Here to Raze Hell

I want Mina to release all that pent-up rage of hers

I’d really love to read an essay on Stoker’s theology as it is presented in Dracula. I don’t think I could write it myself but there’s something here about the way God is represented as an impersonal force or a universal law like gravity, rather than loving or merciful. Stoker’s concept of God is a higher power whose holiness can be harnessed conditionally, and whose holiness also harms people indiscriminately for any violation of purity. God is more akin to electricity than humanity. It seems to make perfect sense that the dry men of science, Seward and Van Helsing, are the ones who are the most religious, because theology is treated as yet another field of natural science.

I think it's interesting especially when you see how different characters react differently to Mina's damnation

-Mina is almost scientific about it. The fact of the matter is "I'm unclean in the eyes of God". No matter what Van Helsing has told her she still concludes near the end "Alas! I am unclean to His eyes, and shall be until He may deign to let me stand forth in His sight as one of those who have not incurred His wrath." God's wrath is upon her and that's the fact, to her, because the evidence is on her. She still prays to him to keep Jonathan safe, kind of to how in the Iliad the Trojan women still prayed to Athena for safety despite knowing Troy had brought her wrath.

-Van Helsing plays God's advocate a lot. He tries to justify the mark, its purpose, God's intentions, and promises on Judgement Day God will right all wrongs, including the mark. He tries to compare her to Jesus than a sinner. "Till then we bear our Cross, as His Son did in obedience to His Will." However, Mina doesn't agree; as we see later, she keeps seeing herself as unclean to God.

-Jack seems to question God's judgment, indirectly. "...that sweet, sweet, good, good woman in all the radiant beauty of her youth and animation, with the red scar on her forehead...and we, knowing that so far as symbols went, she with all her goodness and purity and faith, was outcast from God."

-Jonathan believes in God, he had even chosen to die in God's mercy over being left at the mercy of the vampires to turn him into one. But like Mina, he sees the scar as evidence that God has judged her. Unlike Van Helsing, he doesn't try to claim that God doesn't see her as such. God has marked her as unclean, and Jonathan declares while Mina is asleep "This I know: that if ever there was a woman who was all perfection, that one is my poor wronged darling." She's perfect to him and that's what matters, and also if she is damned to walk the earth in the darkness he will go with her over staying in the light with God.

This quote "This I know: that if ever there was a woman who was all perfection, that one is my poor wronged darling." is interesting because of the word wronged. Wronged by whom? Dracula? Or by God?

Something else indicating Stoker's theological thoughts might be here: Jonathan at first bargains that surely God wouldn't let someone like her perish like this! (He later concludes that even if God does, he will follow her). Mina laments how much her husband has suffered despite him never having harmed anyone, and similarly she had cried that she's been righteous all her life and yet this happened to her. It seems like Stoker believed that suffering isn't punishment for sins, because people who never did wrong like the Harkers still get immense suffering.

… ok, I want to run D&D Curse of Strahd (or play in such) for Dracula Daily Tumblr fans. because in many cases where I’ve played or run in the past, I play Ireena Kolyana as the Mina! Because… she… IS the Mina? She’s an interesting blend of the Cinema!Mina in that yes, she’s the reincarnation of Strahd’s lost love… but also Book!Mina, because by “lost love” we mean “Strahd stalked this woman and later killed her and his own brother because she didn’t want to marry Strahd, she was in love with his brother, and every time she gets reincarnated she rejects him again, because, I mean, he’s an asshole”

And god I have been in WAY too many Ravenloft games where Ireena is ignored or fridged, and where the DM decides to “humanize” Strahd and make him ~romantic~ or some shit – no!!!

Hells bells, give me straight up The Polycule, Fresh Off Surviving Dracula the Novel, Invades the Demiplane of Dread to Continue their Crusade Against All Vampires

I would love to participate if at all possible. The Crew of Light being a proper dnd squad would be an unparalleled delight.

I was thinking again about Classical mythology parallels, and it hit me that while Stoker may or may not have intended for this reference, the image of fighting Death himself immediately brought to mind Heracles wrestling Thanatos - the Ancient Greek personification of death - to save Alcestis from an early death she chose to spare her husband, not unlike Mina saying she would kill herself to protect the others, including her husband, should her vampirism compel her to harm them.

In the version of the myth popularized by Euripides, Apollo convinces the Fates to spare King Admetus when his time comes, as long as someone willingly takes his place. But no one, not even his elderly parents, volunteers to do so as the day of his early death approaches, until his wife, Queen Alcestis, chooses to die in his stead out of love and duty to both him and their people. Heracles arrives at Admetus' court while they are in mourning for her, and after hearing the story, he either waits in ambush or goes to the Underworld to fight Thanatos and wins, thus bringing her soul back to the world of the living and her loved ones.

