Thursday, March 25, 2010
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
I thought you might get a kick out of this.
These are some mods of computers to look like they are Victorian. Be sure to check out the typewriter keyboards.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Poe handicraft
I kind of had the feeling that the explanation why we prepared the handicraft was a bit lost. So here it is again: in order to get this construction, you have to use your "analytic power" as well as your imagination since there was no model how the figure could/ should look like. This is comparable to Dupin's situation and behavior: he also has to find out how the different pieces fit together, and he also did not have a model as this crime was something that occured never before.
Here is the picture how the Poe figure should look in the end, I didn't imagine that it would be so complicated to construct it without the model...
Here is the picture how the Poe figure should look in the end, I didn't imagine that it would be so complicated to construct it without the model...
New Murders in the Rue Morgue
WHEN APES ATTACK
Why haven't we learned that apes don't make good pets? They're dangerous...Especially when you give them Xanax (or razor blades).
...Also, New Murders in the Rue Morgue is a short horror story by Clive Barker. I wish that I could find my copy of it, but I read in it middle school so who knows where it is. Here is what Wikipedia says about it:
New Murders in the Rue Morgue
Lewis is a seventy-three-year-old man who goes to Paris after his friend, Phillipe, is arrested for butchering a young woman. Phillipe eventually commits suicide in his cell after babbling about an orangutan who committed the murder he had been arrested for. Lewis does not believe it until he sees the primate - dressed like a human, completely shaved, and wielding a razor - for himself. The beast had been raised by Philippe, a notorious eccentric, as a strange experiment on Edgar Allan Poe's classic story.
Thanks Wikipedia for remembering story summaries when I cannot! Though, the story is scarier than Wikipedia makes it sound.
Monday, March 22, 2010
optional discussion questions
I'm sorry, this is late (the indicated time isn't correct), but something didn't work when I first tried it... The following questions are just some thought-provoking impulses...
Though Murder in the Rue Morgue is arguably the first detective story and thus something new, try to think of how this story could fit to the texts we read so far. Are there any connections, concerning ideas 'behind' the story? Also, think of the development of Man we discussed. Poe highlights mental power, which is often seen as the one aspect that seperates man from animals. Consider what this could mean, especially when you think of the fact that the "bestial" crime is comitted by an oran-utan, the most man-like animal.
A last point, which probably fits better when we discuss The Purloined Letter: how do science and art (literature) work together? Imagination and reality? How does Dupin represent/combine this (if at all)?
Though Murder in the Rue Morgue is arguably the first detective story and thus something new, try to think of how this story could fit to the texts we read so far. Are there any connections, concerning ideas 'behind' the story? Also, think of the development of Man we discussed. Poe highlights mental power, which is often seen as the one aspect that seperates man from animals. Consider what this could mean, especially when you think of the fact that the "bestial" crime is comitted by an oran-utan, the most man-like animal.
A last point, which probably fits better when we discuss The Purloined Letter: how do science and art (literature) work together? Imagination and reality? How does Dupin represent/combine this (if at all)?
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1809 to two traveling actors. He was orphaned at a young age and taken into the home of John Allan, a successful merchant living in Richmond, VA.
Poe’s early education took place in England from 1815 to 1820; he continued his studies in Richmond afterward. In 1826, Poe began attending the University of Virginia. John Allan did not give Poe enough money to pay for books and classes, and at some point during his short year at the university, Poe took up drinking and gambling to deal with his debts. It was around this time that he became engaged to his childhood sweetheart Sarah Elmira Royester. Her father, likely due to Poe’s poor financial status, ended the engagement. Over time, Poe’s gambling debts became great, and after several quarrels with his foster father, Poe left both the university and his family behind.
Poe enlisted in the army in 1827, publishing his first book, Tamerlane and Other Poems, out of pocket shortly afterward. This book sold poorly, and with only 50 copies made it is one of the rarest first editions in American literature. He got out of his enlistment early, and attended the Military Academy at West Point for a short time, and after another quarrel with John Allan, Poe was disowned.
For a time, he lived in Baltimore with his widowed aunt Maria Clemm and her children; her daughter Virginia Clemm eventually became his wife. In 1835, he married Virginia in a secret ceremony; they followed this with a public marriage a year later. Poe became editor of various journals and magazines, and through these, he published some of his works and criticism. He even tried to start his own journal, The Stylus, which never took off.
Virginia began to show signs of consumption in 1842, and her slow death took its toll on Poe. He published a few works during the period of her illness—notably “The Raven,” which gave him a good deal of success and fame despite his having received only $9 for its publication—but he stayed close to his wife’s side, especially as her condition began to worsen. Her death in 1847 affected him strongly, and he began to drink heavily once more after having abstained for a long period of time. Although he courted a few women following her death, he never remarried.
On October 3, 1849, Poe was found in a delirium on the streets of Baltimore wearing clothes that weren’t his own. His condition never improved enough for him to explain what had happened, and he died in a hospital on the 7th of October. Interestingly enough, all of his medical records including his death certificate have been lost. Speculations as to the cause of death continue to this day, ranging from things like cooping (a corrupt voting practice in which people are forced to vote for a certain candidate), suicide, murder, cholera, rabies, syphilis, heart disease, and the list goes on.
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/
"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/
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