Pym and Lovecraft in film

I came across two interesting films based, or at least indebted too, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket. The first is an animated short titled The Secret of Arthur Gordon Pym:



The second is a 1930s film adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness:



Neither is really long/strong enough for a cultural appropriation presentation so I thought I'd post them myself.

Godot

And who likes Waiting For Godot? (I always did).
There we have another abstract piece of literature where at the end God is supposed to show up. In class today, people seemed to agree that it is God who appears at the end of Narrative of A.G.P.
What does our hybrid Peter's involvement here say? I wonder if what we have here is saying something about God's creation of man.

The French and Us, Can We Agree?

I would like to maintain that I was a little disappointed, or at the very least perplexed by one thing in our class discussions, this week and last, and that was the general sentiment around me of disapproval of the unrealistic aspects of Narrative of A.G.P.

Professor Harrison is right to point out that I am taking a French interpretative approach; so much so that before he even mentioned it I just started to remember The Little Prince, because grownups just don’t understand! All of you, I now sadly suspect.

Basically, just because it said at the beginning that it was true, does this mean for us at home here in VA, (also the home of Poe himself, please regard) that it has to appear realistic in order to be more valuable?

RSVP, tell me your reasons why it is that it matters whether or not certain parts of this narrative need to be there. Other than the fact that it takes up our time to read about hatchets that are picked up then tossed aside, or descriptions of penguins and Islanders, is there a good reason why something particularly shouldn’t be there? Because if it is in there, then I guess Poe had his reason for it, (which we are left to interpret).

Also, during our discussions I recall discussions of days past, at the beginning of the semester we wondered to ourselves if Poe wrote what he thought people wanted to read, or was it what he wanted to write. Did Poe write what he wanted others to read?

I would write a Narrative adventure story of getting lost at Sea, and stranded on a deserted Island. If I do, I’ll try to make it as realistic as possible for those of you who will be inclined to read it.

Longitude, Latitude

Was anybody else slightly bored with all the longitude and latitude numbers and exact locations, beginning in chapter xiv when Gordan boards the Jane Guy? I did not find it necessary to know that Nightingale Island is latitude 37 26' S, longitude 12 24' W, and that Prince Edward's Island is latitude 46 53' S, longitude 37 46' E. This goes on for about 10 chapters- I felt like I was waiting for something to happen, but all I got was a bunch of geography.

A Question on Pym

I just want to know if anyone knows what happened to Tiger. I lost him. The last I saw him he had just saved Arthur Gordon, and had bitten the neck of an attacker , and was standing over him(the attacker) growling.

I figured they would have eaten him, but unless I missed it when skimming the boring days, - he just vanished from the story.

Can anyone tell me what happened to him?

Thanks,
Audrey

Augustus' Death

Is anyone else severely disappointed in Augustus' death? I am. He was such an integral part of the story to me. The one who inspired Gordon, the one who figured out a way to sneak him on, the one who saved his life. Gordon previously stated that he used journal entries to put in information that is not all that important, and yet he discloses the death of his best friend in journal form? I was mad at him for that (Aug. 1, page 1106-07). Just wanted to see if anyone else felt that way.

Narrative A. Gordon Pym +/- Continuity

In the narrative of A. Gordon Pym, Poe used several different constructions in order to compose his text. He used the normal composition that we are used to from reading his other tales, a journal format, and a highly explanatory format. He often abruptly stops one technique and begins another. After discussing the plight of Dirk Peters, Poe digresses into an explanatory form of composition where he attempts to speaker directly:

Because I shall have frequent occasion to mention him hereafter in the course of my narrative – a narrative, let me here say, which in its latter portions, will be found to include incidents of a nature so entirely out of range of human experience, and for this reason so far beyond the limits of human credulity, that I proceed in utter hopelessness of obtaining credence for all that I shall tell, yet confidently trusting in time and progressing science to verify some of the most important and most improbable of my statements. (1044)

He then proceeds to fall back into a narrative voice to depict the events on the deck of the Grampus.
Poe furthers his disregard for a continual narrative voice by describing the days beneath deck. He begins using a journal method of composition. Arthur begins each day’s events by stating the month and then the day. I find the change in the meaning of the definite article ‘I’ from defining the narrator in the aforementioned example to defining Arthur as he describes his days beneath of the deck to be distracting and problematic.

In the preface, “Arthur” warns the reader of the inconsistencies in the text by writing, “even to those readers point out where his portion ends and my own commences; the difference in point of style will be readily perceived” (1008). I do not accept this excuse as an adequate reason for the inconsistencies in the text. I find the change of defining articles, format, and compositional qualities to be tiresome and a nuisance. The complexity of the storyline requires a strong narrative voice that can accurately and sufficiently depict events.

I readily understand that not all share my view on continuity. What are your opinions on the flow of the text? Do you find the changes of voice and compositional format distracting? Does warning the reader of a discrepancy excuse it from happening?