Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."
 

The Raven started tonight. I loved it. Read Edgar Allan Poe's wikipedia entry before seeing it, if you're not familiar with some of the basic details of his life.

Good stuff.

Shit movie. Love John Cusack - love EAP even more. They'd tried to make Poe into a cheap Robert Downie Jr. version of Sherlock Holmes (which was shit, as well...)

Nothing hotter than 50 year old men pretending to be action stars. Let's dig up an old, long dead authors and turn him into action movie hero.

Edgar Allen Poe is probably SNAPPING right now.

Never bet the devil your head! He might just take it.

Donny, you have never read a Poe novelette or short story in your life, have you? This movie is so far from anything Poe ever wrote or intended that its insulting.

You can buy the complete works of Edgar Allen Poe for about ten bucks - or at least you could before the movie came out. Its all free. So just search - and read.

A pathetic waste of John Cusack. A PATHETIC waste of Poe.

Pre 1923 Poe (ALL OF HIS WORK) is in the public domain, so here's my new outline for a movie. It worked for Roger Corman...

Read it - if you CAN! There is NO WAY in hell you will ever read this out loud from start to finish. It changes and twists too much. At first its fine, then it gets weird. Cadences change. 200 years ago there were some serious American lyricists. Edgar might not have had the technology, but no-one alive today has the imagination - or feel for - word play like EAP had. Certainly not John Fucking Cusack.

You can read these words out loud, but you will not get it right. You will continously trip over what is written here... Most of you won't even get past the second line...

Its not the words he's written - anyone can read the words - its what he's saying. I can't read it. Not without backtracking. I have a recording of Vincent Price reading The Raven - and its perfect. I have it memorized. I can read along withg Vincent perfectly. There is no way in HELL I could recite this poem without fucking it up.

John Cusack in The Raven = Dog shit on my shoes.

------------------------------------------------------

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
`'Tis some visitor,' I muttered, `tapping at my chamber door -
Only this, and nothing more.'

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow; - vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow - sorrow for the lost Lenore -
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels named Lenore -
Nameless here for evermore.

And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain
Thrilled me - filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;
So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating
`'Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door -
Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door; -
This it is, and nothing more,'

Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,
`Sir,' said I, `or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore;
But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping,
And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door,
That I scarce was sure I heard you' - here I opened wide the door; -
Darkness there, and nothing more.

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before;
But the silence was unbroken, and the darkness gave no token,
And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, `Lenore!'
This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, `Lenore!'
Merely this and nothing more.

Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning,
Soon again I heard a tapping somewhat louder than before.
`Surely,' said I, `surely that is something at my window lattice;
Let me see then, what thereat is, and this mystery explore -
Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore; -
'Tis the wind and nothing more!'

Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter,
In there stepped a stately raven of the saintly days of yore.
Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he;
But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door -
Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door -
Perched, and sat, and nothing more.

Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,
By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore,
`Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou,' I said, `art sure no craven.
Ghastly grim and ancient raven wandering from the nightly shore -
Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore!'
Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'

Much I marvelled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly,
Though its answer little meaning - little relevancy bore;
For we cannot help agreeing that no living human being
Ever yet was blessed with seeing bird above his chamber door -
Bird or beast above the sculptured bust above his chamber door,
With such name as `Nevermore.'

But the raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only,
That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour.
Nothing further then he uttered - not a feather then he fluttered -
Till I scarcely more than muttered `Other friends have flown before -
On the morrow he will leave me, as my hopes have flown before.'
Then the bird said, `Nevermore.'

Startled at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken,
`Doubtless,' said I, `what it utters is its only stock and store,
Caught from some unhappy master whom unmerciful disaster
Followed fast and followed faster till his songs one burden bore -
Till the dirges of his hope that melancholy burden bore
Of "Never-nevermore."'

But the raven still beguiling all my sad soul into smiling,
Straight I wheeled a cushioned seat in front of bird and bust and door;
Then, upon the velvet sinking, I betook myself to linking
Fancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of yore -
What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt, and ominous bird of yore
Meant in croaking `Nevermore.'

