At 4 Am - Tumblr Posts

Also interesting to note: Vampires didn't traditionally drink blood from the neck. The earliest stories more vaguely described vampiric feeding as leaning/pressing on a sleeping victim's chest sleep-paralysis-style (vampires absorbed life and vigor and therefore continued to live and pump their own blood) which shifted to biting the chest to drink the victim's blood, which Stoker saw as being a bit too scandalous and shifted to the neck. (with er...one notable exception)

Obviously this backfired horribly, as anyone who went to a highschool with a biting epidemic can attest to.

Mr. Swales’ section (as difficult to read as it is) actually poses an excellent meta question about the book itself.

The brief summary of what he is saying is effective this: Just because something is written down, it does not mean it is the whole truth. Things may be omitted for the comfort of the family or friends (like providing a grave for a sailor when there is no body.) Or for the dignity of those involved (like not mentioning a suicide.)

This reflects back on a discussion we were having about a month ago: Was the feeding censored out of Jonathan’s diary?

Following Mr. Swales’ logic about graves, the answer may be yes. Mina, as the person who transcribed Jonathan’s diary, may have taken things out for the sake of dignity and comfort. Or Jonathan himself censored out those moments for the sake of his loved ones.

The thing to take from Mr. Swales in this scene is that written evidence can be unreliable. And we are reading a book comprised of nothing but written (or recorded) evidence.