Kayley

I think it is an important debate, I think it is interesting that books are often removed or limited at a more local level so that differences in what ideas are deemed inappropriate can differ regionally. There also appears to be on the surface at least a correlation between a books popularity and the spread and pervasiveness of the ban. Personally I think a book banned in an university setting is a more egregious wrong then a book banned at lower education level.

Love the article! I really enjoyed The Secret History, I think part of that appeal personally was from growing up reading books filled with adventures and drama and meeting fabulous people who are otherworldly and desiring to have my own experince like that. The Secret History is in some ways a fulfillment of that desire in a matured version. It takes the mundane and romanticizes it, takes the typical drudgery of school and turns it mysterious with enigmatic peers and dramatic secrets. Compared to the reality of the university experience this is exciting. While I can see the novel as taking the pretentious tone a little too far that for me was part of the resonance of the text.

I think I agree that the way in which the Crew of Light fights back against Dracula is noteworthy. Specifically, the use of psychology which was a fledging field of study at the time is interesting. However alongside all of the modernity that the characters embody there is an interweaving of the folkloric and the religious that I found interesting. Stoker, on one hand seems to be depicting modernity as an equal and greater match to the regressive past that Dracula represents but at the same time hints that modernity alone is not enough.