A Writer's Notebook, Day One-Thousand-Six-Hundred-And-Twenty

I looked at the word count for the non-fiction piece I am writing and it is at nearly 45,000 right now.  I've still got more that I need to research and write about, and I know that much of what is already there will need to be rewritten and expanded with citations and other supporting material.  I am also thinking that the piece needs another element that I've not yet gotten right, something about my personal experiences that connects to the subject matter and helps to explains my perspective and the reason for writing this piece.  As I have expressed before, I am writing about the anti-Semitism inherent in vampire fiction generally, with a particular focus on Dracula, though other works are discussed extensively as well.  Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla, for instance, is explored in detail, especially as it was a clear and direct influence on Stoker's own book.  For me, this is an important matter, and one I find quite similar to the issues surrounding H. P. Lovecraft's bigotry.  It is quite clear that Stoker intended Count Dracula to reflect the "invasion" of Jewish migrants from Eastern Europe, that the image of the vampire he cultivated and which largely remains in tact today is a collage of anti-Semitic tropes from blood libel to the myth of the wandering Jew.  I feel that the piece is doing a good job of exploring and supporting these claims, but I know that there is still a great deal more work that it needs, and a large part of that has to be a discussion of my own experiences with anti-Semitism, and the concerns that exist for Jewish people in our world today.  

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