So I finished Bram Stoker’s Dracula several months ago, and really liked it. A little melodramatic in spots, overly florid in others. The entire story is told in a 
series of journal entries, and though the technique works, there are times when it challenges credulity. I mean, wow, they journaled a lot! But overall the story reads like a classic, especially as it stands in relation to vampire lit.
But throughout my reading, I kept thinking how “Christian” Bram Stoker’s Dracula seems. Yes, I use the term “Christian” loosely, having major qualms with how religious booksellers have come to define our conception of both Christianity and fiction. Nevertheless, so many elements of the story parallel current CBA sensibilities.
For one, Christianity is portrayed in a positive light throughout Dracula. The protagonists pray, quote Scripture, seek God’s guidance, and ultimately prevail. If Count Dracula is meant to symbolize the devil, then it is clearly Stoker’s intent to show that the evil one is resisted through the power of God. And unlike much contemporary vampire fiction, Christianity is not minimized or mocked. Rather, our heroes display an unabashed reliance upon the God of Scripture and His Son, Jesus Christ.
Religious imagery and practice are explicit throughout the story. Literary critics often note the Christian allegory inherent in Dracula, not just in its overtly religious symbolism (crucifix, communion wafer, holy water, etc.), but ultimately in the collision of Christian ethics with Darwinian evolution, a topic that would have been of great interest to its Victorian audience. (See The New Annotated Dracula, pg. 542).
Furthermore, there are numerous impromptu prayers and reverential references to God. Here’s a sampling:
“Great God! Merciful God, let me be calm, for out of that way lies madness indeed.”–Dracula by Bram Stoker: Chapter 3
“The real God taketh heed lest a sparrow fall. But the God created from human vanity sees no difference between an eagle and a sparrow. Oh, if men only knew!”–Dracula by Bram Stoker: Chapter 8
“…the devil may work against us for all he’s worth, but God sends us men when we want them.””–Dracula by Bram Stoker: Chapter 12
“Poor Mina told me just now, with the tears running down her dear cheeks, that it is in trouble and trial that our faith is tested. That we must keep on trusting, and that God will aid us up to the end. The end! Oh my God! What end?”…God can, if He wishes it, guard me as well alone as with any one present.–Dracula by Bram Stoker: Chapter 22
“Take heart afresh, dear husband of Madam Mina. This battle is but begun and in the end we shall win. So sure as that God sits on high to watch over His children. Therefore be of much comfort till we return.”–Dracula by Bram Stoker: Chapter 24
“God grant that we may be guided aright, and that He will deign to watch over my husband and those dear to us both, and who are in such deadly peril. As for me, I am not worthy in His sight. Alas! I am unclean to His eyes, and shall be until He may deign to let me stand forth in His sight as one of those who have not incurred His wrath.”–Dracula by Bram Stoker: Chapter 27
And there’s lots more. Especially Van Helsing’s wonderfully eccentric exhortations, like this one:
“Thus are we ministers of God’s own wish. That the world, and men for whom His Son die, will not be given over to monsters, whose very existence would defame Him. He have allowed us to redeem one soul already, and we go out as the old knights of the Cross to redeem more. Like them we shall travel towards the sunrise. And like them, if we fall, we fall in good cause.”–Dracula by Bram Stoker: Chapter 24
Compound these elements and you’ve got a story brimming with explicit Christian content and biblical worldview.
An absence of profanity and sex. In many ways, CBA fiction is defined as being family friendly. Thematically, of course, Dracula is for adults. Yet despite its contemporary adaptations, the original contains no erotica. Yes, there is the suggestion of physical allure and temptation. But nothing explicit. On the other hand, Chesterton’s The Man Who Was Thursday, which is often considered a Christian Classic, contains far more language than Stoker’s book.
Vampires are not glorified, romanticized, or portrayed as anything but vile, hellish beings. This is important because the current trend is to celebrate the vampire mystique. So instead of monsters, contemporary vampires are Casanovas. In the classic, Dracula, though powerful, is clearly the spawn of Satan, a creature cursed and demonized. In Stoker’s world, vampires are the antithesis of resurrected saints, and thus, one of the greatest of all fictional antagonists.
A redemptive resolution. As Mina plummets toward Darkness, her husband Jonathan vows to kill the vampire, staking it through the heart and sending it to hell. Mina pleads with Jonathan to, if possible, slay the vampire first so that the Count may find redemption. What happens?
But, on the instant, came the sweep and flash of Jonathan’s great knife. I shrieked as I saw it shear through the throat. Whilst at the same moment Mr. Morris’s bowie knife plunged into the heart.
It was like a miracle, but before our very eyes, and almost in the drawing of a breath, the whole body crumbled into dust and passed from our sight.
I shall be glad as long as I live that even in that moment of final dissolution, there was in the face [of Dracula] a look of peace, such as I never could have imagined might have rested there.–Dracula by Bram Stoker: Chapter 27
Did Dracula find peace? Is Stoker implying that no one is beyond the hope of salvation? If so, I think that’s good theology. Either way, in Dracula, not only do the good guys win, Mina is saved from the curse, and the Vampire is stopped.
Yet, despite all this, what do you think the chances are that a CBA house would publish Dracula today? If you said “Slim to none,” you’d be right. So seeing that Stoker’s classic contains so much Christian content and adheres admirably to CBA strictures, why is the vampire mythos still so incongruent with contemporary Christian Fiction?
