The Death of Two Geniuses

Hi all! Sorry it’s been a few days,; I’ve been super busy with school. So here is a quick little fact for you until later today when I hope to continue with another Poe analysis and something else.

Did you know….

That William Shakespeare and Miguel de Cervantes died on the same day? Both men passed away on April 23, 1616. Cervantes is considered the onl contemporary of Shakespeare at the time. For the record, Cervantes was famous for his work of chivalric valor Don Quixote. Interestingly enough, UNESCO established April 23 as the International Day of the Book to commemorate that deaths of two such “rare birds”.

Birthday Wishes to William Butler Yeats!

I hope to in the near future devise a way on my blog to celebrate the birthday of prolific writers.  I think I have been exceedingly stuck on Poe as of late, so here is a brief respite….

Yeats late in life

William Butler Yeats (June 13 1865-January 28 1939) was born in Dublin, Ireland.  He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1923.  He was an acclaimed poet and dramatist.  The Nobel Prize committee described his work as “inspired poetry, which in a highly artistic form gives expression to the spirit of the whole nation”.   Some of more famous works were The Tower and The Land of Heart’s Desire. 

My personal favorite by Yeats (and honestly probably the only piece I have read) is The Second Coming.  An excerpt of this piece was used in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and has been viewed by critics as an analysis of post World War I pessimism and European moral crisis, most notably the rise of the Fascist and Nazi governments and sever economic crisis.

For a complete version of this poem, visit www.poetry-archive.com/y/the_second_coming.html

Torture Methods of the Spanish Inquisiton

As a follow up to “The Pit and The Pendulum”, I thought it would be interesting to delve into torture methods used by the Inquisitors. These were horrific, making waterboarding look like a walk in the park.

Take for example the thumbscrew. A victim’s fingers would be inserted into this device and slowly crushed. Then there was the Judas chair, where a “participant” would be strapped to a chair and slowly impaled.  Essentially, it was a chair covered in spikes, anywhere from 500 to 1500 in number. My favorite, the pear, was a device that could be inserted into any bodily orifice. A turn of the screw, the pear would separate, splitting and rending flesh and fairly officially ruining your day.

Two very common methods that reached their height of use during the Inquisition were garrotte and the heretic’s fork. 

The Garrotte, used predominantly in Spain

The garrotte consisted of a seat that the accused would sit in.  A rope or metal band was placed around the neck and the executioner would slowly tighten the rope or band, leading to a broken neck, crushed larynx and asphyxiation. 

The develish heretic's fork

The heretic’s fork was a collar with a small pitchfork attached.  The tines of the fork were placed under the chin and extended, allowing no movement of the victims head. 

As you can see, the device that was used in “The Pit and The Pendulum” was probably a device straight from Poe’s twisted mind, but it is a possibility.  For more information, visit http://www.medievality.com/torture.html for more delectable variations.

The Pit and The Pendulum

Published in 1842, this story is an anomaly among Poe’s famous horror tales. Unlike the majority of the other tales, “Pit” does not rely on an element of the supernatural, but on sheer terror stemming from the threat of a slow, imminent and painful death.

The narrator has been accused of an unnamed crime by the terrible Spanish Inquisition. “I saw the lips of the black robed judges”, says the author, who are reading hims his rights and condemning him, yet the author does not hear him. The narrator finds himself in a completely black room after passing out (“swooning”) from the sheer terror of the moment. He proceeds in attempting to figure out the size of the room, during which he passes out again. On awakening, he discovers a pit in the middle of the room, a pit that he barely avoids plummeting into…. Yet again, the narrator passes out, only to awaken and realize that has predicament has changed. He has been strapped bodily to a table. He notices his surroundings, seeing a painting of Father Time on the wall; above, almost imperceptibly, swings a giant pendulum, like that of a clock. Over time, the narrator sees it moving closer…and closer…and closer. It becomes apparent that the narrator is in the arms of death and must devise and escape. Just as the “scimitar” slices through his skin, the narrator escapes falling to the floor. But then, he notices that the room is becoming unbearably hot and the walls are moving in, pushing him towards the pit. “‘Death’ I said, ‘any death but that of the pit!’” he screams. Does he survive? Will he escape from the jaws of hell?

Indeed.

Poe takes a lot of liberties with the historicity of this tale. At the end, he is saved by General Lasalle of Napoleonic fame. As can be deduced, the Spanish Inquisition and the Napoleonic campaigns are separated by hundreds of years. Thus, this continuity is incorrect.

Nevertheless, this is probably my favorite Poe story. Poe really plays with the senses in this piece; vivid images of the pendulum, the “blackness of eternal night encompasses” the narrator throughout, the stifling atmosphere of the Inquisition and the sheer terror of anticipation and a painful death are palpable to the reader. In my case, I hate the dark and I’m kind of scared of knives. On top of that, can you imagine staring above you and watching the instrument of your ultimate destruction move close and closer…..hair-raising. This story effected me physically, on the edge of my seat as the old cliche goes.

And remember, you never expect the Spanish Inquisition!

The Fall of the House of Usher

Considered to be by many critics (including myself) to be Poe’s greatest short story is the haunting ”The Fall of the House of Usher”. It’s a haunted house story, a trip through the human psyche, a tale of premature entombment and even a scary severe weather story.

The narrator visits the mansion of his friend Roderick Usher. Usher lives in the house with his terminally ill sister Madeline, who passes away while our narrator is at the house. What is incredibly striking is Poe’s keen sense of description. He describes the mansion as dark, colors of the grey scale, not necessarily ramshackle or dilapidated, but out of sorts. The interior decor is in the same manner, old furniture, internal windows unreachable, basically your typical haunted mansion type of deal. Roderick is on the verge of insanity; he is a nervous character and incredibly sensitive to sound, light, touch etc. One of the only things he can stand are the sound of his guitar, which he plays and composes off-kilter verses to accompany.

