Echoes of Dracula Literary Criticism

Dr. Kathy Davis Patterson Essay, The Echoes of Dracula, describes how society view the difference in other nationalities of people. Dr. Patterson opens her essay with one of the most ground breaking cases in American History, Brown vs. Board of Education, hitting segregation at its core. Dr. Kathy Davis Patterson discusses the link between vampires and radicalized constructions of monstrosity which, n since the beginning of time that racial inequality has made it way in American history. Dr. Patterson's essay.

In Patterson's essay, she talks about the novel “I am Legend”, connects that to the descriptions of the vampiric people to segregation and discrimination. Discrimination is one thing that has been in our society both in the United States and around the world dating back thousands of years with the example of the egyptians,etc. To the commonly known Holocaust of the Jews during World War II. Discrimination means, according to dictionary:

1.) an act or instance of discriminating.

2. treatment or consideration of, or making a distinction in favor of or against, a person or thing based on the group, class, or category to which that person or thing belongs rather than on individual merit: racial and religious intolerance and discrimination.

Discrimination is one thing that most likely will never leave because everyone is going to not like something whether it is a type of group of people or something so simple as a group of food. Some people don't like things or objects and may never will which under certain circumstances could include a certain type of racial group of color.

The story of “I am Legend” is about a man name Richard Neville. As stated in Patterson's essay:

“Neville’s race is established very early and very directly as Caucasian. Matheson describes him as “a tall man, thirty-six, born of English-German stock,” complete with bright blue eyes (14).

Both Neville’s body and his house are under constant threat, watched by vampires who seek any means of access. Violence is one potential route, as witnessed by the amount of time Neville spends stringing garlic, replacing boards, and repairing the damage vampires inflict on the house at night. The most dangerously effective strategy, however, is sex. Female vampires can rouse Neville’s lust with ease, and he agonizes with the knowledge that “The women were out there, their dresses open or taken off, their flesh waiting for his touch, their lips waiting for – My blood, my blood!””.

Neville is an only known survivor in a post-atomic war and the people who got infected with the bombs became the living dead. They became blood-sucking nocturnal animals that thirsted for Neville's blood. During his survival, many things happened. For example, time during the story, he left his garage door open while visiting his wife's grave.

“Once Virginia is truly dead, Neville places her body in a casket and locks the casket in a marble crypt to which only he has access. When he discovers the crypt’s iron door ajar, his fears are vividly expressed: “If they’ve been at her, I’ll burn down the city … I swear to God, I’ll burn it to the ground if they’ve touched her” (36). Neville’s dread of vampire/minority incursions and his obsession with the continued purity of Virginia’s body drives him to emotional extremes. Although her casket remains intact, he violently expels the body of a male vampire who sought shelter within the crypt.”

When he arrived home, it was to late. He was attacked yet he made it in his house boarded up and alive. He then started to wonder exactly how do these nocturnal creatures work and during this time, he made certain experiments to how this biochemical hazard started in the first place. At the end of the novel, Neville gives himself up and gives into the vampiric creatures finally ending with the statement, “I am Legend”. Then the novel ends with a series of excellent mini-stories.

Segregation is firmly stated in this essay. One example, is the Brown vs. Board of Education cases that opened up a series of multiple cases against segregation on all levels. During these Brown vs. Board of Education, a book was in the workings and finally came out in 1954. Another segregation example in this essay is at the beginning where Patterson talked about European English Jews stepping on English soil.

This paragraph states that during a meeting in the novel “I am Legend” they described these “...into a black unholy animal” as a way to describe these persons infected by this biochemical bomb. I believe that when they say “black unholy animals”, I think that they are talking about darkness and not necessarily their skin color. Black is the usual color when connecting to darkness. One thing to back me up on this is that while this was being said, a preacher was talking and the word after “black” is “unholy”.

