We get to read Poe in school not because school defangs Poe; school defangs us so that we can't sink our fangs into his stories the way he wanted us to. Poe is torn to shreds by dopey assignments forcing us to compare and contrast the cat in "The Black Cat" to the bird in "The Raven," term papers about Roderick Usher's inability to tell fantasy from reality, and endless other demands that we take the ineffable in Poe's stories and try to make them effable.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Poe at 200
Nick Mamatas in The Smart Set, January 6, 2009 [Warning: The following is reportedly beyond the reading comprehension standard of John and Mary Catholic, Erie, Pennsylvania.]
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment