newton, dracula and the expanding universe [ Edited ]

[chad]

"For every action, an equal and opposite reaction" fails us when we begin to question the forces emanating from stars or origins of the universe. It looks like there are some websites to check, but briefly: Newton's law and the attraction or forces emanating from the stars created controversy over expanding universe theories, and became problematic for Einstein in the 1920's. That is, no one could explain why stars were moving away from each other, unless the universe was finite, eventually converging at some point. I think Stoker both forsees and circumvents the confusing physics by simply writing about a world that mirrors or "is the universe" that surrounds us. Hopefully our poles are aligned with powerful stars on either end of the axes, to provide us with a home.

Chad

PS- I think Stoker probably did not believe in a finite universe- he probably saw the univesre more like spheres within spheres, or infinitely "finite", as confusing as it gets...hope this helps everyone!

Message Edited by chad on 11-28-2007 03:09 PM

[chad]

The view that there are forces emanating from me, like concentric circles emanating from a drop of water is somewhat controversial- for, as forces converge to the epicenter or origin, they converge. So, my belief, is my love, is my faith, is my eminence, etc. etc. Language tends to separate different forces and emotions. That is, each force or emotion is given a name. Whether the force is what is actually named, is subject to opinion and is the center of the controversy. I think it's the main reason we have so many talk shows.

Chad

PS- Pyschology will also attempt to differentiate forces that emanate from an indivdual.

Message Edited by chad on 11-29-2007 12:14 PM

[chad]

I got up quietly, and pulling aside the blind, looked out. It was brilliant moonlight, and the soft effect of the light over the sea and sky, merged together in one great silent mystery, was beautiful beyond words. Between me and the moonlight flitted a great bat, coming and going in great whirling circles. Once or twice it came quite close, but was, I suppose, frightened at seeing me, and flitted away across the harbour towards the abbey.

I was glad the B&N edition mentioned this one. How that earth asserts its own will and individuality through its animals!!

Chad

[chad]

My brain is my heart is my soul is the epicenter from which all forces emanate. I think I heard one theme was a humanity confusng the intellect with physical parts of my body. I tend to see the theme more as the metaphysical and the physical influencing each other, but I guess that's about the way I read it.

Chad

[chad]

So, it was the "dark counterforce" that later eluded physicists and astronomers, and equations and constants are now more refined to take counterforces into consideration. I still think we're arguing over origins, however.

Chad

[chad]

Stoker believed that language was also a force that compels, motivates, influences, captivates, etc. etc., but also something that channels or focuses our will, sometimes to a sharp point. "You speak with a sharp tongue, woman!", for example. Its almost as if the language has a will its own, and, we are now just living in a world with competing languages.

Chad

Message Edited by chad on 11-30-2007 12:51 PM

[chad]

History is important to the understanding of any novel that was written alomst a century ago. Stoker's "Dracula" warns us about our beliefs, and our beliefs about the past, which may or may not be rooted in fact, that continue to influence us in the present, and, at times, become almost like tigers preying on civilization. But I would say that the city of London is a mix of wills emanating from nobility, merchants, religion, peasants(the masses) and all wills are manifested in the roads, districts, walls, buildings, towers, bridges, and charters creating the entire entity we now know as London, complete with its own necessary dark "underground." I would also say it would be a microcosm of our world, our galaxy and our universe. Perhaps a question might be whether, if you consider London to be one epicenter, whether there are forces which emanate, but forces which we cannot see....

Chad

ps- London is a series of physical and metaphysical interactions which gradually grew and shaped what we know as London today. Fact, belief or belief of the facts, have obviously shaped the town.

Message Edited by chad on 12-01-2007 01:28 PM

[chad]

You might also think of London or the city of London as a whirlpool or counterforce which attracts. Or you can see examples of both phenomenon throughout London- Trafalgar square or Piccadilly circus. But you probably can point out examples in your hometown. Or, the universe, in the broadest possible sense, is the dark becoming the light, or vice versa, but one, the dark or the light, cannot seemingly exist without the other.... so, I guess it's a little complicated...but great stuff!!

Chad

Message Edited by chad on 12-01-2007 04:34 PM

[chad]

We also associate characteristics or qualities with physical forces. For example, something we consider to be "good" or light, might be forces which radiate, warm us, something we need or gives us energy, like the sun. An evil or a dark force, might be something which attracts, immobilizes or sucks us in, like a maelstrom or a whirlpool. We observe both phenenomenon on earth and in space. The moon is neither of these forces, and, for this reason, we hold a special relationship with it. It reflects the the sun's light and its forces pull us away from the earth, giving the human being and the earth's animals an individuality of thier own- that is, separate from the earth.

Chad

PS- well, I didn't want to go to the top of the pyramid and suggest a "things that suck category", but quicksand or tar pits would be other examples of perhaps evil entities or qualities that the earth holds.

