Dracoola

Dracula Blogged is a new blog that's posting the contents of the Bram Stoker novel based on the chronology of the various diaries, journals, letters and other papers that comprise the story. I'm just thrilled about this. I've reread Dracula pretty regularly since first checking it out of the Yongsan 8th Army base library in the sixth grade, back in the heydays of the Hammer Studios Dracula movies. Christopher Lee absolutely terrified me, and such was the power of his chilling portrayal of the vampire (or my utter impressionability) that it seemed entirely plausible to me that I would encounter him, in dark cape and bloodshot stare, when making twilight trips to the facilities of our rented house (without indoor plumbing) in Kimpo. Being scared witless, of course I had to go read the book, and discovered a monster even more complex and frightening than the one I'd encountered on the screen. Dracula is also, strangely, a book that I experience with the sensation of smell. The rank breath of the vampire...garlic...Renfield's flies...the boxes of earth...blood. The corruption of flesh is palpable in every way in this novel.

Although we're only a few days into the entries (Jonathan Harker's journal started on May 3), I'm already enjoying the very lively comments section on the blog. There were a few early Trekkie-esque fisticuffs in the comments section over dates (which were amusing but, thankfully, quickly died down), but there are also frequent substantive comments from the blogger and other contributors annotating the entries, and I loved it when one of the commenters referred to "Harker and his Scoobies". Because the blog will be posting entries in "real time" (so to speak), some of the entries will be published in a different order than the book (for example, the May 9 entry of Mina's letter to Lucy and subsequent letter back from Lucy to Mina have been posted on the blog according to plan, although the letters do not appear in the book until after the last of Harker's journal entries in Transylvania, on June 25)--but that's intended to be part of the experience. I'm looking forward to reading along all the way through (the last entry of Mina Harker's journal is November 6).

Thanks to So Many Books for this very cool webfind.

Newly blooming: Pulmonaria longifolia 'Bertram Anderson' (lungwort); Symphytum caucasicum (comfrey); Aronia melanocarpa (chokeberry); Geranium x 'Rozanne' (cranesbill); Penstemon virens (blue mist beardtongue).

Comments

[Kathy]

What do you think of Geranium 'Rozanne'? I have read numerous complimentary descriptions, but I wonder if the hype is accurate.

[Chan S.]

I really like the color of the bloom, which is more toward the blue side of blue-purple, and the flower is on the large side for a hardy geranium. I'll have to report back as to whether it really does bloom until frost, but I'm excited to see it in bloom this early (I got it last summer, so this is the first bloom in my garden). Another hyped geranium, Patricia, is setting many clusters of buds right now and looks like it will be in bloom soon. We'll see about that one too!

[Bryan Alexander]

Thank you for the great story about your first reactions to the novel! I'm a huge Christopher Lee fan, too.

Please feel free to post to the Draculablog as we go. This is the slowest month of the book - things really kick into high gear in a few weeks.

All best -

[Chan S.]

Bryan, thank you for stopping by, and especially for Dracula Blogged. The benefit of this "slow" month is that it feels as though the tension is building during the "lull"...an effect that would be missed with a conventional reading of the book. Brrr...can't wait! Cheers.