“Reflecting on the plague that caused vampirism, Neville recalls the Black Plague and thinks to himself that “Something black and of the night had come crawling out of the Middle Ages” (28). At a moment of intense frustration during a hangover, his hatred of the vampires surfaces and he despairs: “It was no use; they’d beaten him, the black bastards had beaten him” (35). When the plague first began to spread and people began to panic, Neville recalls being dragged into a revival meeting where the preacher exhorted his audience: “Do you want to be changed into a black unholy animal?” (113) Perhaps the most telling expression of the vampire as an Africanist presence in the novel occurs during one of Neville’s alcohol-induced mental ramblings. His raw sarcasm is worth quoting at length”

Overall, Dr. kathy Patterson's essay is definitely and eye opener. I think that Dr. Patterson take on the book is dead on the spot. The story of “I am Legend” is just one of the many books that depict how people of color are looked at and treated for being different, but is that truly the reason? My take is that people with this state of mind is just afraid of what is different. I think that the author, Richard Matheson is definitely an intelligent man, but is very closed minded. Matherson's book, “ I am Legend” is just what Dr. Patterson stated in her essay “a the rambles of a very disturbed man. One thing I can say is that society has came a long way from this kind of thinking, the fact that there is a movie of this book, “I am legend” which a black man plays the staring role, shows the society is changed in so many ways.

Interview with a Vampire part two

Hello and Good evening,

For this week's blog, I am going to talk about the latter part of the novel “Interview with a Vampire” by Anna Rice and the essay “Anne Rice and the Queering of Culture” By:  George Haggerty.  This blog assignment was to finish the novel and to read this essay and analyze it while answering a series of questions.

    My favorite part of the book was the ending.  The ending concluded that the vampire did not succeed to prove his point of being a vampire because of the reactions of the boy asking to change him into a vampire.  To me, the best part is at the ending after he wakes up from being bitten by this vampire named “Louis”:

    “When he heard the vampire's voice, he leaned forward, listening very carefully, then hit the button again for another place and, hearing that, still another.  But then at last his face brightened, as the reels turned and the voice spoke in an even modulated tone: “It was a very warm evening, and I could tell as soon as I saw him on St. Charles that he had someplace to go...”
    And quickly the boy noted:
    “Lestat...off St, Charles Avenue.  Old house crumbling...shabby neighborhood.  Look for rusted railings.”
    And then, stuffing the notebook quickly in his pocket, he gathered the tapes into his briefcase, along with the small recorder, and hurried down the long hallway and down the stairs to the street, where in front of the corner bar his car was parked.” pg.340

    This part of the book was the ending of the story where The “Boy” leaves to find Lestat most likely with the objective of being turned into a vampire himself so he can experience the supernatural powers and immortality that a vampire has.

    If I was the “Boy” interviewing “Louis”, the vampire, I would have a different reaction to what happened in the actual story.  I would go with the different path because I believe that eternal damnation is worser than immortality.  Immortality is never actually certain because there are many ways that vampires can be killed and once you are killed, you are not going to heaven.  So a question I would pose is do you think that the pros over come the cons or the cons over come the pros.
   

George's Haggerty essay talks about how the novel “Interview with a vampire” and about anne rice and one main topic in George Haggerty's Essay: “Anne Rice and the Queering of Culture” goes on is Homosexuality.  Homosexuality is, according to Haggerty, is present all through the book:

    “Rice may well be tapping the Vampiric past in her delightfully lurid tales, but she is also tantalizing the homophobic present with her sleek and sultry undead.  It strikes me that the homoerotic of Rice's vampires are at least as culturally telling as anything that happens in Byron, or LeFanu, or even Stoker.  Rice makes her vampires homoerotic bonds that surface everywhere in Rice's Vampire Chronicles function as part on the self-consuming culture that has produced them.  For Auerbach, “Rice's infraction of the final Stoker-instigated taboo brings a special electricity to Interview with a Vampire, giving its predators a glamour more socially engaged vampires lack” (154).  Glamour is part of what Rice's gorgeous creatures and late-twentieth-century cultural conservatism.  To understand this relationship we need to answer several questions...”

