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Why Edgar Allan Poe Isn't Just a Sad Boy | It's Lit

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We remember Edgar Allan Poe for his tales of horror and the macabre as well as inventing the entire Detective Fiction Genre. But unlike many of the great authors of Western classic literature, he has become an icon unto himself, recognized to this day by name and face almost more than the titles of his stories and poems. But his legacy is more complicated than school books may have lead us to believe.
Hosted by Lindsay Ellis and Princess Weekes, It’s Lit! is a show about our favorite books, genres, and why we love to read. It’s Lit is made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the human endeavor.
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Опубликовано:

18 авг 2024

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Комментарии : 289

@firestorm1088 2 года назад

Poe would probably have appreciated the irony that his enemies' rebranding campaign only added to his legend and helped secure his immortality.

@feinjir1695 2 года назад

This reminds me of that quote I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made

@megb7715 2 года назад

His hater only made him more powerful.

@theeducatedfool 2 года назад

Teenage angsty me: I relate to Edgar Allan Poe Adult me, a musician and a music reviewer: I somehow relate to Edgar Poe even more

@WarpedLord 2 года назад

I think the fact that pretty much all of us likely thought... "Who???" when Rufus Griswold's name came up means Poe got the last laugh (even if it was postmortem).

@theintern2960 2 года назад

I think Edgar would appreciate the humor in that.

@JeighNeither 2 года назад

The best ones always do.

@youremakingprogress144 2 года назад

Isn't that Chevy Chase's character in the Vacation movies?

@daltonallen7625 2 года назад

Drunk history has stuck that dudes name in my mind

@LuisSierra42 2 года назад

It's a lot like in the movie Amadeus

@mollywantshugs5944 2 года назад

Griswold: “Poe has no point of honor” Also Griswold: *cheats Poe’s family and slanders his name over a minor personal slight* Yes, Poe was the scoundrel here

@SedatedGhostwriter 2 года назад

"He wasn't goth. He was just poor." I FEEL ATTACKED.

@opoet007orpheuspoet9 2 года назад

He was tho . He was just goth before goth

@watching7721 Год назад

Well, it is called gothic literature

@LoneStarWomanInACajunWorld 11 месяцев назад

@@opoet007orpheuspoet9Well put.

@jacksquatt6082 10 месяцев назад

Not poor... just Poe.

@NighttimeDaydreams 9 месяцев назад

Me too hah

@CTheng 2 года назад

In turning Poe into a sadboy icon, Griswold made it so that Poe become one of the most famous literary name ever, while he became irrelevant. The irony.

@ButterflySeraph612 2 года назад

Poe was really just vibing and everyone went after him like school bullies on a playground

@skyden24195 2 года назад

"To quote 'The Raven': 'haters gonna hate.' " - lol. I must've missed that version of the poem. Great video.

@destructoooo Год назад

What was the original words? Of that phrase.

@rougenoir4287 Год назад

@@destructoooo Quote the raven "Nevermore".

@donchon7580 2 года назад

So I imagine that we should be thankful most of these guys didn’t have Twitter.

@mikaylamcfadden7866 Год назад

Seriously Twitter is a tool but people have always been petty

@AnjelCaido69 2 года назад

Edgar Allan Poe is an icon of literature and his legacy will last for millenniums

@rachaelbao 2 года назад

Just reading the names of his enemies was uplifting. To think someone was once named Elizabeth Fries Ellet.

@TheTimeMage 2 года назад

delicious irony right there

@wren_bean 2 года назад

What's crazy is that we don't think about E.A.Poe the way we do about Oscar Wilde; a profoundly creative, if sometimes eccentric, razor-sharp wit. It's tragic that his honesty and refusal to take life too seriously in his own time was twisted so cruelly into a false caricature that lives on in posterity.

@grapeshot 2 года назад

I love The Simpsons version of The Raven. James Earl Jones's narration was spot-on.

@KimberlyLetsGo 2 года назад

I'll have to go check that out.

@hemidas 2 года назад

You should check out the Christopher Lee version.

@JeighNeither 2 года назад

Yes, good reference! Just remembering that episode made me smile. Wasn't it a segment from a Treehouse of Horror?

@ronbo11 2 года назад

@@JeighNeither Yes it was a part of the Treehouse of Horror series. Season 2, episode 3. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-bLiXjaPqSyY.html

@mrs.g.9816 2 года назад

I especially laughed at the little Bart-ravens marching around Homer's head saying "nevermore nevermore . . ." ( Homer had just been conked on the head by a book.)