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
Fascinating information, Mike. Since vampires, et al, hold no interest for me, I really had no idea what the story was about other than blood-sucking. Not so many years back, CBA publishers had zero interest in such things, and, as you know, adult fantasy is still a hard sell, but Eric Wilson with his UnDead Trilogy has made an entrance into CBA. Karen Ball (B&H acq. editor) likes all stuff vampirish and fantasy, but what it takes in a proposal to sell it, I have no idea. Might be worth trying to get an interview with her, Mike.
I do understand your plight in the fantasy/Xian-fic/specfic/scifi realms in CBA publishing. It's interesting to me that Jeff Gerke put his money where his mouth is and took on a risky venture with his Marcher Lord Press. I think–it's been awhile so I could be wrong–he's giving it a couple of years to prove profitable or at least break even. If not, there goes another avenue for readers who desire the Christian slant to the aforementioned genres and the writers who write them.
I agree, though, that any genre which gives an open door to a Christian worldview should be wide open to the possibilities and not be coming late to the party or more likely totally absent from the niche crowd because it does seem to be ripe for the picking.
Nicole, despite Eric Wilson's trilogy, there remains far more resistance to vampires in Xian-fic than there does interest. While Karen Ball may express intrigue, John Olson's "Shade," which was published by B&H, is not really about vampires. In fact, it is openly described as the "vampireless vampire book." Are they trying to tiptoe around the concept? This, to me, refutes any suggestion of movement toward CBA exploring vampire mythology. And while Wilson and Thomas Nelson should be commended for taking risks, from my understanding, after the final book in the trilogy, that risk is over.
I understand that vampires are not everyone's cup of tea. But religious publisher's continued inability / unwillingness to explore an archetype so rife with possibility — especially one that reinforces a Christian worldview — strikes me as weird.
No CBA or ECPA publisher has allowed a story to be written about vampires or werewolves of lore. They've only allowed a suggestion of such things and it's so odd those general market readers are left going huh along with core market readers. CBA was formed in 1950 to provide Christian Bookstores with fiction their visitors could read. It was/is targeted and overt fiction that was never meant to appeal to general market readers Christian or otherwise. Jeff Gerke's work is also targeted and overt just not as strict or rigid as CBA. CBA publishers are pushing to appeal to a readership that seems to be changing but aren't doing a good job of it. They're losing core market readers and doing little to attract enough Christian readers from the general market to make up for the loss. I wrote a vampire/werewolf story that has overwhelmingly appealed to CBA and ECPA readers as well as general market readers and has been deemed "socially acceptable" by Spring Arbor for distribution into the Christian market. I wonder why my work isn't being talked about here? Probably for the same reason my work isn't allowed into the larger Christian bookstores, it isn't through an affiliated publisher.
Mike, due to the fact that e-mail offers no inflection, keep in mind I say this with all sincerity: For your sake, you really need to let this go.
CBA & ECPA are merely purveyors of a niche product. That being books purchased mainly by American Evangelical Christians.
The label Christian fiction should not be interpreted any other way. They have never declared themselves the governing body or ruling authority on the strict definition of the label Christian Fiction. If they ever do, I will join forces with you to defeat them.
There's plenty of Christian fiction in the regular fiction section of your favorite bookstore–curse words and all. Try reading Koontz's latest stuff.
Dayle, my book is being shopped ABA, so I have no real stake in the debate… other than being a Christian reader and author. As such, I'm concerned about Christian fiction in the same way I'm concerned about Christian music and Christian film — they are cultural representations of Christianity. Though CBA / ECPA "never declared themselves the governing body or ruling authority on the strict definition of the label Christian Fiction," by being the primary purveyors of Christian fiction, they are, perhaps by default, shaping its identity.
Really, I'm not saying anything other than what other, far more authoritative voices have been saying. Dave Long, Mick Silva, Jeffrey Overstreet, Barbara Nicolosi, Andy Crouch, and many others have, at one point or another, expressed similar sentiments and/or frustrations with the Christian fiction industry. Perhaps in your eyes I'm grinding an axe. But if that's the case, I have many companions.
Mike, I understand your frustration and your overall point, but I think you're positing the wrong solution.
The solution is not to open the eyes of these publishers and make them realize that they are doing a dis-service to the world with their stringent rules and guidelines and thus becoming a blight on the cause of evangelicalism. They serve an audience that demands a certain type of product. It seems to me your real issue is with them.
Changing the little signs in the bookstores would seem to be the real solution.
Hmm. I'm not sure I'm positing any solution. At least not in this post. The sacred / secular paradigm is far too entrenched in American Evangelicalism for industry "tweaks" to matter. An entire culture of separatists has been created. Christian readers have cordoned their little niche and defend it with relative fervor. Any "solution" would involve organizational / financial risks (on the part of the publishers) and extended theological / philosophical rumination (on the part of the readers), and I'm unsure how either fares against money and entertainment. But I would agree, Dayle, that the audience is more of the problem than the suppliers. After all, this is the country that's fixated upon Reality TV.
If anything, I am happy to regularly point out why the term Christian art (be it fiction, film, or music) misconstrues both the concept of art and how Christians are to interact with culture. If readers — or publishers! — happen to dig that vibe, I'm all the more happy to continue my rants.
But I would agree, Dayle, that the audience is more of the problem than the suppliers. After all, this is the country that's fixated upon Reality TV.
Ha.
Now I want to read Dracula
. Your final question is a really, really good one. Possibly because that's what modern man wants to make it?