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Metaphorical : Metaphysical :: Mortification : Mystification

In Mystification It Has Its Truth

"Literature's worth lies in its power of mystification, in mystification it has its truth; therefore a fake [i.e., a counterfeit of an author's work], as the mystification of a mystification, is tantamount to a truth squared." —Italo Calvino, If On a Winter's Night a Traveler (Such an extraordinary book!)

#italo calvino #mystification #literature

something is wrong with Heaven today

@cybxr-sirxn more Gamma as suggested!! me when it comes to drawing men in suits skeptical of their happiness so far.... (basically me when the day has been too good)

Betsy Allen - The Silver Secret - Tempo - 1966

#witches #secrets #occult #vintage #the silver secret #silver #tempo books #betsy allen #mystery #connie blair #mystification #mexico #1966

"'For the love of God, Montresor!' 'Yes,' I said, 'for the love of God!'"

[tw: death, torture, decapitation, mental illness, ableism]

"The Cask of Amontillado" was the first story in this month's section, and it's long been one of my favorites (because there is something deeply wrong with me, probably). Walling someone up alive in the cellar is such a horrifying image that it's hard to imagine that, once you've read this story, you'll ever be able to forget it. I certainly didn't, but I enjoyed more of the nuance as an adult. We never find out exactly what Fortunato has done to deserve this fate, and we have only Montresor's vague comments about a "thousand injuries" he's borne. However, it doesn't sound like Fortunato burned his crops and killed his wife; they're both, apparently, upstanding citizens and whatnot. It sounds more like Fortunato made passive aggressive comments at a dinner party and maybe stole his yogurt at work, and Montresor (like most of Poe's narrators) WILDLY overreacted and decided to kill him in the most terrible way possible. But that's just my opinion.

Speaking of ways to kill people in the most terrible ways possible (this is a Poe collection, after all), this is followed by the utterly chilling "The Pit and the Pendulum," the horror of which is only matched by its Vincent Price film adaptation--yet another image I will never get out of my head. I'd forgotten the ending though, so that was an interesting twist. Those are tough acts to follow, so it was mostly downhill after that, aside from "The Masque of the Red Death," which is still a classic plague story and a little *too* relevant to the times just now (but, you know, also one of my favorites). The clock symbolism is probably the best in this entire collection. Why, pray tell, would you be afraid of time?

"The Oval Portrait" isn't bad, and it's at least in keeping with the spooky images that Poe's stories are most known for. "The Assignation" and "Mystification" have more in common with some of the earlier mystery tales, without the benefit of a clever detective to explain things. It's clear to me why Poe didn't go down in history as a humor writer because he's emphatically unfunny. The things he seems to find humorous are either in very poor taste now (see: his tasteless descriptions of mental patients in "The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether"), or they're outright ridiculous--almost slapstick, like the woman who gets her head stuck and is subsequently decapitated by a clock in "A Predicament," which is an odd sequel to "How to Write a Blackwood Article." I'm sensing that Poe is making fun of intellectuals or would-be intellectuals here, but with so much time and cultural distance, it's hard to tell. In any case, it led to a running joke in my house this month ("Goodbye, I'm going out for groceries!" "Don't stick your head in any clocks!"). Somehow, I doubt this is the major takeaway Poe was hoping for.

#poe readalong #Edgar Allan Poe #the cask of amontillado #the masque of the red death #the pit and the pendulum #complete tales and poems #the oval portrait #the assignation #the system of doctor tarr and professor fether #mystification #how to write a blackwood article #a predicament

Солярис, 1972

#drama #mystery #sci-fi #Солярис #solyaris #solaris #andrei tarkovsky #stanislaw lem #fridrikh gorenshteyn #donatas banionis #mystification

History always constitutes the relation between a present and its past. Consequently fear of the present leads to mystification of the past. The past is not for living in; it is a well of conclusions from which we draw in order to act.

John Berger, Ways of Seeing