#Dracula Daily May 15

[bywandandsword]

It's interesting how Jonathan keeps equating himself with women, first with the gothic heroines of books, now "sitting at a little oak table where in old times possibly some fair lady sat to pen, with much thought and many blushes, her ill-spelt love-letter" and feeling the first bit of comfort in a while in what he identifies as a woman's room. I know tumblr keeps identifying Jonathan as the book's Damsel in Distress, but it's interesting that Jonathan is consciously identifying himself that way, rather than identifying with any number of the action heroes in books of the time.

I wonder what men in 1897 thought about it, and I wonder if it was a conscious decision on Bram Stoker's part

[stillbubbles]

I think I’ve probably dismissed this entry before, but like this time I find myself a little misty-eyed? Our boy Jonathan found a momentary place of solitude with the Count out of the castle and finds comfort that some fair lady probably found comfort in this room long before him? The moonlight actually being somewhat soothing “…and disguised in some measure the ravages of time and the moth”??? 🥺

[another-chaotic-bisexual-vampire]

Happy Lizard Fashion Day!

[akasanata]

"... and writing in my diary in shorthand all that has happened since I closed it last. It is nineteenth century up-to-date with a vengeance. And yet, unless my senses deceive me, the old centuries had, and have, powers of their own which mere 'modernity' cannot kill."

If you asked me to choose one quote from the book to represent it, I'd choose this one.

[fightthereality]

Oh my Dear Friend Jonathan Harker, we’re really in it now

[barrywhelk]

Jonathan sitting at the old writing desk today like

✍️ woe that I must be trapped in this castle, but at least now I can pretend to be a girl trapped in a castle… ✍️

[mostly-literary-memes]

Jonathan stumbling through the castle like Daniel in Amnesia: The Dark Descent.

[yallemagne]

Once more have I seen the Count go out in his lizard fashion.

Ben Galpin truly captures the defeat Jonathan's feeling here. When you've seen something so incomprehensibly unsettling that the life is drained from you, and you can only think "okay, but what the fuck am I supposed to do with this? Oh? Is this normal? Is this normal? Can I ever financially recover from this?" It's a funny line for how bizarre it is, but it's hard to laugh when you hear Jonathan so dispirited.

Just, mwah. But, in contrast, Jonathan doesn't give up. He takes the opportunity that is presented by Dracula being away and tries all those damn doors again.

And then... he comes to the Room...

Dracula... warned him not to go into the locked rooms... but this room isn't locked. The door is stuck in such a way it would only open if Jonathan put his back into opening it. Now, one could say Dracula simply wasn't diligent enough in locking all the rooms that were off limits... or he anticipated, in some way, Jonathan finding this room by himself. He anticipated that Jonathan would put in the effort to open this one unlocked door. Either way, technically, Jonathan is breaking no rules, but technically, Dracula could still get away with this incompetence if someone were to try to hold him to it. Which, no one can or will.

Then, there is the latter half of Dracula's rules... he told Jonathan he may not sleep anywhere but his own room and the rooms they have both occupied. It, too, feels like a trap: reverse psychology. Jonathan is already weary to be where he knows Dracula goes, especially asleep. And then, Dracula, under the guise of caring for Jonathan's wellbeing, tells him he will only be safe in the rooms that he himself has occupied? Of course, it feels like leaving himself out as bait for the Count.

My lamp seemed to be of little effect in the brilliant moonlight, but I was glad to have it with me, for there was a dread loneliness in the place which chilled my heart and made my nerves tremble. Still, it was better than living alone in the rooms which I had come to hate from the presence of the Count, and after trying a little to school my nerves, I found a soft quietude come over me.

This is the first time that Jonathan is really harsh about the Count. He hates him. He hates his presence, and he hates how it lingers after his absence. But once he can put away his hate, he finds peace:

Here I am, sitting at a little oak table where in old times possibly some fair lady sat to pen, with much thought and many blushes, her ill-spelt love-letter, and writing in my diary in shorthand all that has happened since I closed it last.

He calms himself by imagining himself as a lady writing a love letter. Anxious - pen shaking and fumbling with some of the spellings - but not fearful. Not scared. Not in danger. He then remarks on the decor. Apparently, it is modern.

It is nineteenth century up-to-date with a vengeance. And yet, unless my senses deceive me, the old centuries had, and have, powers of their own which mere "modernity" cannot kill.

