Ah, this one takes me back to the tenth grade, where I was under the teaching of the great Mrs. Watson. Her take of The Pit and the Pendulum, as well as Edgar Allen Poe influenced us to believe that his works were creepy, and that because of that, he was a creepy man. To call this man a creep just because he wrote nightmarish pieces of work would be to make a false accusation. It is eye-opening to try and see Poe as the philosophical type. He put this kind of fear in me when I read this piece. It is not that i am necessarily afraid of the dark as much as that I am afraid of what is in the dark that I cannot see. It is a fear of uncertainty, and Poe makes this come alive the the concept of the ‘unknown’.
p.s I posted on Nick Hamptons blog
Poe used the unknown to create suspense and fear and was certainly the father of modern detective mystery. I think he was a bit creepy but I agree that might be unfair to him. Whether or not he was creepy is just going to be up for debate.
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