Dracula Daily - Blog Posts
I positively adore how both Mina and Jonathan think of each other in their journal/letters. Distance may separate them, but they are always on each other’s minds. A recipe for her, practice for him. To be of use to the other. To capture what the other isn’t experiencing. A point of connection for the two who are so far apart. A way of saying that the world is beautiful and fascinating and I want to share it with you
I’m sorry I was talking with someone about the AP lit prompt for the third essay today and said that I used the Dracula novel and the character of Jonathan to write the essay, Yknow, cuz it fit. And they straight up said “Are you kidding me, isn’t that a movie?”
Bro.
Advanced placement student.
Literature and composition.
Happy Dracula day to all who celebrate
Where can I find a friend who shares the same hyperfixation as me? FYI it’s a 128 year old novel about a silly little english lawyer who goes to stay with a weird guy™ who doesn’t show up in mirrors, has questionable bedtime habits, and can scale walls like a lizard.
My good friend Jonathan is going on a very important business trip next week. Everyone wish him luck.
i sure hope my good friend johnathan harker has a safe trip...
Dracula Daily - May 12th
According to Jonathan, Drac’s creeping around. But someone needs to go to Asda… 🧛
all right so here's the schedule of when dracula daily will be updated, as gleaned from the archives
please share this, it was a pain in the ass
It is a relief to note that I am not the only one worried by the lack of a letter on this day
No word from my good friend Johnathan today. Given the state of affairs in his last letter I find myself quite concerned. Perhaps it is unkind of me to judge so harshly on second hand impressions but I do not like the sound of this Count Dracula fellow at all.
round two of Dracula daily: time to convince all my friends to do it!
(…maybe I’ll finish it this time too)
Bram stoker - the cartographer
my boyfriend: How would you feel if I was writing a paper about my journey to the UK my boyfriend: And I referred to my trip to the INDEPENDENT NATION OF WALES and their NORDIC ARCHITECTURE AND HERATIDGE
I'm getting my boyfriend to read Dracula Daily. He's not taking all the confusing geography and history nonsensical writings very well.
my boyfriend got tumblr (I convinced him!!)
anyway here’s his analysis of whatever from the first May 3rd entry of Dracula daily. (don’t let him fool you - he did actual research for this - he doesn’t know this all of the top of his head)
Bram Stoker Doesn't Understand Maps
Good Morning degenerates, My girlfriend has finally got me to use tumblr because I need an avenue to vent my rage and frustration. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dracula Daily was off to a great start. I was sending wholesome messages to my lovely partner until all of a sudden. I was filled with rage. Despite being set in the 1890s. As a contemporary text set when it was written, and being in the wake of the great Hungarian Revolution of 1849. There are too many geographical issues and I can only come to a single conclusion.
Bram Stoker doesn't understand maps.
Let's start with what killed me first. His claim that by claiming that crossing the Danube into Budapest "Took us among the traditions of Turkish rule"
But my friends. HUNGARY WAS (almost) NEVER RULED BY THE TURKS. The Ottomans got close, they owned most of the Balkans until big daddy Russia beat their asses in the Crimean and Russo-Turkish war. But even at their territorial peak they hadn't crossed the Carpathian Mountains into Hungary since 1699.
And even then, they'd only controlled Hungary since 1541. Nowhere near enough time to describe Hungarian architecture as "among the traditions of Turkish rule", it's fucking blasphemous.
It's like saying the Welsh bear "the traditions of Viking rule" just because they controlled parts of England.
And don't even get me started on this nonsense Transylvanian nationalism. The Hapsburgs had annexed that territory since 1683 and Transylvanian princes were quickly replaced with Habsburg imperial governors as the Roman Catholic Church was weaponized against the traditionally Protestant lands.
