WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.720 align:middle line:90% 00:00:02.720 --> 00:00:06.390 align:middle line:84% The United States, in the 1830s and 1840s, 00:00:06.390 --> 00:00:09.930 align:middle line:84% were in a period of tremendous industrial and urban change. 00:00:09.930 --> 00:00:12.990 align:middle line:84% Railroads, gas streetlights, fire departments, 00:00:12.990 --> 00:00:15.960 align:middle line:84% and the raucous world of municipal and national politics 00:00:15.960 --> 00:00:17.850 align:middle line:90% was coming into its own. 00:00:17.850 --> 00:00:20.430 align:middle line:84% One change in particular was important to Poe. 00:00:20.430 --> 00:00:22.830 align:middle line:84% This was the explosion of print periodicals 00:00:22.830 --> 00:00:26.460 align:middle line:84% and the rapid rise of a popular reading public. 00:00:26.460 --> 00:00:29.730 align:middle line:84% Between 1825 and 1850, roughly the span 00:00:29.730 --> 00:00:32.759 align:middle line:84% of Poe's adult life, the number of magazines in the United 00:00:32.759 --> 00:00:36.270 align:middle line:84% States grew from less than 100 to over 500. 00:00:36.270 --> 00:00:38.730 align:middle line:84% Newspapers also proliferated, generating 00:00:38.730 --> 00:00:41.490 align:middle line:84% a vital new urban world marked by reading, 00:00:41.490 --> 00:00:44.220 align:middle line:84% from signage on the buildings, to newspapers in the streets, 00:00:44.220 --> 00:00:47.280 align:middle line:84% to magazines in weekly, monthly, or quarterly installments, 00:00:47.280 --> 00:00:51.270 align:middle line:84% Poe's world was one dominated by print periodicals. 00:00:51.270 --> 00:00:54.720 align:middle line:84% As one commentator in 1828 noticed, 00:00:54.720 --> 00:00:57.840 align:middle line:84% "These United States are fertile in most things, 00:00:57.840 --> 00:01:01.770 align:middle line:84% but in periodicals they are extremely luxuriant. 00:01:01.770 --> 00:01:04.860 align:middle line:84% They spring up as fast as mushrooms in every corner, 00:01:04.860 --> 00:01:08.400 align:middle line:84% and like all rapid vegetation, bear the seeds of early decay 00:01:08.400 --> 00:01:09.270 align:middle line:90% within them. 00:01:09.270 --> 00:01:10.890 align:middle line:90% This is the fate of hundreds. 00:01:10.890 --> 00:01:13.500 align:middle line:84% But hundreds more are found to supply their place, 00:01:13.500 --> 00:01:17.640 align:middle line:84% to tread in their steps, and share their destiny." 00:01:17.640 --> 00:01:21.120 align:middle line:84% For many of the people in this room, probably all of us, 00:01:21.120 --> 00:01:26.100 align:middle line:84% we ourselves have seen analogous shifts in popular media, 00:01:26.100 --> 00:01:30.720 align:middle line:84% as we move, sometimes clumsily, into the digital age. 00:01:30.720 --> 00:01:33.420 align:middle line:84% And just as revolutionary as the internet 00:01:33.420 --> 00:01:34.920 align:middle line:84% has been in changing our culture, 00:01:34.920 --> 00:01:38.940 align:middle line:84% our politics, even our daily life, the periodical explosion 00:01:38.940 --> 00:01:41.370 align:middle line:84% in the 1830s and '40s in America was equally, 00:01:41.370 --> 00:01:44.420 align:middle line:90% even more revolutionary. 00:01:44.420 --> 00:01:46.730 align:middle line:84% Social theorist Walter Benjamin has 00:01:46.730 --> 00:01:49.640 align:middle line:84% identified the 18th and 19th century periodical culture 00:01:49.640 --> 00:01:51.830 align:middle line:84% as one of the main drivers in creating 00:01:51.830 --> 00:01:55.580 align:middle line:84% what he calls the public sphere, a new place of social power 00:01:55.580 --> 00:01:58.790 align:middle line:84% composed of people who are united not only by geography 00:01:58.790 --> 00:02:00.770 align:middle line:84% and history, but rather by the fact 00:02:00.770 --> 00:02:03.060 align:middle line:90% that they were reading together. 00:02:03.060 --> 00:02:04.610 align:middle line:84% Drawing from this, Michael Warner 00:02:04.610 --> 00:02:06.290 align:middle line:84% has shown how important periodicals 00:02:06.290 --> 00:02:09.350 align:middle line:84% were to the formation of the United States and democracy. 00:02:09.350 --> 00:02:11.630 align:middle line:84% When people read these periodicals, 00:02:11.630 --> 00:02:14.330 align:middle line:84% they were not just reading as a single person, 00:02:14.330 --> 00:02:16.850 align:middle line:84% but were all the time conscious of a reading 00:02:16.850 --> 00:02:20.750 align:middle line:84% public, all those other people reading the same thing. 