Vlado, O Vlad & Dracula; AtD

Wed Apr 16 17:27:33 CDT 2008

We do not know exactly why Bram Stoker chose this fifteenth century Romanian prince as a model for his fictional character. Some scholars have proposed that Stoker had a friendly relationship with a Hungarian professor from the University of Budapest, Arminius Vambery (Hermann Vamberger) , and it is likely that this man gave Stoker some information about Vlad Tepes Dracula. Moreover, the fact that Dr. Abraham Van Helsing mentions his "friend Arminius" in the 1897 novel as the source of his knowledge on Vlad seems to support this hypothesis. It should also be kept in mind that the only real link between the historical Dracula (1431-1476) and the modern literary myth of the vampire is in fact the 1897 novel; Stoker made use of folkloric sources, historic references and some of his own life experiences to create his composite creature. On the other hand, it is worth mentioning that Vlad Dracula's political detractors - mainly German Saxons - made use of the other meaning of
 the Romanian word "Dracul" - "Devil" - in order to blacken the prince's reputation. Could the association of the words "Dragon" and "Devil" in Romanian language explain an earlier link between Vlad Tepes and vampirism? 

kelber at mindspring.com wrote:  Yashmeen seems sufficiently eroticized before (and after) her encounter with Vlado. She has an interesting way of working through her grief at his loss.

Laura

-----Original Message-----
>From: Mark Kohut 
>Sent: Apr 16, 2008 5:24 PM
>To: kelber at mindspring.com, pynchon-l at waste.org
>Subject: Re: AtD, p. 854 'a pitch of apprehension' at the movies
>
>From the very interesting wikipedia article:.......................................Look it up.
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> "Although some critics find the novel somewhat crude and sensational, it nevertheless retains its psychological power, and the sexual longings underlying the vampire attacks are manifest. As one critic wrote:
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> What has become clearer and clearer, particularly in the fin de siècle years of the twentieth century, is that the novel's power has its source in the sexual implications of the blood exchange between the vampire and his victims...Dracula has embedded in it a very disturbing psychosexual allegory whose meaning I am not sure Stoker entirely understood: that there is a demonic force at work in the world whose intent is to eroticize women. In Dracula we see how that force transforms Lucy Westenra, a beautiful nineteen-year-old virgin, into a shameless slut.[10] Dracula may be viewed as a novel about the struggle between tradition and modernity at the fin de siècle. Throughout, there are various references to changing gender roles; Mina Harker is a thoroughly modern woman, using such modern technologies as the typewriter, but she still embodies a traditional gender role as an assistant schoolmistress.
> Stoker's novel deals in general with the conflict between the world of the past  full of folklore, legend, and religious piety  and the emerging modern world of technology, positivism, and secularism."
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> Does Yashmeen become a "shameless slut"??.........Remembering Vlad and Yashmeen
> just a few pages ago, the case can be made.[without the shameless judgmental word]....
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>kelber at mindspring.com wrote:
> But it's hard not to think of Vlad the Impaler, source of the Dracula legend. He eats her heart, he drinks her blood? Bela Lugosi will be making an appearance sometime soon (I forget if Kit and Dally run into him at a movie theater or at a local night club). Is Dracula just another misunderstood local? Maybe there's an implication that outsiders (imperialists) shouldn't meddle in the affairs of the Balkans.
>
>Laura
>
>-----Original Message-----
>>From: Mark Kohut 
>>Sent: Apr 15, 2008 11:12 AM
>>To: pynchon -l 
>
>>Subject: AtD, p. 854 'a pitch of apprehension' at the movies
>>
>>Vlado is out of a traditional community-a peasant He might be called a 'natural man'. Kinda like Zorba the Greek, out of tha book and movie.
>> He is the very satisfying lover of Yashmeen, almost pure sex, no intellectualizing, no self-consciousness, natural desire. A man whose mind/body seem to be one, so to speak.
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>> She can't help loving him---he eats her heart---but he doesn't say Love in the abstract. He just wants to be with her and he wants to fuck. 
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>> So, they go to see a movie, a real one---see the p-wiki. Here is commentary from someone
>> on IMDB, I think: "To me, however, this film, a panorama of a canal in Venice, appears to be even more of a revelation, but seems to get historically lost among the Company's many filmic innovations. It is simply a single tracking shot accomplished by placing the camera, tripod and cameraman in a gondola. As they stroll down the canal, the images of buildings, fellow navigators and such shift; the image changes with the mobile framing. This film is very likely--has been credited as much by historians--the first to feature movement of the camera." IMDB
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>> Why is Vlado so apprehensive?...I suggest it is because of the moving camera....(Cf. that moving train and railroad-metaphysics)...as a metaphor for modernity..."All that is Solid Melts into Air" wrote Marx about the modern age.
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>> TRP is doing all kinds of solos, playing lots of changes, around his traditional society vs. modernity theme. This is another. 
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>> between 0000-00-00 and 9999-99-99 
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