fandomhigh | Adventures in Literature, Wednesday, Period Three [Class Eight]

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Adventures in Literature, Wednesday, Period Three [Class Eight]

Drake was totally prepared for Halloween -- well, the class room was, at least. Somehow the front of the class was in black and white only (so anyone stepping up to talk to Drake would find themselves suddenly desaturated), completely with the occasional fluttering bat, mists, and the howling of wolves. Drake had the black cape thing going, but he was still wearing jeans and a t-shirt underneath. "Children of the night!" he said around a mouthful of fake fangs. "SHUT UP!" The wolves obediently stopped howling. The blonde woman (who was still in color) sitting off to the side was probably rolling her eyes.

Drake popped the fangs out of his mouth. "How does anybody talk with these?" he complained, tossing them down on his desk. "Anyway, today we're going over Dracula, the 1897 novel by Bram Stoker. Fortunately, this time I found out ahead of time that there's someone in Fandom whom Stoker might have based his book upon. Mina Murray will be giving her opinion on the book and answering any questions you might have." Drake snapped his fingers, conjuring up a popcorn machine on one side of the class room. He had a feeling it would come in handy.

"Dracula isn't the first vampire novel," Drake said, "but it's the one that's had the greatest influence on the genre. Feel free to blame Stoker for vampires taking over the young adult section at your local bookstore, but I wouldn't hold him responsible for any sparkling. That just came out of someone else's severely deranged imagination. The book's been interpreted dozens of times in film, from creepy horror" -- and that would be a clip from Nosferatu playing now on a screen at the front of the room -- "to a more romantic and sympathetic bloodsucker" -- and now it was a scene from Bram Stoker's Dracula that had Drake totally fanning himself (Mina? Well, you'd have to ask her) -- "to humor." And a clip from Love at First Bite finished up the trilogy.

"So you've got Dracula," Drake went on, "stuck in his old crumbling castle in Transylvania and itching to move to London. He gets Jonathan Harker to hike out to see him and help him buy property and teach him about the modern Victorian world. Then he dumps Harker in the pit of vampire bimbos and takes off to England, where he starts stalking his fiancée, Mina, and her BFF Lucy. Lucy gets vamped, Jonathan escapes, the good guys rally, and Drac get staked. Or at least that's how it goes in Stoker's book. Ms. Murray is going to tell us how it really went down."

[Syllabus | Class Roster]

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Like a child of the night!

Chloe Saunders

Hyuuga Hinata

Karla

Tony Foster

Didi

Emma Frost

Diana Hansen

Cordelia Chase

Ellie Bartowski

Sam Winchester

Francine Peters

Naomi Wildman

Hayley Fitzpatrick

Gabrielle

Yakko Warner

Joolushko Tunai Fenta Hovalis

Alex Russo

Fiona Post

Take notes, pass notes, talk amongst yourselves, as you do.

Dracula had always been one of Chloe's favorite stories. Of course, as much as she loved Bela Lugosi's film version, she had loved the romance of Mina and Dracula in the Francis Ford Coppola version.

Therefore, it was clear she was paying careful attention to all of the lecture and taking very detailed notes.

Even necromancers in hiding could be fangirls apparently.

Karla had resolved to very quietly take notes today and not get into any further fights in class today. It helped that she was only about half there this morning anyway--sleep had been a long time coming last night. And it hadn't been particularly good sleep when it had shown up anyway.

Hinata was taking careful notes though she was also scribbling down points where she was going to have to look things up because she wasn't really... well read when it came to things like vampires.

Though she knew about the ones that sparkled. Those were hard to miss considering she worked in a book store.

Tony took notes and seemed to find the whole subject very amusing.

Francine was tired enough to be amused that apparently vampires had lost their trauma value for her. At least this kind, who didn't change their faces or look like somebody she loved, had. She sat quietly, twisting the braid she'd put her hair in today as she listened.

Didi listened reasonably carefully, taking a few notes.

Vampires always seemed like cheats, to her, but she supposed they had their place.

Even meeting Jack's vampire briefly over the family weekend had not completely eased Emma's twitch every time someone used the word 'vampire', but she could manage it for a literature class.

Cordelia sighed when the lecture started and her notes basically consisted of a list of ways that vampires sucked, not in the feeding way, and how to kill them.

Ellie was very intrigued by this lecture, so she was listening intently. She was taking a lot of notes as well.

Sam had enough experience with the bad side of vampires that he didn't think he'd ever be able to read romanticized stories about them, but he wasn't going to be rude in class. For once though, he wasn't taking any notes.

Diana made various notes in case she ever met Dracula. Aside from the copyright infringement, it could totally happen! Was Dracula even copyrighted anymore?

The Bacchae thing was still a sore spot for Gabrielle -- less today because of the whole incident with Orpheus than because wow, she kind of felt like they'd been ripped off by the vampires later on and didn't get the proper credit.

Did they deserve the proper credit?

She'd have to think about that one.

Alex took notes, wondering what Juliet would think of this. She might have to ask her next time she saw her.

Drake was totally getting an autograph by the end of class.

Go ahead and get some popcorn.

"Most of Stoker's account is drawn directly from real documents," Mina said. "There are few facts that I can dispute. Though obviously, he tacked on a happier ending when indeed, there was none."

"I stand before you not the loving bride and mother that Stoker invented. Indeed, as you can tell from my name no longer being Mrs. Harker, I have stepped away from the associations with Jonathan. We grew apart after our encounter with the Count. He could only see the monster in me. And eventually that marital distance aggravated many things."

She sighed a little.

"As for the Count himself, well... he was not a foul beast as some silly adaptations portray. He was, above all, an aristocrat. A full blooded and ruthless one, and a monster, yes. But there was a side to him that was powerfully enticing. Erotic, even, if I may be improper for a moment. But even with that, there was a monster. A creature which wished to inflict himself upon London and take it over through spreading his affliction. And that affliction he spread to me."

"There is more too it, of course, but I should open myself up for questions. Please, feel free to be candid and frank."

Any questions?

[Ms. Mina won't be able to tag in until this evening because I fail at planning ahead, so go ahead and ping with any questions you'd have for her, don't wait for her to tag in.]

"How do you feel about the eternal life thing?" Didi had to ask. "Got plans?"

"It is not as alluring as you would think," Mina said. "It becomes harder and harder to cling to what parts of me I consider human, when I think of how much I differ. The longevity will, of course, allow me to accomplish much. But I will always be atoning for the darker sides of my very nature."

He just doesn't get the fang appeal.

Who are not the bug-eating kind of minions, but Drake did thoughtfully provide real chocolate-covered crickets and gummy worms.

Sam was there, quite happily decapitating gummy worms.

IDEK

With you, never a quickie. Always a longie.

This is not a bad thing. :D

I <3 that movie so so much.

It's a good double feature with Zorro, the Gay Blade. Two bits, four bits, six bits a peso, all for Zorro, stand up and say so!

I need to watch that again! LAFB I've seen a gazillion times; Zorro, the Gay Blade...uh.... once.

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Adventures in Literature, Wednesday, Period Three [Class Eight]

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