@ILikedGooglePlus 2 года назад

And neither the angels on heaven above Nor the demons down under the sea Could ever dissever my soul from the soul Of the beautiful Annabel Lee

@mypal1990 2 года назад

Edgar Allan Poe conveys so much emotion with his poems.

@LoneStarWomanInACajunWorld 11 месяцев назад

I agree, it's beautiful! ❤

@mrs.g.9816 2 года назад

I'm glad people are learning the true cause of Poe's death. I also read somewhere that he might have contracted a deadly disease and was delirious. It was NOT alcoholism!

@Lucius1958 2 года назад

One source claims that it might have been rabies, iirc...

@julietfischer5056 2 года назад

@@Lucius1958 - The symptoms fit. A bat bite could go undetected, and his reputation for drinking would have been all the answer his detractors needed.

@garrettstambaugh6271 2 года назад

Hans Pfaall was one of my first exposures to Poe outside the schoolhouse canon, and it's what really turned me into a fan. It's killer parody, humorous and scathing all the way through, and full of bright, colorful ideas. And so much of his work is more like it than the dark and dreary.

@kelleyceccato7025 2 года назад

Am I the only one who thinks "The Cask of Amontillado" is actually quite funny, in a super-dark way? "Yes, Fortunato, I am a mason" (shows trowel).

@jessicadecuir5622 9 месяцев назад

You know what really makes it funny? It was written as an act of revenge. From Course Hero: The origin of "The Cask of Amontillado" itself reflects one of the story's main themes: the desire for vengeance. At the time of its writing Poe was feuding with another writer, Thomas Dunn English, and had publicly ridiculed English's work. English returned the favor and included an alcoholic, dysfunctional character modeled after Poe in one of his novels. The character, Marmaduke Hammerhead, is described as a man who "never gets drunk more than five days a week." Poe modeled the antagonist Fortunato after English in retaliation.

@madlycan 2 года назад

I always wondered why people only ever associated him with haunt and horror. a huge body of his work was with a great dose of humor. thanks for filling in the gaps : D

@julietfischer5056 2 года назад

Humor requires social context. Some of Shakespeare's comedies don't work nowadays because (duh) we don't live in Elizabethan England. Poe's humor is not what we're used to, so it's easy to miss. There's a reason _The Cask of Amontillado_ makes it into high school English classes, but not _How to Write a Blackwood's Article_ or _The Thousand and Second Tale of Scheherezade._

@dracodis 2 года назад

My favorite of his burlesques is probably "X-ing a Paragrab," not only because it's story is more general humor instead of topical, but also because it just might be the earliest use of "X-treme" in printed English, and the thought of this very 80s-90s pop-feelign word appearing in an 1849 short story of famous "Sad Boy" Poe just tickles me.

@GregoryTheGr8ster 2 года назад

I recently visited the Poe Museum in Richmond. It is small, but any fan of Poe must visit it at least once!

@tremorsfan 2 года назад

I can't remember the name of the story but there is one where the narrator describes going into a panic thinking that there is a monster headed toward earth only to discover that there was a bug on the telescope.

@Lucius1958 2 года назад

It was a 'death's head' moth, as I recall...

@JoshKnoxChinnery 2 года назад

I didn't know Poe had sci-fi! To the library!!!

@dianne1851 2 года назад

And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain thrilled me filled me with fantastic terror never felt before..... In 1962 in 5th grade I memorized the whole poem.Thought it was the most beautiful ever written. Have read it to my kids and grandkids. Still moves me. Thanks for posting this.

@uWu-fp2lc 2 года назад

Alright... from this day forth, I shall address thee as "Edgar Poe" and no more

@samwill7259 2 года назад

Damn, she put some SPICE on the word "Macabre." I can dig it. Gotta have some theatricality. Lord knows it's something Poe would have appreciated.

@johnopalko5223 2 года назад

If you want to see just how scathing Poe's satires of other writers could be, and get a good laugh at the same time, read "How to Write a Blackwood Article. A Predicament."

2 года назад

I just did. Wow... When I learned today that he was a critic, I thought it made sense that he had a lot of enemies. I see now that I vastly underestimated the situation. That burned, even not understanding most of the contemporary references. I second the recommendation!

@julietfischer5056 2 года назад

@- Long live Psyche Zenobia, aka Sukie Snobs! (Someone has to have one of those names for their online persona.)

@penny_the_wiser413 2 года назад

I love the story Murder at The Rue Morgue. Poe is one of my favorite writers. T.S. Elliott also.

