The Raven Man

10/17/2012

Every now and then I take out my ancient, dog-eared, dirty copy of Edgar Allan Poe's stories. Prose, poetry, it's all weird, let's face it. It is easy to forget how incredibly creative, if not bizarre, that mystical man was. So, when I crawl into bed with Lenore (you know what I mean) I am reminded of why this tome, that I paid 25 cents for at a yard sale back in the early 80s, still sits on my book shelf in a central and easy-to-reach location. Especially at this time of year.

Now that I am older and digitally literate, I decided to search for some audio back-up, as it were, for The Raven since you-know-what is almost upon us. And guess who I found? The visual isn't much, but kick back and close your eyes. Or, get up and clean your office while listening to a great rendition of this nevermore.

And lest you think my appreciation for Walken ends here, then clearly you've never met the J Man. From one of my favorite all-time movies (the Jack Black theme continues here)...a favorite scene.

WakeUpAmerica

10/17/2012 01:10:25 pm

I LOVE Poe, and "The Raven" is my favorite. Thank you for posting this!

Laura Novak

10/18/2012 04:25:08 am

Thanks Wake Up. I love it too. Especially this version of it.

Ottoline

10/19/2012 01:59:33 am

Whenever I see Poe, I wonder about the great dissimilarity of the left and right sides of his face. One side so angry, the other so hopeless. The assumption being that it corresponds to his mind, but of course it could be that there is no correlation whatever (of face and mind).

I've pondered that difference in a few other people, public figures who we know something about, and I guess it can be linked to creativity? To the two sides at war with each other? A multiple way to look at reality?

Laura Novak

10/19/2012 05:31:34 am

Interesting, Ottoline. They say that no one's face is perfectly symetrical. I can see that. With such profound writing, it's appropriate to see specific personalities in Poe's face, as you point out.

mistah charley, ph.d. link

10/20/2012 04:10:16 am

Poe is a central character in Rudy Rucker's novel "The Hollow Earth", described as "historical science fiction". Although "Software" is, in my opinion, Rucker's masterwork, "The Hollow Earth" has its particular pleasures - see http://www.rudyrucker.com/thehollowearth/.

Laura Novak

10/20/2012 08:58:35 am

Thanks, Mistah Charley. We can always count on you to educate and enlighten us!

V-A

10/20/2012 10:35:30 am

I CANNOT wait to see this movie. Never seen in and love everybody in it. Need I say cowbell?

I once lived in one of Poe's old neighborhoods. The Poe museum was a few blocks away, and in the churchyard down the street, his mother's grave. I think she was less than respectable? A whore or an actress?

That's what I miss about living on the east coast. Everything is imbued with history, and now, here in southern CA, I feel like I'm living in a place devoid of history. No one who matters ever lived here, ever wrote anything important here. Nothing ever happened here or ever will, at least nothing that really matters. . .

Thank you Laura for helping me enjoy my depression even more than usual. :-)

Ottoline

10/20/2012 04:07:20 pm

Speaking as someone whose house was built on a cattle pasture, which before that was just open land, I beg to differ with you V-A. I often try to imagine the stuff that happened here: Native Americans traveling over the land, perhaps setting up camp here briefly. A hung over idiot Billy the Kid straggling along between shoot-outs, a mom stopping enroute to bury a child, . . . . They had all the same drama that we do, only more severe hazards. But no one wrote it up. Just like the medieval baker, who lived and worked and died. I guess I think about this because when people consider past lives they might have had, they think Cleopatra! But I think I might have been the baker woman in a little village somewhere. Or the milkmaid/cheese maker. But no one wrote me up.

If you don't want to blow your low, I suggest reading some early Didion, esp the ones about California.

Remember, she's the one who has the nice old gentleman driving over to do a murder (a wholly justified one) but realizes he needs matches, and therefore stops at Safeway, where the checkout clerk says to him "Have a nice day!" and he -- always polite to a fault -- says "Oh. Ummmm, yes, . . . thank you. But actually I have other plans."

Visible from my house is a high peak, where, because of the height offering views all around, it was a magnet for Native Americans, Mexican bandits, ranchers, and (today) housing developments. Each transition had its giant dramas.

V-A

10/21/2012 03:34:46 am

Today the Indians run casinos. The whites landscape the desert with Hawaiian palms. Canyon ranches are housing developments with houses that won't last 30 years. Evidence of the past comes down to a few Missions, where the signs never mention slavery.

Didion left for a reason. It's hard to stay grounded in a place that only lives for tomorrow; as much as it is to live in a place that only lives for yesterday.

