Technically the next part should be "your blood," but after my experience listening to Bram Stoker's Dracula I think I will leave it as is. I actually did not listen to the last disc. I'm pretty sure that they killed him though. He was vicious and I think he probably deserved it. Anyways, I am glad I read (listened to) it, because I recognize its place with Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Arthur Conan Doyle's Hound of the Baskervilles as the foundation stones of the modern horror/suspense novel, but all I can say is I can't believe it is the one with the most spin-offs. I know it seems like I complain about authors a lot these days, but I am just an aspiring writer looking for others to emulate, and sometimes I get a little caught up in my analysis. If you look through my archives you will see that there have been authors who have really inspired me. Anyways, my list of grievances:
1) The journals. It is all written in the form of narrative journals - which I initially thought was cool, but as it became less and less believable it made me tired.
2) Believability. I'm not sure why I am so bent on having believable fiction, but I am. And the journal narratives were not.
3) The dialogue. Recorded supposedly word for word in the journals, this flowery overdone mess of dramatic speech is completely beyond my sense of reason. I have read a lot of writing from authors of the Romantic and Victorian periods, and have never had to endure in prose what Stoker was trying to make the reader believe these characters were supposedly saying in speech. Ugh.
There was a moment in the story that really moved me toward the beginning when a mother follows Dracula back to the castle and demands that he return her child. Jonathon had already heard the fate of the little one and admired the bravery of the woman even as Dracula called in a pack of wolves to remover her from the courtyard. No graphic descriptions were given, but none were necessary. It was a powerful scene. Perhaps it raised my expectations for the book too high.
I would like to take a moment and welcome some new readers who have apparently followed the links here from Daeruin and Ing's blogs - Welcome. I hope that you find my blog enjoyable and thought provoking. If not, then I will settle for better than a kick in the pants. Thanks for reading and commenting, or even just reading for those who have not felt inclined to comment.
One more item. As I have hitherto posted, I spend close to fifteen hours a week commuting. This adds up to a lot of audio books. More than I have been able to keep up with here, and I apologize because I really have had something to say about all of them that you will probably never get to read. So I am going to list the ones I have read and not posted about and if anyone wants my take on them they can say so in the comments and I will try to get something posted.
For Whom the Bell Tolls - Ernest Hemingway
Starship Troopers - Robert Heinlein (although I have already thrown my two cents in on the discussion taking place on Ride On regarding that book)
Slaughterhouse 5 - Kurt Vonnegut
Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card
Ender's Shadow - Card
I think I have posted regarding all the rest. Let me know, and Write On.
R.
