Blog Post #8: Analyzing Podcasts

MLA Citation

Woods, Josh. “Dracula(s)”. Audio blog post. The Monster Professor. Wordpress, Web. Accessed 18 Feb. 2021.

Summary of podcast

This podcast looks at different appearances of Dracula since the original novel was published. It focuses mainly on movies, but also provides some background on the inspirations for Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Though it doesn’t mention video games, I think this commentary on how Dracula has been interpreted is useful.

Argument(s) made in podcast

The reason why Dracula as a character became such a cultural phenomenon was because of the strong fear imagery in the original novel. It stuck with people because the ideas of losing life essence through blood and an enemy being able to invade your home were and are very deep-rooted fears.

This argument is a good explanation for why so many adaptations of Dracula exist, and would be helpful to explore in my research.

Most interesting contributions to topic

The podcast provides a list of movie adaptations of Dracula in order of release, and gives some details about how they portrayed the character of Dracula.

I’m not sure that my podcast will focus on movies too heavily (though it’s hard to overstate how much of an influence people like Bela Lugosi had on later adaptations of Dracula). I would like to apply the same type of analysis to video games instead.

New information (what did you learn?)

• John Polidori’s The Vampire acted as inspiration for Bram Stoker
• Dracula means “of the Dragon” in folklore.
• List of famous movie adaptations

I was hoping for more information regarding lesser-known Dracula adaptations but this information might come in handy nonetheless. It could be used as an example of how the idea of Dracula has evolved over the years in film, though I’m not sure this will be entirely necessary for my research as a whole. (The description on the page made me think Woods was going to discuss video games as well, but he does not).

Works Cited (follow up reading / research)

Bram Stoker Dracula’s Guest

Nosferatu

Bela Lugosi’s Dracula

Christopher Lee’s Dracula

Klaus Kinski’s Nosferatu the Vampyre

Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula (1992)

MLA Citation

Geraghty, Liam. “Dracula on the Small Screen”. Audio blog post. FANGS. Apple Podcasts, 28 Oct. 2020. Web. 17 Feb. 2021.

Summary of podcast

A “deep dive” into media inspired by Dracula (this particular episode focuses on video games and television). It’s part of a larger series talking about Dracula at the Bram Stoker Festival. The first half talks about television adaptations like in Sesame Street and The Simpsons. The latter half talks about three video games that feature Dracula as a character and whether or not the speakers think they were good adaptations (though they don’t explain in detail why). I think doing something similar to this for my own podcast, but with even more recent games could have some fun results.

Argument(s) made in podcast

• Dracula is best when interpreted more loosely based on his cultural reputation (rather than trying to be completely like the original).
• “Knowledge of Vampire Lore, even from pop culture, can save your life and even your soul”
• Games (at the time of the 90s at least) with their limited capabilities couldn’t capture the complexities of the original novel.

There’s some good commentary here about what makes a good interpretation of a classic work, which would be an interesting topic to discuss in my research.

Most interesting contributions to topic

The podcast discusses very recent television shows that feature Dracula like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The X-Files to name a few. They also talk with the creator of The Count from Sesame Street which was very interesting.

I think referencing these sources could provide some good background on the interpretations of Dracula at the time of their release.

New information (what did you learn?)

• Dracula appears in a lot of televisions shows
• There exists very obscure folklore for vampires, like that they are compelled to count things
• Most modern interpretations of Dracula take more inspiration from Bela Lugosi than the original novel.

I was hoping they’d go into more detail about the reasons why the games they cite either were or were not good adaptations of Dracula but really they just say what they think without citing any specific reasons. The games they do cite, however, would be very interesting to explore further (especially Castlevania, which has had a huge influence on games as a whole).

Works Cited (follow up reading / research)

Sesame Street

Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

The Simpsons “Treehouse of Horror IV”

Nosferatu for the SNES

Bram Stoker’s Dracula for the SEGA Megadrive

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night for the original Playstation