The Haunted Palace/Mind

I wanted to amend what I said in class earlier today about Poe using this piece to show a process or the experience of going mad. I would like to replace that thought with the idea that maybe he was alluding to the harsh reckoning of society. I was thinking about the last thing Dr. Harrison said and it became clear that he could have possibly been speaking of the reality that no one can run from, and the idea that everyone at some point has or will experience some terrifying thing that they cannot escape from. I don't think that it has to be something gruesome or scary but the experience will effect the person in varying ways depending on what we are truly afraid of or gets under our skin the most. It is almost Poe in a Dr. Phil sort of light. He is getting inside our mind and showing us what it is that we are afraid of and why we can't escape then concluding that we never will completely abandon the idea. It will always be in our "palace/house/mind/head/consciousness."

Tiny Toons

Anyone remember that cartoon? I know someone has to...it's got buster and babs at least I think that's their names... it's basically looney tunes only--tiny. Oh, and the rabbits are blue and pink. Any how, that's irrelevant. I remember way back when oh say, 13 years, when Tiny Toons was still airing on Nickelodian--yes, I watched Nick. Back when the tv shows were decent.
It always seemed that when I'd get home from school and switch on the television, Tiny Toons would be on and at least three times a month, I would get to enjoy the episode concerning "The Raven." Did anyone ever catch this episode or am I standing alone on this babble? The poem is performed in its entirety only transfered to cartoon characters and silly voices, and of course a little bit of silly toon-town humor incorporated within. Any how, I am trying to find a way to download the episdoe and perhaps some how share it with you guys--it's pretty cute if you ask me and def an interesting new take on "The Raven".

Poe and alliteration

I love how Poe uses alliteration in his poetry. In the Raven it draws me more into the poem and it highlights more important or significant lines in this and other poems. I was discussing this with my boyfriend and he said it was more annoying and too much in word conosant repetition. I wanted to know what other people thought about the way Poe composes his poems, especially with the way he uses alliteration.

Poe and Britney Spears?!

Yes you read that title right. Did anyone else know Britney Spears had one of her tours named "Dream within a dream"? Here is the qoute from wikipedia (I am trying to find another link or information, I know many distrust wikipedia!)

"Pop singer Britney Spears named her 2001-2002 concert tour Dream Within a Dream, incorporating lines from that poem (and other Poe works) into her show. "

Poe seems to inspire everyone at some point!

Poe's poems more telling of his characteristics?

When we first talked about Poe's personality we said he was "dark" "Gothic" "drunken/drugged" and "crazy". After reading the poems where imagination dreams, fairies and the moon (what is up with all the moon imagery???) does anyone feel differently? His is more romantic then he would like us to be believe, more sentimental and feeding off the love of women he admired? I had read somewhere that he often would be more pitiful or sickly in order to gain a woman's affection. I often felt Poe was not represented as who he was because his prose was more popularized through movies, music etc. I want to know what everyone else thinks!

"The Bells" On readings for 1/24/08

After reading "The Bells" I noticed that this poem seems different form most of the Poe poems that I have been exposed to so far. What I noticed specifically is that this poem seems to be trying to ground itself in reality rather than in the imagination. This was intreging to me because throughout our readings and discussions we have realized that Poe criticizes mameic art, art of reality. Why would Poe criticize this type of art then produce an example of it himself? What I found most interesting in this poem was Poe's use of onomatopoeia, "To the tintinabulation that so musically wells/ From the bells..." (LOA 92). Onomatopoeia a word that sounds like the sound its describing. To me, the use of onomatopoeia is contradictive to the criticism that Poe has made on mameic art.

What do you think? Do you believe this Poem differers form other Poe poems? how? Do you believe this poem goes against some of Poe's criticism of the metaphysical and mameic art?

Market Place

A few times in class, we have mentioned the possibility of Poe lowering his original aims of literary perfection to please the masses. It is true, in order to become a popular writer, one must write in a way that will be widely accepted. It is my belief that Poe understood this and utilized his skills to manipulate the market place in order to sell his work. Although many may see this as the regret of being an artist, is it not true that all professionals, regardless of the area of work, have to doctor their products or personal values in order to make themselves more marketable? It is my belief that Poe did what was necessary in order to appease the literary taste of the public and still retain his personal artistic value.

