John Tresch
Forfatter af The Reason for the Darkness of the Night
Værker af John Tresch
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Statistikker
- Værker
- 3
- Medlemmer
- 137
- Popularitet
- #149,084
- Vurdering
- 3.8
- Anmeldelser
- 5
- ISBN
- 12
Fascinating to learn just how hooked into the scientific discourse Poe was while working in Philadelphia. Really, among Poe’s many firsts in written world, he was America’s first Science Journalist reporting on the latest discoveries and inventions. Focusing on an area of Poe’s life that most biographers demise as passing fancies or at best gloss over even though Poe himself returns to time and time again transforms Poe from an almost tragic figure where the outcome is a forgone conclusion to someone with a great deal of thought and interest within the world he occupied. That is not say he wasn’t a man of his time, believing in designer theories and some of uglier blatantly racist science of the 1840s. He wasn’t a progressive thinker in this era but he was a kin learner and enthusiastic adopter. Not sure what is take would have been in just a couple more decades.
With Tresch argues that Poe's unique perspective as a literary figure allowed him to critique and engage with scientific ideas in ways that traditional scientists could not. This framing has totally flipped my understanding of his stories and poetry. Not sure if everything Tresch interprets as being influenced by Poe’s thoughts on science or psychology, but I can definitely see those elements in retrospect.
I might have to restart my ongoing Poe project and begin again with this new paradigm in mind. Really adds a layer to my favorite author that I was unaware of at least in the detail I gleaned before from the more melodramatic biographies.… (mere)