Real Dracula [Help please]
 

Im doing a speech for school, free topic, and I chose to do Dracula. The man, the myth, the movies type idea. Basically, anyone who knows either anything interesting about the Dracula legend, or any good sites about it, would be much apreciated.

And yes, I do know that the book/movies have next to nothing to do with the actual Vad Dracula

there was a good book by David Skal (sp?) called (something like) Hollywood Gothic that tells the long tale of Dracula's journey to film and cultural immortality.

I also really liked a chapter about the film Dracula in a book called Projected Fears (it sort of talked about why the film would become so important in film history, etc.)

Sounds good...too bad the speech is due tomorrow:D. I might check them out on my own time though...

hmm, well, i think you should visit : http://imscrewed.com


LOL -- seriously, good luck. the key to good speaking is just to look the audience right in the eye and say what you mean. . ..

also, avoid vomiting and/or urinating on yourself - those are good rules as well!

Believe me, I have NO worries about the spoken part. I love public speaking, and have actually placed 3rd in a speech competition [topic- Salem Witch Trials]

It's just writing the damn thing that Im a tad stressed about.

no fears mate - you'll rock!

Heh, found the meaning for on of our friendly neighbourhood nazi's names:

"...he is known in Turkish as Kaziglu Bey, or "the Impaler Prince"..."

I don't know if this is true or made-up,but that horrible, awful movie' Vlad' I watched awhile back had something in it about why Vlad was so mean.
The turks killed his father and brother(or uncle) right in front of him and took him prisoner.They also killed his infant son and tricked his wife into thinking he was dead so she killed herself...I know 'Dracula' with Gary Oldman also had the thing about his wife in it.

He was an interesting person to say the least,I used to have a great book about him,but can't remember anything in it.
Growing old is so much fun :rolleyes:

First of all, you should know that Vlad is George Washington to Romanians. A lot of the stories about Vlad being a vampiric rampaging monster came from the Turks and to them he was one. He is considered a hero and a revolutionary to his people and Stoker, having read reports the brits got from the Turks, heard of him being a dangerous lunatic. He was indeed quite merciless to the Turks, but the Turks weren't too big on human rights themselves. There's a very common book by Raymond T. Mc Nally and Radu Florescu called In Search of Dracula. Florescu and Mc Nally are your men. I've done a lot of research on slavic vampirism and the roots of vampire myths myself and I will tell you Florescu and Mc Nally are your men. Also worthy of note, Stoker never went to Transylvania. So, his perspective on the country and its political turmoil is a Western European thing. Try and see if you can find any insider perspectives. For this, Florescu is good. But, at any rate there are lots of good books on the evolution of vampire myth, and a few on Vlad himself. I'm bored, and my fiancee is visiting her folks, so I have plenty of time on my hands. I'll check my desk drawer.

Havnt seen the movie, but from what you said, bits and pieces are true.


Thanks for all the help guys, Ive got the speech pretty much finished:D

THAT'S THE BOOK I HAD!!
woohoo,at least you get a smart guy to help you out Return!

Did you see that infodoc that had Florescu and McNally?
It was on a long time ago but they pretty much tracked Vlad throuout his lifetime..but didn't mention much about his time imprisoned when he was young.

Oh yeah, prime stuff. Good luck on the speech, Return. Speeches on subjects like that get good audience reaction, because they take time processing that the thing you're talking about is real. I did one on the Ripper my senior year of high school and the audience reaction was great because they hadn't really thought of Whitechapel as a real event.