    Saying this, George Haggerty point of view is saying that through Anne Rice's Vampire books, a series of homophobic showings that are presented in this novel and in particular, the book we just finished reading, “Interview with a Vampire.” 
   

Interview with a Vampire = a GOOD book

Hello,

For this blog, I will be talking about the newest novel that we are reading called “Interview with the Vampire” by Anne Rice and about Anne rice's life. Reading this book, will give a different perspective of vampires as it did from the last novel we read named “I am Legend” by Richard Matterson. Richard Matterson focused his vampiric beliefs more from biological reasons instead of supernatural yet in this story, we are looking into the superstitions of vampires instead of Richard Matterson's point of view.

Howard Allen O'Brien was born on October 4^th, 1941. She became known as “Anne” when she enter a Catholic school. In 1958, her family moved to Richardson, Texas from New Orleans, Louisiana. Anne attended Texas Woman's University in Denton, Texas and later going on to Texas State College finally graduating at San Francisco State University. Anne's first job was an insurance claims examiner in San Francisco, California. After returning to Denton, she married Stan Rice. Anne Rice had 2 children, Michele Rice and Christopher rice only losing Michele to leukemia before her fifth birthday.

Anne rice moved back the New Orleans in 1989 and owned lots of properties. As achieving as this may be, Anne Rice has written over 28 different novel's including the one that we are reading right now called “Interview with a Vampire”. “Interview with a Vampire” is about a Vampire who talks about his life to a reporter. This vampire named “Louis” has two-hundred years worth of information.

“Louis” and “The Boy” Go on about a series of events between “Louis” and his immortal companion named “Letat. For example:

“Over and over I dreamed that he was at the head of the steps and I was holding his arm, talking kindly to him, urging him back into the bedroom, telling him to gently that I did believe him, that he must pray for me to have faith. Meantime, the slaves on Pointe du Lac (that was my plantation) had begun to talk of seeing his ghost on the gallery, and the overseer couldn't keep order. People in society asked my sister offensive questions about the whole incident, and she became an hysteric. She wasn't really an hysteric. She simply thought she ought to react that way, so she did. I drank all the time and was at home as little as possible. I lived like a man who wanted to die but who had no courage to do it himself. I walked black streets and alleys alone; I passed out in Cabarets. I backed out of two duels more from apathy than cowerdice and truly wished to be murdered. And then I was attacked. It might have been anyone-and invitation was open to sailors, thieves, maniacs, anyone. But it was a vampire. He caught me just a few steps from my door one night and left me for dead, or so I thought.” pg. 11

The “he” is referring to Letat. Letat is an “Old World Vampire, looking for a companionship and he spots “Louis” and turns him into a vampire to make him his immortal companionships. Their relationship is a roller-coaster to where it gets out of control where he parts with Claudia. Claudia is a 5 year old human who was “Louis” food. Claudia was dying from a fever and Letat made Claudia a vampire so they could have a Vampire “daughter”. Claudia and Louis then venture onto Europe looking for more vampires like them. During their ventures, they come across Letat who they attempted to murder before leaving New Orleans to come to Europe.

Question

This is a quick question that I thought of on the book "I am Legend",  If us humans were to be 'Legends' then were would all this evidence go?  This video is showing people doing amazing things, so how would all this evidence be gone?  This is saying that if this happened in modern time not the time this story was suppose to be meant in.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vo0Cazxj_yc

I am Legend PART TWO

Hello,

For today, this blog will be about the second part on the story “I am Legend” by Richard Matheson and answering the question of when Neville ends the novel by saying, “I am Legend” what did he mean. This week we finished the story “I am Legend” from page 183. This book was a very good one and it touched on a subject that I didn't notice before.

