I was reading this short story in class the other day (pretty fucked up, interesting read though) and I was wondering if anyone else has caught the strange undertone in this play.
In class, I decided to point out a strange passage in the book which I thought had very nasty implications:
[QUOTE]
I was especially fond of animals, and was indulged by my parents with a great variety of pets. With these I spent most of my time, and never was so happy as when feeding and caressing them. This peculiarity of character grew with my growth, and in my manhood, I derived from it one of my principal sources of pleasure. To those who have cherished an affection for a faithful and sagacious dog, I need hardly be at the trouble of explaining the nature or the intensity of the gratification thus derivable. There is something in the unselfish and self-sacrificing love of a brute, which goes directly to the heart of him who has had frequent occasion to test the paltry friendship and gossamer fidelity of mere Man.
[/QUOTE]I saw this and pointed it out to my class, and said I thought he might have been having sex with the animals because of the way the narrator was talking about the animals.
Instead, of course, people called me perverted and dumb for interpreting the story in such a way, when in fact the story later goes onto to vividly describe how he gouges out a cat's eye with a fountain pen, and later drive an axe into his wife's skull. I really think there is some bestiality implications here, but I'd like another take on what's going on in here.
Any thoughts?
Full version of short story here:
[URL]http://www.poedecoder.com/essays/blackcat/[/URL]
Everybody knows he was a famous fursuiter
I never thought of it that way, interesting interpretation. Shame on your classmates.
I suppose it is still a perverted way to look at it, but I immediately saw it considering the crazy person Poe was.
Edgar Allan Poe really likes to freak people out, it may very well have been that he meant to subtly imply beastiality to achieve the effect he was going for. I don't think it's obvious enough that you can really use it as an argument in class though...
I could totally imagine him doing that, hes a creepy person. Dunno why we are allowed to read his weird stories.
Well you can look at the love for animals, or you can base this thread on how he's a sick fuck but a good writer.
[QUOTE=Gnome1;20163282]Edgar Allan Poe really likes to freak people out, it may very well have been that he meant to subtly imply beastiality to achieve the effect he was going for. I don't think it's obvious enough that you can really use it as an argument in class though...[/QUOTE]
Here's the part that really disturbed me while reading it:
[QUOTE]
"[...]and in my manhood, I derived from it one of my principal sources of pleasure."
[/QUOTE]
I find it rather ironic that upon entering manhood he gains pleasure from his pets? Although the second portion seems to shoot that down, it still could be an underlying tone.
Edgar Allan Poe was a freak, I love his work, but he had some serious issues. There are hidden meanings in all of his works you just have to look outside the box. It's sad that your class laughed at you, people are always putting down others down that have different ways of looking at things.
Nope, I think that he simply meant something along the lines of how he loved his animals because they loved him unconditionally, as opposed to human beings which always had ulterior motives.
I disagree. He was only trying to convey the message that animals bring people joy. By putting the words into their direct context I think you are over-analyzing this piece.
My cat is fine, thanks for asking.
[editline]05:45PM[/editline]
[QUOTE='Hak[NJ];20163357']Edgar Allan Poe was a freak...[/QUOTE]
No I'm not.
[QUOTE=archangel125;20163367]Nope, I think that he simply meant something along the lines of how he loved his animals because they loved him unconditionally, as opposed to human beings which always had ulterior motives.[/QUOTE]
It is an dominant theme in most of Poe's work that man is one with many sides and dimensions. But I think an important thing to factor in before completely ruling it out is the narrator in this story had several sides, one that was supposed to be completely loving of all things, another crazy drunk one that likes to abuse and beat animals. There was another portion that claimed that he not only beat it but "violently ill used" the cat:
[QUOTE]
[...]the remembrance of my former deed of cruelty, preventing me from physically abusing it. I did not, for some weeks, strike, or otherwise violently ill- use it
[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=Vexxus;20163464]It is an dominant theme in most of Poe's work that man is one with many sides and dimensions. But I think an important thing to factor in before completely ruling it out is the narrator in this story had several sides, one that was supposed to be completely loving of all things, another crazy drunk one that likes to abuse and beat animals. There was another portion that claimed that he not only beat it but "violently ill used" the cat:[/QUOTE]
You can "ill-use" a cat without beating it. It doesn't exactly mean he did anything sexual.
[QUOTE=Tahrok;20163524]You can "ill-use" a cat without beating it. It doesn't exactly mean he did anything sexual.[/QUOTE]
So how would you ill-use a cat?
[QUOTE=Vexxus;20163541]So how would you ill-use a cat?[/QUOTE]
Don't feed it, scare it, feed it something bad, put it near a nasty dog, trap it...
the "I" in the poem does not necessarily refer to Edgar Allen Poe, it could be a different speaker. by simply reading the passage i don't think he's having sex with the cat, though.
[QUOTE=Edgar Allan Poe;20163379]My cat is fine, thanks for asking.
[editline]05:45PM[/editline]
No I'm not.[/QUOTE]
Amazing.
It's one of the dudes that started modern horror fiction, wouldn't you expect sexual undertones and other "strange" stuff?
His cat is a Walrus
I love how FP became poetic in this thread
[QUOTE=Edgar Allan Poe;20163379]My cat is fine, thanks for asking.
[editline]05:45PM[/editline]
No I'm not.[/QUOTE]
Ahaha sorry I wasn't aware that I was in the presents of the great Edgar Allan Poe. :lol:
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