Ottoline

10/21/2012 05:16:51 am

You're right as usual, V-A. Up in Northern CA we landscape the desert with mowed grass lawns and English water-loving plants -- even more ridiculous than palms.

I'm reading the Rose Mary Terenzio book about her times as JFK Jr's exec assistant. Nothing special. EXCEPT: when Rose Mary is grieving a death, JFK Jr says to her: "You can't mourn the dead forever. Don't glamorize or demonize them. Life is for the living." Coming from someone with so much experience with death! I am taking this stance under advisement (easy to say; hard to do) as I struggle with my own death-and-dying issues. I guess it can apply to our geographical region's past as well. I know I love being in my all-too-English back yard, in my little world, aware of how temporary it is.

Laura Novak

10/21/2012 08:50:00 am

I am enjoying this conversation between V-A and Ottoline. I don't want to get in the way of it. You're both so smart and I learn from you every time you post! Keep on if you wish.

Ottoline: I've noticed a few pieces here and there about the Ethel Kennedy special on HBO. Having grown up in Kennedy country, I am familiar with many of these players. Simply put, I think the NYTs evisceration of the film says it best about the generation that followed Bobby and Ethel. I don't have HBO and therefore won't see it. But I cannot imagine why they think anyone younger than 50 would care at all about the subject matter.

Ottoline

10/21/2012 11:40:46 am

You are such a kind host, Laura. I have almost zero interest in Ethel, so much so that until just now I never even read the reviews of that film. But now I did. From a lesson-in-how-to-live perspective, I've always been interested in Jackie's wisdom, wit, smarts, aesthetics, discipline, earthy common sense -- and therefore in Caroline and JFK, Jr. But Ethel had none of this. I have no interest in the film, although it's sweet of her daughter to make it.

I suppose each Kennedy offers a cautionary tale for us lesser mortals, so we want to know the details. Us older lesser mortals, that is..

V-A

10/22/2012 01:51:35 am

Ethel Kennedy. . . I saw her once in person. She drove up to Dulles Airport when it was in the middle of nowhere. I had just stepped out of a taxi to catch a flight, and EK drove upin a station wagon and hundreds of children spilled from the car. They ran into the airport, straight to the gift shop to buy candy. I figured it was the closest "fun" place to where they lived in No. Virginia. I've carried that image all these years as my one glimpse of Kennedyness. I think EK's daughter may have made this homage to her mother because EK has been so normal and sturdy in a family steeped in drama. And wasn't Rory the filmmaker the one who never knew her father? That in itself makes the project interesting. . . I'll catch it later on netflix.

PS. Isn't Dulles now GHBush? or some such.

Ottoline

10/22/2012 07:56:02 am

EK "normal and sturdy"? Not my take on her at all. Apparent from the time of the JFK presidency, her children were in a chaotic household with a lot of potential for disaster. Ethel was spoiled (poor impulse control) and volatile. She was cheap and harsh with her help, who were always quitting, and no wonder. Seemed she was not there that much with her children. Cooking bananas in vaseline? The tossing of guests in evening clothes into her pool at parties never appealed to me. Jackie kept her two away from Ethel's family. The behavior of her son toward Mary Richardson Kennedy (i.e. stiffing her re money, leaking discrediting info about her after her death, moving the coffin after the burial to a remote location) doesn't make me like Ethel any better.

Ethel seemed entirely ordinary and uninteresting, except for her record child-bearing, wealth, and RFK. Her very literal religious stance did not help me care about her. Loved her Courreges dresses, though.

To me, it was Jackie who was "normal and sturdy," in spite of her glamour, unusual challenges, high standards, and meticulously crafted facade.

V-A

10/22/2012 11:28:02 pm

Thanks for setting me straight. My mistake. Because she was never in the news for drug addiction or marrying rich Greeks for their money, I just assumed she was sturdier. Of course, I know her childrens' woes but they didn't seem much different from those in the rich families I knew growing up (including my own).

I guess I will have to see the film and report back.

Laura Novak

10/22/2012 02:04:38 am

Fun anecdote, V-A. For those of us who grew up around the aura of this fabled family, these stories are fun. But I do wonder who they think will watch this or care. And I'm not sure why anyone thinks that she is now going to reveal her feelings about that murder. Yet, it was touching to hear her say that she did it so that she could spend more time with her child. Still, the NYTs points out the mythology behind all of it and how damaged the children are who gloat about EK's partying and shenanigans. Perhaps on DVD, you're right!

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The Raven Man

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