Edgar Allan Poe Halloween all-nighter

This might sound odd, but as a child I used to love Edgar Allen Poe. I know, you probably see him as “the maestro of the macabre”, the author of many dark, horror short stories. For me though, he’ll always be a charming Romantic to be the first to write about hot air balloons, the one who changed science fiction for ever, heavily influenced Jules Verne and gave him homework (to write An Antarctic Mystery – a sequel to his Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym) challenged my imagination and made me think of what South Pole looked like. He made me wonder what’s inside of the Earth, whether The Hollow Earth theory is true and Greek Hades is really in there. Of course a door left open would’ve caused the Aurora Borealis! It does make sense, doesn’t it? Don’t freak out, I was only 10 I think… I feel a lot better now!

A child who doesn’t like Jules Verne at all, but finds Edgar Allan Poe very, very charming will undoubtedly grow up (grow up? Ha ha, it’s getting FUNNY) to love Marry Shelley’s Frankenstein and find it one of the most Romantic (and romantic) novels ever.
I know it might sound odd, but when you think about it, you realise that horror is a very important feeling in Romanticism; Gothic is somewhere in between terror and romance and stereotypical characters like ghosts, Byronic heroes, mad women, angels/fallen angels and magicians are all very Romantic. Shall I go further and say prosecuted maidens and vampires could even become, in the right shade of light, erotic?

I haven’t thought about Allan Poe in ages (shame!) and I wasn’t particularly excited about this Halloween. What about an Edgar Allan Poe by Roger Corman Halloween all-nighter? The Raven, The Pit and Pendulum, The Tomb of Ligeia and The masque of Red Death. Temping, tempting, tempted!

And now, my go for the Wanderer above the Sea of Fog!

Nice try, but nothing like the ink and sepia of Caspar David Friedrich whom I greatly admire for managing to stay only “half mad”!