June 17
Welcome back to Fujoshi Dracula! Did you miss me? I did. I saved two entries so we can have a leisurely visit together.
The Dracula Daily email headlines June 17th with “Jonathan cudgels his brains,” which I found pretty strange until I read the first line.
This morning, as I was sitting on the edge of my bed cudgelling my brains[…]
I don’t think that cudgelling your brains is very good for you.
Anyway, Jonathan hears horses outside and runs to the window to see two Slovakians driving “leiter-wagons” with four draft horses on each. Apparently a leiter-wagon is the German leiterwagen, which translated German wikipedia tells me is a “hay wagon” or “ring wagon” with sides shaped like a ladder, used to harvest and transport hay, barrels, manure, etc.
Thanks, Wikipedia!
Does this matter? I have no idea, but I like to look up stuff I don’t know and the internet is not always helpful in solving these mysteries of Dracula.
Jonathan is thrilled and makes to greet the men at the front door but finds himself locked in. Instead he goes and yells through the window. The Slovakians discuss him with the Romani “hetman,” (apparently an eastern European title like “commander”) who laugh at Jonathan and go on with their business. “Henceforth no effort of mine, no piteous cry or agonised entreaty, would make them even look at me.”
Jonathan’s helplessness is delicious as always.
Apparently the wagons are set with “great, square boxes, with handles of thick rope; these were evidently empty by the ease with which the Slovaks handled them”. It doesn’t say how many of these there are, but does describe them as packed “in a heap,” so probably more than two.
The Romani pay off the Slovakians who spit on the money for luck (gross), pat their horses, and leave.
June 18th serves as a poignant parallel as Renfield has now taken to his own imprisonment by farming spiders and feeding them the flies he was farming before.
We don’t hear much about what Jonathan is doing to keep sane. I wonder if he too is starting his own flea circus. Then we’d have four flea circuses flooding the market; Dracula’s, Jonathan’s, Renfield’s, and Dr. Lobotomy’s.
Source: blondebrainpower on tumblr, animation from The Flea Circus – Tex Avery, 1954
I saw a friend last week and we talked about Dracula, and he mentioned that in one of the adaptations (I forget which), it is Renfield who goes to Transylvania and I guess is stranded there. I’m glad I’m not the only one seeing the parallels here between these two guys.
Also I never paid much attention to Renfield but I guess the new Nicolas Cage film Renfield is about him, or something. Go figure. Maybe I should see it and report for this blog.
Inb4 said friend tells me that the story where Renfield goes to Transylvania is, in fact, the film, Renfield.