2. Elizabeth Kostova (2005), The Historian

[strange_complex]

Back in November, I pondered the question of why Dracula invites Jonathan Harker to his castle in the 1958 Hammer film, and concluded that it was because he is a bookish sort who genuinely wants his library put in order (i.e. Dracula does not simply lure Jonathan there with the intention of killing him). In comments on that post, both matgb and ms_siobhan drew my

Comments

[matgb]

I think part of my problem with the dullness is that, to you, the gratuitous scenery porn is nice to read, to me it does nothing, at all, I don't have a visual imagination, it's just words describing things I'll forget in a few minutes, it's gone.

I could tell it was a well written book, just, well, not one that did anything for me at all.

I mean, how do you make what is in many respects a coming of age story about an attractive young woman travelling Europe, add vampires to the mix, and make something so incredibly boring?

[strange_complex]

I don't have a visual imagination

I guess I do, but I didn't realise until I read this recent post by andrewducker the extent to which some other people obviously don't. So yes, I can see how lots of visual description would indeed be pretty tedious if it's not really setting off pictures in your mind.

[matgb]

Aye, Andrew and I are scarily similar in many ways, the anosmia leading to dislike of wine, etc. The main difference is the cabbage thing, I'm with Julie on that one, tastes horrible to me, even when very overcooked.

[andrewducker]

Truly you are close to perfection, but not quite there. Maybe in your next reincarnation you can come back as me :->

[ms_siobhan]

Am lolling at the idea of being being a Dracula enabler (not least because in the eyes of the Westbro Baptist 'people' I am already a fag-enabler) and I hope things are a bit more settled and sorted this evening and everything is working out okay. Big hugs xx

[strange_complex]

You so are - and three cheers for it!

Have just got home this evening, and am planning to spend tomorrow sleeping and watching silly things on the telly in an attempt to recover from it all.

Good news is that Christophe is continuing to improve. He has graduated out of his oxygen box, though he is still getting a little bit of extra oxygen through a tube in his nose.

Meanwhile, Mum and Dad look like they are going to be able to manage with a few extra care visits per day, though it will certainly be pretty difficult for them for a while.

Whew! I hope your trip to Jersey went well, and will look forward to hearing all about it.

[ladymoonray]

I'm so pleased to find someone else who does not hate this book. I rather liked it, for all the flaws, and suggested it for a book club I was in at the time. Everyone else hated it!

Our honeymoon travels were partly dictated by the wonderful travel writing (which is quite a lot better than almost all the rest of it). I so wanted to go to Bucharest and see if it was anywhere near as stultifying as it is written. It is.

[strange_complex]

I feel so sad about Bucharest. In the 1930s, it was lively and bustling, was known as the 'Little Paris of the East', and was full of optimistic Art Deco architecture:

Then a World War and Communism happened, and now people live rough in the sewers under the streets. :-( I'd still like to visit, though, to try to understand the relationship between the two.

Also - and apologies for this - it's somehow only just sunk in to me that a) you still use livejournal and b) for some reason I have never friended you here. That's fixed now!

[ladymoonray]

Bucharest is a very strange place to visit. The archaeological museum and the Athenaeum are great (we went to a concert at the Athenaeum and it was wonderful), and we went and had a look at the communist architecture, but apart from those it is just depressing.

I don't actually write much on LJ, although I always intend to change that, but I do read every day.

[strange_complex]

I don't actually write much on LJ, although I always intend to change that, but I do read every day.

Ah, that's most of us these days, isn't it? :-)

[rosamicula]

I read this a few years ago and was immensely frustrated by it, because I thought it was brilliant idea badly executed.

I am actually doing a combined Eng/Media/Drama project on Vampires with my year tens next term. They are going to analyse different literary and cinematic versions of vampires from different periods (and poss cultures0 and consider why the depiction has shifted from monster (Nosferatu) to boy band pin up (Twilight) - and look at the link between fear of HIV and 80s depictions etc etc. Then they have to design their own 21st century vampire.

I may be picking your brains.

[strange_complex]

I thought it was brilliant idea badly executed

Yeah, that's more or less what I'm trying to articulate here. Well, not quite badly executed, but not as good as it could have been, certainly.

I may be picking your brains.

Sure, absolutely! Your project is well-timed, in light of the new film coming out in October, which should get their attention. You do realise, of course, though, that you're going to have to engage with Anne Rice as part of all this, given what a big part she had to play in the evolution from monsters to pin-ups? Her first two vampire books, Interview with the Vampire and The Vampire Lestat, aren't too bad, really - or at least, I remember them quite fondly, but I last read them when I was about 16, so can't promise that they're actually up to much!

True Blood is really good for vampires-as-others in a (predominantly) small-town setting. You can variously read them as LGBT+, immigrants, religious minorities or just a bit rebellious, but I think above all the first of those. The premise is that a synthetic blood-