Poe

[Guest]

Today is the birthdate of beloved author Edgar Allan Poe. Poe is remembered for his contributions to exploring the inner psyche. More on him soon...

[Senear]

Somehow wishing his spirit a happy birthday seems inadequate and Ironic. Perhaps a smoke filled evening with other artists at the old absinth house would be more in line. Id so love to crash that gathering

[Guest]

Yeah, and in truth, a birthdate means nothing. Humans put meaning into it, but animals don't. They are just here. Poe would make an observation like the one I just made, he was good at pointing out inconsistencies, oddities and habits of human rationale. The only thing a birthdate could ever be is an omen of some kind, besides that its really nothing...besides a record keeping thing.




Poe stories were such that people remember him as unhappy. He did have lots of sadness in his life, this shook his foundations and led to him writing Eureka just before his early death at age 40. Eureka is a positive prose poem and gives readers a glimpse into his true state of mind near his earthly end.

[Senear]

I did not really see him that way, when i found his stories (unhappy). He seemed introspective and aware of harsh truths. The very act of taking that and creating from it is not an unhappy act, in my perception. Its the opposite. And although i create no art, poe, and others like him, were spirits of inspiration to me. Not making lemonaid out of lemons, but rather taking them for what they are and painting that with beauty and honor...integrity. Not cloying, not trying to change or hide the truth of what things are. Finding the beauty and meaning in the things most people fear and shun. So if i was able to crash that smoke filled salon i mentioned, thats the spirit i would expect to find, and cherish.

[Guest]

Have you read Eureka? That's the real Poe. Everything else was written for magazine publications since he was editor and his job was to increase distribution. Macabre was popular at the time, and many short story writers wrote that way. Eureka was a genuine effort to share his views with readers.

[Senear]

Yes. And ill do so again now. And yes, its a bit annoying that anything with poe is "the raven" like that's all he was, a caricature at this point. that his act became his face.

[Guest]

Cool, finally I know someone besides me who read Eureka. I love the dedication...maybe that is what ill post when get a chance. I have posted it here before...just forgot where.

[Guest]

To the few who love me and whom I love -- to those who feel rather than to those who think -- to the dreamers and those who put faith in dreams as in the only realities -- I offer this Book of Truths, not in its character of Truth-Teller, but for the Beauty that abounds in its Truth; constituting it true. To these I present the composition as an Art-Product alone:- let us say as a Romance; or, if I be not urging too lofty a claim, as a Poem.



What I here propound is true:- * therefore it cannot die:- or if by any means it be now trodden down so that it die, it will "rise again to the Life Everlasting."



Nevertheless it is as a Poem only that I wish this work to be judged after I am dead.



E. A. P.



EUREKA

[Guest]