The Death of Poe

I was searching the web for some more info for my appropriation that's coming up when I stumbled upon this article. I know we've had some brief discussions about Poe's death and I thought you all might be interested in reading it!

http://www.observer.com/2007/poe-s-mysterious-death-plot-thickens

Why Poor Poe?

It was brought up yesterday in class that Poe should be given a break perhaps or that we should pitty him for his efforts and getting nothing in return. His sacrafice of his style and tones in his experimental writing is not in need of pitty I don't believe. I think that it was extremely hard for him to get started and noticed for his talents but it was his choice in the first place to make those sacrafices and he did and look where it got him today. He was the one that fell so deeply in love with writing and expressing himself on paper, so I don't think that he would even want pitty, he would probably want praise and admiration for a job well done. We even say today that if you had a choice between a job that will pay you $100,000 a year that you hate and a job that pays $50,000 that you absolutely love, most would pick the one that they love. This is exactly what Poe did and I don't have pitty for him and don't think that he should have been given a break because if he was given one, who knows if he would be the great writer that he became!

The People's Writer; A 'People Person'?

My sentiment agrees with the statement that Poe wrote what he wanted to.
What I mean to say is that his writing conveys the image which he created himself and therefore is, misleading or not, Poe's own self, (a part of himself, some aspect of himself and his character). Being that it is his own minds creation, Poe's writing tells us who he is as a person.
What of his personality and his personal experience led him to write what he wrote is what our mystery is to decipher.
I'm sure that if he was more concerned with what people wanted to read he would be much nicer, (as opposed to his mean critiques). So it seems to me that he used his position as a writer to publish what he wanted people to read and think about, and attribute to him. He wrote his name on and wanted credit for his own work, and he wrote the critiques himself, and signed them and published them, therefore we know he not only wanted his work to be read, he wanted to receive the recognition to his own name.

Poes Critiques of popular authors

In response to our class today, as well as some of our readings for next class, I noticed a bit of a trend in Poe's criticisms that I found interesting. I noticed that Poe seems to give bad reviews and critiques to some of the most well known and popular writers of his time (as well as ours). Poe's critiques are often ruthless and "mean" (as Audrey put it today in class :) ). He even goes so far as to accuse Longfellow of plagiarism, including some thefts of Poes own works (NCE, 363)!

I found this intreging... why would Poe hold such disdain for popular authors?

I thought perhaps that this could be accounted for by looking at Poe's economic status and his attitude towards the marketplace. Unlike many of the fellow authors of his time, Poe was not wealthy. This forced him into a position of poverty for the majority of his adulthood. Poe struggled with producing what he considered "high art" and an art that would be excepted enough into popular culture to make a living; his creativity often stifled by lack of money or want of money. I feel that this may bias Poe to those successful/popular writers of his time. Perhaps, because of his struggle for publication and finance, he holds some animosity towards those of a better position than he?

Id like to hear what your positions and thoughts are on Poe's critique of popular authors!

Happy Birthday, dear Edgar

Hi, everyone!
I saw this today, and thought it might interest everyone.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080119/ap_on_fe_st/poe_mystery_visitor

If the link doesn't work, just copy/paste it.

In case you can't work it, it's about someone known as the "Poe Toaster" who comes to visit his grave every day on the day of his birth, and leaves behind 3 red roses and a half-empty bottle of good cognac.

The People's Writer

Edgar Allen Poe, I really like this tagging of him as the ‘People’s Writer’. I still need to brush up on all my Poe biographical data, I was much better in the subject back in my middle school days. I have since then revisited Poe several throughout my education.

This class should make us experts on everything Poe, and we are so lucky to be in the Richmond environment.

In response to today’s class, I must argue that I think that for us to use the word ‘crazy’ to describe the People’s Writer is entirely unfair. None of us are doctors, we are English majors, we are scholars, and I hope that we revisit the same question when we are much more advanced in our expertise, at the end of the semester. Hopefully among us we can find a doctor, who could help us decipher the psyche of Poe, the dynamic of his mind, and maybe link some patterns we see in his life and lifestyle to what we already know about him. We know about his image, his public persona, (which at this point, with all the sources available to us, is more personal and invasive than he ever intended or was aware of his public persona to be).