There are dragons at the City of London's gate- you might say that the entire city was formed on myth or belief, but it seems to be something solid today, affected by will, but probably more the will of the masses, rather than nobility's. Obviously, both are represented in parliament.

Message Edited by chad on 12-03-2007 12:28 PM

[chad]

One day, I told a lifeguard from Romania that Dracula was about love, after having seen Coppola's Dracula, and, after having read Dracula by Bram Stoker, in its entirety, I still stand by original conviction. However, I do feel the movie and the novel have different orientations to the same theme, and I have to say, I find the novel a little more controversial. In Stoker's "Dracula", love is a force which emanates from a will to survive or physical feelings, and, also considered to be a weakness on the dark side.

Chad

[chad]

So, it was difficult for me to leave "Dracula", and, after some odd 50 comments later, I arrive at our current "will" and "presence" in the Middle East, not with the speed of a fast moving train, but with the slow moving masses of "umpteen" millions of automobiles and our "modern" way of life. For if we consider the world to be an individual, with its veins filled with coal, spurting oil, not blood, then we could be nothing more than vampires, satiating their needs for blood, life and energy. Bit by a "modern" world, we could survive the coldest and darkest of nights, but, once bit, we would gradually become different creatures, unable to survive the day and never able to return to our "true" Nature.

Love,
Chad

Message Edited by chad on 12-05-2007 04:24 PM

[chad]

"For every action, an equal and opposite reaction" is Newtonian. I loosely use the term "counterforce" to describe any force "opposite" to that force which exists or observed- semantics, for the most part. You can attribute either term to any force observed: earthquake, whirpool, wave, drop of water, sonar or sound waves... and all forces, according to popular "origins of the universe" theory, ooriginate from one source. Some may see this force as God, but that leaves the "dark side" described in the Bible as the devil. Indeed, our categorization of forces in Physics, such as force and couterforce, or reaction and opposite reaction, is influenced by the moon and the sun, or the day and the night. We need not necessarily view physical forces in this way, and, I believe Dr. Seward struggled with this "paradigm" in Physics, but ultimatley struggled with the earth and the moon's rotation about the sun, as did all the characters.

Chad

PS-In much the same way as biologist might dissect an unknown organism.Physics will attempt to delineate forces in Nature so that we may better understand them, our universe and our planet. Language, itself, will also delineate and classify forces that emanate from our minds or our bodies with words (love, anger, belief, will, etc). So, its a dissection to understand the larger "picture", but I'm not sure we're "there", so to speak.

Message Edited by chad on 12-11-2007 02:06 PM

[chad]

Hunting is also an important theme to the story. You might want to consider the evolution of the human eye, or "stereoscopic" vision, to hunt. Some members of civilization hunt, while others are "fed", but its as if our stereoscopic vision has evolved for this "two-tiered" aspect of civilization, and, the amalgamation of civilization(s) is "evil"- we are afraid of the evil eye.

Chad

[chad]

I wanted to end my participation at "the energy crisis" comment, but there are, as always, books to write. The human population, with the aid of modern invention, has increased the length of the time in the light, or, in other words, has increased the length of the day. The reasons may be obvious, but perhaps, the impacts are not. In order to be competitive, businesses sometimes need to increase the working "day", or, more specifically, I can and I may have to conduct business at night with a company now working in the day, halfway around the globe.
But the bright lights of the city, have, as Stoker states, only made the dark seem "darker", and its almost that we feel a "darker" counterforce that balances the increased time in the light. Indeed, citizens always seem to have a sense of the dark underworld, with its insider-trading or black-market activities, whether or not it really exists at all. We can certainly see a very real and visible underworld of cities in the form of subways or tunnels, such as London's "tube", where dark activities and crimes actually do take place.
Pyschology will deal with the often "unnatural" late hours of the workplace, and the ensuing sleep disorders and paranoia of the dark side. But it's possible the root of modern "biochemical" pyschological disorders, is this imbalance of day and night created by our modern world- just ask Renfield.

Chad

Message Edited by chad on 12-13-2007 02:49 PM

[chad]

So, in a Bram Stoker's Dracula world, and it could be your own, "wills" to survive, which imitate physical forces, emanate from individuals as large as the earth, and can clash and combine to form shocking impacts. So, for example, the very first Winchester of the Winchester family, combined his will and the will of the union of states, and the natural force of gunpowder, to dominate the American west. And there may be other "wills" which affected the very first born "Winchester". Or, one better, the "will" of a colt was combined with the very first member of the colt family, was later combined with the force of a gun, we know as a Colt pistol. Both rifle and pistol were integrated and reintegrated with the combined will of man and horse, either causing a combined series of "in-sync" waves, like a "rogue wave" effect, which we observe in the oceans, or one large whirlpool, but I would say very real and significant forces were created by both. You might think of some other interesting combinations. And my "will", as stated, can emanate from my death, or what's actually stated in a "will", which can also make some profound and sometimes bizarre impacts.

