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What in Poe's life could have led him to write works with evil and death as their theme?

Write 5 Questions you would ask Poe if you could and then create the answers. Respond as Poe might, if he were alive.

-- Anonymous, January 07, 2003

Answers

He was writing during the high tide of the Gothic genre. He was pushing the limits according to the models of Byron, Coleridge et. al. He was no more crazed than Stephen King, in some ways less so. He wrote a lot of things besides Gothic or macabre subjects. It was the "normal" general public that was totally fascinated with the spooky stuff(as today).

Now to the question. Poe's inspiration came from a sense of alienation and privileged(accursed) apartness that Baudelaire expresses in more savage terms. His early poem "Alone" is a stance that Poe wavers from but little during his career. In this world defined by losses and unseen future hopes, the poet dwells in rebellion, anguish, fidelity to the ideal, but he is no superman. The past is something he can't/won't but would like to recover from were it not also the ideal he clings to, a burning vision that keeps him from worldly happiness and is not a sure thing beyond the murky boundary of death. His sitauation is both exhilarating, existential and a horror he does not shrink from experiencing(in true Romantic zeal for intensity).

THen you can list his orphaning, loss of brother, loves, etc. as a natural formation and reinforcement of this attitude that very early became his poetic core.

I did the 5 question bit once before. If Poe were to answer some of the questions posted here he might become mischievous or philosophical, probably a combination of both, but fiercely defensive at any criticisms of his work or person.

-- Anonymous, January 09, 2003


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