count-skribula

[count-skribula]

And what if I said Lucy Westenra's relationship with her mother was leagues more interesting and compelling than any of her relationships with the suitors. Then what.

[count-skribula]

Straight up based on this post:

https://www.tumblr.com/count-skribula/718318773021655040/i-love-these-men

[count-skribula]

I think Seward might be a bit distracted

[count-skribula]

Is she Lucy Westenra, or is she just a vessel for the writer's barely disguised fantasy of a women being punished for her promiscuity? Is she really"Bram Stoker's" Lucy Westenra: a naive, innocent 19 year old, with a cheery personality and a bright future ahead of her? Or has the writer instead just slapped her name on an OC that behaves nothing like her, and- with none of the grace or decorum that Lucy's tragically short story deserves- sexualized her slow and agonising death as much as possible, whilst very unsubtly doing their best to blame her for being murdered, so that we won't object to her being killed again later in an even more gruesome and sexual manner?

[count-skribula]

Got bored and decided to tally how many diary entries/letters/telegrams/memoranda/whatever each character in Dracula has

I included in this tally notes and telegrams and whatnot that did not get their own entries, so long as we saw the actual text of said items. So, for example, I counted Jonathan's notes on Carfax shared on May 7 as their own separate entry, but did not count his secret letters to Mina and Mr. Hawkins from May 28, as we didn't see the text of those. I did not count "later in the day" updates to journal entries as new, separate entries, unless there were other people's entries between them. My thinking was that if Stoker gave us a May 12 entry by Jonathan immediately followed by a May 12, Later entry, they were mean to be read in one go. Meanwhile, if Seward gives us a diary entry from the morning of September 29, and then we go check in with Mina and Jonathan before coming back to Seward on the evening of the 29th, that was meant to be read as its own separate thing.

The tallies:

Jack Seward: 54

Mina Harker: 43

Jonathan Harker: 41

Captain of the Demeter: 10

Van Helsing: 10

Lucy Westenra: 9

Arthur Holmwood: 4

Count Dracula: 2

The Dailygraph: 2

The Westminster Gazette: 2

Rufus Smith: 2

Quincey Morris: 1

Mr. Hawkins: 1

Sister Agatha: 1

The Pall Mall Gazette: 1

Samuel F. Billington: 1

Carter, Paterson & Co: 1

Patrick Hennessey: 1

Jack Smollet: 1

Mitchell, Sons & Candy: 1

[count-skribula]

our friend Jonathan rn:

[count-skribula]

hot girl summer vs jonathans's no good very bad business trip

[count-skribula]

I love these men

[count-skribula]

"Count me in every time. I bear messages which will make both your ears tingle."

[count-skribula]

We got some kukri snakes at work and no one understands my jokes. Have an extremely niche meme for my troubles

[count-skribula]

To me the “Why can’t they let a girl marry three men” isn’t about Lucy being romantically in love with all three suitors (which we know she isn’t- Lucy about Arthur on 11th May “But oh, Mina, I love him; I love him; I love him!”) nor about her literary asking for three husbands (which she doesn’t- Lucy about Quincey on 24th May “Oh, why must a man like that be made unhappy when there are lots of girls about who would worship the very ground he trod on? I know I would if I were free—only I don’t want to be free.”), its about having so much empathy that any form of pain someone experiences you want to ease, about having so great a heart that your feelings are overflowing you, that you only wish the absolute best for the other. Most of us must have had moments when we wished our dearest friends the best in the world, but oh, imagine if that happiness depended on you but you couldn’t give it? Anyone with a heart would feel bad, although at no fault at all…

Put that in contrast to Dracula, who masks his own hunger as “love” (it seems pretty clearly to be established that vampires in this novel use expressions like “kiss” and “love” as substitutes for far darker actions), binding and imprisoning anyone who peeks his interest and who could make his days a bit less dull and his life a bit longer. 

Dracula dresses up his selfish desires in what the world would consider “marriage”, gaining only slaves he is forced to endure.

Lucy gives her love so freely that she not only gains a fiancé who kisses the ground upon which she walks, but also two friends who’s friendship for her will last beyond her life.

[count-skribula]

The funniest part is that Lucy kissed Quincey simply because he asked, but Seward left with nothing but a slightly crooked hat.

The first in a long line of evidence that Jack has no game

[count-skribula]

Yeeeah lol every single piece of Dracula media out there has Lucy be unable to choose and flighty and "leading on" every man (and this has definitely contributed to "Lucy is a lustful woman and is punished for it" fanon) but. That's textually incorrect. She's been in love with Arthur from the start; she rejects the other two precisely because she HAS someone she wants to marry. Somehow people forget what era it takes place in, Lucy couldn't just tell him "I love you" (she even tells this to Mina in her letters pre-proposal) she had to wait and hope that he would someday.

And that's another reason why the musical did Lucy dirty.

The scene where he proposes and it’s all a whirlwind in her mind of throwing her arms around him and kissing is so sweet I love them so much

Do I love polyamory lucy and the suitors (and really every character in this book)? Yes, of course

Do I also want to express my love for how strong the existing canon couples in the book are? Yessssss

[count-skribula]

I knoww we’re all excited about the cowboy but I love hearing how in love with Arthur Lucy is in these early letters it’s so sweet

The fact that Quincey says all that and she STILL is in love with Arthur more just shows how smitten she is

[count-skribula]

Little girl, your honesty and pluck have made me a friend, and that's rarer than a lover; it's more unselfish anyhow

[count-skribula]

crazy how all jonathan harker ever did was love his wife and then every subsequent adaptation of the story of jonathan harker loving his wife went, "hey what if jonathan harker didn't love his wife"

also crazy how all mina harker ever did was love her husband and then every subsequent adaptation of the story of mina harker loving her husband went, "hey what if mina harker didn't love her husband"

[count-skribula]

Johnathan: wow this castle is so clean and the food is plentiful. The staff must work very hard

Drac the second Johnathan isn't looking: