Edgar Allan Poe. Ever since I first heard a reading of his poem “The Raven” when I was about six or seven years old, I’ve been fascinated by his combined works, and by extension, equally fascinated by the way his mind worked. A couple of years later, I began to devour everything Poe, in both written and cinematic form. Any Poe-based movie, or even any rip-off of a Poe-based theme, caught my attention. My mother, an avid reader herself, a lover of writing poetry, and somewhat of a fiction writer, at first tried to steer me away from his works for their dark, forlorn and downright morose tone, but I would sneak a book and a flashlight (torch) under the bedcovers at night and try to feed my habit in defiance to her protestations. Finally, she acquiesced when she saw that A) I wouldn’t stop, B) it was not turning me into a prepubescent axe murderer, C) it was broadening my mind, and D) I loved it so much I began to read “The Raven” in its entirety, but it took forever, because there I sat, Poe in one hand and several dictionaries in the other, enraptured by the new words and extended definitions I was learning. I couldn’t believe the clever way he took words, both small and large, and expanded their use to fit not only the gist of his poem, but also to make rhymes out of seemingly unrelated and unimaginable lexicography. Having read it so much, so often, and so deeply, at that young age I memorized many stanzas of ”The Raven”, but I never mastered it in full. To this day I can recite from memory at least the first third of it. That poem led me to “Annabelle Lee”, “The Bells”, “The Tale The Cask of Amontillado”, “The Murders on the Rue Morgue” and others. I branched from Poe to other authors on my thirst for input, but he was a main pillar in the foundation of my quest.
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This post was edited by Randy D at March 24, 2020 7:17 AM MDT
Ah! The Amontillado story - what a revenge! How succinctly shown! Poe is extraordinary. He wrote an essay, on the value of the "single effect" in short story writing, which will probably remain the best bit of advice on writing that I'll ever come across.
With such brilliant torchlight reading under the covers, it's no wonder you developed a love of grammar. Poe makes language dance like Baryshnikov.
Yes, Poe would be an amazing raconteur to bring to the dinner table. Now who would I invite as an added ingredient in the human cocktail? Toni Morrison for her Song of Solomon, The Bluest Eye, and Beloved. Both Poe and Morrison share an understanding of the dark side of human nature, and are not afraid to examine it under a microscope.
I had never heard of this. I had to go read an article. The most interesting of the characters, to me, was Dorothy Rothschild....communist black-listed giantess of talent.
I'm too tired to try to put together my own round table, but I like the conversation.
Thriftymaid 