00:02:20.750 --> 00:02:24.170 align:middle line:84% Like reading a tweet today, the power of this act of reading 00:02:24.170 --> 00:02:26.750 align:middle line:84% comes not just from the content of the message, 00:02:26.750 --> 00:02:29.600 align:middle line:84% but also from its publicity, from our awareness 00:02:29.600 --> 00:02:32.370 align:middle line:84% that the same tweet is being read by thousands, 00:02:32.370 --> 00:02:34.730 align:middle line:90% millions of other people. 00:02:34.730 --> 00:02:36.920 align:middle line:84% The periodical explosion didn't simply 00:02:36.920 --> 00:02:39.410 align:middle line:84% provide people with more things to read, 00:02:39.410 --> 00:02:41.900 align:middle line:84% it fundamentally changed how they read 00:02:41.900 --> 00:02:45.320 align:middle line:84% and how they imagine their relationships with one another. 00:02:45.320 --> 00:02:48.410 align:middle line:84% The print revolution entirely changed the social structure 00:02:48.410 --> 00:02:51.470 align:middle line:84% of American society, and Poe was right in the middle 00:02:51.470 --> 00:02:53.120 align:middle line:90% of the charge. 00:02:53.120 --> 00:02:55.400 align:middle line:84% Poe served as an editor for several journals, 00:02:55.400 --> 00:02:57.230 align:middle line:84% and published his poetry, fiction, essays, 00:02:57.230 --> 00:02:59.010 align:middle line:90% and reviews and many more. 00:02:59.010 --> 00:03:01.037 align:middle line:84% This is just a sample of some of the journals 00:03:01.037 --> 00:03:02.870 align:middle line:84% that published Poe, and some of the journals 00:03:02.870 --> 00:03:08.540 align:middle line:84% that he was associated with as editor and writer. 00:03:08.540 --> 00:03:10.790 align:middle line:84% These periodicals were an eclectic stew 00:03:10.790 --> 00:03:13.700 align:middle line:84% of art, politics, philosophy, and science, 00:03:13.700 --> 00:03:15.710 align:middle line:84% as might be demonstrated by the title of one 00:03:15.710 --> 00:03:16.950 align:middle line:90% journal of the period-- 00:03:16.950 --> 00:03:18.290 align:middle line:90% this is just taken at random-- 00:03:18.290 --> 00:03:21.980 align:middle line:84% Holden's Dollar Magazine of Criticisms, Biographies, 00:03:21.980 --> 00:03:25.310 align:middle line:84% Sketches, Essays, Tales, Reviews, Poetry, Et 00:03:25.310 --> 00:03:26.540 align:middle line:90% Cetera, Et Cetera. 00:03:26.540 --> 00:03:27.950 align:middle line:90% Those are in there. 00:03:27.950 --> 00:03:30.170 align:middle line:84% Poe began his work as a reviews editor, 00:03:30.170 --> 00:03:32.930 align:middle line:84% writing many of the reviews himself, and it was in this way 00:03:32.930 --> 00:03:36.650 align:middle line:84% that he began to realize the power of the periodical press. 00:03:36.650 --> 00:03:38.720 align:middle line:84% As he continued to build a reputation, 00:03:38.720 --> 00:03:41.270 align:middle line:84% he developed plans and schemes to launch his own journal. 00:03:41.270 --> 00:03:45.290 align:middle line:84% He even drew up by hand his vision for the cover of it, 00:03:45.290 --> 00:03:46.130 align:middle line:90% which you see here. 00:03:46.130 --> 00:03:47.810 align:middle line:90% This is Poe. 00:03:47.810 --> 00:03:50.720 align:middle line:84% I like just imagining Poe spending 00:03:50.720 --> 00:03:54.410 align:middle line:84% time-- this is what the cover will look like on my journal. 00:03:54.410 --> 00:03:56.570 align:middle line:90% You know. 00:03:56.570 --> 00:03:59.510 align:middle line:84% But as Poe mentions in the prospectus for his proposed 00:03:59.510 --> 00:04:02.210 align:middle line:84% journal, he had, by that time, become known for-- 00:04:02.210 --> 00:04:03.980 align:middle line:84% and Poe is aware of this-- a, quote, 00:04:03.980 --> 00:04:07.490 align:middle line:84% "somewhat overdone causticity in its department 00:04:07.490 --> 00:04:09.360 align:middle line:84% of critical notices of new books." 00:04:09.360 --> 00:04:15.320 align:middle line:84% And he promises "to retain this trait of severity in so much 00:04:15.320 --> 00:04:20.180 align:middle line:84% only as the calmest yet sternest sense of justice will permit." 