@jagyaaseni 2 года назад

He WAS actually the "genius of originality" though. I've never read his work and thought "hmm, this author from that time also writes like him". In fact, even modern authors can't match his level even now.

@mascadadelpantion8018 2 года назад

As a modern Gothic human being I am forced to say with all my heart and soul 💯 EDGAR ALLAN POE IS EASILY THE HISTORY'S WORLD'S GREATEST WRITER KNOWN TO ALL MEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!💯💯💯💯💯💯

@merlapittman5034 2 года назад

Edgar Poe (and I always refer to him that way because it was his preference) has been one of my favorite authors since I discovered him in my early teens. I pretty much knew everything in this video from my own research for various school/college papers, and I still enjoyed it immensely! Thanks for this video!

@Poohze01 2 года назад

Wonderful! I've loved Poe my whole (long) life, as much for his wit, humor and rejection of pathos as for his mastery of the grotesque and arabesque. He was ahead of his time. Thank you for a great video, and I love that shirt!

@sock2828 2 года назад

That story he did where people fly to the moon in a balloon was totally autobiographical.

@jeremyt2212 2 года назад

So we largely believe now that it was a brain tumor that killed him? That's a detail that I didn't know. Poe really is in an elite club, along with Dostoevsky and Van Gogh, artists whose tortured lives were as fascinating as their brilliant works.

@Shatterverse 2 года назад

My grade school was named after him, so we read The Raven, I think, surprisingly young. No point just a story.

@mathieuleader8601 2 года назад

when it comes to Poe's relationship with Griswold this really exemplifies the phrase with friends like these who needs enemies

@Moonbeam143 2 года назад

My favorite poems of his are "The Raven", and "Annabel Lee".

@Lucius1958 2 года назад

I wonder whether "The Raven" was inspired by his meeting with Dickens on one of his American tours. Dickens had several pet ravens, whom he immortalized in the character of 'Grip' in 'Barnaby Rudge'. (BTW, the original 'Grip' is preserved at the Free Library of Philadelphia).

@rami_ungar_writer 2 года назад

You guys have covered Stephen King, Anne Rice, and now Edgar Allan Poe. Will you guys do HP Lovecraft in the near future? Maybe Robert Chambers and the King in Yellow too?

@roswynn5484 2 года назад

Well, Lovecraft was unabashedly racist, so I don't know how Princess would feel in talking about him. He is one of the most important horror writers ever though. I'd like to hear what she'd have to say about him, honestly.

@AnjelCaido69 2 года назад

@@roswynn5484 Lovecraft was more like xenophobic he was afraid of everything even Italians and Welsh people

@not.applicable. 2 года назад

@@AnjelCaido69 both attributes can be true at the same time. The channel, In Praise of Shadows, has a wonderfully deep dive on Lovecraft that addresses both the legacy of his work and the circumstances of his upbringing and beliefs. It's a long video but it presents the most complete assessment of the man I've ever listened, to and really pulls back the veil on the depth of his extremely hateful inner thoughts.

@gentlerat 2 года назад

@@roswynn5484 Princess Weekes isn’t afraid to dive head on into talking about accusations that certain authors were problematic although she tends to talk more about gray area stuff than Lovecraft who was unambiguous.

@nunyabiznes33 2 года назад

@@AnjelCaido69 Lovecraft was so horrified of everything that he's afraid of draft and I don't mean the military kind.

@hectorrobertocontrerasmiranda 2 года назад

"he wasn't goth... he was just poor" lol thank you Princess

@taekwongurl 2 года назад

I've never heard of these "authors" either! We recognize your beauty Poe! Sorry that it took the masses so long to get it together, there were some rich, literary snobs working against you for awhile there.

@julietfischer5056 2 года назад

I recognized a few of them. They're still taught and read, but don't have Poe's pop culture name recognition.

@taekwongurl 2 года назад

@@julietfischer5056 yes, you're correct, but as a part of the barely literate masses, Poe is Poetry King.

@yamakaze951 2 года назад

Honestly, some of the names look like made up names in a fantasy story or something

@julietfischer5056 2 года назад

@@yamakaze951- The 18th and 19th Centuries were known for interesting (to us) names.

@antiformsora 2 года назад

Poe was the first to solve Olber's Paradox (why is the night sky so dark?), with a scientifically sound answer, and he was right. Not just a sad boy for sure.

@nattmazzoni 2 года назад

OMG yes!!! His humorous stories are some of my favorites, The Spectacles is probably the most outrageous thing I have ever read. I'm glad to see such a great video on one of my favorite writers

2 года назад

Just looked it up. That was hilarious! (Though the laser-corrected nearsighted pedant in me wants to pick some nits in his eyesight physics.)

