Poe

[tun]

I grew up near Richmond where the Allans lived and lived near Boston where Poe was born. I have sentimental feelings for him: I have photographs of me at his and his wife's and aunt's tomb in Baltimore and his statue monument in Richmond. He was the first writer I was given to read at six years old. But what do people here truly think of his writing abilities outside of his influence and fame that came later?

I really like some of the things that Edgar Allan Poe said. I think he had a great sense of humor - the greatest sense of humor of any writer. Sense of humor being the final indicator of pure intelligence. I like very much some of his tales. As a writer I look up to him. At some point I took to memorizing and reciting some passages from some of his tales and his marginalia. For me, memorization and recitation are the deepest form of reading. They are what reading really is - and memorization and recitation presents to a body the final revelation of what the text actually is, and what the words do and do not really contain, and what they do and do not present to the flesh. Needless to say, memorizing and reciting passages from Poe was a profoundly enriching and radically transformative experience. To say that it was an education is to fail to present the real facts of the impact, and of the improving effect it had on me. I love him.