(Untitled)

[3pipeproblem]

Three Four Five days ago, I was lucky enough to catch Michael Chabon at Northwestern, where he delivered a brand spanking new lecture on Edgar Allan Poe (hahaha, Chabon: "It was either Poe or Robert Ludlum. In the end, I just pulled the trigger and picked Poe.") and made me miss my train.

Comments

[dien]

That sounds supremely wonderful.

[3pipeproblem]

I wish I'd brought a recording device.

...I wish I owned a recording device.

Hahahaha, I didn't even talk about the Q&A! People were trying to play outsmart-the-speaker and he was having none of it. And then one guy asked how he thought Poe died and he went into all the theories (apparently it might have been rabies?).

[elgoose]

You are such a geek. You need to post like this more. This past week, I read two of Melville's Poe-ish short stories: "Bartleby" (speaking of "an explanation that doesn't fulfill its function") and "Benito Cereno," which reminded me of Poe while I was reading it, and is nearly as deeply puzzling as Bartleby is.

Ah humanity!

Also, rabies as a death theory for Poe has been discounted, I believe, or there's some other theory about now, but I sort of like the rabies story myself. There's something so destructively organic about it.