Unfortunately, Madeline succumbs to her malady, leaving Roderick as the last member in his family line.  Upon her death,  Roderick and the narrator place her in one of the many family vaults within the mansion.  As a result of his beloved sister’s demise, Roderick finally falls off the wagon, so to speak.  He begins hearing voice from the walls.  The narrator tries to read him a story to calm him; Roderick enjoys being read to aloud.  But, strangely, what the narrator orates happens in reality.  In the end, it is deduced that young Madeline has been buried alive! The mansion is sucked into the earth amid a violent thunderstorm.

Ultimately, I hate to give away the ending of the story, but the plot is amazing.  In all actuality, I can not express the feelings of foreboding and sheer insanity that Poe so eloquently and effortlessly composes.  The descriptions of the mansion and Roderick’s character and physical appearance are riveting.  The only way to experience this is to read the story.

Roderick himself is such an interesting character.  His character reeks of mental disorder.  His sensitivity to light, sound, touch, etc. and the voices he begins to hear seem to me to be signs of paranoia, schizophrenia, even autism.  Scholars have also pointed the the the house could be the unconscious while the crack in the exterior of the house is the apparent personality split, thus the allusion to disassociative personality disorder. The narrator himself refers to Usher as a hypochondriac.  Roderick presents a phenomenal psychological case study.  I could even go so far as to propose that Roderick my be a personification of Poe’s own character.

Altogether, I would have to agree that “Usher” is one of Poe’s crowning achievements that should be enjoyed or at least perused by all fans of the ghastly and macabre.

Sherlock Holmes vs. C. August Dupin

Mr. Holmes himself

Although, in my personal opinion, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s creation of Sherlock Holmes perfected the detective story, Poe created the genre 40 years prior to Holmes’ first adventure.  Sherlock Holmes first appeared in Beeton’s Christmas Annual in “A Study in Scarlet”, published in 1887.  Dupin’s first adventure, “The Murder in the Rue Morgue”, was published in 1841.  Could it be concluded that Doyle borrowed much of the characteristic of Holmes from Dupin?  These two characters have quite a few things in common.  Holmes is known for smoking a pipe, while Dupin smokes constantly in his study in “The Purloined Letter”.  Both have a trusty and helpful sidekick, Dr. Watson and the unnamed narrator of Dupin.  And both use analogous styles of deduction.  I would say that it is irrefutable that Doyle did not borrow some aspects of Holmes from Dupin.

Study on Edgar Allan Poe: The Purloined Letter and The Black Cat

Recently on Myspace, I have started a group devoted to this issue, thus I will publish the same articles on both. Here is todays post. I have been reading a lot of Edgar Allan Poe lately and I am thoroughly enjoying it. The tales are intriguing and horrifying. I, as most of you did, read some Poe in high school, meaning I didn’t actually read any of it. But, I think that my understanding of his writing is much more astute.

“The Purloined Letter” is considered to be Poe’s finest mystery/detective story. Poe had an affinity and a love for the genere, although he is obviously more well known for his horror tales. Poe wrote three detective stories: “The Purloined Letter”, “The Murders of the Rue Morgue” (of which I have already read and reviewed), and “The Mystery of Marie Roget”. Poe himslef refered to these stories as “tales of ratiocination”

“The Purloined Letter” in summary stars August Dupin again in a more tame tale that the Rue Morgue murders. The case involves a stolen letter of a certain lady dignitary, a letter of seeming importance that is never revealed to the reader. What is incredibly interesting about this story is that Dupin solves it well before the police, using some of the most sound deduction I have read since Sherlock Holmes, even though Dupin was created before Holmes. This story is not action packed, but it is intriguing nonetheless. I would suggest reading this for the simple fact of the astuteness of Dupin. Altogether a better detective story that “Rue Morgue”; consequently, “Letter” must be approached in a differnt manner than “Rue Morgue”.

Ah, “The Black Cat”. This one really struck a nerve. This is one of Poe’s most famous (or is that infamous?) of his horror tales. The narrator begins as being a quiet mild mannered animal lover, but over time begins to loathe everyone around him. The reason that this one hit me so hard is that the narrator seems to suffer from anger management issues, just like me. Obviously I am not as perverse as he, but the reader can watch this rage and anger eat him from the inside, culminating in the murder of his beloved spouse and pets, most notably the black cat named Pluto. This story is very quotable, especially since Poe is writing this from the viewpoint of the narrator, who in turn is fighting with himself throughout the story. A terrifying tale, much akin to “The Tell-Tale Heart”. Both characters seem to have this insatiable urge to commit evil deeds and when confronted, they want to be found out. Dostoyevsky, an admirer of Poe, uses this same tactic with Raskolnikov in “Crime and Punishment”; Raskolnikov almost rats himself out when confronted by the police, as if he wants the authorities to find him out. A truly eerie tale. Enjoy this one at your own expense.

“Who has not, a hundred times, found himself committing a vile or a stupid action, for no other reason than because he knows he should not?..”

“Evil thoughts became my sole intimates–the darkest and most evil of thoughts.”

The Purpose of this Blog

Hello all! I currently have used a different blog for politics, but that usually just infuriates me. Thus, I have created this new blog to discuss the topics of reading and literature. I will be posting summaries of what I am reading, what I like, what I don’t like and my recommendations. I already do this in a group on Myspace, but I figured I would shoot fo a wider market. I hope to also use this as a source for students to use for homework or analysis. Plus, I love to read and hope to share with all who are willing to listen and those who love to read as much as I do! Enjoy and happy reading!