Not "The Other" Hawkeye

Miles keeps mentioning how he has hired people like Gillian Flynn, Philip Glass, Banksy, etc. to create things for him. And we get to see how Serena Williams is on-call as a personal trainer for his guests. But…

When Blanc quickly solved the mystery game Miles had set up, my first thought was that it was really contrived and not well-crafted. The Hourly Dong was minimalistic, yes, but not Glass-like. As for the Piece-of-Shit dock, it didn’t seem very Bansky-ish (at least to me). It looked more like a generic ice sculpture than anything - interesting at first glance, but not really much beyond that.

Then, we have Serena Williams literally phoning it in as a personal trainer. She’s content to sit there and read, as she’s getting paid whether or not she actually does any training.

Miles is quick to drop these names as if all of these talented people are part of his entourage, but the quality of their work-for-hire demonstrates that they don’t give a shit about him and/or actively dislike him.

In sharp contrast, we have Blanc, who is actually close friends with people like Angela Lansbury, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, etc. These people are close enough to him to play online games with him and worry about his well-being. In fact, they’re good enough friends that Blanc’s partner can complain to them about how Blanc hasn’t left the bath for a week.

zeug·ma ˈzo͞oɡmə/

noun

a figure of speech in which a word applies to two others in different senses (e.g.,John and his license expired last week ) or to two others of which it semantically suits only one (e.g., with weeping eyes and hearts ).

If you want to read more Stoker: Dracula’s Guest and Other Stories by Bram Stoker

If you want more foundational genre-defining gothics: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

If you want homoerotic vampirism that’s both intriguing and problematic: Carmilla by J. Sheridan le Fanu

If you want a gothic heroine fighting against the villain trying to possess her: A Long Fatal Love Chase by Louisa May Alcott

If you want a protagonist entering an extremely fucked up old money home and fighting for their freedom: Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno Garcia

If you want basically the same plot as Dracula but a lot more batshit and can put up with 1800s racism: The Beetle by Richard Marsh

If you want a modern take on Dracula that acknowledges the sexual assault subtext: The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix (note: this one is very hit or miss, people either love it or hate it)

If you want academics fighting ancient evil and an actual implied cameo by Dracula: The Case of Charles Dexter Ward by H.P. Lovecraft (my personal favorite Lovecraft!)

If you want morally ambiguous mad scientists: The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Stories by Robert Louis Stevenson (and read the rest of the stories in it while you’re at it!)

If you want rootin’ tootin’ Americans fighting gothic monsters: Pigeons from Hell by Robert E. Howard

If you want a gothic mystery with a spooky villain: The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle

If you want an implied polycule where a nerdy lady does all the real mystery solving: The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

If you want the kind of vampire romance Dracula has become in pop culture: A Taste of Blood Wine by Freda Warrington

If you want something campier: Haunted Castles by Ray Russell

If you want something sexier: The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter

If you want something weirder: Blood 20 by Tanith Lee