Mina plays the role of both Heracles, the greatest and strongest of the Ancient Greek heroes, and Alcestis, an exemplar of arete (personal excellence) and eusebia (social duty), and in doing so, she fights Death himself herself to save her own soul.

God help him, they took the train

Finally figured out how to thematically tie the suitors together!

Arthur represents the past. He comes from an established family, old money, he has prior connections and privileges which help the team and has the strongest association with death and loss, now grieving his father and Lucy, and it may be implied, most recently, that he was with Renfield the moment he died.

Quincey represents the present, as he manages to show up in the nick of time, and does his most dynamic thinking in the moment. His pragmatic nature concerns the here-and-now, and although he is a decent planner, sometimes he is often compelled towards spur-of-the-moment action with unfortunate consequences.

Jack represents the future, not only for having the strongest association with experimental technology and science, but because he seems to arrive too late. He fails to stay present, he reaches his conclusions once the worst has already occurred, and his loves are realized too late.

Might I suggest another theme to tie them all to Dracula? Van Helsing’s research in to his past as “Soldier, statesman, and alchemist—which latter was the highest development of the science-knowledge of his time” seems almost to me a direct comparison to the three suitors, how in another time or place they would be Arthur the statesman, Quincey the Soldier, and Jack the alchemist, each having traits we would associate with these roles.

The three flawed but ultimately good natured men facing a shadow of all they could ever be in the form of a creature that destroyed the person they all wished to spend their life with. It seems to me be a statement of looking in mirror and seeing a version of ourselves that would destroy who we love.

Re: Dracula is a bite-sized audio adaptation of the horror classic, delivered to your podcatcher as the events happen. We’re currently crowdfunding production in an all-or-nothing campaign! Check it out and help us bring this audio drama to life.

We’ll be announcing which roles our cast is playing throughout the first 10 days of the campaign, but we suspect you might be able to guess a few roles from our trailer…

There were plenty of jokes about it but to me the line "the groove had ceased to avail me" is just immeasurably sad.

Look at Jonathan. He loved being a Solicitor. He was so proud presenting his credentials, and hearing Mr Hawkins call him a good boy. And when the Horrors began to set in he found his comfort and refuge in the Law.

And now the Horrors are over and he's home and he has everything he ever wanted (wealth, comfort, Mina, his own practice) and it doesn't help. He throws himself into his work to cope and it doesn't help. He has his life back and more but he no longer knows how to live in it. The Law no longer gives him comfort or refuge.

There was an episode of Babylon 5 featuring a former accountant, who loved his job and was good at it. But then he lost his wife and child in a tragic accident. And he tried to throw himself back into his work to cope and it didn't help. "The numbers didn't add up."

"The groove had ceased to avail me" hits me exactly the same way as "the numbers didn't add up." Jonathan has been robbed even of this. And it's heartbreaking.

A lot of folks were celebrating Jonathan getting his groove back but... he doesn't actually say that. What he says is: "Does it concern the Count?" He's not now finally able to get back into his old life - rather he is embracing an entirely new life as a character in the novel Dracula.

In the Babylon 5 episode, the former accountant never rekindles his love for his work. He embarks on a Quest to find the Holy Grail. Only then do the numbers once more start to add up.

Jonathan may no longer be a broken shell of a man, but he will never be our Cheerful Young Solicitor again

I think that the prevalence of charming side characters points to something that Dracula adaptations often miss: This is ultimately a story about humanity being good. 

The book is absolutely chock full of examples of people being good to each other: from the Romanian woman who gave Jonathan - a complete stranger - a rosary to keep him safe, to the suitors being good friends even after they realize they all proposed to the same woman, to the unnamed second mate taking watch when everyone is exhausted, to Mina talking to a lonely old man, to the people of Whitby preparing a funeral for the unnamed Captain of the Demeter and trying to befriend the dog.

When it comes down to it, this is about people banding together and helping each other. I find that adaptations often go very light on that aspect in favor of focusing on the charisma of the monster or the push and pull between Van Helsing and the Count. But the background of people caring about each other is very necessary to the story of the monster who feeds on them.

a sailor's last prayer

In light of it suddenly becoming Dracula season, I had to make a quiz! Which Dracula character are you?

insp. // featuring Adria Arjona, Dev Patel, Jared Harris, Ben Whishaw, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and Santiago Cabrera

It’s been 90 years, but I’m still blown away by how masterful this scene is.

In light of the date, I had a very pleasant conversation with my husband this afternoon as to what the moral of Dracula is. I am very pleased with my answer that it is a book about realizing that your fears might be real, realizing that those fears can be fought, and realizing that those you love can help you to fight them.