If Covid has offered a choice between the pit and the pendulum, then the vaccines and the Covid relief bill have been the liberating French army.
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Tag Archives: Edgar Allan Poe
The Pit, the Pendulum, and Covid Relief
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Pit and the Pendulum", Covid relief bill, COVID-19, Duck Soup, Marx Brothers Comments closed
Not Poe’s Red Death but Still Dangerous
Poe’s “Masque of the Red Death” captures the belief that we can wall out epidemics and then dance the night away.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged coronavirus, COVID-19, emergency measures, Masque of the Red Death Comments closed
Repressed Violence in Southern Gothic Lit
In my course on American Gothic Supernatural lit, I contrasted “Turn of the Scre”w with “Wizard of Oz” and then glanced at Southern Gothic lit.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Deliverance", Eudora Welty, Flannery O'Connor, Good Man Is Hard to Find, Gothic horror, gothic supernatural, Henry James, In Cold Blood, James Dickey, L. Frank Baum, Petrified Man, Rose for Emily, Southern Gothic, Truman Capote, Turn of the Screw, William Faulkner, Wizard of Oz Comments closed
To Understand America, Read Gothics
In a course on American supernatural gothic fiction, I argue that Poe pushed back against the Enlightenment and Hawthorne against Puritanism.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Birthmark, Black Cat, gothic fiction, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Scarlet Letter, Tell-Tale Heart, Young Goodman Brown Comments closed
Poe & Hiding in Plain Sight
Thursday Now that the phrase “hiding in plain sight” is on everyone’s lips, it’s worth revisiting an old post, written 18 months ago, about Edgar Allan Poe’s “Purloined Letter.” After all, since then we’ve had confirmed one of the more spectacular instances of a letter theft committed in plain sight. When Trump said during the campaign, […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Donald Trump, Mueller investigation, Purloined Letter, Russian scandal Comments closed
Trump Crimes in Plain Sight (Poe, Borges)
To understand how Trump can commit crimes in plain sight, read Poe and Borges.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged collusion, Death and the Compass, Donald Trump, Jorge Luis Borges, mainstream media, Purloined Letter, Vladimir Putin Comments closed
Gawain, Trump and Shame
Trump and Sir Gawain respond in opposite ways to shame: Trump counterattacks by acting shamelessly while Gawain lets it tie him into knots.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged chivalric code, chivalry, civility, Donald Trump, shame, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Trumpism Comments closed
Ferreting Out Trump’s Purloined Letter
Why does Trump seem to get away with his brazen flirtation with Vladimir Putin. Maybe he’s like the nefarious D– in Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Purloined Letter.”
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Donald Trump, Robert Mueller, Russia investigation Comments closed
Lincoln Transformed Depression thru Lit
Melancholy threatened to paralyze Abraham Lincoln in his early years. Literature helped him give voice to his depression and taught him how to turn it into an asset.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Dream", "Raven", Abraham Lincoln, Depression, First Inaugural Address, Macbeth, Manfred, unipolar disease, William Shakespeare Comments closed