/lit/ - Literature

>>4961016
He is overrated -- but thereof does not mean he is bad. I enjoy Poe.

>>4961016
you think they'll be teaching Transformers to kids one hundred years from now?

>>4961027
I have no idea. People are still enamored with the Beatles and they were hardly more than a boy band with slightly better writing skills towards the end of their career

Disagree. Poe was writing in response to a long dead Gothic tradition, trying to do new things with it.
People who were aping the style of the Gothic for conventional purposes, from Anne Radcliffe to the Penny Dreadful writers, were the Michael Bays of that time.

It's a shit analogy.
Poe wasn't commercially successful at all.
Your professor sounds like a wank.

>>4961046
She was alright. She had some interesting views on what "Gothic" meant but she did seem to genuinely care about the genre, if not in her own unorthodox way

>she

>>4961056
If you get deeper into theoretical genre discussions (I wouldn't reccomend it), you'll find that even the experts don't agree about what the "Gothic" is.

Some people say it is characterized by the destabilization of social mores of the time by using the macabre or the grotesque; some say that is is characterized certain tropes or devices; some say that is is evident in certain melding of styles (like horror with romance). So basically, nobody really knows what the Gothic is. Same way no one can really define Fantasy of Sci-Fi. Best to take academic definitions of a genre with a grain of salt.

>>4961056
>Listening to whore professors at all
>Caring what they say

Your first mistake right there bud

>>4961035
Harmonically, The Beatles were at their prime on A Hard Day's Night.

>>4961046
>wank
This. Irrational New England animus against a Southern giant.

>>4961228
CLT / CLT drone pls.
You are right though.

>Harold Bloom commented that Edgar Allan Poe’s poems and stories, “despite their permanent worldwide popularity, are atrociously written ... and benefit by translation, even into English.”

american's have never really liked poe

Poe was a literary beast. I reread The Bells on occasion and I'm just stunned at the sonority of it. It's like there was a sound he captured in words.

He was also the precursor to modern detective novels and science fiction. Even Nabokov recognized his literary beast-ness (literary bestiality?). He was an early inspiration to him and I think it's evident in his prose.

The House of Usher is his tops imo. The only reason people are hesitant to say they like him is because he's taught in high school and he can be found on the facebook 'likes' of hot topic teens

>>4961516
poe was a boyhood favorite for nabokov, one that he claimed to not care for much in his maturity

>>4961516
So would it be safe to say a lot of people don't say they like him because of fear or insecurity they'd be lumped together with the scene/goth/grunge kids of the era?

>>4961525
>>4961516
no

emerson, bloom, yeats, etc. were not concerned with the fact that he's taught in high school. they were concerned with the fact that he's not that good.

>cask of amontillado, fall of house of usher, raven, mask of red death, pit and the pendulum, tell-tale heart

Whoever doesn't like Poe is a shit-tier reader and why they even bother with literature is beyond me.

Poe's philosophy for writing was to have the reader fully engaged with the work from beginning to end (also explaining the fact that he emphasized short stories.) This meant that most of his plots were very singular in focus, and brief.

While even more simple plot-wise, Michael Bay is more focused on putting so much on the screen at the same time that people become disengaged. While the content is equally simple, his method of communication to the audience is antithetical to Poe's.

>>4961016
What is that comparison even supposed to mean?

>>4961551
>not listing the purloined letter

>>4961228
>>4961035
plebs

>>4961551
>just the hits.

Actually, I agree. Wither or not one cares for Poe is insignificant against his cultural legacy.

Also, I think Micheal Bay's movies will, like Poe's stories have (given time), reveal many rich truths about the values and mindset of the era in which they were created.

>>4961796
lol michael bays films are absolute garbage

just about every other director in hollywood would present a better 'window into an earlier time'

>>4961799
>absolute garbage

Why is this? Do they exploit hackeneyed plot device? Cater to sentimentalities?

This is exactly why they are important cultural documents. To future scholars they will reveal the mores of our time and the values of mass society, whereas someone less lucrative and more experimental will say more about their personal artistic intentions than what lurks in the hearts of the common man.