00:04:20.180 --> 00:04:23.240 align:middle line:84% This reputation for negative reviewing, which he himself 00:04:23.240 --> 00:04:26.780 align:middle line:84% acknowledges and wants to sustain, earns him the nickname 00:04:26.780 --> 00:04:28.190 align:middle line:90% The Tomahawk Man. 00:04:28.190 --> 00:04:30.380 align:middle line:84% So recognizable was Poe as a critic, 00:04:30.380 --> 00:04:33.320 align:middle line:84% that in 1849, just months before his death, 00:04:33.320 --> 00:04:36.320 align:middle line:84% The Tomahawk Man was caricatured in a poem called 00:04:36.320 --> 00:04:39.350 align:middle line:90% A Mirror For Authors. 00:04:39.350 --> 00:04:42.500 align:middle line:84% "With Tomahawk upraised for deadly blow, 00:04:42.500 --> 00:04:46.040 align:middle line:90% behold our literary Mohawk, Poe. 00:04:46.040 --> 00:04:50.510 align:middle line:84% Sworn tyrant he o'er all who sin in verse, his own standard 00:04:50.510 --> 00:04:52.400 align:middle line:90% damns he all that's worse. 00:04:52.400 --> 00:04:54.080 align:middle line:84% And surely not for this shall he be 00:04:54.080 --> 00:04:57.560 align:middle line:84% blamed, for worse than his deserves that it be damned." 00:04:57.560 --> 00:04:58.850 align:middle line:90% I'll skip ahead. 00:04:58.850 --> 00:05:01.940 align:middle line:84% "Poe's not the worst of bards, though bad he is. 00:05:01.940 --> 00:05:04.940 align:middle line:84% Poor man, his worst of sins is synthesis. 00:05:04.940 --> 00:05:07.310 align:middle line:84% Nor is he by great odds the worst of critics, 00:05:07.310 --> 00:05:11.320 align:middle line:84% only he runs stark mad on analytics." 00:05:11.320 --> 00:05:12.370 align:middle line:90% It goes on. 00:05:12.370 --> 00:05:14.830 align:middle line:84% But I want to point out two things in this caricature. 00:05:14.830 --> 00:05:17.050 align:middle line:84% First, of course, is the tomahawk, the symbol 00:05:17.050 --> 00:05:18.940 align:middle line:90% of the violence of his reviews. 00:05:18.940 --> 00:05:20.680 align:middle line:84% Playing on the racist stereotypes 00:05:20.680 --> 00:05:23.090 align:middle line:84% of the Native American as bloodthirsty and cruel, 00:05:23.090 --> 00:05:25.960 align:middle line:84% the tomahawk aligns Poe's criticism locally. 00:05:25.960 --> 00:05:28.570 align:middle line:84% Unlike the polite barbs and pointed innuendos 00:05:28.570 --> 00:05:31.060 align:middle line:84% of British criticism, Poe's American criticism 00:05:31.060 --> 00:05:34.390 align:middle line:84% is native and unrestrained by convention or manners. 00:05:34.390 --> 00:05:37.990 align:middle line:84% And second, the poem ends by noting that his criticism runs 00:05:37.990 --> 00:05:40.240 align:middle line:90% stark mad on analytics. 00:05:40.240 --> 00:05:42.400 align:middle line:84% In what follows I want to touch on both 00:05:42.400 --> 00:05:44.710 align:middle line:84% of these, his condemnatory criticism 00:05:44.710 --> 00:05:47.590 align:middle line:90% and his analytical criticism. 00:05:47.590 --> 00:05:49.420 align:middle line:84% To begin though, let's take a look 00:05:49.420 --> 00:05:52.750 align:middle line:84% at some of his negative reviews, beginning 00:05:52.750 --> 00:05:57.730 align:middle line:84% with his skewering of Laughton Osborn's Confessions Of a Poet. 00:05:57.730 --> 00:06:01.550 align:middle line:84% These are the first two pages of this book. 00:06:01.550 --> 00:06:04.090 align:middle line:84% Let me point out a few things that Poe will mention. 00:06:04.090 --> 00:06:07.330 align:middle line:84% First, there's not a lot of words on the page. 00:06:07.330 --> 00:06:09.790 align:middle line:84% That first page is two and a half sentences. 00:06:09.790 --> 00:06:13.900 align:middle line:84% And second, the title of this is Confessions 00:06:13.900 --> 00:06:15.580 align:middle line:90% Of a Poet, and the phrase-- 00:06:15.580 --> 00:06:18.880 align:middle line:84% and it's in the second paragraph there-- 00:06:18.880 --> 00:06:21.340 align:middle line:84% "I call myself a poet, yet I never 00:06:21.340 --> 00:06:23.890 align:middle line:84% wrote a line that was meant for publication." 00:06:23.890 --> 00:06:27.880 align:middle line:84% And third, I want to just call out the footnote. 00:06:27.880 --> 00:06:29.440 align:middle line:84% It's the first of many in this book. 00:06:29.440 --> 00:06:31.550 align:middle line:84% There's lots of footnotes in this book. 00:06:31.550 --> 00:06:34.540 align:middle line:84% And so, here's how Poe begins his review of Osborn's book, 00:06:34.540 --> 00:06:38.620 align:middle line:90% Confessions Of a Poet, in 1835. 