The Mysterious Guest
Another bit of Christmas booty was a hardback edition of Dracula, illustrated by Edward Gorey. Cool! I never met an Edward Gorey illustration I didn't like.
The edition also has some good aside information, including the short story, Dracula's Guest, which was intended to be a chapter in the book but was excised, as far as scholars can tell.
There was also a photograph of Bram Stoker's chapter outline for the book.
How cool is that. Part of me thinks that's something that we're kind of missing out on these days, what with computers and technology... the puzzle pieces that people put together after our demises, trying to piece together the artistic flow of creation, what with reams of handwritten scraps and such. Most of us, were we to excise a chapter, it would get "cut" so simply and just disappear into ether. I used to keep all drafts before word processing, and then, even when I graduated to computing, I'd still keep four or five drafts as the story took shape, so I would actually know what thoughts had gone into the piece from the very beginning of its birth.
However, I've gotten lazy about that lately -- like I said, cutting bits and letting them disappear, never to be remembered again. However, in the long run, I wouldn't trade all the things about technology that make writing a much easier task than before. And of course, it's not so likely that people, generations from now, would have any interest in what the stages of my creations were! But it's always fun to dream.
Write on,
LLB
The edition also has some good aside information, including the short story, Dracula's Guest, which was intended to be a chapter in the book but was excised, as far as scholars can tell.
There was also a photograph of Bram Stoker's chapter outline for the book.
How cool is that. Part of me thinks that's something that we're kind of missing out on these days, what with computers and technology... the puzzle pieces that people put together after our demises, trying to piece together the artistic flow of creation, what with reams of handwritten scraps and such. Most of us, were we to excise a chapter, it would get "cut" so simply and just disappear into ether. I used to keep all drafts before word processing, and then, even when I graduated to computing, I'd still keep four or five drafts as the story took shape, so I would actually know what thoughts had gone into the piece from the very beginning of its birth.
However, I've gotten lazy about that lately -- like I said, cutting bits and letting them disappear, never to be remembered again. However, in the long run, I wouldn't trade all the things about technology that make writing a much easier task than before. And of course, it's not so likely that people, generations from now, would have any interest in what the stages of my creations were! But it's always fun to dream.
Write on,
LLB
posted by LadyLitBlitzin at 3:59 PM
7 Comments:
I wonder sometimes about people stumbling across my journals after I'm dead. They're so scatter-brained, jumping from drafts of stories to real life, to clips of things I read, most people would probably think I was crazy. Sometimes that idea bothers me, othertimes it makes me laugh.
I do like seeing other people's early drafts, journals, and ideas, though. Blogs I guess serve a little of that purpose, but it's not quite the same since they are intended to be read by anyone who stubles across the page.
Edward Gorey Dracula sounds very cool.
See journals and first drafts are all terribly cool, but I've left explicit instructions that everything of mine be burned.
It is hard enough for me piece together my thoughts, I don't want anyone else putting my pieces together. Whether arrogance or fear, I just don't want other people's fingers in my brain, even if it is ash.
Hey guys -- Yeah, I guess it would be okay to have someone paw through your writings, like, if it were in a box marked "Okay for public consumption." I would actually be mortified in the afterlife if someone saw my journals, like the ones that say, document old love affairs or something. Ugh, that would be horrible!
Speaking of journals, you guys reminded me, I saw Kurt Cobain's journal that was published last summer or whatever. I opened it and felt terribly guilty but got totally sucked in until I finally fought my baser instincts and snapped it shut. It just felt wrong, to be looking at someone's journal. And wrong that it was published (whose doing? Courtney Love's? Probably).
I guess some people would argue that once you're a celebrity that stuff's up for grabs, but man. I felt terrible that I even read a few pages.
What I really had fun reading was a collection of Eugene Delacroix's letters and drafts of his letters, with words struck through, so the reader could get a sense of how he wrote and what he chose to cut out.
Isn't the definitive edition of Anne Frank's diary done in this style?
Ah, yes... I don't know, mixed feelings on the whole thing, you know? I guess at a certain point being a celebrity does kind of make it everybody's business what you write down. Eek.
wow, where would you get that edition? My husband loves reading Dracula - do you have the ISBN number so I can track it down?
It's really neat, what with the illustrations -- ISBN no. is 0-7607-5819-0. Good luck! Since it was a gift, I don't know where it was purchased!
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