Gay dracula
The BBC Dracula excited much comment, some of it affronted and outraged, in its portrayal of the Count as bisexual. I thought it might be useful to explain, then, how and why same-sex attracted sexuality is a core theme in Dracula.
If you like the sound of this piece, please do feel free to advertise it far and wide. My book, which ranges from Robinson Crusoe to Batman, and which touches on (among other things) zombies, werewolves, superheroes, aliens and UFOs, psychoanalysis, incest and perversion, Determine Dredd, Jane Austen, J. G. Ballard, J. M. Coetzee, and the conclude of the world, was not deemed terribly fascinating (or sciencey enough) by most UK publishers, so forgive me for having to promote it shamelessly from now until publication.
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First and leading, “the vampire is an erotic creation”, according to the Italian writer Ornella Volta: “The vampir
Froderick, Gay Son of Dracula
I laughed so much while reading this book, but I also felt such a expansive range of emotions.
Caleb and Frode, both vampire nobility with separated parents, have been raised very differently. Frode, living with his father, Drac, who is a total cliche and idiot with antiquated ideas about gender, has spent years hiding who he is. But he is also well liked and friendly. Caleb, raised one town over, living with his mom and brothers, has never hidden any part of himself. He can be cool and unapproachable and places a lot of emphasis on class separation. In many ways, the two young men balance each other out. Their connection is instant and inexplicable, and it grows quickly. I just adored both of the MCs and how they connected to one another. I'm also glad that my hunch was adjust (iykyk).
This publication also has a wide range of supporting characters - some just mean and horrid, and others that are an absolute delight! My favorites would have to be Wolfman and Dahvi! And obviously
There are those who suspect that Bram Stoker was attracted to both genders. Is that possible? Yes, quite. I personally suspect he was. Does that mean his novel DRACULA is loaded with between-the-lines hints that the nature of Count Dracula is meant to represent the corrupt homosexual impulses that plagued the author? If one chooses to read it that way, I suppose it could. That’s the thing about Literature; it allows for translation, for the examining of things running beneath the skin. But one shouldn’t take it too far. One shouldn’t try to flex the text to make it fit their particular square peg.
DRACULA is not about anti-Semitism, as some possess suggested. And DRACULA is not about homosexuality. DRACULA is not “about” any of those things. Or we could say, possibly, and depending on how one defines it, that it’s about all of those things, to some extent. It’s “about” so many things. There are themes addressed in the novel of which Bram Stoker himself may not include been consciously conscious. The forces that shaped Bram Stoker also shaped his fiction, and those forces were legion.
Reading between the lines is pleasant . Putting forward theories is fine, as long as they are recognized as such. But don
Bram Stoker’s Dracula is subject to a queer reading. Dracula has clear homoerotic tendencies and since these tendencies are both sexual and outside the norm (i.e., evil), they must be destroyed. But the suggestion of the homoerotic does not stop there. Homosexuality is also hinted at in the use of the woman as intermediary and in the homosocial relationships among the members of the Crew of Light. By widely accepted usage, “homosocial” implies a close non-sexual relationship among men. The Crew of Light is an strive to illustrate a homosocial partnership (i.e., non-sexual) thereby portraying them as good and therefore allowed to survive. However, the novel itself subverts this definition.
Homosexuality in Victorian England was illegal and there is evidence of a “homosexual panic” in the 19thCentury (Clark 170). In addition, Stoker maintained a long-distance correspondence relationship with Walt Whitman, a somewhat openly homosexual American poet and was friends with Oscar Wilde, the Irish-born playwright convicted of gross indecency (homosexuality) in 1895 (Clark 169). As an aside Clark, in his Chapter 11 contribution to the book Horrifying Sex: Essays on Sexual Diff