hey,

i REALLY need help.....my liturature teacher gave me this project and i need help.....i need a theisis(spelling?) statement and then i gotta do a report that's like 3 pages....and i was wondering.....can anybody help me out there?....thanks if you can

-- Anonymous, October 15, 2001

Answers

Sounds like someone has stumbled in out of the savage wilderness into a junior high English literature class. Spellcheckers on your computer might be helpful but I am sure you have been given handouts, etc. on the process. Lamentably, the fun of theses derives from having widely read not just the subject at hand but many things over a period of years. So one must read- too quickly- absorb even more quickly and hope the brain comes up with ideas a little more than half-cooked. Start small. Read a few items and some history for context. Keep your dictionary or teacher handy. Peruse www.eapoe.org and the wide selection of Poe's works, which happily are not many or long. Some of the articles or even questions frequently asked about Poe(please not about drunken maniacal characterizations of his unfortunate life!)can inspire you. You might even try the areas one does not first associate with Poe such as humor and scientific innovations. Poe's invention of the detective story comes from his personal blend of a man interested in scientific analysis with the spiritual romantic striving to reconcile the known and the deadly unknown.

Don't presume that in my haste I have spelled everything correctly ether.

-- Anonymous, October 16, 2001