tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6096844366367766843.post7127444054591620281..comments2024-03-27T09:27:33.931+00:00Comments on Idiotic Hat: The Real ThingMike C.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11279776665185060446noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6096844366367766843.post-6470564769458358542011-11-03T22:35:20.509+00:002011-11-03T22:35:20.509+00:00To be quite honest,Mike, "Dracula" has b...To be quite honest,Mike, "Dracula" has been on the syllabus generally for years - ever since a canon was put forward. I don't teach A level English Lit myself, although I have in the past. I wouldn't choose to teach it ("Dracula") either. Far too ponderous.<br /><br />We use a play version in Year 8 which was dramatised by Phillip Pullman. We teach gothic literature which is a very popular genre at the moment given all the books aimed at young girls - sort of Vampire-Lite. I mean, vegetarian vampires?<br /><br />It would be interesting to know what pre-1914 books your daughter prefers.<br /><br />I agree that the novel "Dracula" isn't brilliant - but it's important to 20th Century culture as the original novel that sparked off a huge film franchise. <br /><br />As I said, I don't teach "Dracula" because I don't teach A level Eng Lit but I do often teach the 1957 Hammer version in Film Studies which is good fun and the kids often love it. It's only tenuously linked to Stoker's novel but I think it's important that students are aware that these stories have existed for a long time. They need to be aware, I think, that there is a history - vampires have been around for centuries. I know it doesn't really matter to many youngsters - there's a sense of "so what?" - but I just do care.<br /><br />I would personally never bother to read it again, though.Dave Leekehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17971308602082668644noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6096844366367766843.post-67168608505214689262011-11-02T14:52:24.400+00:002011-11-02T14:52:24.400+00:00Huw,
Well, all of D.H. Lawrence is in Penguin Cla...Huw,<br /><br />Well, all of D.H. Lawrence is in Penguin Classics, too -- have you read any of that, lately?! If anyone is evidence of how "judgement" has mutated into "opinion", he's it. Not so long ago, he was Leavis' gold standard of literary virtue.<br /><br />I have read Hogg's book, which is in a different league -- I have a special interest in "peasant poets" of the Scottish Borders, as one of my distant ancestors was one such in the 19th century.<br /><br />MikeMike C.https://www.blogger.com/profile/11279776665185060446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6096844366367766843.post-43278021076470275242011-11-02T09:17:18.106+00:002011-11-02T09:17:18.106+00:00Mike,
I enjoyed it despite all that! It's a ...Mike,<br /><br />I enjoyed it despite all that! It's a Penguin Classic, so don't feel entirely alone in thinking it a significant book worth studying. <br /><br />But it is rubbish being obliged to read and write about a book you seriously dislike, so sympathies to your daughter.<br /><br />Have you read Hogg's <i>Confessions of a Justified Sinner</i>? There's a top quality 19th Century gothic novel!<br /><br />HuwHuwhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06346671593949866026noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6096844366367766843.post-33011111567817087902011-11-01T21:38:02.765+00:002011-11-01T21:38:02.765+00:00Huw,
Well, what can I say?
You didn't, for e...Huw,<br /><br />Well, what can I say?<br /><br />You didn't, for example, find it about two thirds overlong? Or that the epistolary structure was unnecessarily contrived and deeply confusing, and the different voices (apart from the egregious Van Helsing) too similar to tell apart and entirely characterless? Or the plotting of this "thriller" linear and utterly without surprise or jeopardy, or the sentimentality overpoweringly cloying and the constant hysteria contrived, or...? I could go on.<br /><br />That's not even to broach the issues that a modern reader will have with some of the book's views, which were pretty dated even in 1897 (Dracula is only "Victorian" by a whisker) -- the entirely unquestioning view of religion, the soul, and redemption as matters of mechanics and symbolism only, for example ("Dover Beach" was published in 1867!), or the utterly conventional view of gender roles and the deeply creepy sexuality that underpins the whole thing.<br /><br />Sorry to disagree, but I found it completely without merit. I approached it with an open mind, and an urge to help my daughter with it (she hates it), yet failed to find any redeeming features that would justify its study in schools. The only sincere way to engage with the book is to parody it.<br /><br />Fetch me that sharpened stake!<br /><br />MikeMike C.https://www.blogger.com/profile/11279776665185060446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6096844366367766843.post-10960013004449339842011-11-01T20:59:43.662+00:002011-11-01T20:59:43.662+00:00Mike,
I read Dracula a few years ago and thorough...Mike,<br /><br />I read <i>Dracula</i> a few years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it (and I'm not a complete lightweight: I wrote a tolerable dissertation on <i>Paradise Lost</i> and it was a satisfying experience). <i>Dracula</i> isn't great literature but it's a significant novel that keenly reflected Victorian society and informs our culture hugely: I think it's excellent for teenagers to understand the deep rooted mythology behind Twilight, etc. I'm sure your daughter is also studying Shakespeare and poetry as part of her course? (I think <i>Wuthering Heights</i> is trash (and had to study it for A Level) but know that's just me!)<br /><br />HuwHuwnoreply@blogger.com