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How Edgar Allan Poe became the darling of the maligned and misunderstood
Could the pugnacious writer ever have imagined that he would one day become a cult hero?
Nick Lehr/The Conversation
Edgar Allan Poe, who would have turned 214 years old on Jan. 19, 2023, remains one of the world’s most recognizable and popular literary figures.
His face – with its sunken eyes, enormous forehead and disheveled black hair – adorns tote bags, coffee mugs, T-shirts, and lunch boxes. He appears as a meme, either sporting a popped collar or aviator shades as Edgar Allan Bro.
As a Poe scholar, I sometimes wonder whether Poe’s appeal is less about the power and complexity of his prose and more about an attraction to the idea of Poe.
After all, Poe’s most famous literary creations tend to be unsympathetic villains. There are psychopaths who perpetuate seemingly motiveless murders in “The Black Cat” and “The Tell-Tale Heart”; protagonists who abuse women in “Ligeia” and “The Fall of the House of Usher”; and characters who exact cruel, fatal revenge on unwitting victims in “The Cask of Amontillado” and “Hop-Frog.”
The degenerate characters whose perspectives Poe invites readers to inhabit don’t exactly align with a cultural moment characterized by the #MeToo movement, safe spaces and trigger warnings.
At the same time, the conception of Poe the writer seems to tap into a cultural affection for outsiders, nonconformists and underdogs who ultimately prove their worth.
A character assassination that misfires
The idea of Poe the underdog began with his death in 1849, which was greeted by a cruel notice in the New York Tribune: “This announcement will startle many, but few will be grieved by it.”
The obituary writer, who turned out to be Poe’s sometime friend and constant rival Rufus W. Griswold, claimed that the deceased had “few or no friends” and proceeded with a general character assassination built on exaggerations and half-truths.
Strange as it seems, Griswold was also Poe's literary executor, and he expanded the obituary into a biographical essay that accompanied Poe’s collected works. If this was a marketing ploy, it worked. The friends that Griswold claimed Poe lacked rose to his defense, and journalists spent decades debating who the man really was.
During Poe’s lifetime, most readers encountered his work through magazines, and he was rarely well paid. But Griswold’s edition went through 19 printngs in the 15 years after Poe's death, and his stories and poems have been endlessly reprinted and translated ever since.
Griswold’s defamatory portrait, along with the grim subject matter of Poe’s stories and poems, still influences the way readers perceive him. But it has also produced a sustained reaction or counterimage of Poe as a tragic hero, a tortured, misunderstood artist who was too good – or, at any rate, too cool – for his world.
While translating Poe’s works into French in the 1850s and 1860s, the French poet Charles Baudelaire promoted his hero as a kind of countercultural visionary, out of step with a moralistic, materialistic America. Baudelaire’s Poe valued beauty over truth in his poetry and, in his fiction, saw through the self-improvement pieties that were popular at the time to reveal “the natural wickedness of man.” Poe struck a chord with European writers, and as his international stature rose in the late 19th century, literary critics in the U.S. wrung their hands over his lack of appreciation “at home.”
Poe’s underdog story takes off
By the turn of the 20th century, the stage was set for Poe to be embraced as the perennial underdog. And Poe often did appear on stage around this time, as the subject of several biographical melodramas that depicted him as a tragic figure whose lack of success had more to do with a hostile cultural and publishing environment than his own failings.
That image appeared on the silver screen as early as 1909 in D.W. Griffith’s short film “Edgar Allen Poe.” With Poe’s wife, Virginia, languishing on a sick bed, the poet ventures out to sell “The Raven.” After meeting rejection and scorn, he manages to sell his manuscript and returns home with provisions for his ailing wife, only to find that she has died.
Later films also depict Poe as being misunderstood or underappreciated in his lifetime. A wildly inaccurate biopic, “The Loves of Edgar Allan Poe,” released in 1942, ends with a voice-over commenting, “…little did [the public] know that the manuscript of ‘The Raven,’ which he tried in vain to sell for $25, would years later bring the price of $17,000 from a collector.”
When John Lennon sang “Man, you should have seen them kicking Edgar Allan Poe” in “I Am the Walrus,” he didn’t have to say who was kicking him or why. The point was, Poe deserved better; the most interesting plants do grow in the shade, unlovely and unloved.
And that’s exactly why so many people – aspiring writers and artists, but also everyone when they’re lonely and misunderstood – see a little bit of themselves in the weary-but-wise image of Poe.
See more HERE
“Bloody Bites!” Bloody Disgusting and Days of the Dead Announce Film Festival Partnership for Horror Shorts
By Bloody Disgusting Staff
Bloody Disgusting’s Tony Wash (filmmaker and BD TV Acquisitions / Programming) has partnered with Days of the Dead Film Festival’s George and Audery Lane (Directors & Programmers), looking to acquire horror themed shorts from the film festival to be included in future episodes of the show.