00:06:38.620 --> 00:06:41.140 align:middle line:84% "The most remarkable feature in this production 00:06:41.140 --> 00:06:43.330 align:middle line:84% is the bad paper on which it is printed, 00:06:43.330 --> 00:06:46.090 align:middle line:84% and the typographical ingenuity with which 00:06:46.090 --> 00:06:48.160 align:middle line:84% matter, barely enough for one volume, 00:06:48.160 --> 00:06:51.430 align:middle line:84% has been spread over the pages of two. 00:06:51.430 --> 00:06:53.950 align:middle line:84% The author has very few claims to the sacred name he 00:06:53.950 --> 00:06:56.170 align:middle line:90% has thought proper to assume. 00:06:56.170 --> 00:06:58.540 align:middle line:84% And indeed his own idea on the subject 00:06:58.540 --> 00:06:59.980 align:middle line:90% seems not to satisfy himself. 00:06:59.980 --> 00:07:02.860 align:middle line:84% "He is in doubt, poor man, of his own qualifications, 00:07:02.860 --> 00:07:05.440 align:middle line:84% and having proclaimed himself a poet in the title page, 00:07:05.440 --> 00:07:08.140 align:middle line:84% commences his book by disavowing all pretensions 00:07:08.140 --> 00:07:09.310 align:middle line:90% to that character. 00:07:09.310 --> 00:07:11.470 align:middle line:84% We can enlighten him on this head. 00:07:11.470 --> 00:07:14.260 align:middle line:84% There is nothing of the vates about him. 00:07:14.260 --> 00:07:17.530 align:middle line:84% He is no poet-- and most positively he is no prophet. 00:07:17.530 --> 00:07:21.070 align:middle line:90% He is a writer of notes." 00:07:21.070 --> 00:07:23.200 align:middle line:90% He ends the review-- 00:07:23.200 --> 00:07:26.050 align:middle line:84% not everything is bad, and there's something good here. 00:07:26.050 --> 00:07:30.010 align:middle line:84% So he ends it with something good about the book. 00:07:30.010 --> 00:07:32.860 align:middle line:84% "There is however some merit in this book, and not 00:07:32.860 --> 00:07:34.660 align:middle line:90% a little satisfaction. 00:07:34.660 --> 00:07:37.540 align:middle line:84% The author avers upon his word of honor 00:07:37.540 --> 00:07:40.660 align:middle line:84% that in commencing this work he loads a pistol 00:07:40.660 --> 00:07:42.490 align:middle line:90% and places it upon the table. 00:07:42.490 --> 00:07:45.520 align:middle line:84% He further states that, upon coming to a conclusion, 00:07:45.520 --> 00:07:47.320 align:middle line:84% it is his intention to blow out what 00:07:47.320 --> 00:07:50.110 align:middle line:90% he supposes to be his brains. 00:07:50.110 --> 00:07:52.690 align:middle line:90% Now this is excellent. 00:07:52.690 --> 00:07:55.630 align:middle line:84% "But, even with so rapid a writer as the poet 00:07:55.630 --> 00:07:58.180 align:middle line:84% must undoubtedly be, there would be some little difficulty 00:07:58.180 --> 00:08:00.940 align:middle line:84% in completing the book under 30 days or thereabouts. 00:08:00.940 --> 00:08:04.467 align:middle line:84% The best of powder is apt to sustain injury by lying so long 00:08:04.467 --> 00:08:05.050 align:middle line:90% 'in the load.' 00:08:05.050 --> 00:08:07.900 align:middle line:84% We sincerely hope the gentleman took the precaution 00:08:07.900 --> 00:08:10.990 align:middle line:84% to examine his priming before attempting the rash act. 00:08:10.990 --> 00:08:12.370 align:middle line:90% A flash in the pan-- 00:08:12.370 --> 00:08:13.870 align:middle line:90% and in such a case-- 00:08:13.870 --> 00:08:15.670 align:middle line:90% were a thing to be lamented. 00:08:15.670 --> 00:08:18.970 align:middle line:84% Indeed, there would be no answering for the consequences. 00:08:18.970 --> 00:08:22.930 align:middle line:84% We might even have a second series of the Confessions." 00:08:22.930 --> 00:08:27.010 align:middle line:84% Now, even for Poe this is a bit uncharacteristically harsh. 00:08:27.010 --> 00:08:29.890 align:middle line:84% But it is a very good example of the cleverness and irony 00:08:29.890 --> 00:08:31.030 align:middle line:90% of his critical wit. 00:08:31.030 --> 00:08:32.530 align:middle line:84% He attacks the book and the author, 00:08:32.530 --> 00:08:35.980 align:middle line:84% but uses the book's own words in fashioning its destruction. 