Edgar Allan poe

[dem]

Feb 10, 2012 10:10:18 GMT pulphack said:

At the risk of cheapening the thread, allow me to mention that The Alan Parsons Project's 'Tales Of Mystery And Imagination' (1976) does a pretty nifty job of putting Poe into a prog-lite context, and has great sleeve and booklet art from Hipgnosis that has a suitably odd atmosphere. It might seem trivial, but Eric Woolson's lyrics are actually adept at keeping the feel of Poe (he wrote a hell of a lot of musicals, including one based on Freud's life and theories).

It's actually a nice companion to the original work. Honest.

Bah! never mind yer Alan bloody Parsons Project and cover art by Hipgnosis malarky!What about Peter Hammill? Van Der Graaf's Plague Of Lighthouse Keepers is drenched in Poe, as is Still Life, quite possibly the most morbid 'song' ever committed to vinyl. And then we have Mr. Hammill's opera based on The Fall Of The House Of Usher although, admittedly, i've not heard it and the reviews were almost unanimously horrible. Come to think of it, PH even namechecks the beast of Baltimore in When She Comes, comparing the protaginist's dream woman made flesh, the lady with the skin so white, first to "something out of Blake or Burne-Jones" and later, as the pair are reduced to striking "sleazy bargains", "something out of Edgar Allan Poe." And let's not forget ... drones on in similar vein for a number of days ....

here's a very Poe-related item ( the clue's in the title) struck a chord, Sam Moskowitz's A Man Called Poe: Stories in The Vein Of Edgar Allan Poe, which i love for the late, great Mr. Moscowitz's informative introductions as much as the fiction, though much of it is outstanding in its way (Michael Avallone was on rare form!). In 2009, Ellen Datlow edited an anthology for Solaris along the same lines, this one featuring all new stories, which may possibly explain why i couldn't get worked up about and still haven't hunted down a copy. Poe seems to have gone down well with the critics, though i can't recall too many kind words about it from our contributors.

also, an earlier attempt at a DIY Mammoth Book Of Poe if anyone cares to join in.

[pulphack]

erm, well... true, but the thing about Hammill is that i consider him far superior to Poe...

incidentally, good quote from 'When She Comes' - World Record is an oft-ignored VDGG album, maybe becasue of the odd reggae jam at the end of 'Mergulys III', which must have shocked prog fans but is very VDGG to throw in. i love that song - 'these days i maybe just talk to cats and dogs/ all human contact seems painful, specious, odd...'

[cauldronbrewer]

We took a short trip down to Baltimore today to pay respects at Mr. Poe's grave.





I freely admit stealing this pose from a particular Vault regular:

[Johnlprobert]

Seriously cool photos there!

Oddly enough I'm currently reading 'Evermore' - the Arkham house antho of Poe inspired stories.

[junkmonkey]

Feb 5, 2012 13:12:47 GMT cauldronbrewer said:

I've always had a soft spot for Poe's sea-themed stories: "MS. Found in a Bottle," "A Descent into the Maelstrom," and The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym. Pym, in particular, is a thrill ride of a novella, though it's obvious that Poe was making it up as he went along (it ends, almost literally, in midair). From the original spoiler-heavy title page:

THE NARRATIVE

OF

ARTHUR GORDON PYM.

OF NANTUCKET.

COMPRISING THE DETAILS OF A MUTINY AND ATROCIOUS BUTCHERY
ON BOARD THE AMERICAN BRIG GRAMPUS, ON HER WAY TO
THE SOUTH SEAS, IN THE MONTH OF JUNE, 1827.

WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE RECAPTURE OF THE VESSEL BY THE
SURVIVERS; THEIR SHIPWRECK AND SUBSEQUENT HORRIBLE
SUFFERINGS FROM FAMINE; THEIR DELIVERANCE BY
MEANS OF THE BRITISH SCHOONER JANE GUY; THE
BRIEF CRUISE OF THIS LATTER VESSEL IN THE
ANTARCTIC OCEAN; HER CAPTURE, AND THE
MASSACRE OF HER CREW AMONG A
GROUP OF ISLANDS IN THE

EIGHTY-FOURTH PARALLEL OF SOUTHERN LATITUDE;

TOGETHER WITH THE INCREDIBLE ADVENTURES AND
DISCOVERIES

STILL FARTHER SOUTH

TO WHICH THAT DISTRESSING CALAMITY GAVE RISE.

My favourite book title ever. And a very odd book indeed; well worth a read. Don't bother with either of the 'sequels': A Strange Discovery by Charles Romeyn Dake and An Antarctic Mystery by Jules Verne both are dreadfully disappointing in quite different ways.

Somewhere in my stacks of LPs I have one of Basil Rathbone reading Poe. I must dig it out and give it a listen.

[Craig Herbertson]

Mar 28, 2012 19:41:46 GMT cauldronbrewer said:

We took a short trip down to Baltimore today to pay respects at Mr. Poe's grave.





I freely admit stealing this pose from a particular Vault regular:

The paranormal researcher in me notes that in the first photo there are two ghosts in the background who disappear in the second photo and also by some miracle the green watersprinkler? and small headstones have also disappeared. Or it could be the kids left and the angle is different....

[cauldronbrewer]

Mar 29, 2012 5:48:44 GMT Craig Herbertson said:

The paranormal researcher in me notes that in the first photo there are two ghosts in the background who disappear in the second photo and also by some miracle the green watersprinkler? and small headstones have also disappeared. Or it could be the kids left and the angle is different....

Hmmm . . . I think that the two figures in the background followed a man into the catacombs to inspect a fine bottle of wine. ;D

And is that a green sprinkler, or a strange device with a special purpose? Consider this passage from Poe's "The Premature Burial:"

I entered into a series of elaborate precautions . . . There were arrangements also for the free admission of air and light, and convenient receptacles for food and water, within immediate reach of the coffin intended for my reception.

Could it be Poe's own air-vent?

I also recently received a pair of Poe-related presents. First, there's this strange book, an adaptation of Poe's works by Lou Reed (!) with illustrations by Lorenzo Mattotti:

And then there's this object, now perched on top of a bookcase that I not-so-fondly call the Herniator:

It's listed online as a "Macabre Gothic Raven Skull Desktop Figurine."

[Knygathin]

Tales of Misery is perhaps be the most appropriate title for a Poe collection. That is his chosen field, isn't it after all? The imaginative in his stories is used symbolically, as a tool to describe human suffering.

No other author I have read, writes so artistically powerful and clearly defined prose. He pinpoints the quitessence of the human condition, and even seems to command the river source itself of reality. Seeing through life, and drawing out of it the most perfect symbols. He is the ultimate of all prose artists. It goes beyond the superficially intellectual, transcends the outer elements of his story structures. Other authors may have really fine or subtle styles . . . even be more sophisticated or intellectually complicated . . . more colourfully imaginative and enjoyable in their ecstatic explorations of the fantastic . . . but comparatively, they are still exploring and fumbling about like blind men. They have not grabbed the Source, and become masters of it, like Poe.

His wide forehead. Perhaps Poe really had a larger brain than other mortals?

I wish other authors, with interests closer to my own (the pagan ecstasy and beauty of supernatural forces in Nature, explorations of the weird and the cosmic) could write with such essence as Poe. But perhaps that is impossible, perhaps manifested life ultimately means misery, and that humans as such only can, by tapping into themselves, describe their own condition with such artistic power. Not possible for some vaguely imagined Nature force, supernatural spiritual condition, or life in outer space.