This I sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable expressing
To the fowl whose fiery eyes now burned into my bosom's core;
This and more I sat divining, with my head at ease reclining
On the cushion's velvet lining that the lamp-light gloated o'er,
But whose velvet violet lining with the lamp-light gloating o'er,
She shall press, ah, nevermore!

Then, methought, the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer
Swung by Seraphim whose foot-falls tinkled on the tufted floor.
`Wretch,' I cried, `thy God hath lent thee - by these angels he has sent thee
Respite - respite and nepenthe from thy memories of Lenore!
Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe, and forget this lost Lenore!'
Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'

`Prophet!' said I, `thing of evil! - prophet still, if bird or devil! -
Whether tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed thee here ashore,
Desolate yet all undaunted, on this desert land enchanted -
On this home by horror haunted - tell me truly, I implore -
Is there - is there balm in Gilead? - tell me - tell me, I implore!'
Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'

`Prophet!' said I, `thing of evil! - prophet still, if bird or devil!
By that Heaven that bends above us - by that God we both adore -
Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn,
It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels named Lenore -
Clasp a rare and radiant maiden, whom the angels named Lenore?'
Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'

`Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!' I shrieked upstarting -
`Get thee back into the tempest and the Night's Plutonian shore!
Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken!
Leave my loneliness unbroken! - quit the bust above my door!
Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!'
Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'

And the raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;
And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming,
And the lamp-light o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor
Shall be lifted - nevermore!

------------------------------------------------------

Previous post too long:

This it is - and nothing more. I sincerely doubt anyone here has has the rythm to read this out loud from start to finish. Poe is a gothic American Shakespeare. There is a reason he is still a legend almost 200 years after his death.

The first two phrases in every stanza are straight up rhymes. The third exponation tosses a twist into things, it corrupts the rythm and violates the emotion. You're no longer in control. Sure, you can read it like "Hickory Dickory Dock... everything fucking rhymes..."

But it doesn't. This poem is pure improvisational brilliance from start to finish. The cadence changes constantly. There is no rythm to fall into. Two phrase of ryhme. Four following phrases of emotional breakdown. Its next to impossible to tie them together.

The last person to get a Poe reading right was Vincent Price. I can't read it. You can't, either. It may seem simple, but listen to Vincent Price read it. You'll know you are wrong - just as I am.

The Raven is - perhaps - harder to read aloud than MacBeth (the most accessible of Shakespeare's plays, but - hey!) I guarantee you cannot read this poem aloud without getting lost. Not from start to finish. Not with the proper emotion.

Now Poe's genius is reduced to a fifty year old John Cusack starring in a shitty action movie. I'll stick with the Roger Corman version.

Next week, I'll do Clive Barker. In The Hills, The Cities. Read something, please... Books of Blood. Weaveworld (genius... As in Pure. Fucking. Pure. Fucking Genius.) Read it. Bet you can't! Once again - Never Bet The Devil Your Head!

Next week, Clive Barker. I think Rawhead Rex. Go through he Books of Blood and then - perhaps - we'll look into H.P. Lovecraft and his protege August Derleth.

I would slap all this into spoiler tags if we had them here. But we don't!

Your literacy is going to be tested. Ignore it - easier with spoiler tags.

Practice "The Raven". There is not one person here - myself included - who can read that poem start to finish. They could do it in 1840. Can't do it now.

Maybe we'll just look at pictures of girl's bumholes. That's a better idea...

Last post: Words. Boring. Edgar Allen Poe. Old. Dead.

Guys been dead for 200 years and he's still smarter than anyone at GFY. Certainly a LOT more literate.

Garce wants to try to sound intelligent to everyone and totally missed the point of the movie. Good job, dude-who-tries-to-sound-sophisticated-but-isn't.

12 people are going to see that movie. I don't know what the studios are thinking making these giant movies that no one wants to see. Ok, everyone under 25 in America loves Edgar Allan Poe like the Hunger Games.

Copy 'n paste is the new pseudo sophistication, don'tcha' know.

Is there a link to the Vincent Price reading? I always thought it was Karloff who hit it right...

:D

Aren't you the king of copy/paste? You fat, Jesus cock gobbling cuntbag?

Some of us are intelligent enough to write our own complete sentences.

Vincent Price knocked that reading of Poe out of the park.

Love it! :thumbsup