00:08:35.980 --> 00:08:38.770 align:middle line:84% He doesn't say this author should kill himself, 00:08:38.770 --> 00:08:41.409 align:middle line:84% but rather that the author says that he intends 00:08:41.409 --> 00:08:43.297 align:middle line:84% to kill himself, and we hope, for our sake, 00:08:43.297 --> 00:08:44.214 align:middle line:90% that he does not fail. 00:08:44.214 --> 00:08:47.210 align:middle line:90% 00:08:47.210 --> 00:08:50.370 align:middle line:84% So I'm going to go through three other examples here. 00:08:50.370 --> 00:08:53.690 align:middle line:84% The first is Theodore Fay's Norman Leslie. 00:08:53.690 --> 00:08:56.660 align:middle line:84% And I'll just read to you what he writes about Norman Leslie. 00:08:56.660 --> 00:09:01.190 align:middle line:84% "As regards Mr. Fay's style, it is unworthy of a schoolboy. 00:09:01.190 --> 00:09:03.950 align:middle line:84% The editor of The New York Mirror 00:09:03.950 --> 00:09:06.290 align:middle line:84% has either never seen an edition of Murray's Grammar, 00:09:06.290 --> 00:09:08.000 align:middle line:84% or he's been a-Willising so long as 00:09:08.000 --> 00:09:10.430 align:middle line:84% to have forgotten his vernacular language. 00:09:10.430 --> 00:09:14.270 align:middle line:84% Let us examine one or two of his sentences at random. 00:09:14.270 --> 00:09:17.700 align:middle line:90% Page 28, volume one." 00:09:17.700 --> 00:09:18.960 align:middle line:90% I hope I can say-- 00:09:18.960 --> 00:09:20.250 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:09:20.250 --> 00:09:22.680 align:middle line:90% "He was doomed--" This is Fay. 00:09:22.680 --> 00:09:27.090 align:middle line:84% "He was doomed to wander through the fartherest climbs, alone 00:09:27.090 --> 00:09:28.890 align:middle line:90% and branded." 00:09:28.890 --> 00:09:34.020 align:middle line:84% Poe says, "Why not say at once fartherer-therest?" 00:09:34.020 --> 00:09:36.570 align:middle line:90% Page 150, volume one. 00:09:36.570 --> 00:09:39.030 align:middle line:84% "Yon kindling orb should be hers, 00:09:39.030 --> 00:09:41.130 align:middle line:84% and that faint spark close to its side 00:09:41.130 --> 00:09:43.680 align:middle line:84% should teach her how dim, and yet how near, 00:09:43.680 --> 00:09:47.190 align:middle line:90% my soul was to her own." 00:09:47.190 --> 00:09:49.980 align:middle line:84% Poe says, "What is the meaning of all this? 00:09:49.980 --> 00:09:54.600 align:middle line:84% Is Mr. Leslie's soul dim to her own as well as near to her own? 00:09:54.600 --> 00:09:56.790 align:middle line:84% For the sentence implies as much. 00:09:56.790 --> 00:10:02.310 align:middle line:84% Suppose we say, quote, 'should teach her how dim was my soul 00:10:02.310 --> 00:10:07.860 align:middle line:84% and yet how near to her own.'" All right. 00:10:07.860 --> 00:10:11.790 align:middle line:84% Next example, Rufus Dawes writes a poem called Geraldine. 00:10:11.790 --> 00:10:14.695 align:middle line:84% And Poe's often fond of rewriting sentences or poetry 00:10:14.695 --> 00:10:16.320 align:middle line:84% in his criticism, in order to point out 00:10:16.320 --> 00:10:18.930 align:middle line:90% absurdity in the original. 00:10:18.930 --> 00:10:21.030 align:middle line:84% For instance, here are the lines from Rufus Dawes 00:10:21.030 --> 00:10:24.260 align:middle line:90% that are selected by Poe. 00:10:24.260 --> 00:10:27.620 align:middle line:84% "He laid her gently down, of sense bereft, 00:10:27.620 --> 00:10:31.100 align:middle line:84% and sunk his picture on her bosom snow. 00:10:31.100 --> 00:10:33.260 align:middle line:84% And close beside these lines in blood 00:10:33.260 --> 00:10:35.840 align:middle line:90% he left, farewell forever! 00:10:35.840 --> 00:10:37.970 align:middle line:90% I go, another woman's victim. 00:10:37.970 --> 00:10:39.410 align:middle line:90% Dare I tell? 00:10:39.410 --> 00:10:40.580 align:middle line:90% 'Tis Alice! 00:10:40.580 --> 00:10:42.170 align:middle line:90% Curse us, Geraldine. 00:10:42.170 --> 00:10:44.620 align:middle line:90% Farewell." 00:10:44.620 --> 00:10:47.830 align:middle line:84% Poe says, "This is a droll piece of business! 00:10:47.830 --> 00:10:50.350 align:middle line:84% The lover brings forth a miniature. 00:10:50.350 --> 00:10:53.320 align:middle line:84% Mr. Dawes has a passion for miniatures. 00:10:53.320 --> 00:10:58.390 align:middle line:84% He sinks it in the bosom of the lady, cuts his finger, 00:10:58.390 --> 00:11:00.580 align:middle line:84% and writes with the blood an epistle. 