To thine own self be true

didn’t get out of the way of a truck backing into it. That about says it all about driverless vehicles.

“The book is the most efficient technological instrument for learning that has ever been devised by the human mind.”–Northrop Frye

“A book should serve as an ice-axe to break the frozen sea within us.”–Franz Kafka

“In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you.” –Mortimer Adler

“A leader is a dealer in hope.”
–Napoleon Bonaparte

“A leader is a dealer in dope.”
–Justin Trudeau

has started referring to himself as “we” in his media interviews.

Lest anyone else forget, this is the egotist who once crashed the Remembrance Day ceremonies in Ottawa and walked among the crowds having selfies taken along the way, insulting and demeaning the specialness of the day as well as the vets who fought wars so he could walk around aggrandizing his ego like this. He spoiled the reverence and solemnness of the day and could care less about vets as we can see today as he continues to stiff them financially while apologetically giving away millions to bad guys, unlike Trump or the U.S.

“Begin at once to live, and count each day as a separate life.”

-Aristotle

I take comfort in the literary examples of Homer, John Milton, James Joyce, and James Thurber.

was not a gun problem is nuts. Guess who?

Meantime, Wisconsin has gone nuts passing first reading of a bill which would allow kids under 10 to bear firearms without adult consent. If the bill becomes legislation, toddlers would be allowed to blow hunters away on hunts.

Michigan recently had a case of a 3-year-old plugging two other toddlers. What part of serious gun legislation does the States not get? This amazing self-inflicted crisis has gone way beyond Columbine as the States continues to destroy itself from within via the Second Amendment spun way out of control.

(the haunting 1919 Harry Clarke illustrations are well-worth seeking out; Franklin has an excellent, recommended 1979 collection of Poe’s tales)

It’s hard to find any other writer who compares with the depth and breadth of Edgar Allan Poe’s moribund imagination and atmospheric writing talents. (Was watching the latest documentary on him shown on PBS this week.)

I spent a lot of time in his world around 1972-73, teaching “The Tell-Tale Heart,”, “The Black Cat”, “The Casque of Amontillado”, “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar”, “Annabel Lee”, and “The Raven” to high-school English students. As an educational editor, I later anthologized “Annabel Lee”, “The Tell-Tale Heart”, and “The Masque of the Red Death”. And in my final years teaching, I showed grade 12s Roger Corman’s excellent movie The Fall of the House of Usher, one of several Poes Roger Corman adapted and directed in the 1960s for American International.

Well, what was there about Poe that students and adolescents have always liked? The violence, the deaths, the horror, the psychological extremes, the madness, the severity of the crimes, the atmosphere, and the powerful, memorable story endings, as well as the romanticness of the poetry. Above all, no one has ever written short stories as powerful as Poe’s since 1849, the year of his death. He is a Master, big-time.

I think, on reflection, though, one finds much that is, strangely enough, recognizable human behaviors, realistic attitudes, and powerful states of mind, to say nothing of unstable characters and entertaining narrators.

There was, of course, much of Poe’s life and conflicts embedded in every work which give an added poignancy and realism to what goes on there. He was often depressed, disappointed, down on his luck, and his own death remains the biggest mystery of all.
Worth seeking out are the gems like “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar” (about mesmerism and death), “The Gold Bug” ( a quirky, funny treasure-hunt tale), “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” (with Auguste Dupin, the Sherlock Holmes detective predecessor that kickstarted whodunits), “The Premature Burial” (about being buried alive), “A Descent into the Maelstrom” (a metaphorical tale about experiencing natural chaos in great detail), and “Eureka”–a remarkable essay on the nature of the cosmic material and spiritual universe.

Going back to Poe after all these years, I am more impressed than ever at the body, depth, and range of his work. He remains an accessible, relevant literary touchstone, and, in my opinion, the fountainhead of 19th century American literature. And he is still more read than other 19th century writers including Hawthorne, Melville, Dickinson, and Twain, continuing to make new fans in the digital age. A major one-man literary legacy. Therein, the greatness of Poe.

Last week the dishwasher plug. Today the fire extinguisher handle.
The pervasive atrophy and destabilization continues…