Edgar Allan Poecast

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This month we’re discussing the tale “MS Found in Bottle”.

Sincere apologies for the long delay!

• The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is a 1798 epic poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Iron Maiden wrote a song based on the poem as part of their 1984 album “Powerslave“.
• Room 237 is a documentary based upon fan theories about hidden meanings to the film The Shining.
• Among those later stories that share themes with this one are H.P.Lovecraft’s “At The Mountains of Madness” Herman Mellville’s “Moby Dick” and the later Poe work “The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket“
• “Dead Female Authors of the Twentieth Century” is a short story by Benjamin Judge. Sadly no longer available in print.

This months reader was “Traveler Jim Phillips“. Next month’s story is the Assignation

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This month we discuss a Loss of Breath, otherwise known as “things to do on honeymoon when you’re dead”

• Moore’s Melodies was collected by Thomas Moore and is available on CD and sheet music.
• There’s a plethora of mythological links to “The sign of the Crow” but the one Poe may have meant was the Irish myth of the Morrigan.
• Metamora was a play by John Augustus Stone became a cornerstone of Edwin Forrest’s acting career. Although Charles Congdon’s memoirs paint a less than flattering picture of both men.
• Sherlyn Abdoo concisely summarises two of the most well known readings of this story.
• Alcohol related impotence was demonstrably known of at least as early as Shakespeare; “Lechery, sir, it provokes and unprovokes; it provokes the desire, but it takes away the performance: therefore much drink may be said to be an equivocator with lechery” (Macbeth Act II Scene III)
• G4S is a private security firm… with not the best of reputations…
• A particularly gory statue of Marsyas being flayed can be found in Rome including red-veined marble.
• I read terrible things is a blog, in which terrible things are read… with GIFs.

We’ll be back (hopefully) in time for Christmas with our festive coverage of “Bon Bon“

This month we’re discussing a tale of Jerusalem, entitled “A Tale of Jerusalem”, a slapstick piece with an eye-watering plethora of allusions.

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• Think Judaism have an interesting article tracking down the real routes of the ‘Dashers’.
• The Critical Companion to Edgar Allan Poe has a nice little breakdown of this story, including an explanation of the Latin pun at the opening.
• This story is widely considered to be either a parody or homage to ‘Zillah, A tale of the holy city.’ It’s a bit of a mammoth read but is apparently quite impeccably researched.
• As always Wikipedia has a helpful article, this time on the subject of shaving in Judaism.
• The setting of this story is very vague, one possible interpretation puts it during the Bar Kokhba Revolt. Although reference is made the the Temple, suggesting it was sometime earlier.
• Of course no reference to ‘the Holiest of Holies’ could go by without reference to this.
• The Errand of Mercy is a podcast, they talk about stuff, it’s often quite funny.

Homework for next time is ‘Loss of Breath’ (a.k.a ‘A decided Loss’).

This month we discuss one of Poe’s early tales the Duc De L’Omelette. A comic piece mixing French culinary perfection with the screams of the damned.

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Apologies for the poor sound quality in parts of this episode, Guy’s microphone has been taken outside and shot.

• Jonathan is a regular contributor to Skype of Cthulhu, his first foray into orchestrating the madness was with the episode ‘Dockside Dogs’.
• Jon and Richard are also known associates of “LOL of Cthulhu [working title]”
• Ortolan aren’t actually from Peru, but are natives to Europe, Asia and Africa. The horrific practice (NSFW) of eating them was outlawed in 1999, although the French didn’t begin enforcing it until eight years later.
• The French Revolution occurred in the late eighteenth century. Not to be mistaken with the June Rebellion of 1832, which, were it not for Victor Hugo and the eponymous musical would have gone down in history as a slightly bloodier ‘Occupy Wallstreet’.
• Ecarte is an old French card game based around tricks [there may be a pun in here…]. Revealing the King (aces being low) a player automatically wins a trick.
• The Devil Went Down to Georgia is a song by the Charlie Daniels band and is almost certainly the greatest country song ever written.
• H.P. Lovecraft’s works are generally considered to now be in the public domain although Wikipedia gives a brief summary of the issues. The H P Lovecraft Literary Podcast cover it in a little more detail
• The Vingt e un club may refer to the number of spots on a six sided die, the 21 trump cards in a tarot deck, black jack, or the eponymous drinking game…
• Diogenes, amongst other things, slept in a jar.

Welcome to our very first episode, where we talk about Poe’s first published tale, 1832’s Metzengerstein, a rip-roaring tale of horses, fire, reincarnation and teeth.

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Notes –

• Spirits of the Dead Is available from Amazon and features Jane Fonda in an adaptation of Metzengerstein, although the English dub continues to elude us.
• The Edgar Allan Poe Society have the originally published version of the text on their website, along with a more recent version.
• There’s also a rather helpful study guide on the story here.
• Equine vetting, is generally to two stage (normal) or five stage (professional). This website has a handy guide… no mention of checking for metempsychotic possession though; buyers beware!
• Despite being “in imitation of the German” Germany didn’t quite exist at the time the story was written. Wikipedia has a very helpful map of the area that was to be eventually united by (among others) Otto Von Bismarck.

Please feel free to share any thoughts/comments on the story (or the show) below. Homework for next time is “The Duc De L’Omelette” and “A Tale of Jerusalem”.