Even with the redecoration, Jonathan can sense the difference between what Dracula would call a new house vs an old one. This room has been done up to fit better with the current era, but nothing could strip away the history lying dormant underneath. Nothing can kill the spirits who linger. No place old enough to have a history is safe, not even London, which prides itself on its cutting-edge technology and its abandonment of the old and backward.

EDIT: okay so maybe I'm wrong about the decor being up-to-date. What if shhhh just enjoy the post.

[thethirdromana]

7th of May:

The curtains and upholstery of the chairs and sofas and the hangings of my bed are of the costliest and most beautiful fabrics, and must have been of fabulous value when they were made, for they are centuries old, though in excellent order. I saw something like them in Hampton Court, but there they were worn and frayed and moth-eaten.

15th of May:

One or two small rooms near the hall were open, but there was nothing to see in them except old furniture, dusty with age and moth-eaten.

Why does one part of Dracula's castle have remarkably preserved ancient fabrics, and in another part they're damaged and moth-eaten? Some theories:

Bram Stoker wasn't really paying attention to the inconsistency. (The boring answer).

Jonathan Harker doesn't know much about fabric, as a middle-class Victorian man, so his descriptions aren't always accurate.

Dracula has carefully prepared the guest rooms but not the parts of the castle that he didn't plan on Jonathan visiting.

Dracula turns into a bat and eats all the moths in his wing of the castle, but [redacted] are either unable to turn into bats or dislike the taste of moths.

In the Great Mouse Detective version of Dracula that happens simultaneously, Dracula is a bat and eats moths. However, he is also very small, so he doesn't get as far as the other wing of the castle.

Dracula controls all the moths in his castle and steers them away from the guest suite, but he actually kind of likes the spooky moth-eaten look sometimes.

The moths are xenophobic and don't like to be in the parts of the castle where there's an Englishman.

Dracula is a keen chemical engineer and the bed hangings in Jonathan's room are undamaged because they are in fact very early synthetic fabrics that Dracula developed while bored some time in the 16th century.

The guest rooms are under some kind of Sleeping Beauty enchantment; the rest of the castle is not. Given everything else going on, Jonathan doesn't notice the enchantment, though it does affect his sleep patterns from the moment he arrives.

Fabric in Dracula's castle operates under storytelling rules, like the toons in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, where it becomes more or less damaged depending on what's spookier in any given moment.

[Update! Courtesy of @animate-mush you can now vote on your preferred interpretation here]

[aster-blogging-dracula]

Happy San Isidro to the madrileños and happy Lizard Fashion Day to the Dracula Daily fans

Did I spend 2 hours trying to imitate Escher's lizards for the meme? Yes I did. (The traditional chulapo suit(which is typically worn in san isidro in madrid) has a tessellated pattern, so of course Dracula's lizard fashion had to be tessellated too)

[random-user753]

"I went on to make a thorough examination of the various stairs and passages, and to try the doors that opened from them."

Somehow this entry feels partly like Jonathan is treated as an especially escape-prone pet - only that Dracula has more the intent to treat him as snack. Also, it's impressive how calm Jonathan is despite the dire situation.

"Here I am, sitting at a little oak table where in old times possibly some fair lady sat to pen, with much thought and many blushes, her ill-spelt love-letter, and writing in my diary (...)."

This paragraph is so cute and Jonathan compares himself in a certain way to the fair lady - after all he writes his diary for Mina 😍 Can this be interpreted to mean that he also dreams of Mina and blushes?

"And yet, unless my senses deceive me, the old centuries had, and have, powers of their own which mere "modernity" cannot kill."

Love how Stoker unsubtely places his theme into Jonathans diary.

[ohshakespear]

"the old centuries had, and have, powers of their own which mere 'modernity' cannot kill."

Jonathan Harker, Dracula

[another-chaotic-bisexual-vampire]

Jonathan: Hi! Good morning! How are you? Hope all is well! Just checking in - could you please confirm if you approve of this contract? If so, I can send you the DocuSign envelope to--

His Client, Dracula: *scuttles down the castle wall like a lizard, again, and vanishes from sight*

Jonathan:

Jonathan: ...Looking forward to your response either way! Much obliged!

[akasanata]

Cute Jonathan exploring

And Jonathan invoking the spirits of ladies past, by writing in their desk

[beguilingcorpse]

[dracula-dictionary]

Dracula Dictionary, May 15th

impregnable: (of a fortified position) unable to be captured or broken into

culverin: a type of medieval and Renaissance cannon

fastness: a secure place well protected by natural features