Thinking of the "Impossible" - internal horror and the beginning of detective fiction

"It is only left for us to prove that these apparent "impossibilities" are, in reality, not such" (110).

"The depth lies in the valleys where we seek her, and not upon the mountain-tops where she is found" (105).
-Dupin-

The quotes above, taken from The Murder in the Rue Morgue, already reveal the 'secret' of detective Dupin's success: Mental ability is one of the key terms in Poe’s detective stories. Generally seen as the first detective story (or "tale of ratiofication" as Poe calls it), The Murder in the Rue Morgue establishes a lot of characteristics of a detective story: the peculiar, eccentric sleuth, his assistant, the secret of the murder in the locked room, and a solution achieved by analysis/psychological deduction. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, for example, can be seen as direct successors of Dupin and the narrator of the story. It is emphasized in the beginning of the story that “higher powers of the reflective intellect” are the means to success. To get the solution, the sleuth must be able and willing to think in uncommon ways, should ask “what has occurred that has never occurred before” (107). He has to think the unthinkable.

Mentality also plays an important role in Poe’s horror stories. These follow the English Gothic tradition of the eighteenth century concerning imagery and form of horror: spooky castles, vast countryside, decay, and a first-person narrator. However, Poe’s invention in this genre is that of subtle, psychological horror, a terror from within instead of an outside threat. As he says, the horror comes from the soul. Already this indicates that Poe was very intrigued by extreme mental states. For him, “problems of identity did not originate in consciousness but resulted from the foreignness of the environment in which mentality found itself" (xvii). Mentality internalizes the environment and thus can create this subtle, psychological terror found in Poe’s horror stories.

Poe is often handled as a difficult author, partly because of his more than unstable life, partly because of his style of writing. Novelist Henry James warned that “to take [Poe] with more than a certain degree of seriousness is to lack seriousness one’s self” (vii) And essayist Paul Elmer More despised him as a poet of “unripe boys and unsound men” (vii). And a lot of his bad reputation can be blamed on his literary executer Rufus W. Griswold who published an abhorrent obituary in which he presents Poe as a depraved character without any honor. Unfortunately, this obituary had been included in Poe’s complete works.
The French poet Baudelaire, however, adored Poe’s work, translated it into French and thus made it popular in Europe. Today, Poe is not only famous for his horror and detective fiction but also for his literary theory and critique.
The adaptations of Poe’s works are innumerable. There are a lot of film versions (silent movie, modern adaptations, cartoons such as the Simpsons, or a Tim Burton version of the poem “The Raven”).




Additionally comic adaptations and even computer games. Poe’s work also influenced musicians, especially gothic and metal bands, but also composers such as Ravel and Debussy who wrote an unfinished opera based on “The House of Usher.”

The mysteries continue after Poe's death. Every year on his birthday, a mysterious visitor, nicknamed the "Poe toaster" by the public, visited Poe's grave in Baltimore, left three roses and a bottle of Cognac. The visitor sometimes lalso eft notes, and it is guessed that there are more than one visitor as a note in 1999 said that the tradition was conveyed to "a son." The tradition existed since 1949, and although there are descriptions of the visitor (dressed in black with a hat and a white scarf), his identity has never been completely revealed. This year, Poe's 201. anniversary, the visitor did not appear...



All quotations are from: Poe, Edgar Allan. Selected Tales. Edited with an introduction and notes by David Van Leer. Oxford University Press 1998.

Further references: Nagel, James (ed.). Critical Essays on Edgar Allan Poe. G. K. Hall & Co. 1987.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jan/19/nevermore-mystery-visitor-misses-poes-birthday/