00:11:00.580 --> 00:11:02.710 align:middle line:84% Where is not specified, but we presume 00:11:02.710 --> 00:11:06.640 align:middle line:84% he indicts it upon the bosom, as it is close beside the picture. 00:11:06.640 --> 00:11:09.490 align:middle line:84% In which epistle he announces that he is another woman's 00:11:09.490 --> 00:11:11.230 align:middle line:84% victim, giving us to understand that he 00:11:11.230 --> 00:11:13.690 align:middle line:84% himself is a woman after all, and concluding 00:11:13.690 --> 00:11:17.260 align:middle line:84% with the delicious bit of billingsgate, 'Dare I tell? 00:11:17.260 --> 00:11:18.250 align:middle line:90% 'Tis Alice! 00:11:18.250 --> 00:11:19.630 align:middle line:90% Curse us, Geraldine. 00:11:19.630 --> 00:11:23.500 align:middle line:84% Farewell.' We suppose, however, that 'curse us' is a misprint, 00:11:23.500 --> 00:11:26.680 align:middle line:84% for why should Geraldine curse both herself and her lover? 00:11:26.680 --> 00:11:29.170 align:middle line:84% It should have been 'curse it,' no doubt. 00:11:29.170 --> 00:11:31.660 align:middle line:84% "The whole passage perhaps would have been 00:11:31.660 --> 00:11:34.750 align:middle line:90% read better thus, 'Oh, my eye! 00:11:34.750 --> 00:11:35.740 align:middle line:90% 'Tis Alice! 00:11:35.740 --> 00:11:36.755 align:middle line:90% Damn it, Geraldine! 00:11:36.755 --> 00:11:37.255 align:middle line:90% Goodbye!'" 00:11:37.255 --> 00:11:39.554 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:11:39.554 --> 00:11:40.520 align:middle line:90% 00:11:40.520 --> 00:11:42.830 align:middle line:84% And because I can't help myself, he 00:11:42.830 --> 00:11:44.540 align:middle line:84% has good fun at the expense of George 00:11:44.540 --> 00:11:47.060 align:middle line:90% Jones, the American histrion. 00:11:47.060 --> 00:11:49.980 align:middle line:84% Let's look briefly at the title pages of the first volume, 00:11:49.980 --> 00:11:52.250 align:middle line:84% which Poe says ought to be, quote, "cut out 00:11:52.250 --> 00:11:54.770 align:middle line:84% and deposited in the British Museum." 00:11:54.770 --> 00:12:01.720 align:middle line:84% So that is the first title page, the one with the image. 00:12:01.720 --> 00:12:05.250 align:middle line:84% And then there is this title page. 00:12:05.250 --> 00:12:09.930 align:middle line:84% And then this one, and then this one, and then this one, 00:12:09.930 --> 00:12:12.120 align:middle line:84% and then this one, and then, finally, we 00:12:12.120 --> 00:12:14.280 align:middle line:90% reach the beginning of the book. 00:12:14.280 --> 00:12:16.620 align:middle line:84% If you're counting, that's seven title pages, 00:12:16.620 --> 00:12:18.930 align:middle line:84% three illustrations, one of which is of the author 00:12:18.930 --> 00:12:22.080 align:middle line:84% himself in classical Greek garb, before we get to the work 00:12:22.080 --> 00:12:23.110 align:middle line:90% itself. 00:12:23.110 --> 00:12:25.380 align:middle line:84% But I've also omitted, and Poe actually 00:12:25.380 --> 00:12:27.420 align:middle line:84% omits some of this too, a dedication 00:12:27.420 --> 00:12:29.707 align:middle line:84% to the Archbishop of Canterbury, a biblical verse, 00:12:29.707 --> 00:12:31.290 align:middle line:84% an inscription to the King of Prussia, 00:12:31.290 --> 00:12:33.000 align:middle line:84% a preface in which the author explains 00:12:33.000 --> 00:12:34.950 align:middle line:84% that the lack of the table of contents 00:12:34.950 --> 00:12:37.125 align:middle line:84% is to preserve the secrets of history-- 00:12:37.125 --> 00:12:39.250 align:middle line:84% he doesn't want to give anything away by putting it 00:12:39.250 --> 00:12:41.100 align:middle line:84% in the table of contents-- and a warning 00:12:41.100 --> 00:12:44.070 align:middle line:84% to booksellers not to steal his work. 00:12:44.070 --> 00:12:46.890 align:middle line:84% In all, there are 19 pages of preparatory fluff 00:12:46.890 --> 00:12:49.570 align:middle line:84% before the first word of the book itself. 00:12:49.570 --> 00:12:52.680 align:middle line:84% These are the title pages that Poe wishes to cut out-- 00:12:52.680 --> 00:12:56.220 align:middle line:84% be cut out and deposited in the British Museum. 00:12:56.220 --> 00:12:58.620 align:middle line:84% To make his point, in Poe's review 00:12:58.620 --> 00:13:03.750 align:middle line:84% he writes every single word off of those title pages, every one 00:13:03.750 --> 00:13:07.560 align:middle line:90% verbatim, and then he comments. 