Chad

PS- It's a different view of the world. We tend to think of the world as a group of competing countries and/or governments. Political scientists, as I stated in the last classic, "Moby Dick", currently tend to think of the world as a group of regimes which may supplant the stated "status quo" of governments. Bram's "will" theory, combines natural forces, animals, plants and minerals, with the force of man, to arrive at a more holistic, and, I would say, "environmental-friendly", regime theory. What say you?

Message Edited by chad on 12-14-2007 01:37 PM

[chad]

The will of Dracula would be to survive, but he obviously would not exist without a human population on which to feed. Which brings me to possibly the ultimate end of Dracula and the beginning of Bram Stoker's novel. Do vampires exist? Were they once real? Or only a necessary belief? Or to the more heart-breakingly philosophical: What does it mean to exist? How do we define existence?

Chad

Message Edited by chad on 12-14-2007 08:37 PM

[chad]

The horse is a unique animal to the human and the best example of how our will can direct the will of other living things with remarkable precision. If the bond between horse and man is strong, the horse may sometime seem to almost predict the rider's will. The Lone Ranger's horse might be one example.

The combined will of horse and man is a powerful force, that probably won several wars throughout history and the combined will of horses and the characters obviously won the war against Dracula. Stoker knew that modernization would change this relationship between horse and man, possibly forever, and, writes about the consumption of horsemeat in London. Modern society might eventually use the animal for food, not transportation, but the horse had already made a significant impact on earth when it was first saddled.

Chad

PS-This reminds me of the image of the combined will of Mina Murray, the horse and the colt pistol on her side, ready to fight Dracula. This was not the mold of the modern woman, but I think something unique about the character. Indeed, the human is symmetrical and may be a combination of masculine and feminine qualities or characteristics, that must be somehow balaned in each individual. Marraige would be a combination of two individuals, or the masculine and the feminine, but tradition, duty, or marraige itself, sometimes overpowers the combined will or the the "love" of the couple... John and Mina were supposed to be something heroic, however.

Message Edited by chad on 12-15-2007 03:43 PM

[chad]

I think I mentioned that a star, like the circle surrounding a central point, is representive of will or a lifeforce emanating from a central point. The American symbol of a star has sharp points, in contrast to the Japaneese flag. Dracula's will combined elements of both symbols, a piercing bite and a subtle, undetectable domination. Dracula was evil, but neither the circle nor the star symbol need be- they simply exist, they state, "I am." The UK's flag is also interesting- it imititates the city of London, with it's train tracks emanating into the countryside. Or the flag's stripes might represent the handles emanting from a steering wheel on a ship, which direct the point of the bow, and, I think at one point in the story, a captain's hands become bound by the cross and rosary beads to the steering wheel- religion has bound him to the will of the ship or civilization, a force he's unable to control. But I definitely think Bram posits that civilization can be directed, as a steering wheel directs the bow of the ship, etc. etc. etc. A circle or star becomes a sharp point, and then reverts to another circle or star pattern- Dracula's bite with it's "liffle teef" marks represents this phenomenon in Nature.

Chad

PS- The star has both centrifugal and centripetal forces associated with its presence. We also observe both "dark" and "light" regions in space which coexist. There seems to be a basic "fusion and fission" formula to our universe: two combine to form one, and split again to create two, and so on and so on....

Message Edited by chad on 12-16-2007 02:32 PM

[chad]

I think Bran cherished and wanted to preserve the image of the American west and the iconic "cowboy." Modernization, brought about by forces, whether viewed as "dark" or "light", would eventually dominate or change the the "cowboy lifestyle" forever. Trucks and helicopters are used to round up cattle, for example, and, the death of Quincey Morris seems to represent the beginning of a new era.

Chad

Message Edited by chad on 12-16-2007 02:48 PM

[chad]

The spider is an excellent another example of the above, aforementioned, circular will transforming into sharp points- two, as a matter fact. We can see the spider's will in the form of a web, and, once caught, the spider's will transforms into the piercing of fangs. You could also view Britain's flag as representation of a spider's web, but I'm not sure I could attribute something so macabre to a country's flag, unless viewed as simply, "will." There other examples in Nature, like the "Angler" fish, which uses bioluminesence to lure its prey to its sharp teeth. The best human example, I think, is the circular steering wheel of a ship transforming into the piercing of a bow through the ocean, and, ths sharp point of the bow, literally creating the circular walls of civilizations in the western hemisphere, for example, but, in all parts of the world. Can you find other examples hidden in Nature?

Chad

Message Edited by chad on 12-17-2007 01:08 PM