@davidcashin1894 2 года назад

Isn't it great that we remember Poe and not his critics! LOL

@c-allanwats4239 2 года назад

i love how his nemiss's did so much to belittle him. yet they are famous for bieng the enemy of poe

@kayleighmel4554 2 года назад

I feel cheated, he wrote all the other fun stuff and I had to be mildly traumatized by his horror stories when I was 12!

@terencesilva4499 2 года назад

I remembered as a 10 year old kid reading his poem bells bells bells and not sleeping for a week 😂 I was hooked ever since

@michaelraun4459 2 года назад

What about the fact that H.P. Lovecraft was Poe's number one fan-boy??

@emmanuelboakye1124 2 года назад

True👍👍

@floramew 2 года назад

I read a couple of his humor stories in... high school I think? On my own time. I was unimpressed, and right up until you said otherwise I had assumed that was bc poe was just not great at humor. That totally makes sense, though, that the context of humor changes a lot more than the context of horror & tragedy. Shame that he's been immortalized bearing the name of his hated stepfather, though

@petroglyph888mcgregor2 2 года назад

I thought that Poe's story "X-ing a Paragrab" was hilarious the first time I read it. The second time, not so much.

@AndreiGromit 2 года назад

To be frank, Poe's photo is not that unfortunate. After all, nobody looked good in photos from that time.

@LindaC616 2 года назад

Right? I think people forget that not everyone has the money to have one taken, and there was no digital photography. You had to wait a while to see if it came out

@helenl3193 2 года назад

And you had to stay still for a while for it, so most people didn't smile

@baysidedaze 2 года назад

Baltimore resident here! That Ravens comment may be true but so outta pocket

@vimorrah 2 года назад

I greatly appreciate this show. As someone with mild dyslexia and basically got bullied out of reading in my school years by my teachers for enjoying reading TOO MUCh (skipping multiple chapters ahead of where the class should be.) I enjoy learning about other authors.

@JKJ1900 2 года назад

I appreciate Poe's humor. Hans Pfall has some really funny parts

@hotgun2469 2 года назад

I like to think that Poe had a bunch of enemies because he was super petty and always dunked on them in a very public setting.

@roxannateofanov1031 2 года назад

Never heard of Griswold. Guess his hate campaign on poor Edgar backfired. Karmic justice.

@jessicadecuir5622 9 месяцев назад

The Spectacles is a great example of his humorous side. I also enjoyed Never Bet the Devil Your Head.

@mathieuleader8601 2 года назад

I really appreicate the greyscale dress with butterflies and the charcoal lips really sets the mood

@jessthenerd420 2 года назад

He actually prefers to go by his goth name; Night Pain

@emmanuelboakye1124 2 года назад

🤣🤣

@MrKruchinski Год назад

Congratulations on doing a great job of bringing classical literature to younger audiences.

@b.f.2461 2 года назад

Poe's criticisms are hilarious, which you might not expect. When a poet he critiqued wrote "Better to be forgotten/than to lose equipoise," Poe murmured, "Perhaps better to be forgotten than to lose equipoise on top of a shot tower."

@animalsrcute5762 2 года назад

Love Poe 💖! His adapted father real piece of stuff and same to his haters.

@Jgift_9x 2 года назад

Awesome!!! Thx u

@jessicadecuir5622 23 дня назад

Was reading an analysis of The Cask of Amontillado, it mentioned something that really shows Poe’s genius. The American mispronunciation of “amontillado “ would have sounded to an Italian (a language Poe knew) ear like the word “amontichillato” meaning “to heap up.” Which explains why it’s central to the story without actually existing. Plenty of the things are “heaped up” in the story, like Fortunato’s insults on Montresor, the bones in the catacombs, and of course, the bricks.

@carlosdiaz7573 2 года назад

Poe was one of the best writers in the English language. We owe everything to him.

@PogieJoe 2 года назад

Such a wonderful defense of Poe! Thanks, Princess and crew.

@HarlequinDrFaustus 2 года назад

Love Poe, and this was very informative. He was the first writer to influence me, as a kid, and I did several of his pieces on stage, including THE RAVEN several times (and made a video, too); at one point while researching on that poem I came across an essay he wrote about its creation, which was really fascinating, and insightful.