So we have before us the opportunity to get to know E.A. Poe better but as for right now, I don’t like to label him ‘crazy’. We know he experimented with drugs. We talked about the idea of his home, and if he was raised in a broken home. I think that Professor Harrison brings up a very good viewpoint when he mentioned to us that Poe had the benefits of being raised within a family, and he was enrolled in good school. We don’t necessarily know what he went through personally, (throughout his life’s ordeals of family, school, etc.) and how his then youthful and fractured psyche perceived the various elements of his life. How did the knowledge that his parents were gone affect him throughout his life? Clearly family and death are themes of the public persona that we know of as Poe. Also the question of his mysterious relationship with Virginia; she is a huge influence on his life and his writing, not to mention his reputation. As was drugs and alcohol. We have studied the image of Poe, his photograph after his suicide attempt. Poe experimented with drugs, but, as Professor Harrison pointed out, he did not appear to be an avid drug user, he didn’t seem to know that much about the drugs he (is said to) have been on. But we are certain that he was using drugs and alcohol at times throughout his life, therefore we know some element of his life sent him down that path.

We may try to decipher his life more through his writing, but isn’t it fair to say that Poe was writing for some audience other than himself, and perhaps not necessarily for self expression? We have the image of Poe, the drunken People’s Writer, but could any member of the People’s class have written with the skill and success of Poe? Especially, under the influence of drugs, and whatever pressure turned him towards them.

I think it is fair to say, knowing what we know about him, that Poe wrote some of his publications with a competitive motivation, to impress his audience. There is an ulterior motive of any writer who intends their work for public access. Maybe his writing was just as much influenced by what he perceived as his own public image, or what he thought people wanted.

I believe that if any member of our class was to pursue their talents as intensively as Poe had, that they could be just as successful. I think so, because I think that Poe must have been under a lot of pressure throughout his life, and his writing must have been an outlet for his stress. He clearly put a lot of time and mental energy into what he wrote down for us to read.

Why Griswold?

I just wanted to expand on the question that was brought up in class today, why would Poe choose Griswold as his literary executive? I was thinking about it a little more after class and I think that one of his main influences is that he really had respect for a fellow critic. He wanted to have someone with experience write about him with honest to goodness knowledge about him and who he was kind of like it being an honor to him. As a critic himself he would want people to take him seriously and have a true critic represent him. I feel like he wouldn't like a critique about himself that someone with no experience wrote because he knows the true making of a critique. I don't feel like I am representing this idea too clear but let me know if anyone else did any thinking after class about that!

I first met Poe when I was . . . .

During class today a couple of you shared your first encounter with Poe. I particularly liked Audrey's recollection of her interest in Tamerlane and Other Poems at age two. I thought it might be useful for all of us to share our first Poe stories.

As for myself, I can't recall whether or not I came to Poe through a t.v. adaptation or through a collection of his stories first. I think it was probably a t.v. adaptation, though. Back in the late 70s, one of the networks used to run children's adaptations of classic literature right after the last of the Saturday morning cartoons. It was something you watched when cartoons were over and you still wanted to watch t.v. The adaptation was of "The Gold-Bug" and my only strong memory is of the scene where the bug is suspended like a pendulum from a tree branch. On the whole, I think it struck me as something "good for me" or "education" as opposed to the entertainment (cartoons) which had preceded it.

The first Poe story I actually read was "The Pit and the Pendulum." At some point in my childhood my grandfather gave me a big volume of Poe tales for Christmas. I actually remember being a bit disappointed at the time -- I don't think I was quite the reader yet that I would turn out to be, and it was a big book with no pictures (I must have been young enough that this was newish to me?). Actually, as I type this I recall that it wasn't "The Pit and the Pendulum" but "MS Found in a Bottle" that was the first story I read in the collection, followed by "Pit." MS baffled me and I think I read "The Pit and the Pendulum" as a sort of last chance for Poe. As young, plot-driven reader, much of the story was lost on me. Why was he in the pit? Why were these things happening to him (the context of the inquisition, obviously, was lost on me). Following those two stories I never picked up the book again (I still own it, though). I wasn't exposed to Poe in print (not counting the Vincent Price movies) again until the typical highschool package of "Cask" and "Tell-Tale."

Use the comment section to share your first Poe stories.