What were poe's views on art, chaos, sensibility, and fear?

-- Anonymous, April 16, 2001

Answers

Yow. Hope that's not a term paper. His views on art and sensibility are exquisitely detailed in his own essays and literary reviews atwww.eapoe.org the E A Poe Society of Baltimore. For chaos his difficult book "Eureka" would be the best place. In that he generally views the universal process of creation breaking apart out of a central unity and then returning full circle after dissolution to the same unity. A kind of transcendental pantheism, but it helped him deal with his own inner chaos and search fot the elusive ideal. Fear? He did not like to face them except through the medium of his art, so actually that is more difficult. The real thing: poverty, personal attacks and the lingering death of Virginia made the exploration of nightmares and artistic terrors pale in comparison.

-- Anonymous, May 06, 2001