Poe

So, I think I'm a little unique with my experiences regarding the darkly fascinating Edgar Allan Poe. As far as I can tell, most people read Tell Tale Heart and some of his poetry. Though I have read The Raven (on my own, sophomore year of college), I know next to nothing about his poetry. He's more famous for his poetry, and I have to remind myself that he's written more poems than just The Raven because I somehow just forget that.

What I have had since 7th grade, is the Collector's Library compilation of all of his short stories, titled "Tales of Mystery and Imagination". My mom recommended starting with Tale Tell Heart and so I did, alone in my room, right before bed. And I loved it!

I made my way, very slowly, through all of the stories in the book. Most of the others went over my head, but I read them anyway. The only Poe I have read in school, though, is Tell Tale Heart and it had been a long while since I've looked at it from a literary perspective.

The Cask of Amontillado, however, I will have to re-read, so here goes.

First of all, I find Poe so gripping because of how he has a tendency to just start in with the story and you feel like you have to catch up. I feel like some authors do this poorly because they wait too long to give you the background info, but Poe does it well. In this case, I'm immediately wondering who Fortunato is why WHY he's so insulting.

I'm a little confused about the webbing he points out as "Nitre". Wikipedia says "Niter is a colorless to white mineral crystallizing in the orthorhombic crystal system. It usually is found as massive encrustations and effervescent growths on cavern walls and ceilings where solutions containing alkali potassium and nitrate seep into the openings. It occasionally occurs as prismatic acicular crystal groups, and individual crystals commonly show twinning." I'm not really sure what it's importance is though.

I find it a little funny that in trying to google the latin phrase that is his family's moto, all I had to type in was "nemo" before it came up as the second suggestion. It means, "No one attacks me with impunity" or "No one can harm me unpunished". 

If you are curious- the last phrase means, "Rest in peace". 

What I find so wonderful about Poe is the way he explores the depth of the darkness in humanity, and yet, there is room for hope. I love that the narrator does not seem to get the satisfaction he expects from his deed. He leaves in a hurry and ends the story with the "rest in peace" you don't expect someone to afford someone they hated enough to murder. 

I also just love dark stories, but that's just me.

Where I Lived and What I Lived For

I was excited to read Thoreau as he is so often quoted though I've actually read very little of his works. I've read more of Emerson's than his. I was excited to find the "suck all the marrow out of life" quote in context to see how it fits into the larger picture. Bottom line, really, is that I'm excited for this unit.

Admittedly, though, I got a bit impatient with Thoreau after the first couple pages were all descriptions of scenery and farms. I was tempted to fast forward through the "where I lived" part and get to the part I was really intrigued by. I resisted the temptation though I still see only a little substance in the Where I Lived section.

The part I connect with is the purpose of life stuff. Particularly I was intrigued by his extremely long paragraph about mornings and throwing off intellectual sleepiness. I completely agree with his points about Genius and the imagery of being one with nature. I disagree that it HAS to happen in the morning however. He writes, "Morning is when I am awake and there is dawn in me." Morning is not at all the time I am most awake; there is an individual difference in that idea. Though, I understand if he simply choose morning because it fit within the metaphor of dawn and wakefulness.

My point is that I do believe we should all strive for moments like Thoreau describes in this paragraph, but perhaps those moments do actually have to take place in the morning as he argues. Without using the word "transcendental" he is describing a moment of transcending the daily routine and finding a time of awareness and spirituality (not religiousness). I find those moments when I stare at the stars at night, not when I stumble around my bedroom, bleary eyed, trying to find clothes.