very difficult for both of them. Jonathan struggles to remember, but he at least has his journal to give to Mina should she wish to know. Lucy only hopes that she can at least get well enough that her pretending will prove more convincing.

She says she'll try to persuade her mother to let her sleep in her bed, but she doesn't seem confident that she will. Mina would let her, but they're no longer on vacation together, are they? Her mother will likely scold her for being childish, but maybe if she provides a good enough excuse...?

She at least has to try.

#dracula #dracula daily #people ask me things #update #mina harker #jonathan harker #lucy westenra #jonmina #re: dracula

[tenebris-lux]

Both Harkers got shocks today. Jonathan saw the guy himself (already scoping out another target, it seems); and Mina learned that her best friend died. When last she left Lucy, Lucy wasn’t looking so good; but since then, Mina’s gotten letters saying Lucy had been going on outings with Art, was gaining weight, and had a date for her marriage. All of a sudden…. Dead. Out of nowhere.

And Jonathan already repressing what he’s seen, within the same hour. He really can’t deal with it now (if ever), so he’s protecting himself as well as he can.

Once again, Jack shows that he doesn’t always “get” people. To us, Van Helsing’s breakdown makes sense—the poor guy’s gotta cope, and from a third person, Art’s statement about the blood transfusion being marriage makes for all kinds of a situation. That was Van Helsing’s, “wow, that is so fucked up, it’s funny,” moment.

Sometimes when a topic haunts your mind, it starts connecting to random instances one witnesses. In Seward’s case, he’s obsessed with “insanity”. So, when he first hears Lucy’s symptoms, a part of his mind goes, “insane?” Lucy’s statement of what happened the night her mother died: “insane?” Van Helsing having a reaction that’s not typical to the situation: “insane?” I think he wants things to be black and white and easily ordered, but for a doctor of psychiatry, he knows so little. He’s completely off base with Renfield, and he doesn’t know what to make of all these other situations.

On that note … it’s a good thing he hasn’t met the Harkers. He’d make a beeline for Jonathan right now. That wouldn’t be a case of his brain asking, “insane?” It would be stating loud and clear, “INSANE.”

“… and laughed and cried together, just as a woman does. I tried to be stern with him, as one is to a woman under the circumstances; but it had no effect. Men and women are so different in manifestations of nervous strength or weakness!”

Jack, you are just so full of it. But it’s an interesting segment as Jack tries to “do the math” here. His believing in “classifying” people thwarts him. ‘Women do that, not men. Respond as you would to a woman. No effect… It’s because men and women are different, soooo … insane?’ The thing is, if you try to put everything in the world in their neat little boxes with no overlap, particularly people, most of it is going to come out “insane” or “abnormal”.

And Van Helsing, so patiently trying to explain to him that it’s mostly just a release of tension and bottled up emotion. He’s venting.

Yet despite all of Jack’s shortcomings, Van Helsing trusts him enough to “drop the act.”

Van Helsing knows that Jack doesn’t really think outside the box. I wonder if he has any idea just how narrow Seward’s views of the world are.

We know so little of Van Helsing’s backstory, yet he dropped a couple hints today. His son died—at what age, we don’t know, but certainly younger than Arthur. Most likely a child, and he would have looked like Art if he had lived. As for Van Helsing’s wife…

“… with my poor wife dead to me, but alive by Church’s law, though no wits, all gone…”

Could be dementia, Alzheimer’s, brain damage, coma …. a lot of things. Alive in body. But not the spirit he knew and loved.

… and that leads me back, once again, to the Harkers, and Mina’s worry at Jonathan’s relapse and then the way he seemed to forget about it all twenty minutes later.

She’s not breaking a promise by cracking the seal on the journal; she just hoped it would never have to come to that point. Alas, it has come. She needs info, and can decide what to do from there; how best to help, if help is even possible.

#mina harker #jonathan harker #jack seward #van helsing #dracula #dracula daily

[plutodetective]

Ops, there was yet another entry missing

Letter, Mina Harker to Lucy Westenra. (Unopened by her.)

“18 September.

“My dearest Lucy,—

“Such a sad blow has befallen us. Mr. Hawkins has died very suddenly. Some may not think it so sad for us, but we had both come to so love him that it really seems as though we had lost a father. I never knew either father or mother, so that the dear old man’s death is a real blow to me. Jonathan is greatly distressed. It is not only that he feels sorrow, deep sorrow, for the dear, good man who has befriended him all his life, and now at the end has treated him like his own son and left him a fortune which to people of our modest bringing up is wealth beyond the dream of avarice, but Jonathan feels it on another account. He says the amount of responsibility which it puts upon him makes him nervous. He begins to doubt himself. I try to cheer him up, and my belief in him helps him to have a belief in himself. But it is here that the grave shock that he experienced tells upon him the most. Oh, it is too hard that a sweet, simple, noble, strong nature such as his—a nature which enabled him by our dear, good friend’s aid to rise from clerk to master in a few years—should be so injured that the very essence of its strength is gone. Forgive me, dear, if I worry you with my troubles in the midst of your own happiness; but, Lucy dear, I must tell some one, for the strain of keeping up a brave and cheerful appearance to Jonathan tries me, and I have no one here that I can confide in. I dread coming up to London, as we must do the day after to-morrow; for poor Mr. Hawkins left in his will that he was to be buried in the grave with his father. As there are no relations at all, Jonathan will have to be chief mourner. I shall try to run over to see you, dearest, if only for a few minutes. Forgive me for troubling you. With all blessings,

“Your loving “Mina Harker.”

