When i was reading the other night i found this passage from Dr. Sewards diary that just screams of "The Other". It's shortly after the death of the Un-dead Lucy when Van Helsing is trying to introduce Seward to the idea of Vampires.
"You are clever man, friend John; you reason well, and your wit is bold;but you are too prejudiced. You do not let your eyes see nor your ears hear,and that which is outside your daily life is not of account to you. Do you think that there are things which you cannot understand and yet which are; that some people see things that others cannot? Bu there are things old and new which must not be contemplate by men's eyes,because they know-or think they know-some things which other men have told them. Ah, it is the fault of our science that it wants to explain all;and if it explain not,then it says there is nothing to explain. But yet we see around us every day the growth of new beliefs,which think themselves new; and whichn are yet but the old, which pretend to be young-like the fine ladies at the opera. I suppose now you do not believe in corporeal transference. No? Nor in materilization. No? Nor in astral bodies. No? Nor in the reading of thought. No? Nor in hypnotism-"
Van Helsing is trying to get Dr. Seward to look beyond what he already knows to see what actually is. He is trying to have Dr. Seward embrace something that is different and out of his world. And when I say his world I mean what he knows to be the world. For example, Ive grown up in Southern California all my life. I know that there is more to the world than this, but I "KNOW" Southern California. Living in Southern California up until September 11th,2001; my friends and I had never heard the word "terrorist" or "terrorism". Until Dr. Seward encountered un-dead lucy, he would have never had to think twice about any evil spirits or demons such as the Count.
The bolded section: "Ah, it is the fault of our science.." shows, to me anyways, that it is the fault OUR of society that puts an "other" into the position of "the other". I'd rather discuss this bit in class because I'd like to be able to, well, discuss it with it everyone.
(sorry for any mispellings or grammatical errors...did not use WORD)
This is spot on Roy in thinking about the Other. In some senses, one of the other things that's happening with this passage is the way in which science becomes the other and creates the other simultaneously. The ambivalence towards science is a theme that resonates strongly throughout the book too, I've noticed. This entry could become a great paper.
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