Treasure Hunt: Edgar Allen Poe

    The Original:

    One can hardly fault the speculation; indeed one can hardly resist it when the mysterious circumstances in question and the complex of events surrounding them involve the demise of a writer who himself had made a career asserting the essentially mythopoeic character of existence in nineteenth-century America—the essential reciprocity, in a world largely void of the traditional markers of cultural identity, of myth and reality, imagination and experience, art and life. Poe, mourning the death of his beloved Virginia, undertakes a set of increasingly frantic and hallucinatory peregrinations, re-visiting the locales of his luckless career. Leaving New York one last time, he sets out for Richmond. Along the way he becomes convinced that he is being pursued by shadowy assassins.

Reason for Being Interested:

    I feel interested in this paragraph because it amazes me in that Poe’s death is related to his “asserting the essentially mythopoeic character of

     [1]existence” in America in the nineteenth century. Also, I have never heard

    [1] about that Poe’s death has something to do with “shadowy assassins.”

Paraphrase:

    The conjecture can scarcely be find fault in; actually it can scarcely be opposed to when the conditions of mystery being discussed and all kinds of events surrounding them are connected to the death of a writer. The writer is one who had spent all her career life making the assertion that the essentially mythopoeic character did exist in nineteenth-century America- the fundamental interaction, in a world of no conventional signs of the features of culture, of fairy stories and real events, imagined things and experienced things, art and life. Poe, lamenting the dying of his favorite Virginia, experiences the trips of a series of cumulative orgies and delusions, and re-calling at the places witnessing his unlucky career. After leaving New York for the last time, he sets sail for Richmond. During the trip, he becomes to believe that he is being followed by killers in the dark.

    Summery

    The guess about Edgar Allen Poe’s death is possible when the guess is connected to the writer sticking to his assertion that there did be mythopoeic character existing in America in the nineteenth century. During Poe’s travelling to remind himself of his miserable career life, he is convinced that he is being followed by assassins.

    Reference Page

    [1] Beidler P D. Mythopoetic Justice: Democracy and the Death of Edgar

    Allen Poe [J]. Midwest Quarterly. 2005, 46(3): 252-267.