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Jan 15 11 4:31 AM
Jonatwork wrote:SiBurning wrote: I read my Poe "tales" book straight through once and was struck by how much fantasy it had, and how immature some if it is. There's one about a balloon trip to the moon--The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfall. Maybe I'm exaggerating about how much is for kids or teenagers, but that's not the only story that seems to be for preteens. It kind of puts into perspective how some critics claim he's juvenile. I don't know what the critics actually mean, but it seems like there's at least a dozen stories meant for a 10-14 age crowd.SiBurning,When I read a lot of Poe stories at the same time I thought a great deal about categories, a subject that comes up a great deal in any discussion of books, eventually. I have not looked deeply into the subject of how Poe was considered while he was alive, but I suspect many thought of him as a writer, and the categorization of him as a 'master of suspense' or whatever resulted from those stories sticking out as being more unusual than the rest. I wasn't aware until a long time after I started reading that Poe wrote a lot of literary criticism (this gets mentioned more prominently these days--as a way of elevating him above 'mere' horror writing?), and even later I learned he wrote what we might call Americana.Regarding your points here, Poe seems to be more fairly grouped with, say, Washington Irving than with Stephen King if his writing output is taken as a whole. Joyce Carol Oates has written horror stories but I've never seen her called 'horror writer Joyce Carol Oates." And while I think I have a couple of editions of Poe around with more than just the horror/suspense material, he's "the horror guy" to so many because those are the only stories of his that seem to survive as readable, enjoyable fiction to modern audiences. (Not saying this is the truth, just the perception, and repackaging of his stories always seems aimed at the horror audience).So in reality, Poe was an American fiction writer, but in terms of classification, he was a horror writer who wrote other stuff.
SiBurning wrote: I read my Poe "tales" book straight through once and was struck by how much fantasy it had, and how immature some if it is. There's one about a balloon trip to the moon--The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfall. Maybe I'm exaggerating about how much is for kids or teenagers, but that's not the only story that seems to be for preteens. It kind of puts into perspective how some critics claim he's juvenile. I don't know what the critics actually mean, but it seems like there's at least a dozen stories meant for a 10-14 age crowd.
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