The use of the word garbage is highly appropriate here, for garbage has often revealed much about the societies which produce it and raised further questions, from the pottery shards at greek ostracisms to present day litter.

>>4961799

>>absolute garbage

thats precisely what they'll reveal to future generations about ours

>>4961819
>The use of the word garbage is highly appropriate here, for garbage has often revealed much about the societies which produce it and raised further questions, from the pottery shards at greek ostracisms to present day litter.
go to bed don

>>4961819
this has to be bait

>>4961824
this is bait

>>4961824
Why exactly?

Am I pointing out the merits of something reviled by those who consider themselves cultured?

If by bait you mean it will lure people into edifying discussion as they attempt to prove me wrong, then I intend it as such.

Conversely, if it should result in scathing, incoherent opprobrium, why should that bother me. It would reveal that those who take issue with what I am saying do so on a strictly emotional basis.

>>4961846
>Conversely, if it should result in scathing, incoherent opprobrium

autism

I really don't think you can compare the two. Poe wrote horror, but he never wrote cheap. His style pulled you in, to utter belief; Michael Bay is not for an instant someone you believe.

>>4961962
you know i think all the professor was trying to say is that poe was shit

>>4961796
>just the hits
I didn't include it on the list but to be honest my favorite Poe tale is actually Eleonora—despite its obviously faults.

>I once had someone tell me their opinion, but since they were my professor I was more inclined to believe theirs instead of my own

k

>>4962007
Might have made more sense to say, "I dislike Poe as much as I dislike Michael Bay," then.

I bet your professor never even read Eureka

>>4961016
What a shit professor you had.

Poe is the father of the modern day mystery story while Michael Bay is the father of the 100 foot technocrane shot. Ya they be the same nigga.

>>4961799
Have you seen the island?

A great film.

>people defending poe ITT
honestly i will never understand how you could read a page of his poetry and not be struck by how bad he was at verse. makes sense though that people like him here because nobody reads poetry on /lit/. everyone knows that poe is only remembered because french people liked him for god knows what reason

>>4962054
I have to agree here. Your professor went wrong when he mentioned "Michael Bay." Anyone with taste would not have gone there.

>>4962066
his poetry is invocative and divine, though you're entitled to your opinions no matter how foul the miasma that permeates them

>>4962066
>nobody reads poe on poetry
You have room to elaborate and give recommendations in your following post...

>>4962082
he means they didn't cover Poe in the poetry class he took one semester

>>4961962
>>4961823
>>4961799

Wait. Just wait a moment.

Bay was hired to make a few films premised on the bizarre idea that robot aliens from space would come to earth and transform into cars and trucks.

That's what he had to start with.

So given that, he did a dam fine job. The Island was also top rate considering the source material.

>>4962075
>divine
if you think rhymes obviously made to fit a scheme, words obviously used to fit a meter, sing-songy rhythms, bloated language, constant silly repetitions, and 8th grade symbolism are divine then sure

>>4962093
you couldn't possibly believe something like The Conqueror Worm is the work of a hackneyed freshman

>>4961035
Not realizing the Beatles' genius is your shortcoming not theirs

>>4962037
Seems to me OP just posted what the professor said. Not like he said "I agree"

>>4961039
This.
Fucking Anne Radcliffe. Had to read Romance of the Forest for a Gothic Studies class and it gave me multiple aneurysms.

>>4962121
Adoration of Beatles is cyclical and memetic. They truly aren't that awe inspiring m8

>>4961857
>no argument
exactly what I mentioned. A one word response without any line of reasoning is pure emotional reaction. I've said something which upset you.

Autism seems to be the present day equivalent of Judaism or witchcraft. It has the dark power to transform a person who appears otherwise more or less normal into a soulless shell of a human being and an enemy. Calling autists autistic will not solve the problem of autism.

Has calling atheists fedoras or nihilists edgy banished them? You can't win without reason on your side.