Author Topic: The new New Yorker cover for the week...holy crap! Poe reference... (Read 6412 times)

Manedwolf · « **on:** October 16, 2008, 04:45:03 AM »

The Masque of the Red Death. Nice!

280plus · « **Reply #1 on:** October 16, 2008, 07:22:08 AM »

How fitting, I just read that!

Don't care · « **Reply #2 on:** October 16, 2008, 08:59:50 AM »

The New Yorker has always been a bit lost on me. Their covers always seem a bit bizarre.

Given some of the people who suscribe, perhaps my ignorance is a good thing.

Manedwolf · « **Reply #3 on:** October 16, 2008, 09:02:06 AM »

Quote from: Don't care on October 16, 2008, 08:59:50 AM

The New Yorker has always been a bit lost on me. Their covers always seem a bit bizarre.

Given some of the people who suscribe, perhaps my ignorance is a good thing.

As I said, it's a reference to Edgar Allen Poe's The Masque of the Red Death.

K Frame · « **Reply #4 on:** October 16, 2008, 10:11:15 AM »

"As I said, it's a reference to Edgar Allen Poe's The Masque of the Red Death."

And you really expect most people to know that story?

Most, if they know it at all, see it as a 1964 Roger Corman movie with Vincent Price.

Sigh. So much good literature, so many illiterates...

PTK · « **Reply #5 on:** October 16, 2008, 10:17:37 AM »

Quote

So much good literature, so many illiterates...

Annoyingly common, indeed. A few months back, a friend was shocked to find a book on my shelf with all of Poe's works - she honestly thought he had just written "The Raven". :rolleyes:

K Frame · « **Reply #6 on:** October 16, 2008, 10:36:17 AM »

I've got one of those, as well.

Poe's collected, unabridged works.

There's just something so... atmospheric about reading the Cask of Amontillado by candle light.

PTK · « **Reply #7 on:** October 16, 2008, 10:39:04 AM »

Atmospheric. You mean.... maniacal? I can't help but laugh evilly while reading that - "Yes, for the love of God."

Balog · « **Reply #8 on:** October 16, 2008, 10:52:33 AM »

Quote from: Mike Irwin on October 16, 2008, 10:36:17 AM

I've got one of those, as well.

Poe's collected, unabridged works.

There's just something so... atmospheric about reading the Cask of Amontillado by candle light.

I got one of those when I was maybe 12. Loved the stories, but his critical works are just kind of confusing.

MarkStar · « **Reply #9 on:** October 16, 2008, 12:32:49 PM »

Christopher Walken reads Poe's "The Raven"...http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DcLSmhpwLdEQ

Don't care · « **Reply #10 on:** October 16, 2008, 01:05:23 PM »

Quote from: Manedwolf on October 16, 2008, 09:02:06 AM

As I said, it's a reference to Edgar Allen Poe's The Masque of the Red Death.

Quote

"As I said, it's a reference to Edgar Allen Poe's The Masque of the Red Death."

And you really expect most people to know that story?

Most, if they know it at all, see it as a 1964 Roger Corman movie with Vincent Price.

Sigh. So much good literature, so many illiterates... laugh

I understood the reference to Poe's work. I even read said story, though it was only because it was required for my college sophomore literature class. To make matters worse, I feel the same of Hemingway, as it gives me a headache from those short, choppy sentences.

The literature of Robert Frost or Jack London is personally, more fulfilling.

I just don't know if I would have recognized the artistic rendition if you wouldn't have mentioned it. Given my perpetual loss to appreciate the New Yorker covers, perhaps I should have taken some art appreciation courses in college too.

PTK · « **Reply #11 on:** October 16, 2008, 01:05:41 PM »

MarkStar

I just listened to that about three hours ago. This thread made me want to hear it. Great minds and all that....

K Frame · « **Reply #12 on:** October 16, 2008, 01:24:11 PM »

I wasn't talking about you specifically, Don't Care.

I was talking in general, a correlary to the reputation that New Yorker has for snootiness in action.

BryanP · « **Reply #13 on:** October 16, 2008, 01:24:59 PM »

I have a remaindered copy of a leather-bound Poe collection that I love to use to mess with people. The binding is upside down.

"For the love of God Montressor!"

