a little summer reading...

I just started reading a novel called The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. That passage below caught my attention, because of the connects it makes between history, truth and the responsibility required if this connection is made. It is not often that people talk about history this way. This book does a good job of connecting history with the telling of stories.

"The thing that most haunted me that day, however, as I closed my notebook and put my coat on to go home, was not my ghastly image of Dracula, or the description of impalement, but the fact that these things had--apparently--actually occurred. If I listened too closely, I thought, I would hear the screams of the boys, of the "large family" dying together. For all the attention to my historical education, my father had neglected to tell me this: history's terrible moments were real. I understood now, decades later, that he could never have told me. Only history itself can convince you of such a truth. And one you've seen that truth--really seen it--you can't look away." p. 37

After having finished the book this weekend, I can say it is really good at getting at the historical aspects of Dracula, but the story itself is somewhat disappointing in that it reads like a typical action/adventure book, it didn't have the dramatic climax that I thought it would. Here are some possible options that I was looking for: a more complex relationship between the Roman church and the eastern orthodox church during the 15th century; or that the story was actually told by vampires rather than by humans; or that Dracula was actually a Muslim, and that is why there is the tension between Christian symbols (crucifixes, holy water, stakes, etc.) and vampires; or SPOILER ALERT: that Dracula doesn't get killed, or was never alive to begin with. My guess is that the author wanted to keep the facts historical while placing fictional characters into them to make the story an adventure rather than an academic article (One of the chapters is indeed suppose to be from an academic journal). I still cannot figure out why vampires are inherently evil. The explanation that they embody all of human taboos seems to make sense for more ancient cultures but does not seem to make sense in our modern scientific context where we claim there are no taboos? Any ideas, let me know.