Nosferatu Film

More discussion about The Historian:

Page 156: "I had imagined...." a beautifully descriptive paragraph @ Oxford.

"Around us lay softly..." pg. 157 "venerable" respected and old, amazingly well-kept and bright

158: enter Stephen Barley, a boy!

Youthful romance somehow escaped our protagonist's life...now at 18 she felt a quiver of it's effects.

"Earl of Rochester"...movie with Depp "The Libertine"....name-dropping in the book, a set of code words that seem to state: "I am here, I am an English buff...and I know things"....like quoting Milton, or Shakespeare, or T.S. Eliot...

"The library was, of course..." pg 159

end of ch. 22....last four or five sentences...

Note: many areas of no transitions...done on purpose to dishevel the reader? Uneasiness...

pg. 172..."Since that moment..."

end of chapter 24, a wonderful cliffhanger; "...I have gone to look for your mother."

SHE'S ALIVE!! oh yeah,..... move forward to pg. 180 for the actual letter from her Dad, Paul.

pg. 185...last paragraph depicting a spirit weary of education...a spirit compressed being let out to feel the excitement of reality. Expand one's spirit...get out and experience life away from computers and books and studies...

Class Notes Jan. 25, 2011

Break into groups to discuss:
Daughter in The Historian vs. Hermoine and Bella from Twilight series

Psychological profile of daughter from The HIstorian

Hogwarts trio vs. The Historian trio

Hm, I had all the notes and then went to write on the board, and my blog erased. I probably just touched the wrong button while balancing my tablet on my arm, but my notes are gone for now, so I will return later and recant what we discusses. Criminy!

The Historian, by Elizabeth Kostova

A Female protagonist! READING UP THROUGH PART 2 before Tuesday classtime!

Settings are vast, but center at Oxford University and multi-century backdrops.
Tuscany
Florence
Montepulciano
Milan
Venice
Amsterdam
Zagrag/Zagreb
Ragusa
Lake Snagor/Monastery in Bucharest?
Multiple Narrators, either as flashbacks, letters, and events intertwining the flashbacks.
Main Characters:
Father, Paul, Paolo, a Dutch Historian/researcher
Daughter, not a name yet
Rossi, colleague of Paul
Deceased mother of daughter, as of yet unnamed, but is this the young lady Paul spoke with in the library who was reading about Drakula as well? Hmm...

Mrs. Clay, and a Mrs.? perhaps a widow to some man who has fallen upon the same tragic end?
Mossimo and Guiliana, eccentric couple, or as Professor would say "silver foot in mouth" type man.
Vlad Tepes, the Impaler
Hedges, maimed in the neck and then died after a stint of mental illness.

External and Internal modes of episodic narratives

Remember these modes of persuasion, Amy:
Ethos
Pathos
Logos
for how emotions and logic and authority are enlisted to keep the reader invested in the story.
Many relations to actual places and historical references.

Plus, who is this "Hedges" tantamount to Swift, Pope, and Addison! Hm, care to take a gander, Amy? Oxford Educated historian writer....who would be at home in a coffee house with the above mentioned author if it wasn't for his shy nature?

Plus, now the mysterious book has smelled like dead flesh...maybe I will wait a while for dinner, ah, the power of suggestion.

Blood suckers!

This Blog is going to suck.

Van Helsing; Vampire Hunter
Abraham Van Helsing, a protagonist in Bram Stoker’s Dracula novel and a medical doctor (M.D.), a doctor of letters (D. Litt.), and a doctor of philosophy (D. Ph.), is a character portrayed as vampire expert. However, we as readers know this dark side, Van Helsing’s close friends seem to be completely oblivious to Van Helsing’s specialty work in this area of the undead. The first name, Abraham, alludes to the biblical name as well as being the actually first name of Bram Stoker’s father and grandfather. “Van” alludes to Dutch roots, yet German dialogue is most commonly enlisted within the novel. Helsing is an actual last name for over two hundred residents of Finland (capital = Helsinki). In the Hugh Jackman portrayal of Van Helsing, loosely based upon the original novel, Abraham is changed to Gabriel, another biblical name and thought to be more indicative of an action hero. Helsing can be compared to the Swedish surname Hellsing, a 21st century Japanese graphic novel series (Manga) about the Hellsing Organization (The Royal Order of Protestant Knights, founded by Abraham Van Helsing) that battles vampires, ghouls, and supernatural forces. Furthermore, there are numerous works presenting descendants of Van Helsing as vampire slayers as well.

Quotations/descriptions from Bram Stoker’s Dracula:
“Van Helsing is one of the few characters in the novel who is fully physically described in one place. In chapter 14, Mina describes him as:
“
a man of medium weight, strongly built, with his shoulders set back over a broad, deep chest and a neck well balanced on the trunk as the head is on the neck. The poise of the head strikes me at once as indicative of thought and power. The head is noble, well-sized, broad, and large behind the ears. The face, clean-shaven, shows a hard, square chin, a large resolute, mobile mouth, a good-sized nose, rather straight, but with quick, sensitive nostrils, that seem to broaden as the big bushy brows come down and the mouth tightens. The forehead is broad and fine, rising at first almost straight and then sloping back above two bumps or ridges wide apart, such a forehead that the reddish hair cannot possibly tumble over it, but falls naturally back and to the sides. Big, dark blue eyes are set widely apart, and are quick and tender or stern with the man's moods.
”
Van Helsing's personality is described by John Seward, his former student, thus:
“
He is a seemingly arbitrary man, this is because he knows what he is talking about better than anyone else. He is a philosopher and a metaphysician, and one of the most advanced scientists of his day, and he has, I believe, an absolutely open mind. This, with an iron nerve, a temper of the ice-brook, and indomitable resolution, self-command, and toleration exalted from virtues to blessings, and the kindliest and truest heart that beats, these form his equipment for the noble work that he is doing for mankind, work both in theory and practice, for his views are as wide as his all-embracing sympathy.[1]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Van_Helsing

Texts for course ENGL 363, Spring Term 2011

with Dr. Richardson:

The Historian: Elizabeth Kostova
Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter Hunter: Seth Grahame-Smith
Dracula: Bram Stoker
Twilight: Stephanie Meyer