#Just saw that on the tag #dracula daily #poor Matt we all have days like this

[dross-the-fish]

I never understand how people come into your inbox trying to get you to write/draw things that don't feature in your work or you've said no to before just because "high quality artists are rare". Your talent does not entitle them to your time and efforts. It's like going to a bbq and asking for pasta because the cook is great while knowing they don't like pasta.

Artists become better through practice driven by passion not " your work on a is good but you should do b because I want that".

If these people truly want certain content so badly, then they should focus that desire to create what they want. That's what I did, writing fanfic, because I wanted some niche content. Now I'm writing a book that I fully intend to publish with the help of a fan of mine turned best friend. Things that wouldn't have happened if I hounded other artists.

Personally I love Jonathan, hell he's the main character of my novel, but I wouldn’t try to sell/ justify him to someone who has expressed disinterest. You've made your opinion of him and the Dracula cast overall clear again and again with patience a saint would envy.

One last bit, I do adore how you're handling the Harkers. It makes sense practically and thematically. It's Quincy’s time to shine.

Sorry this ended up so long.

I appreciate it, it's nice to hear tbh I frequently worry I'm being too snappish.

Honestly, I don't actually dislike Jonathan at all, in fact I do plan to write him as a good father who would go to the ends of the earth for his children and Mina and I fully do intend to take at least a little time to show the extent of the damage done to the Harker family as seen through Quincey's eyes. That's the crux of it though, it is going to be through the lens of Quincey as the protagonist, not Jonathan this time.

Anyway, I wish you luck with your writing and I hope your book is successful.

[pinkacademic]

Actually Studying Literature

The bit we’d all rather avoid… or maybe that’s a me thing. But here’re the methods I suggest for actually learning about literature! As you guys know, you need to break things down in the way that works best for you, study in whatever way makes the information stay in your own brain. Here’s just a few ways that you can improve your understanding of literature specifically.

Using Other Forms of Media to Learn the Story. Audiobooks are your friend, podcasts are your friend, and any film or TV adaptation can be useful if you’re struggling with the book, but make sure to check reviews and make sure the majority agree that it is faitful, and/or learn any flaws that there are or changes.

Discuss. Oh, my GOD, discuss. A freind of mine could not figure out a particular detail of Dracula, not from reading it, not from the lecturer, not until I explained “mate, you know it’s Mina’s notes, right?” And then they loved it. I’m not going to explain in detail, but the point is, ask more than just your teacher/tutor/whatever if you have any questions.

Practise Tests. But not in the way you think. Yes, you should do normal practise essays and practise exams, but I also reccomend doing a chaotic version that helps you just get your main points into your brain, then it’ll be easier to do the practise tests.

Here’s an example of what I mean:

Is Jonathan Harker a Sexist by pinkacademic

Intro: fuckin. this bitch does not drink respect women juice. man fuckin… my wife in the kitchen, my wife is weak, all day, every day, then he sexualises dracula’s girlfriends in the middle too?? bitch?

point one: fuckin… idk, this man thinks women can only do care stuff eg women in the kitchen, the nuns who look after him, mina caring for him

context interlude: the victorians hated women!

point two: women are for sexy- the brides- but also sexy is bad and for whores and my wife is good bc she’s not a whore

counter point: jonny does in fact love mina a whole lot and trusts her!

point three: look at mina being so susceptable to dracula, jonny thinks she’s so weak, ugh women are so weak.

context interlude: gothic novels think women can’t walk without fainting!

conclusion: therefore jonathan harker hates women, actually

This is stupid, but I know what all my basic points are! And I can learn this along with my actual facts and figures, instead of trying to store an entire essay in my brain! Now, of course, you will need to learn the facts and figures, such as key dates and what have you, BUT, the combination of the basic structure plus a handful of facts will give you a basis to work from without trying to store everything.

Ok, let me know if you want anything else! It occurs to me that I don’t have literary methods anywhere- so bonus post on literature on its way!

#pink academia #pink #academia #pink academic #studyblr #pink academia masterpost project #studying literature #essay writing #dracula

[lostinthewoodsomewhere]

Days since my good friend Jonathan Harker mentioned Mina: 0

Okay! I am back from my tasks and can sit down and actually write down my thoughts, because I have many!

The main thing I’ve wanted to talk about for a while is how the bride going to bite Jonathan has been so overly sexualised in adaptations, and by doing so it loses everything that could be sexy about this scene.

This moment is such an intimate piece of text, it’s so sensual, so full of slow, drawn out anticipation:  

“Lower and lower went her head”

“nearer—nearer.” ,

“I could feel the soft, shivering touch of the lips on the super-sensitive skin of my throat, and the hard dents of two sharp teeth, just touching and pausing there. I closed my eyes in a languorous ecstasy and waited—waited with beating heart”.

Everything about this passage is so slow and deliberate, almost hypnotic in tone, (and broken so beautifully by the energy of Dracula’s rage). It’s such a well-written piece of text that gets across absolutely everything it wants to, but it gets so over-sexualised that it loses the slow subtleness that makes it work. This passage is not ‘Jonathan Harker has an orgy with three women, woohoo’, it’s an intimate moment of dread and desire, repulsion and longing, terrible in its slow sensuality that draws you in even as you fear it. This passage works because it’s not overtly sexy, it’s sensual, and I feel so many adaptors miss the mark on that.

(I have not heard the Re: Dracula yet, but I am looking forward to it)

Also, side note: I love how Jonathan says that he doesn’t want Mina to know his thoughts, but he wasn’t going to lie about it either. If this is read by Mina, so be it, he will face the consequences, because he won't lie to himself or her.

#dracula daily #I hope I explained this right #Because I have a lot of feelings about this whole entry