 Horror/Scary: June 14, 2017 Issue [#8332] |
  Horror/Scary
This week: Kicking Edgar Allan Poe Edited by: W.D.Wilcox  
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Kicking Edgar Allan Poe
During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country; and at length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher.
Thus begins The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe. In this very first sentence (opening line), notice the word usage: dull, dark, and soundless day; in autumn (Halloween) where clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens.Can you feel it? The clouds hanging low, everything gray and gloomy with no sounds of birds or wildlife. And he is alone...on horseback, passing through a dreary tract of country, as the shades of the evening drew on. Notice also his use of (D) words: dull, dark, day, dreary, and drew. Poe then, so as you don't miss it, says within view of the melancholy House of Usher. Yes, melancholy is exactly what he is describing.
I have to admit that this is how I read. I'm not a speed reader. It takes me forever to get through a good book. I slowly digest each sentence, taking it apart with my teeth and swallowing each morsel of technique to learn to become a better writer. So when I read King, Knootz, Poe, whoever, I am in school, I am studying, I am learning.
If you have never read 'The Fall of the House of Usher' I suggest you do so. It is a short story, and unless you read like me, a quick read that is very revealing on how to write Horror.
Poe goes on, describing the House, and how it makes him feel -- the bleak walls, vacant eye-like windows, and decayed trees.
with an utter depression of soul which I can compare to no earthly sensation more properly than to the after-dream of the reveler upon opium--the bitter lapse into everyday life--the hideous dropping off of the veil. There was an iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart--an unredeemed dreariness of thought which no goading of the imagination could torture into aught of the sublime. What was it--I paused to think--what was it that so unnerved me in the contemplation of the House of Usher?
Here again he writes you into the depths of hell: The utter depression of soul/ the after-dream of the reveler upon opium/ the hideous dropping of the veil/ an iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart/ a dreariness of thought. The writing is so dark, yet only Poe can make you feel like this. Genius.
Until next time,
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GOOD READS
| |  | The Unknown... (E)
I took a shot at a Lovecraftian story once. Incomplete, but should I continue with it?
#2124340 by Angus  |
| |  | Invalid Item
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#2122144 by Not Available. |
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#1640364 by Not Available. |
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DEAD LETTERS
Angus
Screams:
Great Newsletter, Bill! That's pretty mind-boggling, eye-opening, and frightening about that Morgellons Disease! And all this time I thought they were harmless.
Keep 'em coming, my friend!
Kotaro 
Denies:
Interesting theory, Bill. Though I don't believe it, it makes me think how easily something like that could start.
Thanks for including an old story of mine in the newsletter.
Quick-Quill 
Believes:
All great story lines and potential plots. The Monsanto story has angered me for years when I first discovered their plot. The idea of controlling the world through seeds seems far fetched, but unfortunately it is alive and running. There doesn't seem to be a way to fight it. An author can make up a story that gives the farmer or a group the reality of fighting this giant and winning. Maybe even give the real people an idea.
John Yossarian
Conjures:
Love it! Never heard that conspiracy theory, although Monsanto is a conspiracy fact all their own.
LJPC - the tortoise 
Sniggles:
C'mon, Bill. Contrails are caused by super-heated air getting mixed with the very cold air found at high altitudes or in some air currents. Same reasons balloonists find different air currents traveling opposite directions or have to keep adjusting their gas fires to overcome occasional colder currents that shrink the air in their balloons. Aluminum has not been proven to cause Alzheimer's, same with zinc and other materials that have been tested for 50+ years. You getting conspiracy theories from purveyors of "alternative facts"?
~ Laura
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