00:13:07.560 --> 00:13:11.280 align:middle line:84% "By the blessing of God, this is all! 00:13:11.280 --> 00:13:15.270 align:middle line:84% We give them verbatim, first, because we like a neat thing 00:13:15.270 --> 00:13:16.720 align:middle line:90% and enough of it. 00:13:16.720 --> 00:13:18.720 align:middle line:84% "And secondly, because here we have discovered 00:13:18.720 --> 00:13:22.210 align:middle line:84% Milton's allusion in his, quote, 'many winding bout of linked 00:13:22.210 --> 00:13:25.440 align:middle line:90% sweetness long drawn out.' 00:13:25.440 --> 00:13:26.490 align:middle line:90% Here it is. 00:13:26.490 --> 00:13:27.780 align:middle line:90% This is it. 00:13:27.780 --> 00:13:31.740 align:middle line:84% He had reference to the title pages of George Jones." 00:13:31.740 --> 00:13:32.670 align:middle line:90% But this isn't all. 00:13:32.670 --> 00:13:35.040 align:middle line:84% Poe then turns to the illustrations 00:13:35.040 --> 00:13:38.640 align:middle line:84% and tries to picture them forth in words for his reader. 00:13:38.640 --> 00:13:40.352 align:middle line:84% And we're helped out here because we 00:13:40.352 --> 00:13:41.310 align:middle line:90% can look at the images. 00:13:41.310 --> 00:13:43.170 align:middle line:90% His reader wouldn't have them. 00:13:43.170 --> 00:13:46.260 align:middle line:84% "Let him, the reader, conceive the inconceivable. 00:13:46.260 --> 00:13:50.550 align:middle line:90% Let him picture to himself a-- 00:13:50.550 --> 00:13:52.200 align:middle line:90% what is it? 00:13:52.200 --> 00:13:54.060 align:middle line:90% A person with a chin? 00:13:54.060 --> 00:13:55.680 align:middle line:90% A gentleman with a simper? 00:13:55.680 --> 00:13:58.410 align:middle line:84% A something with a scarf over its right shoulder? 00:13:58.410 --> 00:14:00.630 align:middle line:84% The throat bare, the hair well off the temples, 00:14:00.630 --> 00:14:01.650 align:middle line:90% the eyebrows up. 00:14:01.650 --> 00:14:03.900 align:middle line:84% The whole thing looking satisfied with the existing 00:14:03.900 --> 00:14:07.560 align:middle line:84% condition of matters so far as regards merely itself, 00:14:07.560 --> 00:14:10.950 align:middle line:84% but consumed with pity for the universe upon the whole, 00:14:10.950 --> 00:14:14.250 align:middle line:84% and exceedingly hurt and vexed, not to say mortified, 00:14:14.250 --> 00:14:17.790 align:middle line:84% that its advice was not taken in the first instance when 00:14:17.790 --> 00:14:20.640 align:middle line:84% that sad botch of an affair, that is to say the universe, 00:14:20.640 --> 00:14:22.800 align:middle line:90% was originally manufactured. 00:14:22.800 --> 00:14:26.100 align:middle line:84% This curious thing is the great American histrion, 00:14:26.100 --> 00:14:28.290 align:middle line:84% that is to say, it is George Jones 00:14:28.290 --> 00:14:31.050 align:middle line:90% and the author of this book." 00:14:31.050 --> 00:14:33.450 align:middle line:84% Now let's look at the next image. 00:14:33.450 --> 00:14:36.780 align:middle line:84% "The reader is entreated to imagine a building not 00:14:36.780 --> 00:14:41.010 align:middle line:84% altogether unlike the infernal palace seen by Vathek or--" 00:14:41.010 --> 00:14:42.150 align:middle line:90% I can't pronounce this. 00:14:42.150 --> 00:14:43.500 align:middle line:90% "Nouronihar." 00:14:43.500 --> 00:14:46.410 align:middle line:84% It's a character from a Gothic tale. 00:14:46.410 --> 00:14:48.750 align:middle line:84% "We take this building to be intended either 00:14:48.750 --> 00:14:51.498 align:middle line:84% for the New York City Hall or the Magdalene Asylum, 00:14:51.498 --> 00:14:53.040 align:middle line:84% or the fountain in the Bowling Green. 00:14:53.040 --> 00:14:55.440 align:middle line:84% We cannot be positive that it is meant for more than one 00:14:55.440 --> 00:14:58.480 align:middle line:84% of these, but it is ugly enough to be all three. 00:14:58.480 --> 00:15:01.170 align:middle line:84% "It is in the background, floating upon the sea, 00:15:01.170 --> 00:15:03.210 align:middle line:84% if we rightly comprehend the idea. 00:15:03.210 --> 00:15:05.400 align:middle line:84% And in the foreground is Moses, the prophet, 00:15:05.400 --> 00:15:08.550 align:middle line:84% standing guard over an assortment of kettles and pans, 00:15:08.550 --> 00:15:12.480 align:middle line:84% and holding in each hand one of the 10 commandment tables 00:15:12.480 --> 00:15:14.460 align:middle line:84% of stone, the hardness of which he 00:15:14.460 --> 00:15:17.040 align:middle line:84% seems anxious to test upon the skull of a high priest 00:15:17.040 --> 00:15:20.190 align:middle line:84% in full pontifical, who is clearly bent on-- upon stealing 00:15:20.190 --> 00:15:21.450 align:middle line:90% a kettle at least. 