Places to Chat
Is anyone here
Chatterbox: Blab About Books
Edgar Allen Poe
Is anyone here...
Is anyone here a fan of Edgar Allen Poe? Or the macabre in general?
submitted by TNÖ, age 15, Deep Space
(May 7, 2009 - 9:50 pm)
(May 7, 2009 - 9:50 pm)
I like Edgar Allen Poe, though I haven't read THAT many of his books. I like mysteries in general....
(May 8, 2009 - 9:44 am)
Have you read Hop Frog?
(May 8, 2009 - 4:54 pm)
I've never read Hop Frog, but the Great Illustrated Classic (bleh! *boos GIC*) of Fall of the House of Usher was great, for a GIC book. And in school, we read a VERY pathetically simplified version of The Tell-Tale Heart, which we acted out as a "play"--rather, we read the parts. My teacher, who just LOVES me--not-- assigned me the part of the old man's heart. Haha. Humorous. I spent the whole play going "bumpbumpbump." It was a bad situation, but the play came through as pretty okay, for a simplified version. Though EAP appeared a bit, um, what's the word? Twisted? Insane? Unusual?
Also, I've read the first stanza of The Raven, which was awesome, but I haven't found the rest of the poem yet. :( I should also try and find a copy of House of Usher that isn't "illustrated" in any way. *boos GIC more*
Sorry, I don't particularly like GIC books. The publishers see to think awfully of children.
(May 8, 2009 - 7:53 pm)
You could probably find any of his short stories in full and nonillustrated online with a quick Google search. But, yeah, if you read a GIC Poe, you didn't actually read Poe so much as... pathetic mockery that WISHES it was Poe.
"Simplified" how? Because basically The Tell-Tale Heart is a deranged monologue of a demented murderer... I don't see how you could read different "parts" if there is no dialogue until the madman confesses...?
And yeah, Poe was kind of... dark... but in a good way, and he basically invented the horror story and the mystery story. I'd recommend Murders in the Rue Morgue, try and figure out who did it before the end - I certainly didn't... anyway...
...So I checked out the GIC "library" just now. Uh, Phantom of the Opera? The Picture of Dorian Gray? Alice in Wonderland? Dracula? Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde? Grimm Fairytales? Hunchback of Notre-Dame? The Man in the Iron Mask? War of the Worlds? Wizard of Oz? EAP? HP Lovecraft? How dare these people touch my precious literature! *fumes*
(May 9, 2009 - 12:37 am)
GIC is horrible, there's a picture on every other page, the font is practically size twenty, and the editing is... mediocre.
Well, the thing with The Tell-Tale Heart was, they had to do it in play format, because the Weekly Readers like the interactive type thing. There's not dialogue, true, so it was mostly just my friend Gianna blathering on about EXSTINGUISHING THE EYE, but they had this raven chorus thing- don't ask- and the policemen, and the old man. Oh yes, and the old man's heart. Me. bumpbumpumpbump.
They put it in play format by conveying the murderer's thoughts and narration through dialogue- for instance, whereas it is noted in the real piece how the murderer was especially nice to the old man before killing him, the WR simplified play demonstrated this by having the muderer say, "Would you like some tea?" and the old man replying, "Why, yes, please, you are too kind," or something like that. *dies*
Yes, it was a bad situation; I can see how it would be minorly confusing.
(May 10, 2009 - 1:28 pm)
Yeh, I found a GIC exert from "The Black Cat" and it was horrid... I shudder to think what they did to "The Fall of the House of Usher"... And the illustrations were... ah... well... *cannot think of a polite way to phrase this* Poe, I think, would not have liked them in the least. Plus the introduction was stupid. Like I said, Poe wannabes and nothing more.
That play sounds HORRID.
(May 10, 2009 - 9:38 pm)
It really was. Extremely so.
I just finished EAP's Ligeia a few days ago, and found it really good. Exceedingly creepy, with that whole reanimated-corpse-that-keeps-dying thing, but really extraordinarily good.
Early on in the story, though, during that, like, what, two-page monologue where he's describing Ligeia, and he started blathering on about her eyes, I got a little scared that EAP had invented another eyeball-gouging, pupil-obsessed maniac, but thankfully that was not so.
The ending was a teensy bit confusing... does anyone have a better explanation than mine, which is me perceiving Ligeia being Rowena and vice versa, or possession or something, and then, um, Ligeia, after spending all night trying to be alive again through Rowena (this is afer poisoning her drink?), I think, came flying out of Rowena's head, alive and well, and then the main character/narrator started screaming and the story ended? I think? Have I got that?
(May 12, 2009 - 7:00 pm)