Edgar Allan Poe

The other day while I was exploring the never ending rows of books at the library, I stumbled upon one that looked as if it had gone to Hell and back. Well, almost...I'm a sucker for ancient books. I don't know how many I have collected over the years. I've lost count. I just love the idea that they have been used, held, and loved by others. Flipping through the yellowed and stiff pages you can't help but notice the pungent smell of dust, decay, age...Call me crazy, but I adore it. However, I digress. I had just finished the required readings for Edgar Allan Poe for class and should have been doing other work, but somehow I found myself stumbling around in the library. Naturally, like a moth to the light, I immediately grabbed this old book from the shelf. It's copyright is 1882. The brown cover is worn with beautiful flower engravings along the side. The title, Every-Day Topics is scrawled at the top with the author's name, J.G. Holland at the bottom. I opened the book to a random page, and what do you know! There is Edgar Allan Poe's name standing out in the midst of all the words!!!

The topic of the "chapter" was entitled "Certain Virtues and Virtuous Habits." At the beginning it reads: "Above all other things in the world, character has supreme value. A man can never be more than what his character-intellectual, moral, spiritual-makes him. A man can never do more, or better, than deliver, or embody, that which is characteristic of himself...Nothing can be more un-philosophical than the idea that a man who stands upon a low moral and spiritual plane can produce, in literature or art, anything valuable (135)." Okay, I thought, if you don't have good morals or spiritual beliefs nothing you create or write will be of any value: where is this going? I turned the dust covered page and read on: "It is claimed by a certain class of critics that we have nothing to do with the character of an artist or a writer. They forget that a knowledge of a man's character is a short cut to a correct judgment of his work. It is only necessary to know Edgar A. Poe that he was a man of weak will, without the mastery of himself-a dissipated man-a man of morbid feeling-a self-loving man, without the wish or purpose to serve his fellows-to know that he could never write a poem that would help anybody, or write a poem that possessed any intrinsic value whatever. His character was without value, and, for that reason, he was without the power of ministry. His character was without value, and nothing of value could come out of it. His poems are one continued, selfish wail over lost life and lost love. The form of his art was striking, but the material was wretchedly poor in everything of value to human life (136)." VERY interesting!!!

As I read this I thought of Emerson and Thoreau. Self-Reliance came immediately to mind. Holland, the author of this book, is basically saying that Poe was different, an odd duck, one of these things that just doesn't belong. "To be great is to be misunderstood." Holland called Poe"a self-loving man." However, he also called him a man "without the mastery of himself." Wait a minute! So, Poe was interested in his own personal business and control over his life but he could not master himself? I find this to be a very interesting contradiction of what we had discussed in class with Emerson and Thoreau. I'm not sure what to think about this. The opinions of Poe, his character, and his work, at the time the book was written, seem especially harsh. And Poe had been dead for nearly thirty-five years!!! Now, I suppose we should keep in mind that this book was written almost one hundred and thirty years ago, so opinions have greatly changed. I think that today Poe is considered to be one of the most fascinating literary figures of all time. People today, I would imagine, wouldn't care about Poe's character in the same way that Holland so obviously did during his time.

Now, in class we discussed his short story, The Black Cat. We talked about Poe's narrators and how unreliable they really are. Poe showed through his frightening short stories that every mind is capable of madness and vulnerable to itself. In The Black Cat the narrator is fully aware that he is surrendering to the dark side of his mind. However, he seems unwilling to stop this transformation. The narrator gives us many excuses for his behavior and the ill-treatment of his beloved pet, Pluto. He blames intoxication, demons, and finally just doing wrong for wrong's sake. Even as he hangs Pluto he doesn't appear to show much remorse or guilt. We debated whether or not the narrator supports Emersonian and Thoreaian ideals. The narrator offers explanations of hanging the cat and killing his wife but doesn't defend these explanations. We concluded that he begins anti-and then turns powerfully Emersonian. However, I do not think that Emerson and Thoreau would have appreciated the character of Poe's narrator. Poe, on the other hand, was making a point that there are not strong enough ethical safeguards built around these ideas. This brings us to the next idea. PERVERSITY. This is the total domination of evil. The narrator is tempted and knows that it is bad but still wants to do it. Something in the self is drawn to this destructiveness of everything. The narrator says on page 232: "...I am not more sure that my soul lives, than I am that perverseness is one of the primitive impulses of the human heart-one of the indivisible primary faculties, or sentiments, which give direction to the character of Man. Who has not, a hundred times, found himself committing a vile or silly action, for no other reason than because he knows he should not?" Holy Mackerel! Is Poe suggesting that there are parts in each and every one of us that refuses to be controlled? That we can't trust the self because we can't even fully capture it all?!! Scary idea Poe!!! He continues with this idea that these bad things that we want to do we need to be weary of. We also need to be weary of the self-reliant philosophy. Hmm...About that...To finish up with The Black Cat, we also thought of how this perversity, or finding pleasure in the violence that the piece of self exercises, is a type of enslavement. This is not freedom. The narrator turns against his own pleasures and abuses what he loves by exercising his own power over...His cat...His wife. The narrator in this short story is clearly insane, and yet, he embraces his insanity and perverseness.

On Thursday we discussed another short story of Poe's: Ligeia. I adore this piece. Before getting into deep class discussion we teamed up and went around campus, asking random people if they thought that love conquered all. Most people said NO. Wow. Thank you for that dash of cold water!!! How depressing. I felt like I should find a carton of Ben&Jerry's cookie dough ice cream, a pillow, and a bunch of chick flicks with this "unrealistic" love being conquered nonetheless. Is Poe suggesting in Ligeia that love conquers all, including death?!! Conquest doesn't have to be an ugly thing? The narrator in this short story has a love that is so dangerous!!! He is extremely obsessed with Ligeia. This obsessive, unhealthy, domineering love is one of great excess. The narrator also views Ligeia as an object. His love for her like that of idolatry. Their love is greater than God?!! Isn't God love?!! Hmm... It was also mentioned in class that it seemed as if he was making her up!!! I agree 100%. He can't remember many things about her (like her last name), other than her general appearance and how she made him feel. At the beginning of the story he even says: "I cannot, for my soul, remember how, when, or even precisely where, I first became acquainted with the lady Ligeia (26)." Umm...most people normally remember when they they first meet someone, especially if they have a very close relationship later. Another great point was made: the love and obsessing was less about her and more about the feelings were brought up in the narrator when he thought of her. Once more we come across this idea of PERVERSITY. He wants what is not good for him. The narrator wants these feelings of pleasure. However, simultaneously these feelings are undoing the self. It could also be seen as Ligeia being the perverse character, demanding that he love her, worship her, etc. Does one character have more control or power over the other? Or do they both have some kind of power?

So...Poe...I can't really say if he had a poor character or not. But I'd have to disagree with Holland when it comes to his work having no value. Poe's material is full of the explorations of the psyche and the dark things that may live there. I think that Holland and the people of his time found Poe's work to be frightening and were not able to understand. Therefore, they concluded that his character as well as his work were without any value. Poe today, however, is a most interesting character. Although all his material is bleak, dark, and downright scary, I still appreciate his interest and artistic ability as a writer. Especially, the exploration of the truth and reality of the insane. So, my dearest Mr. Holland, you might have thought Poe's work nothing but trash, but nowadays it seems to give possibilities to the endless questions of the mind that we cannot answer.

Holland, J.G. Every-Day Topics. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1882.