“I’ve been attending DotD conventions as a filmmaker and patron for almost a decade and love what George and Audery have done to build this film festival! Knowing how important the convention circuit is for indie filmmakers such as myself, I could think of no better way to promote acquisitions for Bloody Bites than through a partnership with DotD’s film festival.”
DOTD will also present a special certificate award to their favorite BLOODY BITES short during the film festival awards ceremony at their events. To submit your film to the Days of the Dead Film Festival, go to the FilmFreeway link here – https://filmfreeway.com/DaysoftheDeadFilmFestival
“The importance of this partnership is to discover indie talents at a time when the film industry desperately needs fresh ideas,” said co-director and programmer George Lane, adding, “Our goal is to introduce audiences to quality films that are rarely seen because they are shorts.”
See more HERE
FX SCHEDULES ‘AMERICAN HORROR STORIES’ SEASON 3 FOR OCTOBER
written by Thomas Tuna
Halloween season just got even spookier.
The third season of American Horror Stories will debut on Hulu in October with a special four-episode Huluween Event. Check out the bizarre poster on this page.
The spinoff anthology series–hitting Hulu Oct. 26–was created by Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk, and has aired 15 episodes so far over the first two seasons.
The show features hour-long, self-contained episodes–telling tales of horror myths, legends and lore that are mainly unconnected to the original American Horror Story series.
No details on storylines and casting have been revealed at this point, but previous seasons have starred such genre standouts as Matt Bomer, Billie Lourd and Alicia Silverstone.
Go HERE to learn more.
The HWA interviews Jeani Rector
Tom Joyce of The Horror Writers Association introduces this interview by saying, "If you ever get despondent over the state of the publishing industry, think of Jeani Rector. Jeani...talks about what she looks for in a submission."
See the interview HERE
The 12 Most Famous Horror Movie Quotes of All Time
Horror movies have given us famous lines that have become mainstays of popular culture.
By JOHN WITIW
Horror movies are filled with such iconic lines that they are sometimes more infamous than the films themselves. Some of them are just that scary, while others can be funny, often in a dark comedy sort of sense. An actor's performance can make a simple line all the more memorable as much as it could just be well-written.
If the filmmakers were aware of how catchy a line was, it might function as a movie's tagline. Variations might appear in sequels and remakes. Sometimes, these lines become trendy in pop culture and can often be the subject of parody.
Below is a list of the top twelve horror movie quotes in ascending order:
12. Dracula (1931) - "I never drink... wine."
11. Suspiria (1977) - "Do you know anything about... witches?"
10. The Silence of the Lambs (1991) - "I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti."
9. The Wolf Man (1941) - "Even a man who is pure in heart..."
8. Carrie (1976) - "They're all gonna laugh at you!"
7. The Sixth Sense (1999) - "I see dead people."
6. The Shining (1980) - "Here's Johnny!"
5. When a Stranger Calls (1979) - "It's coming from inside the house."
4. The Fly (1986) - "Be afraid. Be very afraid."
3. Jaws (1975) - "You're gonna need a bigger boat."
2. It (1990) - "You'll float, too!"
...AND NUMBER ONE:
1. Scream (1996) - "What's your favorite scary movie?"
See the entire article HERE
What is dark tourism and why are we drawn to morbid death sites? The recent trip to see the Titanic wreckage is the latest in a long line of morbid tourist attractions. The Evening Standard publishes a list of dark sites where people seem to flock.
According to psychologists, there are reasons that people feel the need to visit morbid places associated with the worst of human history.
Dr. Donna Pomade, a specialist in the studying of dark tourism, said: “It may seem strange to many of us, but a morbid curiosity draws tourists to the strangest — and most forboding — corners of the world.”
Psychologist Dr. Mark Griffiths wrote:
“The reasons why tourists are attracted to dark tourism sites derive, at least in part, from the same curiosity which motivates a visit to Niagara Falls. Visiting dark tourism sites is an out of the ordinary experience, and thus attractive for its uniqueness and as a means of satisfying human curiosity. So the main reason is the experience of the unusual.
“Another of the reasons for visiting dark tourism sites may be empathy, which is an acceptable way of expressing a fascination with horror… In many respects, the interpretation of dark tourism sites can be difficult and sensitive, given the message of the site as forwarded by exhibition curators can at times conflict with the understandings of visitors.
“Horror is also regarded as one of the key reasons for visiting dark tourism sites, and for precisely the same reasons and with the same moral overtones. Such tourism products or examples are: Ghost Walks around sites of execution or murder (Ghost Tour of Prague), Murder Trails found in many cities like Jack the Ripper in London.”
The Evening Star lists the top six morbid sites that attracts visitors:
Auschwitz-Birkenau, Poland
Chernobyl and Pripyat, Ukraine
9/11 Memorial and Museum, Ground Zero, New York, USA
Rwanda
Hiroshima, Japan
Alcatraz, San Francisco, California, USA
See details HERE
THE HORROR ZINE IS PUBLISHING BOOK REVIEWS
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To learn how to submit your book for review, go HERE.
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