Now don't get me wrong. Austria Hungary was notoriously decentralized, and despite this what I've said above. Transylvania had some level of freedom, I could almost understand Bram if his writings were set 50 years earlier, or perhaps partway through the Hungarian revolution. But unfortunately for history, it was completely and unequivocally crushed by the Russian and Austrian forces. And following the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 any special status Transylvania once had, had ended. It became a province under the Hungarian diet and referring to it as though it was an independent nation is laughable.
Or is it? You see, just like sex and gender. A nation and a state are two different things. You see, a state is defined by its ability to have sovereignty, (control) over the going on within its defined borders. Whereas a nation is basically a group of people with a common language, history, and culture. And just like sex and gender, despite the fact that most countries (after ww2 at least but that's a different tangent) are nation-states, there are many nations without states (like the Kurds or the Palestinians). We're not lucky enough to have states without nations just yet but I'm holding out hope.
Perhaps Signor Stoker was simply referring to this concept of nationality instead. IS WHAT I WOULD SAY IF I WAS AN IDIOT. YOU SEE "In the population of Transylvania there are four distinct nationalities: Saxons in the South, and mixed with them the Wallachs, who are the descendants of the Dacians; Magyars in the West, and Szekelys in the East and North"
This quote proves that this foppish fool of a man is clearly not viewing Transylvania as a nation in the sociological sense either.
BUT IT GETS WORSE. FOR BRAMOTHY STOKERSON SAYS TRANSYLVANIA BORDERS "Moldavia and Bukovina". BUT MOLDAVIA HASN'T EXISTED SINCE 1877, WHEN IT AND WALLACHIA UNIFIED INTO ROMANIA. AND BUKOVINA (as part of the Austro-Hungarian empire) HAD ITS SOVEREIGNTY DESTROYED AT THE SAME TIME THE TRANSYLVANIANS DID.
In conclusion. Big Boss Bram has never read a map in his life.
Bram stoker - the cartographer
my boyfriend: How would you feel if I was writing a paper about my journey to the UK my boyfriend: And I referred to my trip to the INDEPENDENT NATION OF WALES and their NORDIC ARCHITECTURE AND HERATIDGE
I'm getting my boyfriend to read Dracula Daily. He's not taking all the confusing geography and history nonsensical writings very well.
"Yeah well he's (Bram Stoker) just bad at maps clearly"
Source: my boyfriend, a history nerd, who's studying political science, and I've made to start reading dracula daily
“It is a foul bauble of man’s vanity. Away with it!” is honestly just a cool thing to say when throwing anything out.
jonathan harker is just like me fr he notices the driver going about in circles and is too nice to say anything he’s just like okay take ur time it’s fine i’m not in a rush 🙂
I want this to be used for a dating sim. (As in you have to do these actions to get these character’s attention and romance)
Blorbocore Activities for Dracula Characters
Jonathan:
Treat yourself to a cup of tea at the aerated bread company. Or, you know, a modern cafe. Or just at home.
Write your significant other’s name over and over in glitter gel pen. Shorthand optional
Appreciate a scenic vista. Write it down in the most flowery purple prose you can manage
Try a new food. Bonus points if it’s spicy.
Choose vengeance.
Mina:
Write in ink or on a typewriter. Try shorthand for bonus points
Find a cool graveyard to chill in. Old man with an indecipherable accent is optional
Memorize something random, just for kicks
Similarly, adopt or hone a skill that could come in handy one day, but is otherwise just some fun tidbit
Be an unapologetically goth queen
Arthur:
Hang out with your pets!
Take a leaf out of his dating notebook (fishing, tennis, outdoorsy stuff)
Finally let your emotions overcome you and express them by sobbing inconsolably onto your sister-by-choice’s shoulder
Tell people you value how you feel about them, but phrase it in the context of their imminent demise
Dress up nice for no real reason
Jack:
Record an audio diary or “podcast” of your day. Imitate people’s voices to the best of your ability.
Stare melodramatically into the middle distance, ideally looking pensively into the sunset
Is there something you can spend hours doing and never get bored? Do it. Now.
Learn a few Latin phrases to sprinkle into your conversations
Listen to emo music.