Perd Hapley · « **Reply #14 on:** October 16, 2008, 01:33:38 PM »

I've read The Red Death a couple of times, and a lot of Poe's other work. I don't see the connection. Probably just because I've forgotten some details.

And Vincent Price? Lots o' folks that have never even heard of him.

Gewehr98 · « **Reply #15 on:** October 16, 2008, 01:39:26 PM »

I had to memorize The Raven back around 8th grade.

My wife thought I was nuts when I recited along with the Christopher Walken version not too long ago.

MicroBalrog · « **Reply #16 on:** October 16, 2008, 01:55:06 PM »

Quote from: BryanP on October 16, 2008, 01:24:59 PM

I have a remaindered copy of a leather-bound Poe collection that I love to use to mess with people. The binding is upside down.

When was it printed? Mine was printed in 1927.

Manedwolf · « **Reply #17 on:** October 16, 2008, 01:58:26 PM »

I've got a first edition of Kipling's The Years Between that has a red leather cover with a gilded elephant above a Hindu symbol from which the swastika was derived on it. People always ask why it's a nazi book.

Don't care · « **Reply #18 on:** October 16, 2008, 02:33:46 PM »

Quote from: Mr. Tactical pants on October 16, 2008, 01:33:38 PM

I've read The Red Death a couple of times, and a lot of Poe's other work. I don't see the connection. Probably just because I've forgotten some details.

And Vincent Price? Lots o' folks that have never even heard of him.

Vincent Price and Boris Karloff always made the best (B rated) horror films.

As a kid, I loved watching the weekend horror movies, hosted by "Sammy Terry" in Indianapolis.

RaspberrySurprise · « **Reply #19 on:** October 16, 2008, 02:49:12 PM »

Quote from: Manedwolf on October 16, 2008, 01:58:26 PM

I've got a first edition of Kipling's The Years Between that has a red leather cover with a gilded elephant above a Hindu symbol from which the swastika was derived on it. People always ask why it's a nazi book.

Things like that make my head hurt.

K Frame · « **Reply #20 on:** October 16, 2008, 02:53:44 PM »

"I don't see the connection. Probably just because I've forgotten some details."

The figure was tall and gaunt, and shrouded from head to foot in the habiliments of the grave. The mask which concealed the visage was made so nearly to resemble the countenance of a stiffened corpse that the closest scrutiny must have had difficulty in detecting the cheat. And yet all this might have been endured, if not approved, by the mad revellers around. But the mummer had gone so far as to assume the type of the Red Death. His vesture was dabbled in blood -- and his broad brow, with all the features of the face, was besprinkled with the scarlet horror. (Edgar Allen Poe, Masque of the Red Death)

That only says that the red death was "besprinkled" with blood.

The modern perception of the figure of the Red Death being dressed all in red, wearing a weird hat and carrying a staff with a skull comes from the 1925 version of the Phantom of the Opera (starring Lon Chaney), in which The Phantom attends the ball dressed as the Red Death.

There's your connection. A three-linker, from Poe to Phantom of the Opera to the New Yorker

280plus · « **Reply #21 on:** October 16, 2008, 05:13:18 PM »

Just finished Hop Frog and now I'm just starting into Dr Tarr and Professor Fether. Before that was "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar" very cool story. It's taking me a while to get through this thing though. some of the stories are just downright boring if you ask me.

Like the way the guy escapes from the Pendulum. Kinda hokey. Escapes just in the "nick" of time.

I have the complete works c 1966 by Doubleday.

Balog · « **Reply #22 on:** October 16, 2008, 05:19:11 PM »

Hop Frog is one of my favorite stories. A bunch of fat politicians abuse their power, then die a horrible death because of it. Wonder why that's so appealing?

280plus · « **Reply #23 on:** October 16, 2008, 07:07:19 PM »

Yea, as soon as I saw flax, tar and a torch, I knew things were going to heat up a bit.

Another one I had a tough time getting into for YEARS was "The Hunchback of ND". When I finally forced myself past the first few pages I found out it was a GREAT story. The little goat reminded me of fistful...

MarkStar · « **Reply #24 on:** October 16, 2008, 09:33:50 PM »

Just my opinion, but "Alone" and "A Dream within a Dream" are two of the best poems ever written.

(Up there with Kipling's "If"...)

News:

Author Topic: The new New Yorker cover for the week...holy crap! Poe reference... (Read 6412 times)