by Srijita » Sat Oct 10, '09, 8:41 pm
Edgar Allan Poe was one of the writers whose work I simply could not take. I can admire him for perfecting his particular craft, but his stories were just a little too disturbing for my taste. Horror in general I tend to avoid, but I managed to get through Bram Stoker's
Dracula and Mary Shelley's
Frankenstein without undue distress; the latter IMO is more of a tragedy than a horror story. But Edgar Allan Poe and HP Lovecraft are in a different league. Edgar Allan Poe can be even more disturbing than Lovecraft, and that's saying someting.
As for the new funeral... I could understand some form of memorial service to mark the 200th anniversary of his birth and honour his work, but creating a mock-up of his body is taking things too far. That oversteps the boundaries of good taste.
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. - C. S. Lewis