I believe that Bram Stoker’s Dracula provides an excellent battleground for the ideas of advancement and traditional practices. That is, it allows for one to entertain whether advancement is to mean an ever forward march leaving the past behind, or whether advancement is necessarily a slow movement in which we must deliberate and decide what is to come with us and what must stay behind. For this reason, I have chosen to examine Dr. Seward’s diary entry listed for September 10th with specific emphasis on the following:
“‘No trifling with me! I never jest! There is a grim purpose in all I do; and I warn you that you do not thwart me. Take care, for the sake of others if not for your own.’ Then seeing poor Lucy scared, as she might well be, he went on more gently: ‘Oh, little miss, my dear, do not fear me. I only do for your good; but there is much virtue to you in those so common flower. See, I place them myself in your room. I make myself the wreath that you are to wear. But hush! no telling to others that make so inquisitive questions. We must obey, and silence is a part of obedience; and obedience is to bring you strong and well into loving arms that wait for you. Now sit still awhile. Come with me, friend John, and you shall help me deck the room with my garlic, which is all the way from Haarlem, where my friend Vanderpool raise herb in his glasshouses all the year. I had to telegraph yesterday, or they would not have been here’ (Stoker 121).”
The argument for advancement as an ever forward movement comes from the blood transfusion technology (employed earlier in the same diary entry) and the telegraph, while the argument for advancement as a slow and deliberate picking and choosing of what is kept, is made (also) by the telegraph and the garlic arrangements.
At this point, Lucy has received blood transfusions from two men and, so begins our comparison between advancement and tradition. For it is in this fact of the story, that it is clear to us that no bonds are considered in the treatment. She receives donations from her fiancée, a man in love with her, and a complete stranger who is a doctor. There is no qualification (contrary to real life) and so there is no binding. In fact, it is reasonable to assume that as this technology develops the requirements fall shorter still. Not only will people be allowed to assist others from across the globe, but they will be complete strangers as well. A true testament to the efficiency and heroism of technology. But, there is also a great loss. The loss of binding, or relationships. This ordeal is exposed within the telegraph as our faceless hero, Vanderpool, delivers what will become a very effective treatment, garlic. However, because of the telegraph we are denied any backstory of this savior. In fact we are deprived of possibly entertaining interactions or recounts of events from a different perspective. The wonder of technology, its ability to make all who wish into a hero, is also a great tragedy. These great heroes and their stories are deemed less and less important or valid. Thus, the garlic is a product of both these things. That is, it is the union of both personal connection and technology, as unrefined as this “technology” may be. And for a while, it works. In fact the diary entry closes with a triumphant exit as the two Doctor’s expect easy sleep and a great leap in the right direction. However, it is crucial to not spoil the remainder of this conversation and so to draw a conclusion from this entry we will have the following.
It is clear that technology and personal relationships play a great role in the outcome of all things. And though it seems that they cannot coexist, such a belief is a falsehood. The intentions which give aim or meaning to action determine the outcome. Thus our futures are intertwined with the past from where intentions are born. To make all the past irrelevant is to make all actions and intentions irrelevant. It is to erase ourselves, who are defined by intention. If this is erased then for who is the future? If we aim to have a future it must be with all that has groomed us, and thus it is necessary to keep pieces of the past alongside and at equal value with the present and future.
