George Orwell On Edgar Allan Poe
“And more than this, there exist ‘good’ writers whose world-view would in any age be recognized false and silly. Edgar Allan Poe is an example. Poe’s outlook is at best a wild romanticism and at worst is not far from being insane in the literal clinical sense. Why is it, then that stories like ‘The Black Cat’, ‘The Tell-tale Heart’, ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ and so forth, which might very nearly have been written by a lunatic, do not convey a feeling of falsity? Because they are true within a certain framework, they keep the rules of their own peculiar world, like a Japanese picture. But it appears that to write successfully about such a world you have got to believe in it.”
Hat tip to Vaughn Croteau for passing that along. Orwell also has some interesting thoughts on Henry Miller that I’ll post in the next few days.
February 18, 2008 at 2:42 pm
So very true. Poe could take something that sounds utterly silly when you summerize it and make it seem so real as to induce nightmares. Too many horror writers feel as if they need to explain themselves, as if to apologize for the audacity of thier creations. Poe’s stories, on the other hand, have always struck me as being terrifying in their simplicity and matter-of-fact-ness.
February 18, 2008 at 2:50 pm
There was one sentence in particular that I liked:
But it appears that to write successfully about such a world you have got to believe in it
When I wrote the six-part “Alabaster Christ” series (Poe, Doc Miller, Emily), the last three stories in the cycle were the easiest and most fun to compose because by that time I knew these characters and the world they inhabited very well. That was my interest in the Orwell citation.
Too many horror writers feel as if they need to explain themselves
Absolutely! It’s one of the reasons I have little fondness for the genre. Many horror authors trip over the living room furniture in their clumsy and wordy efforts to convince us that their supernatural worlds are, or could be, real.
February 18, 2008 at 4:44 pm
Most horror is basically a waste of time, but Poe is of course an exception to every rule. And I’m not sure why, but I AM sure it’s not because he actually believes in it. That’s a profoundly silly concept. He’s a writer. He makes you believe.
Please don’t forget the Orwell on Miller.
February 18, 2008 at 6:51 pm
I’ll post the Orwell on Miller for you tomorrow, John.
February 18, 2008 at 8:45 pm
Yass…Horror in waves of action and suspense, action and suspense, is sophomoric. It’s the sustained prospect of horror over an entire narrative that’s artful; and that’s what Poe did best.
February 18, 2008 at 9:48 pm
The best I’ve seen it sustained — outside of Poe, of course — is in William Burroughs’ “Naked Lunch”. And that wasn’t even intended to be a horror novel.