From page 184 to the end of the book was very good as I intended it to be. As my predictions said that they were most likely these blood-hungry creatures did end up getting Richard and at the end of the book he did die. One character during this book was that I was actually interested in was actually not Neville himself, but this mysterious women that seems to be a 'survivor'. Her name is Ruth. It turns out she is a creature yet can contain herself and keep herself out for some time during daylight hours.

The 'topic' that overalled this book was the saying of “I am Legend”. At the end of this story it stated.

“Robert Neville looked out over the new people of the earth. He knew he did not belong to them; he knew that, like the vampires, he was anathema and black terror to be destroyed. And abruptly, the concept came, amusing to him even in his pain.

A coughing chuckle filled his throat. He turned and leaned against the wall while he swallowed the pills. Full circle, he thought while the final lethargy crept into his limbs. Full circle. Anew terror born in death, a new superstition entering the unassailable fortress of forever. I am Legend.” (pg.170)

This was on the last part of I am Legend. When he says “I am Legend”, I think that he means that how in modern world we thought that vampires, big-foots, etc. were legends that people tell their grandchildren and things of that sort. It was the other way around and that non-infected humans were legend because now these infected humans could tell their grandchildren “legends” of people who were different and weren't infected and maybe weren't infected by crosses, who used to eat onions and things of that sort.

After the story, “I am Legend”, the book “I am Legend” went on to different short stories wrote by Richard Matheson that were really great. One story that I liked was the short story called buried talent. This fat guy is the owner of a ping-pong carnival game and this mysterious man comes in and pays his quarter and get his three ping-pong balls and makes every shot. During these shots, this man seems to get weaker and weaker which includes sweating, tiring, etc. This comes to a point where the owner tells the guy that he has to leave the carnival game. I believe that this is saying that when people don't do good, then they do not get rewarded. By me saying this, I am meaning that this fat guy had prizes that were mostly for 'display' only. I am not sure who this mysterious guy was suppose to be because it seems that he is draining out this fat guys life with every shot this person makes. If I would have to take a good shot at it, I would say this person would have been death, yet I have my doubts.

Overall, This book was very good and I enjoyed this one with the point of view. The movie of “I am legend” was good yet you could say the 'base' of the story was plotted yet seriously plotted as “ it went this way in the book, so that is how we are going to do that in the movie”.

I am Legend

Hello,

For this blog, I will be talking about the novel “I am Legend” By Richard Matheson. “I am Legend” is about a man named Robert Neville who lives in a world full of bloodthirsty creatures who only come out at night. He hopes that he is not the only surviver and tries to find more uninfected people. To start off this blog, I am going to talk about the author, Richard Matheson, what happened so far up to page 183, then go on about how the previous books we read were from supernatural points of view, yet in this story, it is more biological then supernatural.

Richard Matheson was born in New Jersey on February, 20, 1926 and is still living. Richard is of Norwegian decent and graduated from Brooklyn Technical High School in 1943. He went into the military and was in World War II. After the war ended, in 1949 he earned his bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Missouri. Richard Matheson got married to Ruth Ann Woodson in 1952 and has four children.

Richard Matheson made his first short story in 1950 named “Born of Man and Woman”. This story is about a child being beaten and neglected and finally taking up for himself. Richard Matheson published his first novel in 1953 called “Someone is Bleeding”. Richard Matheson also wrote several scripts for the hit TV show “The Twilight Zone”.

During the beginning of the book, we get a basic overview of Richard Neville's day. Working, eating, whatever else, then sleeping, during the night. During these pages, a multitude of things happen. Richard is planning on soundproofing his house from these nocturnal creatures, growing of the garlic, etc. This all seems to go well until he goes to his wife's (virginia) burial ground and after visiting her crypt, realizes that it is only three o'clock in the afternoon, yet he soon realizes that his watch is actually broken and that he left the garage door open. When he gets home he arrives to an angry mob of bloodsucking creatures waiting for him and he manages to beat them off and safely gets back into his house. After time passes, he gets his house back in order.

