An apology, and a request, friends of the Count.
First, I'm very sorry that this blog project fell silent over the past month. Well, silent on my end; Andrew has been enormously productive with maps. I can only explain, lamely, that work continued in overdrive mode. That, combined with homestead and family needs, devoured my time. And how we're at the novel's end.
Second, what should we do for the next twelve months?
Here are some options - please don't be shy about adding more in comments:
- Blogging about Dracula. This means posts about Dracula in pop culture, criticism, weird references (like this one), new scholarship, etc.
- Rerunning the novel, starting in May.
- A film series. Screen a bunch of films, discussing them here.
- A reading series. Ditto for books.
Your thoughts, dear friends?
Hey brother, no apologies needed from my end - this is a labor of love (labor being the operative term). It took me two runs of the book to finally finish all the maps (81 in all) - who knows where the time goes. The difference is you have a book coming out to account for your time! :-D Congrats again!
As for next year, I like all the suggestions you have posted. Personally, in reading through Les Klinger's annotated Dracula for clues about the map locations, I loved it when he shims in bits about what social and scientific events were happening at the time the book was written (for instance that while the transfusion technique had been around since the 1600's it still was not widely practiced in the 1800's when Lucy was being transfused). It would be great to delve into each post and dissect these things to reveal the life around the story.
It really just amounts to additional comments per post, but it would be interesting what information gets crowdsourced out of the mission were one of discovery.
Anyway, I'd love for you to run it again year seven if you did. It's a tradition now!
Posted by: Andrew Connell | November 03, 2010 at 07:19 PM
Hi there! I've been away from this blog for quite a while, mainly because it was being overrun with spam. Has that situation resolved itself?
Posted by: Elizabeth Miller | November 08, 2010 at 07:43 PM
I like the sound of that, Andrew. Maybe we could tie the whole thing to maps, using geography as the visual organization?
Elizabeth, I just keep on killing the stuff.
Posted by: Bryan Alexander | November 17, 2010 at 11:42 AM
I like the screen films idea, but I see a lot of films. Maps would be interesting to work with, I should think about how to make that work.
Posted by: Steve B | November 17, 2010 at 09:14 PM
Perhaps a new site, Steve, putting the map front and center. Each day has a different map, depending on schedule, with its locale highlighted.
Film series: would be fun to curate a bunch of YouTubery, clips and so on.
Posted by: Bryan Alexander | November 18, 2010 at 04:14 PM
Bryan: Guess you've heard by now that Ingrid Pitt has died.
Posted by: Elizabeth Miller | November 24, 2010 at 08:31 AM
I would recommend a trip to Transilvania and a lot of pictures, exploring the whole Vlad Tepes story by visiting the castle and talking with the locals :)
Posted by: Michelle | November 25, 2010 at 09:56 AM
I did, Elizabeth. I should have a post up soon.
Always a good idea, Michelle!
Posted by: Bryan Alexander | November 27, 2010 at 02:08 PM
However, it is essential to find the story of true Dracula, the real castle and real life of Vlad Tepes Impaler could be find to http://www.sparkling-markets.com/VladDracula.html
Posted by: Aurel | January 24, 2011 at 04:09 PM
I love what you've done. Drac in pop culture articles as well as different film discussions would be fun. As well as starting up the novel again in May. Love what you've done, and appreciate the time and energy it takes to do it!
Posted by: Jim C | February 02, 2011 at 01:33 AM