Originally Posted by Chaitealatte
@Suki – What you said expressed just the sentiment I was trying to get at; with some books, you can tame things within your imagination to suit your own limits. However others, I’ve found, can get inside your head and genuinely unsettle you (War of the Worlds and Brave New World did this to me. >~<)
Chocolat the movie, or Chocolat the book? Actually, the movie follows the book generally pretty closely; there are only a few deviations, but I do prefer the book. It’s all about misperceptions and assumptions, good-intent, individuality, and acceptance. Although it’s Church against chocolate, it’s more about the misuse of power that comes with being a religious leader, and that we need to learn not to dehumanise and, unfounded, set ourselves against people because they hold different beliefs. The writing is very, very good if you like a lot of description and texture. It always left me hungry. In regard to The Lollipop Shoes, I reckon you could read them independently of one another… most of the background that’s necessary is explained, and I had a couple of years in between reading them. The only thing I’d say is reading Chocolat makes you feel the change in Vianne’s character from book-to-book more acutely.
As for Dracula, if you do ever decide to read it, I found it easy to get through. ^ ^ There aren’t any “I vant to svuck your blurd” bits. In fact, I can only think of one example of overt blood-sucking; the rest is only hinted at/aborted before anything can happen. And Dracula and his three females are more subtle than that. The few critical pieces I’ve read about it suggest it’s very sexualised – but that’s the point, ‘the power of the Gothic… is to use the supernatural as an image for real and carefully depicted social fears’. Taken in a Victorian climate, the vampires are just as wicked for representing promiscuity and deviance as well as being plain Satanic. >~< It’s cautionary, but still very enjoyable. I just adore Van Helsing.
Nothing I’ve said above constitutes a spoiler, does it? @~@ *just realised how much she’s getting in to it*
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