“do We Think Maybe A Vegetable Would Cause Less Despair” Still Living In My Head Rent Free

Be excessive, be obsessive about what you truly want. There is no other option but getting what you want. You will work harder than you could imagine, there will be sleepless nights and probably you won't even have time to eat. But don't stop. Yes, for a long time it will be CHAOS, confusion. But let me tell you, THE SATISFACTION you have from the hard work, there is no better feeling than achieving your goal through hard work. And then, THE REGRET you'll have for not doing it will eat you alive. YOUR CHOICE

I have one more thing to say regarding the projection of modern gender politics onto the Harkers that's just not supported by the text or taking the contemporary context into account - see my previous post, re: Jonathan being over-idealized as progressive - before I move on to other topics, and I'm not going to go into as much detail right now and may re-visit this later, but - I love Mina, and she's a wonderful character and heroine who both rises above her author's biases and her time period AND is constrained by them in a very realistic, complex way, even by modern standards, but fun memes and character appreciation aside, it's really disheartening sometimes to see her very human and multi-layered character with a complex, fraught relationship with feminism in-universe and on a meta level flattened into some kind of flawless superwoman who is single-handedly going to save the day as the novel's only hero bc she is some kind of Exceptional Woman and stereotypical Strong Female Character TM who is a fearless warrior woman action hero and modern-day feminist stuck in the body of a Victorian woman who is going to slamdunk the men with FEMINISM while she also has to babysit them bc they're useless stupid babies who can't stand a strong, independent woman, etc.

Like, I'm being somewhat facetious and exaggerating for effect, and again, memes are fun, but this isn't actually a feminist reading bc it's ironically dehumanizing, does a disservice to her complex character, posits that she can't be truly heroic unless she's punching or shooting people like a traditional male hero (though yes, she should be included, I'm not arguing against that), gets into gender essentialist woman good man bad thinking that's not fair to any character or the text, and reinforces the idea that individualism is superior to collectivism - which completely goes against the surprisingly progressive, humanistic, and hopeful theme of the novel that teamwork and collective action saves the day for the heroes, in contrast to Dracula the ultimate individualist operating alone.

Jenny Holzer, Truisms, offset poster, 1978, 17 x 22 in.

they should invent a someone that will love me if they never see me again and will love me if they see me every Tuesday

So Dracula was able to be killed without the stakes and hammer and prayers and all the religious trappings Van Helsing’s research led him to. This supports one or both of two concepts that I am a huge fan of:

- It isn’t Christianity that repels vampires, but sincere faith. Jonathan’s faith hasn’t been in the Christian god for some time now—it’s in this little group’s sincerity in wanting to save Mina, PARTICULARLY in Quincey, who vowed with the same fervor as himself to kill Dracula the moment he had the chance, even if it cost him his own life. So that makes this a “power of friendship” moment suited to our white haired anime prettyboy.

- My old theory related to the shovel attack: Dracula only becomes vulnerable to common weapons when they’re wielded by his victims, or those he has a blood connection to. Jonathan was able to scar him with the shovel after “tonight is mine” and its heavy implication of Dracula drinking from him. With the blood transfusions, Dracula has also tasted Quincey’s blood. The first mate of the Demeter tried to stab Dracula and failed, but Dracula’s cruelty to both Jonathan and Lucy gave them the means to seal his fate.

an incomplete collection of tweets i consider to be short poems

Reblog for a larger sample size for no sample size at all, because obviously nobody will vote

I made this last year when reading Dracula Daily, but I was too much of a coward to post it. Now I am no longer held back by earthly matters such as "reputation".

This is the original text from the book, but wildly misinterpreted. enjoy

Y’ever read something and have understanding that has eluded you interminably suddenly stop, curl up, and snuggle neatly into a fold in your brain because a new way way opened to it?