@klisterklister2367 2 года назад

Always happy when princess weekes shows up

@zrodger2296 2 года назад

Well now I'm going to have to break out my old book with so much of his work and re-read (or read for the first time!) some old stories and poems! Thank you!

@grapeshot 2 года назад

Edgar Allan Poe the 19th century Stephen King. The very definition of what they called depression in the 19th century, melancholy.

@bluemooninthedaylight8073 2 года назад

Nah, Poe is Poe. King cannot hold a candle to his name.

@grapeshot 2 года назад

@@bluemooninthedaylight8073 yes you are right Poe is in a league all by himself. I was just saying somebody in our time line that is close to him.

@bluemooninthedaylight8073 2 года назад

@@grapeshot That's cool, I've nothing against your take.

@LovlyHorror 2 года назад

So if I can low key brag for a moment, I may be distantly related to Edgar Allan Poe. The story in my family goes that his father had a child with a cousin of ours however many times removed.

@idigamstudios7463 2 года назад

Princess' sign off here is why she's an icon and a queen.

@mdeliacloherty 2 года назад

Princess Weeeeeeeeeeekes you’re the best person to do these and I’m always excited to see a new video you’re in charge of

@danatrick4868 2 года назад

I have long waited for this episode. Very overjoyed to see it today!!!

@tanjahorvatserbiaoldslavsh4685 2 года назад

I am from Serbia ( ex Tito's Yugoslavia, Balkan peninsula, Europe ). I heard about Edgar Allan Poe but I think that he wrote an only horror stories. The legend about him is a bigger dark mystery than his real-life story. His enemies helped his writer's reputation. He is a writer legend.

@ceciland18 2 года назад

And this is why hard to decipher satire is called Poe. I absolutely love it!

@emmanuelboakye1124 2 года назад

So i am reading poe now and i am just reading the detective stories.👍👍

@AphroditeLee 2 года назад

Aw, you didn't have to come for my Raven's though...

@1998topornik 2 года назад

Edgar Allan Poe probably is laughing in his grave witnessing that hate from his enemies gave him such popularity.

@chiarabeltrami1891 2 года назад

Thank you for this, it's very interesting...

@skepticalbadger 2 года назад

The bird in your thumbnail is a crow, not a raven, and the image that flashes up later is a rook.

@emmanuelboakye1124 2 года назад

Good to know👍👍

@Sakura790 2 года назад

Thank you for making him justice

@guyafrica7894 2 года назад

"He wasn't gothic. He was poor." Well damn 😭💀

@AntediluvianRomance 2 года назад

The guy who brought me to read poetry in English although I still didn't fully understand how it worked.

@brandonriley950 2 года назад

To qoute the Raven never more. love the line sounds fantastic & thanks to the channel for another interesting video

@RJ_Ehlert 2 года назад

I had no idea. Thank you.

@penny_the_wiser413 2 года назад

Griswold really was a jerk. I never heard of him either. He was probably jealous because Poe was a better writer.

@JeighNeither 2 года назад

I played Linus of Peanuts fame in a high school musical production of "Snoopy". One of my songs was a long expose about ♪♪ Poe, Edgar Allen, American poet; he wrote the story of Marie Roget ♪♪... My apologies. I haven't been able to speak of Poe w/o breaking into song ever since.

@jessicadecuir5622 9 месяцев назад

3:37 In his story Hop-Frog, a king abuses a woman, her friend gets revenge by burning the king alive.

@Rahru 2 года назад

10 seconds into the video and I'm already relating to Princess' (apparent, from my pov) bafflement at the existence and pronunciation of such a word as "macabre" in english.

@unaanguila 2 года назад

Thanks for sharing and for the subs!

@hauthot287 11 месяцев назад

Debussy was a big fan of Poe and planned on writing an opera based off one of his stories

@tumbleddry2887 2 года назад

Great review of Edgar Poe!.....never knew much of this....Thank You!

@andreakimmel6651 2 года назад

Wow, I had no idea. I will have to look closer for his other work. The podcast sounds great, but I don't have apple podcasts. It looks like your also on Spotify, any chance of finding it on Google Podcasts in the future?

@ChristinaB9782 2 года назад

Very interesting and very well presented!!!

@brandon074 2 года назад

I have a friend who's from Wyoming (where I'm from) who is ACTUALLY related to Edgar Allen Poe.

@user-sw9iu7gp7v 2 года назад

"This cursed planet". I agree, both figuratively and literally speaking..

@davidkermes376 2 года назад

I guess I wouldn't call it a "cursed planet" so much as an aggravatingly annoying one. Oh well, one can only do one's own part in returning the sentiment....