Okay, so Edgar Allan Poe always seemed like a cool
guy, but I never read many of his work pieces. Sure, he was popular, and I had
heard so much of “The Raven,” and I had often meant to read his stuff, but I never
did. So when I found out we would be reading a number of his stories, I was
pretty excited.
It wasn’t so much of a letdown as it was a sad
realization. I had such high hopes for Poe, and when I read “The Fall of the
House of Usher,” I was not as drawn in as I hoped. To be quite honest, I was
bored and the story was dragging. Like really dragging. It was bit of a torture
to read; Poe took his description a bit too serious, and I felt we weren’t getting
to the action of the story quickly enough. Literally, the real action of the
story didn’t take place until about the last page or so of the story, while it
occupied about seventeen. I jumped into “The Fall of the House of Usher”
expecting it to be as good as I had heard “The Raven” was. But was I read it,
it felt dread and weariness. Needless to say, it was not my cup of tea.
“The Raven” went much better; as I read it, I kept a rhythm
in my head that added to the creepiness, and the “action” was continuous. It was
pretty good, and I realized why “The Raven” was arguably Poe’s most famous
work. It was definitely better, in my opinion, than “The Fall of the House of
Usher,” and because it was short, it didn’t drag the details across 17 pages.
Of course, I would have to read a wider range of Poe’s
works to fully develop an opinion on him, but as of right now, I am wearier of all
the praise he receives. Though there is no doubt that he has a real talent of
having hidden messages or double meanings behind his words, or even that he
chooses his words wisely to hint at those messages, probing the reader to think
deeper.
PLEASE DON'T GIVE UP ON POE JUST YET!!!! I actually really love Poe's writing but the things that we read in this class didn't do his writing any justice. Sad to say but I totally agree that the only good one we read was The Raven. The others were ridiculously long to a point of annoyance because the story didn't even have to be that dog-on LONG!!! I was literally dying reading Ligeia because like you said the stupid thing was 25 pages (total exaggeration but it definitely felt that long) and didn't pick up until the last 4 paragraphs! But I beg of you don't give up there IS WAAAAAAAYYYYY more to Poe than this!!!!!! You should read Tell Tale Heart it is my favorite Poe short story and I promise it will not disappoint.
ReplyDeleteI figured Poe had to be better than this, but from the stuff we read in class, my expectations were lowered. But I will definitely give him a second chance! Thanks for the suggestion :)
DeleteI agree that The Fall of the House of Usher did drag on a bit, and I like the Raven better too. There were a lot of themes and details in these stories that I thought was cool, but sometimes the overall plot wasn't that exciting.
ReplyDeleteALLAN, ALLAN, ALLAN. Anyway, you did reach your opinion on his work. However, I think more of his life could be used onto why his pieces are like that.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the pieces we read in class were sort of boring and The Fall of the House of Usher wasnt what i thought it would be either. I expected it to be a little more frightening then it was. I think that the few pieces we read in class didnt show the best of his work
ReplyDeleteWhat were you suspecting for Poe's writing to be (aka the "high hopes" you held before reading)? And yes, I agree that Poe's writing is very specific, eerie and gloomy, (nothing close to anything I would read in my free time) but he is viewed as one of the greatest poets and/or writers of history; do you believe he lives up to that name? Or is he overrated as an author?
ReplyDelete