Regeneration Through Violence - Tumblr Posts
I just fell down an unexpected hole. After reading June 30's entry, I started making connections in my mind between Jonathan's attempted shovelmurder and the concept of regeneration through violence. My spouse is more well versed in this concept but I recalled him linking it to Theodore Roosevelt. As I understand it, TR very much believed in the necessity for men to use violence to blossom as Real Men. In a civilized society, men would degenerate due to soft living. They could only restore themselves - regenerate themselves - through violence. Since one of the things I enjoy about reading fiction from past centuries is imagining how it impacted people then versus now, I started thinking about how today's readers (here on Tumblr anyway) feel very gratified by Jonathan's sudden choice to employ homicidal violence. For us, he's a relatively weak character (meow meow) who we want to see regenerated through (his embracing) violence. But how would it impact readers at the time? Would they be horrified to see a well educated English gentleman lose his shit like that? Or would they feel excited and cheer him on? So I thought of Teddy Roosevelt and it occurred to me that he was alive at the time Dracula was published. This is where the hole I fell into comes in. Turns out, Bram Stoker and Teddy Roosevelt met on two occasions and also corresponded. Stoker was impressed with TR's strength of personality. I think this adds a whole new aspect to our charming cowboy, y'all. Not only that, but Stoker was friends (possibly more, folks) with Walt Whitman. THE Walt Whitman. The unapologetically GAY Walt Whitman. Please imagine the glee with which I write this. So any gay subtext you were sort of wondering about? Asking yourself (like I was) is this *really* gay subtext, or am I reading into it? Welp, Stoker LOVED Whitman's poetry (link attached leads to an article that includes the full, gushing text of Stoker's first letter to Whitman if you want to see for yourself). So I'm going to go with, HELL YES. THE SUBTEXT IS REAL AND INTENTIONAL. I know this is probably common knowledge in some circles, but I never studied or read Dracula before now so for me, it is a delightful surprise.
