Today would be the 200th anniversary of one of my lifelong favourite writers, Edgar Allan Poe (born January 19th, 1809, died October 7th 1849. Or perhaps just bricked up alive in a tomb at that point). We read a couple of Poe short stories for my SF Book Group recently and opinion was sharply divided between those who found it dull and those of us who loved it. I’m in the latter camp; between reading the stories and watching repeats of the Roger Corman and Vincent Price 60s films I was addicted to Poe at a young age and as I’ve gotten older and read more widely I’ve also come to admire how influential his work is. Not just endless interpretations of his tales in TV, movies and a vast number of comics adaptations (which continues pretty much to this day) but the way in which his style and themes have influenced so many later writers, artists and film-makers with both his wonderfully oppressive sense of Gothic dread and also for his ‘scientific method’ early detective fiction which set a template still being used today by modern crime writers. BBC Radio 7 has a dramatised version of Poe’s The Gold Bug online; it went out over the weekend but should be available via the magic of the Listen Again feature for several more days.
(a page from the Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edginton and D’Israeli from Self Made Hero’s fine Poe collection Nevermore, which also boasts contributions from Jamie Delano, Leah Moore and John Reppion, John McCrea, Laura Howell and more)
Mon, Jan 19, 2009
Books, Comics and cartoons, Film, TV and radio