Quincey:
Have a campfire to roast marshmallows and spin yarns around
Put on your most exaggerated cowboy voice and talk slang for the day.
Flee from a pack of wolves with your friends
Be the spontaneous friend! Shoot a bat.
Be rootin, be tootin, be shootin, but most of all be kind
Van Helsing:
Do something supportive for your friends if they need a pick-me-up!
Embrace dark comedy. Bow before King Laugh.
Mangle as many metaphors as you can in one conversation. The more times you mention corn, the better.
Read up on mythology and folklore
Try to convince your most skeptical friend that ghosts are real.
Lucy:
Keep a diary in emulation of your Good Friend Mina
Go for an evening stroll.
Have a sleepover with your friends! They can try to stop you from sleepwalking out of the room.
Dye your hair a new color on impulse
Donate blood.
Renfield:
Find a non-aesthetic bug— not a butterfly— and examine it closely
Sing or hum in your room and ignore guests
Debate philosophy.
Jump out a window and run over to bother your neighbor in the dead of night
Absolutely pummel a punching bag, pillow, or psychiatrist.
Dracula:
get hit in the head with a shovel.
Reblogging because this is so helpful especially as someone who has incredible difficulty imagining maps and how places connect.
Because the geography of Whitby is handy to know later on, and I have no ability to visualize things, I'm going to post a little map (very low quality, I'm bad at this) of present-day Whitby with some of the places Mina mentions marked on it.
The Crescent (centre left), a fancy part of Whitby where Lucy is staying.
Lucy met me at the station, looking sweeter and lovelier than ever, and we drove up to the house at the Crescent in which they have rooms.
2. The ruins of Whitby Abbey, up on the east cliff (lower right).
Right over the town is the ruin of Whitby Abbey, which was sacked by the Danes, and which is the scene of part of “Marmion” where the girl was built up in the wall. It is a most noble ruin, of immense size, and full of beautiful and romantic bits; there’s a legend that a white lady is seen in one of the windows.
3. The graveyard of St. Mary's Church with the view over the cliffs and harbour that Mina likes (lower right).
Between [Whitby Abbey] and the town there is another church, the parish one, round which is a big graveyard, all full of tombstones. This is to my mind the nicest spot in Whitby, for it lies right over the town, and has a full view of the harbour and all up the bay to where the headland called Kettleness stretches out into the sea. It descends so steeply over the harbour that part of the bank has fallen away, and some of the graves have been destroyed. In one place part of the stonework of the graves stretches out over the sandy pathway far below. There are walks, with seats beside them, through the churchyard; and people go and sit there all day long looking at the beautiful view and enjoying the breeze. I shall come and sit here very often myself and work.
4. Whitby harbour, with the two lighthouses circled.
The harbour lies below me, with, on the far side, one long granite wall stretching out into the sea, with a curve outwards at the end of it, in the middle of which is a lighthouse. A heavy sea-wall runs along aside of it. On the near side, the sea-wall makes an elbow crooked inversely, and its end too has a lighthouse. Between the two piers there is a narrow opening into the harbour, which then suddenly widens.
It is nice at high water; but when the tide it out it shoals away to nothing, and there is merely the stream of the Esk, running between banks of sand, with rocks here and there. Outside the harbour on this side there rises for about half a mile a great reef, the sharp edge of which runs straight out from behind the south lighthouse.
The reef isn't in the photo above, but if you go to Google Maps you can see it angling off to the northwest.
5. The steps down from the graveyard to the town (lower right).
He hobbled away, and I could see him hurrying, as well as he could, down the steps. The steps are a great feature on the place. They lead from the town up to the church, there are hundreds of them – I do not know how many – and they wind up in a delicate curve; the slope is so gentle that a horse could easily walk up and down them. I think they must have originally had something to do with the abbey.
One other feature of the town Mina mentions is the viaduct, which isn't in the map above because it's far south of the rest.
The locals trying to warn Jonathan Harker about Dracula like