[franklinmarsh]

And a hyuge thanks to CauldronBrewer for shunting me here. I've recently reread The Masque Of The Red Death twice (two different anthos) and been literally stunned by Ligeia (well, the opening section anyway). Drawn to E A Poe owing to late nights as a youngster cowering behind a cushion as Vincent Price (or even Ray Milland) under the direction of Roger Corman made the best of some sets that looked far better than they were (a la Hammer), some psychedelic visuals and the inevitable tarantula, it was always a bit of a surprise to find the original stories were so short. Must be getting really old now, for I am turning to fellows such as Lovecraft too.
My Poe fix was recently rekindled by yet another film called The Raven, a kind of Poe inspired version of the Phibes films, or even Theatre Of Blood, where the lad himself is called in to help investigate a series of murders utilising his stories. Rediscovered the old Universals such The Raven, Ulmer's The Black Cat and the Florey/Lugosi Murders In The Rue Morgue. Then there's the silent versions of The Fall Of The House Of Usher (one French, one American - although that's only about 13 minutes long), and the barkington madski Brit effort from '49, featuring Redlands in Hastings as the Usher House (possibly containing a Crowley painting) - now knocked down apart from one wing which is a pub. You can't go wrong with the musicians either - Debs Harry reciting The Raven on Debravation (I saw that live!), Lou Reed's double album The Raven (which I've yet to discover), the prog stuff and Cradle Of Filth's Nymphetamine (although that's stretching it a bit). I need some swirling AIP paint - it's those stories I like, but must at least look at some of the others.
Oh, and there's the British The Tell-Tale Heart - I only have seen a crackly Public Domain print, but you could still make out Adrienne Corri in her undies.
And back in the 1980s I did see a performance of Philip Glass's The Fall Of The House Of Usher operetta - which doesn't seem to be available.

[dem]

Not to overlook the '70's remake of Usher, starring Diana Davenport as the female lead, a role stolen from her sister, Stella Harris, and the cause of so much unpleasantness in recent Death & The Divas episode of Midsomer Mur .., oh, never mind. This Alan Parsons Project stuff is all very nice, but let's none of us forget that Slaughter & The Dogs also recorded a tribute to Edgar Allan Poe.

Lovely photos by the way, CB.

[franklinmarsh]

The Slaughter tribute featuring swingin' Pendulum sound effects? Yee-ha!

Watched Two Evil Eyes last night, a curious 1990 updating of 2/3 of Tales Of Terror.

George A Romero takes on The Facts In The Case Of M Valdemar in a style very reminiscent of the Frozen Fear episode of the Amicus' Asylum. Very creepy for the first part then goes nuts at the end. I revisited the Poe story and, yep, shame George and Tom Savini missed out the killer part of the story so luridly captured by Price and Corman in the 1960s. Butterscotch Sauce!

The second story is an even weirder Dario Argento stab (sorry) at The Black Cat, with Harvey Kietel as a crime scene photographer using his girlfriend's moggy's death to further his career. Lots more stylish than Valdemar but not as scary. I'll revisit EAP's original later.

[andydecker]

Edgar Allan Poe - The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantuicket and other tales (Könemann, 1995, 297 p.)

Found this on the shelves. Published in 1995 it contains three stories. The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, "A Descent into the Maelström" and MS. Found in a Bottle. There are also three short of the Grotesques.

I must have bought this at the end of the 90s, a paperback sized hardcover. Back then we had book-sellers specializing in OOP books. Big art books, non-fiction, but also a lot of Taschen products and other publishers producing for this kind of market. Like this one. Könemann basically was a distributor which later got a publishing arm. Doing everything from Feng Shui to Spanish photographer during Franco's reign.

The Poe was one of a line of classics, from Marquis de Sade to Jonathan Swift. They also did a few classics in English language. Jane Austen, Poe again, Swift. Even in an annotated form. The edition of Dracula is very nice.

In 2001 they went bancrupt. Don't know why I picked this up. Maybe together with the Dracula. Should have bought the other Poe, the one with the Gothics. Guess I liked the design. The cover is by Aubrey Beardsley for Murder in the Rue Morgue. I used to browse in those shops. They are long gone.

