HE ONCE WROTE THE BOSTONIANS HAVE NO SOUL. AND THE BOSTONIANS ARE WELL BRED, AS VERY DULL PERSONS, VERY GENERALLY ARE. HARSH, MAN. YET TODAY THAT AUTHOR, EDGAR ALLAN POE, IS ONE OF THE FEW WRITERS TO BE HONORED BY A STATUE IN BOSTON. TED REINSTEIN TELLS THE TALE OF LOVE AND HATE AND THE MAN WHO PUT THE CHILL INTO AMERICAN LITERATURE. THEY’RE THE STUFF THAT’S DEAD, WHO STOOD AND LIED BEFORE THEE ARE AGAIN. IN DEATH. AROUND THEE. THE DARK SINISTER WORDS OF EDGAR ALLAN POE, HAUNTED BY SPIRITS, PREOCCUPIED BY DEATH. THE BOSTON BORN WRITER IS FAMOUS FOR WORKS LIKE THE TELL TALE HEART. I WAS NEVER KINDER TO THE OLD MAN THAN DURING THE WHOLE WEEK BEFORE I KILLED HIM. ACTOR JEFFREY COPIES BRINGS POE TO LIFE IN A PLAY NAMED AFTER ONE OF THE AUTHOR’S BEST KNOWN LINES. NEVERMORE. THE SHOW IS AT THE SOMERVILLE THEATER THIS WEEK ON A MOST IT FITTING NIGHT. I DRINK FOR THE DEAD, AND BURY THEM. I SAW NEVERMORE A COUPLE YEARS AGO UP IN MONTREAL, AND I WAS JUST BLOWN AWAY. SHE’S THE PRODUCER BRINGING THE PLAY TO THE LOCAL STAGE. IT’S AN ENORMOUSLY ENTERTAINING ONE-MAN ACT, ABOUT 90 MINUTES LONG, NO INTERMISSION, AND IT’S KIND OF A VIEW OF POE THAT A LOT OF PEOPLE HAVEN’T SEEN BEFORE. I CAN’T WAIT FOR EVERYONE TO SEE IT. FOLKS POE’S WORK LIKE HALLOWEEN EXISTS BETWEEN THE — LEWIS WAS ALSO A PRIME MOVER IN BRINGING THE PRODIGAL SON BACK TO BOSTON. IN STATUE FORM ANY WAY. IMAGINE THE SCULPTOR WHO DESIGNED THE STATUE. THE RAVEN IS OVERSIZED AND POURING OUT OF THE BACK OF HIS SUITCASE ARE ALL THESE PAGES AND PAPERS FROM STORIES THAT HE WROTE. EACH HAS A TEXT OF WORKS THAT HE PUBLISHED HERE IN BOSTON AND COMMENTS HE MADE ABOUT THE BOSTONIANS. LIKE THIS EDITORIAL FROM 1845 WHERE POE WRITES, QUOTE, THE BOSTONIANS ARE VERY WELL IN THEIR WAY, THEIR HOTELS ARE BAD, THEIR PUMPKIN PIES ARE DELICIOUS, THEIR POETRY IS NOT GOOD. THEIR COMMON IS NO COMMON THING, AND THE DUCK POND MIGHT ANSWER IF ITS ANSWER COULD BE HEARD FOR THE FROGS. END QUOTE. HE WAS ALSO NOTORIOUS FOR BLASTING BOSTON WRITERS, CALLING THEM FOOLISH FOR FAILING TO CREATE STORIES IN GENRES LIKE FICTION AND MYSTERY, AND INSTEAD FOCUSING THEIR TALES ON MORAL LESSONS. POE MADE FUN OF BOSTONIAN AUTHORS AND EDITORS AT THIS TIME BY CALLING THEM FRAUDCONDIANS. SO HE’S WALKING A WAY FROM THE FROG POND DISMISSING IT WITH HIS LEFT HAND IN THE BACK, AND TOWARD THE HOUSE HIS PARENTS WERE LIVING IN AT THE TIME HE WAS BORN. POE’S PARENTS DIED WHEN HE WAS THREE. HE WAS RAISED BY FOSTER PARENTS IN VIRGINIA, BUT WHEN TENSIONS GREW BETWEEN POE AND HIS FOSTER FATHER, HE RETURNED TO BOSTON, EVENTUALLY WORKING AS A WRITER, MARRYING AND THEN LOSING HIS WIFE TO TUBERCULOSIS. TO EVERYONE LOSS AND DEATH IS SCARY. I THINK POE HAD A WAY OF G GOTHICIZING THOSE THEMES. ONCE UPON A MIDNIGHT DREARY, THE RAVEN, SINISTER AND COLD, SAYING SIMPLY NEVERMORE. THIS RAVEN HAUNTS HIM, AND REPEATS THE WORD NEVERMORE, WHEN HE ASKS QUESTIONS LIKE WILL I EVER SEE YOU AGAIN, AND HE THINKS DEEPER AND DEEPER INTO GRIEF AND DESPAIR. I THINK HOW WE COPE WITH LOSS AND DEATH IS A UNIVERSAL SUBJECT, THIS IS ONE EXTREME EXAMPLE OF IT THAT PEOPLE RESPOND TO. IN READING POE YOU’RE NEVER SURE WHETHER SOMETHING IS SO FAR OUT, SO OVER THE TOP THAT IT’S RIDICULOUS AND FUNNY, OR JUST DEEPLY DISTURBINGLY CREEPY. AND I THINK THAT’S THE SORT OF HALLOWEEN . IF YOU WANT TO SEE NEVERMORE PERFORMED AT THE SOMERVILLE THEATER HALLOWEEN NIGHT, IT’S AT 8:00.