00:15:21.450 --> 00:15:24.360 align:middle line:84% "And with this view brandishes an oyster knife, 00:15:24.360 --> 00:15:26.280 align:middle line:84% with which he is watching his opportunity 00:15:26.280 --> 00:15:27.540 align:middle line:90% to cut Moses' throat. 00:15:27.540 --> 00:15:29.520 align:middle line:84% And the sooner the better, beyond doubt." 00:15:29.520 --> 00:15:32.820 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:15:32.820 --> 00:15:37.380 align:middle line:84% "Will the reader just oblige us by picturing to himself Neptune 00:15:37.380 --> 00:15:40.140 align:middle line:84% sitting comfortably, although a little stiffly, 00:15:40.140 --> 00:15:42.300 align:middle line:84% on a large oyster shell, with something 00:15:42.300 --> 00:15:44.880 align:middle line:84% that looks like a roll of manuscript for a footboard, 00:15:44.880 --> 00:15:48.000 align:middle line:84% and drawn by four horses with the tails of catfish 00:15:48.000 --> 00:15:49.620 align:middle line:90% or possibly gudgeons. 00:15:49.620 --> 00:15:51.660 align:middle line:84% One of the horses turning his head aside 00:15:51.660 --> 00:15:55.980 align:middle line:84% to take a bite or a kiss at a young lady, who really should 00:15:55.980 --> 00:15:58.170 align:middle line:84% be ashamed of herself for swimming so high out 00:15:58.170 --> 00:15:59.640 align:middle line:90% of the water. 00:15:59.640 --> 00:16:03.600 align:middle line:84% "Above all this, let there be fancied a little cupid 00:16:03.600 --> 00:16:05.910 align:middle line:84% with knock-knees fluttering himself into a fit. 00:16:05.910 --> 00:16:08.010 align:middle line:84% And the picture is complete, that is, 00:16:08.010 --> 00:16:10.590 align:middle line:84% it would be complete if there were only a few words 00:16:10.590 --> 00:16:13.230 align:middle line:84% printed beneath it in the way of a hint as to what it is all 00:16:13.230 --> 00:16:14.161 align:middle line:90% about." 00:16:14.161 --> 00:16:16.870 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:16:16.870 --> 00:16:19.140 align:middle line:84% I had to choose these three examples carefully, 00:16:19.140 --> 00:16:21.600 align:middle line:84% as there are many, many, many more. 00:16:21.600 --> 00:16:23.430 align:middle line:84% I want to point out three things though. 00:16:23.430 --> 00:16:26.850 align:middle line:84% First, Poe uses the words of the book against the book itself. 00:16:26.850 --> 00:16:28.260 align:middle line:90% He always does this. 00:16:28.260 --> 00:16:30.000 align:middle line:84% He doesn't come in from the outside. 00:16:30.000 --> 00:16:32.670 align:middle line:84% He likes to analyze the book and attack 00:16:32.670 --> 00:16:34.440 align:middle line:90% it using its own language. 00:16:34.440 --> 00:16:37.050 align:middle line:84% And Poe is very particular regarding 00:16:37.050 --> 00:16:39.210 align:middle line:90% style, mechanics, grammar. 00:16:39.210 --> 00:16:41.610 align:middle line:84% If you put the wrong word in the wrong place, 00:16:41.610 --> 00:16:46.110 align:middle line:84% Poe can go to town for the entire review on one sentence 00:16:46.110 --> 00:16:47.670 align:middle line:90% that you wrote wrong. 00:16:47.670 --> 00:16:50.160 align:middle line:84% And his attention to the form of the work, not 00:16:50.160 --> 00:16:53.190 align:middle line:84% just in its style, but in its actual material, in its pose 00:16:53.190 --> 00:16:55.260 align:middle line:84% and posture, all those title pages, 00:16:55.260 --> 00:16:59.760 align:middle line:84% the ostentatiousness of it Poe really wanted to attack. 00:16:59.760 --> 00:17:03.452 align:middle line:84% For Poe, content could not be separated neatly from form. 00:17:03.452 --> 00:17:05.369 align:middle line:84% And this is what leads to his main achievement 00:17:05.369 --> 00:17:08.760 align:middle line:84% in literary criticism, a renewed attention, a rigorous focus, 00:17:08.760 --> 00:17:11.500 align:middle line:90% on analyzing the work itself. 00:17:11.500 --> 00:17:12.000 align:middle line:90%