Should have read classics discussion

This is the discussion thread for this story in the Poe buddy reads.

I suppose this is supposed to be about the Spanish Inquisition. I guess the story made me a little more curious about the Inquisition. But I'm not a fan of horror as a genre, and this is one of Poe's very short macabre stories. I don't love it.

Thinly based on the Inquisition, yes (as I recall). But Poe abstracts this to the point where the torturers are faceless and anonymous. They could be any oppressors from any era or country. That's the purpose..its not supposed to be about concrete specifics; Poe is examining the experience of torture itself. How it affects a human mind/will.

Same thing in 'Masque of the Red-Death' or 'Hop-Frog'; the setting is deliberately vague. These stories are supposed to be read as parables.

I suppose this was very original at the time? These days the whole torture thing is old hat.

You can't blame Poe for this, though..he couldn't predict the rise of an electronic mass media and its concomitant flood of lesser authors/inferior script-writers all churning out their own variations of this theme.

Its really up to modern audiences to keep their palates keen by resisting 'poorer fare' and cleaving to classics. That will avoid the problem of 'over-saturation'. Just my opinion.

I do try to resist the poorer fare for the most part. But not entirely. :-) Some of it is fun.

I agree I can't "blame" Poe for the flood of authors copying his ideas later on. But it also can't help affect my enjoyment of his work.

That's very fairly expressed.

Feliks wrote: "Thinly based on the Inquisition, yes (as I recall). But Poe abstracts this to the point where the torturers are faceless and anonymous. They could be any oppressors from any era or country. That's ..."

For writers, writing is simply a form of self-expression. That's what makes Poe's obsession with horror (not torture) disturbing. What a snake's pit his mind must have been. It's easy to see why he was an alcoholic. It's what makes his work so fascinating. In small doses though.