Social Horror and Count Dracula – Something to Sink Your Teeth Into

 

by Sharon Kitchens

 

Raise your hand if you had summer reading assignments in high school or university. Raise your hand if you secretly or not loved that reading. Raise your hand if you participate in reading challenges. Ok, you lost me on that last one. However, while I don’t attempt to grow my mind with challenges, I appreciate them—in general—for getting people to read. And I think Book Riot’s annual Read Harder Challenge is pretty great.  

We’re halfway through the year now—how time flies when reading good books—and I thought why not check Read Harder to see what’s on the list this year. When I got to No. 23 “Read a social horror, mystery, or thriller novel,” I had to look up “social horror.” Here’s how Book Riot defines it:                    

The social horror genre takes societal issues and exaggerates them, turning them into a major source of horror in the story in order to make it all the more obvious how broken society is. This can include things like sexism, racism, or other oppressive systemic issues facing the protagonist(s) and the world they live in. – Book Riot. 

Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula published in 1897 arrived into post-Jack-the-Ripper London during a time of scientific advancements. It is the first book that came to mind re: this new to me genre. An enduring late 19^th century gothic novel featuring Count Dracula, one of the most iconic literary monsters.  The mysterious plot is based on historical facts, inspired by summers Stoker spent in northwest Scotland, and influenced by fears and anxieties of the day. In addition to introducing us to the best-known blood sucking Victorian vampire of all time, it brings attention to the relationship between science and religion and superstition, gender divisions, and xenophobia. 

Migration

In the beginning of the novel, newly minted attorney Jonathan Harker travels from England to a castle in remote mountainous region of what is now Romania. His journey from the advanced west (London) to the primitive and superstitious lands of the east (Transylvania) exposes the prejudices of the day. Everything is filtered “against England” as Harker encounters primitive people whose native language he cannot understand. He is unsettled, fearful. When Count Dracula arrives in London, he represents immigrants.

During the nineteenth century, England saw its numbers swell. First was the influx of poor, mostly Catholic immigrants from Ireland. By the end of the century, as Stoker was writing Dracula, Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe were pouring in. London’s slums were crowded and filthy. They were associated with poverty and infectious diseases. And while many were involved in social actions to relieve the poor, the press of the day stoked the fires of racism with anti-immigration rhetoric.  

Stoker’s novel presents the contrasts between the folklore of Eastern Europe and the moral decency and scientific uprightness of modern London. The Tenement Museum in New York City posted this excellent article on the theme of nationalism that runs through Dracula. 

Tainted blood

As many as one in five Londoners had syphilis by their mid-30s during the late 18th century.  This is at least partially attributed to Victorian prostitution numbers in London estimated to have been in the thousands. 

Did Stoker intend for Dracula to be the embodiment of a venereal disease? It certainly would not be a stretch. The Count targeted women, consummating their “relationship” by exchanging blood. The act of becoming a vampire is represented as contagion. 

The infected women would then represent those of loose moral character. The unfeminine. Living outside the strict social codes of the day.

Victorian ideals

The Victorian woman was the weaker sex. The socially respectable woman was the submissive wife. Morally pure. Lucy Westenra and Mina Harker are the two primary females in the novel who best embody these characteristics. Mina more so than Lucy, who is aware and takes advantage of her attractiveness. They are victims. The other female characters are the eroticized women vampires. They represent the rebellious “new” woman. They are monsters. The men, they are the heroes. Brave and capable. 

Further reading 

Boyd, Kathryn. “Making Sense of Mina: Stoker’s Vampirization of the Victorian Woman in

Dracula”. Trinity University: English Honors Thesis. 2014.  

https://digitalcommons.trinity.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1019&context=eng_honors

 

Difilippantonio, Annelise. “Bram Stoker’s Dracula: A Psychoanalytic Window into Female

Sexuality”. The Pennsylvania State University: Schreyer Honors College. 2011.

https://studylib.net/doc/8852269/dracula-a-psychoanalytic-window-into-female-sexuality   

 

Frayling, Christopher Vampyres: Genesis and Resurrection: from Count Dracula to Vampirella. 2016.

https://wwnorton.com/books/9780500252215

**Illustrations are by Becky Cloonan from the 2012 edition published by Harper Design.

Cape Fear by John D. MacDonald - summer read dynamite!

Reviewed by Michelle Souliere

All you need is a cocktail umbrella!

Back in 1991, I went to see Cape Fear in the theater.  De Niro’s terrifying performance still lingers in my mind, all these years later.  But it wasn’t until this year that I finally read the book that it and its 1962 predecessor were based on.

 

John D. MacDonald, best known and loved for his Travis McGee novels, wrote Cape Fear.  In 1957 it was originally published as The Executioners.

 

The basic premise is a familiar one.  A lawyer, Sam Bowden, is stalked by a man he helped to put away in prison years before, Max Cady.  At the time Sam had been young, but now he has a family – a wife, three kids, two of them growing up too fast, and a sweet family dog.

 

You could practically write it yourself, couldn’t you?

 

Here’s where MacDonald’s genius comes in.  In little glimpses, we get to know the family.  Likewise, the ongoing deeds and general behavior of the villain.  Yes, the family is appealing and wholesome but human.  Yes, the villain proves himself to be the worst of the worst, over and over again, far beyond retribution.

 

But the story goes beyond that.  The nuances of justice, of right and wrong, of how far one can allow oneself to go in the name of defending one’s bit of peace and happiness without destroying everything you’ve built and are proud of – and how much fear and oppression a human soul can take before it breaks.

 

This all sounds very pompous as I write it, but the way MacDonald handles it, and turns it over in his hands before us to examine ourselves, is anything but heavy-handed.  It is, instead, very human.

One of my favorite vintage versions!

Throughout it all, Cady puts the reader on edge as much as he does Sam Bowden’s family.    And Cady amuses himself by tormenting others.  For the most part he sticks to attacking citizens who won’t report to the police.  One woman, perhaps a little too “friendly,” winds up with “a face like a blue basketball” after Cady’s ministrations with a smashed chair.  And even to her Cady mentions Sam Bowden – “The Lieutenant” – twice.  “And both times it gave me the cold creepers, right up and down my back.”  Cady doesn’t make sense by any normal standards of society.  She tells Sam, “One time he said you were an old Army buddy and to show you how much he liked you he was going to kill you six times.”

 

It takes some finagling to arrange for him to be put away, even temporarily.  Perhaps a small sidestep outside the law.  But even that doesn’t last.  And this time when Cady gets out of custody, he’s not pulling any punches.  He’s not wasting any time.

 

The clock is ticking.  Summer is high.  And there’s nowhere for the Bowdens to run, after all, but home.

 

This is a fast, partly delightful and partly very intense summer read.  Perfect for tucking in your pocket to take with you to the beach, or a solo picnic!