During the reading pages, One question that he had on his mind was the effects of certain things to these vampires. One good example is that Richard was wondering why does garlic, sunlight, and crosses effect zombies and why do you have to stake them in the heart to kill them. He conducted many experiments on how this works and is still baffled.

In the previous stories, Vampires were more magical and supernatural. Yet, in this story, these creatures developed from bombings that happened. Richard's wife and kids became infected and now Richard lives alone. During the story, they say that the United States have won the war yet his family thinks that the United States haven't won the war, the insects have. Insects were carrying diseases from the dust that was in the air and were infecting people with contagious diseases.

Overall, this part of the book is very good and I am ready to write my next blog about the ending of this book. This book is also very unpredictable. It does not give off as much foreshadowing so you would have an idea of what is going to happen next and that is what I like about the book so far. This book is not like any book that I have heard of before because when I think of vampires, I think of Legends, yet in this book this “new age” is kind of taking over and I believe that they are going to eventually get Richard.  

Dracula part two

Hello

For the past two weeks, we have been reading the book “Dracula” and for this blog, I'm going to talk about the book “Dracula”, and the author of the book Bram Stoker.  Dracula is a very good book and it is very recommendable.

The author of “Dracula” is Bram Stoker. Abraham “Bram” Stoker was born November

8, 1847. He was born in Ireland, Dublin to be exact. During his childhood years, Bram was a very sick child and during his sickness his mother would tell him stories which could have influenced his latter writings. In 1864, Abraham “Bram” Stoker enrolled in Trinity College: Dublin. Stoker got married to Florence Balcombe in 1878. His first book was “The Duties of Clerks of Petty Sessions in Ireland” and was published in 1879, the same year that he had one son named Noel. Stoker wrote eighteen books. He died in 1912 at the age of 64.

“Dracula” was a very good book. Even though I basically understood what happens in “Dracula” by logical sense. Yet when you read the novel you go into further details which is why I like the book. Further details include the three women that were hunting humans like Dracula were, that, one setting scene in story actually took place in an asylum, etc.

“Fear for me! Why fear for me? None safer in all the world from them than I am,'

and as I wondered at the meaning of her words, a puff of wind made the flame leap up, and I see the red scar on her forehead. Then, alas! I knew. Did I not, I would soon have learned, for the wheeling figures of mist and snow came closer, but keeping ever without the Holy circle. Then they began to materialize, till-if God have not take away my reason, for I saw it through my eyes-there were before me in actual flesh the same three women that Jonathan saw in round forms, the bright hard eyes, the white teeth, the ruddy colour the voluptuous lips. They smiled ever at poor dear Madam Mina; and as their laugh came through the silence of the night, they twined their arms and pointed at her and said in those so sweet tingling tones that Jonathan said were of the intolerable sweetness of the water-glasses:-

Come, sister, Come to us. Come! Come!' In fear I turned to my poor Madam Mina, and my heart with gladness leapt like flame; for oh! The terror in her sweet eyes, the repulsion, the horror, told a story to my heart that was all of hope. God be thanked she was not, yet, of them. I seized some of the firewood which was by me, and holding out some of the Wafer, advanced on them towards the fire. They drew back before me, and laughed their low horrid laugh. I fed the fire, and feared them not; for I knew that we were safe within our protections. They could not approach me, whilst so armed, nor Madam Mina whilst she remained within the ring, which she could not leave no more than they could enter. The horses had ceased to moan, and lay still on the ground; the snow fell on them softly, and they grew whiter. I knew that there was for the poor beasts no more terror.” pg.-317 chap.-XXVII

This is my favorite segment of the book because it shows how these ladies who are trying to get to this man but can't because of the kind of protection the man has around him and Madam Mina. These paragraphs also have lots of descriptive language because you can actually imagine this happening. When I read this, I imagine a big fire, dead horses, three woman trying to get to this man that are making small sounds of laughter, a sick woman inside a ring, etc., and this is why I love this book!