I can agree with you up to a point and that is that of all the gothic and
general horror fiction I have read he is greater where the mystery is
concerned which is why for some he is so frightening. The Mask of the Red
Death, even though you know what is coming, still has you holding your
breath by the end. It was more of a mystery in the 19th century than it is
to a modern reader since most of us are educated at least a little in
history and know about the plague though most of us know it as the Black
Death. Even though there are some treatments for it, it is still terrifying.
And now we have somany more plagues to frighten us.
To me, the ones I cannot read or watch as films are the ones that seem to
deliberately try to nauseate us. My ex husband was a great fran of the Night
of the LIving Death and its sequels and though I lived in Pittsburgh and new
some of the people in the movie I had no desire to see it. The 5th in that
series came out while I was married and I found myself unable to get out of
going with him and his brother and it is still unique as the only movie I
ever sat through with my eyes closed. The noises were enough to make me gag
but I don't know which were worse, the noices in the movie or in the
audience.
At lease Poe makes us use his brains. The only mysteries I enjoy these days
are ones I see on PBS. I never figure out who-done-it and I have given up
trying to figure it out in books. I don't enjoy frustration. Now I had a
mother and have a sister who love them as pure escapism .I'll escape with
science fiction, especially psi-ence fiction like Alfred Bester wrote, or
some of Rod Serling or Harlan Ellison though he wrote a few of the tales
that gave me nightmares - literally. And there is also Tolkien to reread, or
Mary Stewart or even C.S.Lewis. Then I can read new "stuff" amongst the old
gold. [ Ellison's titles are warnings or invitations so you can tell by the
titles what you don't want to read. Also Serling & Bradbury so jump in.]
For Poe, I don't know if even Lithium would have helped. There is a theory,
and not as silly as some believe, that Poe's genetic makeup was such that
his system converted starches not just into sugar but, in part to alcohol so
his "drunken-ness", what has long been believed to be alcoholism was not
caused by drinking alcohol. I did not believe this at first but I have
heard enough to know that the human body with it enzymes and hormones can
cause strange reactions. I have a hormone which causes me to retain sodium
and, therefore, fluid. But normal blood tests would have me and the
doctors believe I had too little sodium in my system and one almost killed
me by pumping full of 15% saline and water. I finally took the IV out of
my arm, went home and took a pill to make me lose the fluid. 24 hours later
I was fine and I now know to balance my low salt diet with a low fluid diet
as the hormone put the sodium into my cells and not my blood stream. All I
knew was everything I ate or drank tasted like brine and I knew it had to be
the sodium whatever the blood test said. Poe could never have understood let
alone made anyone believe the ideathat he was not drimking himself to death,
e may not have known what was giong on, but just struggle with what was
going on in his life. Lilthium might have helped him control his depression
but it might not have changed anything else. What was bad fortne for Poe
was, Ironically, good for us in that it left a marvelous body of writing.
We all know too much these days to be overly surprised or stumped by
fictionall mysteries. Every member of Bookshare knows something about
disabilities and the things that can cause them , And we know about some of
the miracles, or whatever you choose to call them, that save people from
even worse things. I am not being a Pollyanna but I am reminded, and I don't
remember the source, of the philosopher who was asked for a sentence that
was true in all situation s and the answer still is true: This too shall
pass.
Monica, I think thses last few weeks I have been catching up on the
non-conversations I have had over the last20 years so you will have to
forgive and just stop reading when you have had enough.
Amy
----- Original Message -----
From: "Monica Willyard" <plumlipstick@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, September 24, 2006 5:04 PM
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Using Library Catalog System
Hi, Amy. It's great to have a teacher on this list. (smile) I have to confess that I haven't enjoyed Poe's work. It gives me the creeps, and I guess I'd have classified it as horror fiction instead of mystery fiction. The House of Usher gave me the creeps in triplicate, nothing like the Rex Stout, Ellery Queen, or Agatha Christie books I've come to love. I see your logic and can agree with it at the intellectual level. At the heart level, I just sort of feel... revulsion and wish I could argue the point. To me, Poe was a deeply disturbed man who probably needed Lithium.
Monica Willyard
At Sunday 9/24/2006 03:46 PM, you wrote:Sorry folks but the honor of inventing both the first true mystery (story and poem) and detective story go to Edgar Allen Poe. While the British like to claim to be the originators of almost all types of literature and certainly have perfected some, they neither created nor perfected these two but they were the precursors of some. The first detective story was his "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" with August Dupon.
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