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Dracula is chock-full of all kinds of conflict we don't just mean between [Woman holding a cross bow]

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people who want Dracula dead and people who think Dracula is just dandy. For any [Dracula looks upset]

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interested parties that list goes a little something like this,

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1. Dracula 2. Dracula's mom 3. The pizza guy, what? Dracula tips well... [Pizza guy with Dracula]

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Alright well there are also conflicts that are all about different peoples worldviews,

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yes even folks who are teaming up to hunt vampires can have the occasional

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squabble. One of the big splits is between those who believe in technology [People arguing]

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and science and those who believe in religion. Not that the two are

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necessarily in opposition, if Jesus had been around these days he may have fed [Jesus using a 3D printer]

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the masses with fish and loaves created through innovative 3D printing... Anyway,

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back to Dracula, in the science camp we have Jonathan and Dr. Seward they're [Jonathon and Dr. Seward in lab coats]

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both fans of blood transfusions, phonographs and all sorts of modern

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marvels, on the other hand we have Van Helsing is much more into crucifixes

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and holy water, you can't really listen to sound recordings with holy water [Van Helsing holding a bottle of water]

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though so well that's his loss. Although the story depends a lot on the

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characters using phonographs and typewriters and telegraphs it's not the [Jonathon holding a phonograph player]

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high-tech stuff that gets Dracula but some old fashioned mysticism and well knives.

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And not even the super awesome modern knife with a laser sight and a hand warmer. [High tech knife with a laser attached]

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Science versus religion isn't the only front in the world view wars, the entire

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structure of Dracula develops a conflict between two distinct epistemological

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systems. (Laughing) Say that 3 times fast. And if all that fancy talk kind of flew over

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your head we'll break it down for you. Epistemology is the investigation into [Epistemology sign flies over a boys head]

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how justified belief is distinguished from your opinion, in other words an

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investigation into why we know what we know, and no, because I said so doesn't

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count as a good explanation. So an epistemological system is a method for [Police officer looks unimpressed with the explanation]

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justifying knowledge and Dracula serves up two of them, experience and technology.

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The technological view kind of dominates the story the entire novel starts with

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an epigraph about how the book is an assemblage of reliable documents. In other [A pile of documents fall out the Dracula book]

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words what could be more reliable than a bunch of documents all well typed up and

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arranged in an orderly fashion. In fact we'd even trust that pile of

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documents to watch our house while were out for the weekend... [Pile of documents in a living room]

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But by the end characters in the story are singing a different tune.

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Jonathan notes that all of the original documents are gone, and all he has left [Jonathan's head pops out from a messy looking desk]

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is a mass of typing. He admits the whole Dracula tale is pretty wild story and he

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doesn't expect anyone to believe him just based on his big pile of documents.

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But then again he doesn't care if anyone believes him, he lived it after all. So by [Jonathan smiling asking Dracula if he wants to hang out]

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the end of Dracula technology and technological epistemology sure seem to

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be in rough shape. Don't worry technology, even if Dracula

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is not super into you we still like you. We'll leave and make it a Facebook official thing. [Dracula looks unhappy]

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