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Even though our lives wander, our memories remain in one place.
-- Marcel Proust
(Zug, Switzerland)
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“McWay Falls, CA. (OC) [6000x4000] - Author: HMS_Centurion on Reddit
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it should be illegal to tow a car as punishment and i’m not even kidding
you park in the wrong spot somewhere. maybe at a friend’s apartment complex, or at a store when you’re actually walking somewhere else, or whatever. they could ticket you—still charge you a fine for parking where you’re not supposed to. but instead, in a far more crippling way than a fine (which is already hard enough for low income people), they call a third party and steal your car. so you have lost your means of transportation, which you will only learn the next time you need your car, because they don’t have any need or care to notify you.
so first, you have to figure out which towing company they used. which you can only do if the place that decided your car was in the wrong spot is still open, or if you can get someone on the phone.
assuming you figure out which company towed your car, which one time took me over an hour on its own because the number on the signs warning about towing in the parking lot was a dead number, you then have to figure out how to get there. without a car. god help you if you don’t have someone in your support network to pick you up or public transportation, because most of the time it’s at least a mile away.
you find a way to get there, you call them to see if your car is even really there, and they tell you they won’t give your car back until you pay them. how much? well, it’s not regulated, so they can pretty much say whatever number they goddamn feel like. i recently got towed by a company infamous in my college town and they charged me a whopping $180–half of my paycheck for two weeks during the school year. when the same company towed my brother last year, and we both have the same sized cars, they charged him $300. they don’t have to justify the charge, they don’t have any itemized receipt, because what are you going to do? not pay it? you have to get to work and you’re already short on time because you had to walk to the goddamn towing place or have someone come get you to bring you there or spend an hour on the phone with different people trying to figure out where the fuck your car was in the first place.
it’s extortionate. it’s absolutely insane that they can, without exaggeration, steal someone’s car and hold it for ransom under the assumption that you will pay anything to get it back, because of the extent to which our society is dependent on cars.
This happened to me so we just abandoned the car cuz we couldn't get it out, which means they sold it off. This was way back in 2016/2017 I think.
And a few days ago a debt collector had us served for the almost $10k we still have on the car.
So yeah not only will they steal it and sell it but you will still also have to pay for it anyway.
Because you parked in the wrong spot for an hour or two.
Another thing I really like is the steadily increasing erosion of Jonathan's PRIVACY.
When he first arrives at the castle, he talks with Dracula for a long time, but while the nocturnal schedule is weird, the conversation itself takes place in a socially acceptable setting. Plus, monopolizing his time in this way is to be expected in this situation. Dracula soon does come into his room unannounced when he's shaving, which is rude. But it's more on the level of walking into a houseguest's unlocked bedroom without knocking, not barging in on someone in the toilet or anything.
The locked doors restrict Jonathan's movements but aside from those locks he is allowed to walk around with only verbal warnings (which on the face initially sound somewhat reasonable). It's not until he breaks the rules by shoving open the stuck door and falling asleep outside his bedroom that there's any escalation. It's a big one in the moment: the attack of the ladies both reinforces the idea of danger lurking here/punishing him for disobeying, and positions the Count as something of a safety net against even worse dangers. There is also the first big breach of privacy, when Dracula carries the unconscious Jonathan to bed and changes him, then gaslights him about it all the next day.
Other breaches of privacy soon follow. He's told to write the pre-dated/scripted letters. And when he tries to send out an SOS, it's returned and burned in front of him, before he is locked in the room he's in for the rest of that day. When he gets back to his bedroom, he notices the next morning that all his papers, his ID, traveling clothes and bag, have been stolen. (Which is probably what Dracula was doing while Jonathan was locked in the drawing room. Probably why he was so cheerful upon returning.)
Jonathan's range of movement/safety has been reduced from the whole castle, to the halls and some rooms, to just HIS room, to his letters, to nothing at all but the journal he literally has stashed on his person at all times. And even then, the Count has changed his clothes while he was unconscious once before, and is able to climb through the windows/break the door open the way he broke the other one shut if the bedroom door were locked or barred. He's not just in danger — he has no refuge at all. Nowhere and nothing that feels out of the Count's reach, except his journal, which again is only if Dracula doesn't notice it. (Plus the intent was clearly that Jonathan would have nothing at all by this point, and his journal being safe is pure luck, so if it's discovered it would be treated as another betrayal/breaking of the rules.)
Not only can Jonathan not send a letter now even if he found a willing conspirator, but if he were to just flee despite the locks, he'd now have to contend with not only geographic isolation but also a lack of money/identification/travelling wear.
He's been pushed to almost a breaking point of just being completely reckless in search of freedom and safety... except Dracula is still acting like a friend. Jonathan is so entirely within his power, and every other time he's tried to rebel the consequences are swift and limiting. (Whereas, when he listens to the rules, days can go by without escalation.) There's not much further to go from here without openly acknowledging what's happening, and once he does that Dracula has no reason to hold back. It's the rock of "if I do nothing he'll just kill me eventually" and the hard place of "if I disobey again, what will he do this time?"
Again, great psychological horror.
This is some fantastic analysis!