[fritzmaitland]

For my 4th October horror short story, inspired by the finale of The Nine Deaths Of Dr Valentine, I reread The Pit And The Pendulum. Always better than I think, apart from perhaps the deux et machina last paragraph happy ending. Our narrator, after falling foul of the Spanish Inquisition, is condemned to darkness, a horrible mouldering cell, almost falls into a pit, is drugged, wakes to find himself bound to a small wooden table, watching the inexorable descent of a razor sharp crescent pendulum...marvellous stuff, shot through with misery, dread and death.
As this was a Sunday, I managed to fit in Pit & The Pendulum (1961) Roger Corman's Richard Matheson-scripted elongation of the tale. Well actually there's virtually no actual Poe from the story, although a Pit, and a Pendulum do turn up at the end, but, following the precedent set by the first film in the series, (Fall Of The )House Of Usher, the thing is ...erm...shot through with misery, dread and death. And Barbara Steele!
Also watched a 27 minute short entitled The Pit, dating from 1962, partially funded by the BFI Experimental Film section (and available as an extra on the Flipside Shalcken The Painter DVD)- black and white, verging on the surreal, and very faithful to the original story, with only two lapses (one being the jettisoning of the tacked on happy ending - Huzzah!)

[fritzmaitland]

4th October - Edgar Allan Poe - The Oval Portrait. Poe again a year on! A huge two pager that meditates on art and life. A wounded man and his valet shelter in a decaying chateau, which is adorned with paintings. Our narrator finds a small notebook, written by the artist, that critiques his own artworks. Moving the candelabra he has to read by, a small oval portrait of a woman, previously concealed by shadows in an alcove is revealed. Our man is struck by how amazingly lifelike it is and eagerly leafs through the book to find out the artists thoughts. There's an awful lot packed into this very brief story. I first became aware of it through watching a film 'based on a story by Edgar Allen (sic) Poe' contained within a Mill Creek 50 Horror Films bundle a long time ago. Was chuffed to find I had the story to hand. I revisited the film over the weekend in preparation. A mad mangle of Poe (via Corman rather than this story), Du Maurier's Rebecca, a soupcon of The Beguiled, a 40 minute flashback in the middle that echoes Mills & Boon/Hallmark romance (including the young lovers running about in slow motion)but getting somewhat back on track towards the end with the disinterment of a corpse bride, and a mad necrophile 'entertaining' the rotting husk.

[andydecker]

Oct 4, 2021 10:29:20 GMT fritzmaitland said:

4th October - Edgar Allan Poe - The Oval Portrait. Poe again a year on! A huge two pager that meditates on art and life. A wounded man and his valet shelter in a decaying chateau, which is adorned with paintings. Our narrator finds a small notebook, written by the artist, that critiques his own artworks. Moving the candelabra he has to read by, a small oval portrait of a woman, previously concealed by shadows in an alcove is revealed. Our man is struck by how amazingly lifelike it is and eagerly leafs through the book to find out the artists thoughts. There's an awful lot packed into this very brief story. I first became aware of it through watching a film 'based on a story by Edgar Allen (sic) Poe' contained within a Mill Creek 50 Horror Films bundle a long time ago. Was chuffed to find I had the story to hand. I revisited the film over the weekend in preparation. A mad mangle of Poe (via Corman rather than this story), Du Maurier's Rebecca, a soupcon of The Beguiled, a 40 minute flashback in the middle that echoes Mills & Boon/Hallmark romance (including the young lovers running about in slow motion)but getting somewhat back on track towards the end with the disinterment of a corpse bride, and a mad necrophile 'entertaining' the rotting husk.

There is a good graphic adaption by Richard Corben from the late 70s. Maybe even the best of his many Poe adaptions. He tweakes the story a bit - it begins with a duell in which the narrator is wounded -, but the rest is more or less faithful to the original.

Can't say I seen this movie. Interesting.