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8 Responses to “Irish Center Adds Dracula to Book Club”

1. Pete Maher responds: August 11th, 2008 at 10:17 am

   Imagine that.
   After milking the public of hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations, the so-called “Irish Center” has the chutzpah to charge patrons a “small fee” to discuss a book and maybe eat a cookie with a cup of watery Kool-Aid.
   Don’t breathe too deeply while you’re there, though. There could be an additional “small fee.”
   And of course “Dracula” is a superb choice. Sure, Bram Stoker was Irish (although he lived in London and was a bit of an Anglophile and social climber). Absolutely, Halloween has deep Irish roots (although codified by American pop culture). But the story of Dracula has absolutely nothing to do with either of these facts. The novel has only the slimmest, tangential and superficial connection to Irish culture (which is the business one would assume an “Irish Cultural Center” would be about).
   But then again, Kansas City’s so-called “Irish Center” has always been about slim, tangential and superficial connections to genuine Irish culture.
   Which is only my personal opinion, of course.

   Sincerely,
   Pete Maher
   Publisher & Editor
   Midwest Irish Focus

2. eolai responds: August 11th, 2008 at 11:08 am

   I should clarify that the connection between the choice of the book and the occurence of Halloween is one I have assumed, not one I have been informed of. And having made the connection, even if it’s not the reason for the choice of book, I would of course stand by it.

   But typing while a dog licks one of my hands is difficult so I’ll head off now and honour the promise given of a walk, this temporarily non-raining evening in Ireland.

3. Ellen responds: October 25th, 2008 at 6:56 am

   It now says “Free (but donations are always welcome)” on the IMCC website.

4. eolai responds: October 25th, 2008 at 9:50 am

   Thanks Ellen. I’ll update the post to reflect that change.

5. Kathleen Kinsale responds: March 18th, 2009 at 2:54 pm

   WOW!! You are a bit of a jerk about the fee, the book and the refreshments!!!! I suppose you would foot the bill for everything and allow people to invade. I hated the book. It was boring. Stoker may have been Irish but he was not an Irish writer!

6. eolai responds: March 18th, 2009 at 5:11 pm

   Kathleen, can you please name the person to whom your comments are addressed; it’s a standard convention on blogs that makes it easier for everyone to follow the conversation.

   Having now re-read the post and the comments preceding yours (all posted 7 months earlier), I do believe it’s not myself that you’re addessing.

   That said I don’t undertand what you mean when you say Stoker, a writer, may have been Irish (he was) but he wasn’t an Irish writer. I’m strongly tempted to disagree.

7. Pete responds: March 18th, 2009 at 9:43 pm

   And yes, I would “foot the bill for everything and let the people invade.” (That’s why organizations raise funds - to pay for events, not mailings - so they can provide a service to the community without charging them individually.)
   As far as “invading,” you might say we Irish know something about that subject as well ….
   And I agree that Stoker is as dull as dishwater compared to genuinely “Irish” writers. Stoker was merely born Irish. Even though he was from Dublin, he was an Anglophile. Too bad your hosts at the Irish Museum & Country Club haven’t the depth of knowledge about the subject to know the difference between these two communities (even if they’ve morphed their “fee” into a “welcome” donation).

8. eolai responds: March 19th, 2009 at 2:18 am

   an Irish reading can answer many of the perplexing questions raised in Dracula and in Stoker’s other works Carol A. Senf

   I’d like to refer readers to a book by Jopseph Valente called “Dracula’s Crypt: Bram Stoker, Irishness, and the Question of Blood”

   “the Irishness of Dracula should be read and understood in light of what I call its metrocolonial conditions of production, which function at both the collective level, shaping the cultural and political identity of the Irish people, and at the individual level, giving a peculiar slant to the psychic terrain of Stoker himself “(3). This notion of the metrocolonial is defined not only in relation to Ireland’s unique status as a “domestic” and “metropolitan” colony but also to the role of Ireland as “participant-victim” in the imperial enterprise (3). Working with the concept of Ireland’s unique colonial status, Valente examines the intricacies of Stoker’s “interethnic” Anglo-Celtic identity and how it affects the text. Though readings of Stoker’s hybrid cultural identity have abounded in studies of the novel, Valente coins a term that offers a semantically fresh concept Kelli Malloy

   And the Director and CEO of the Stoker Dracula International Organisation, Dennis McIntyre, goes much further. Well he would, wouldn’t he?

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