Pictures of Ascent in the Fiction of Edgar Allan Poe

214 Pages·2009·2.96 MB·English

by  Douglas Anderson

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Douglas Anderson et i Tr
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PICTURES OF ASCENT IN THE FICTION OF EDGAR ALLAN POE
Copyright © Douglas Anderson, 2009.
All rights reserved.
First published in 2009 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN®
in the United States—a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC,
1
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. 3-1
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Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, 11-
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trehgisi sitse breyd P ianl gErnagvlea nMda, ccmomillpanan, ay dniuvmisiboenr o7f8 M59a9c8m, iollfa Hn oPuunbdlimshiellrss, Limited, ct - 2
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Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. nn
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Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies e
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and has companies and representatives throughout the world. gra
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Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, P
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. e -
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ISBN: 978–0–230–61943–2 om
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data et i
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Anderson, Douglas, 1950– ote
Pictures of ascent in the fiction of Edgar Allan Poe / Douglas Anderson. bli
p. cm. sbi
Includes bibliographical references. sitet
ISBN 978–0–230–61943–2 (alk. paper) er
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1. Poe, Edgar Allan, 1809–1849—Criticism and interpretation. ni
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2. Calvino, Italo, 1923–1985—Criticism and interpretation. I. Title. o
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PS2638.A63 2009 e
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8189.309—dc22 2009005355 en
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A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library. m - li
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Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India. c
ct.
First edition: October 2009 ne
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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 ec
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Printed in the United States of America. gr
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When storms rage and we fear the shipwreck of the state, there is noth- ek
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ing nobler for us to do than let down the anchor of our studies into the bli
peaceful ground of eternity. sbi
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Johannes Kepler, 1628 sit
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An infinity of error makes its way into our Philosophy, through Man’s d t
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habit of considering himself a citizen of a world solely—of an individual ns
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pcolasnmeot—poilnitset epardo poefr —at alse dasetn iozcecna soifo tnhael luy nciovenrtseem.plating his position as m - lic
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Poe, “Marginalia” (June 1849) ne
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10.1057/9780230100824 - Pictures of Ascent in the Fiction of Edgar Allan Poe, Douglas Anderson
Contents 11
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Preface ix gra
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Introduction Cosmos 1 ms
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1 Problems of Disposal 15 et i
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2 A Pneumatics of Mind 47 ot
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3 The Gravity of Things 75 ets
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4 The Kingdom of Inorganization 107 ver
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5 The Infected World at Large 143 d to
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Conclusion Pictures of Ascent 179 en
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Sources 185 ct.
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Index 197 co
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Preface 11
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Readers of this book who are familiar with the conventions of grav
academic prose will immediately recognize that the following Pal
pages strive to keep their extraneous professional cargo to a oe -
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minimum. Poe’s fiction is filled with extravagantly overfurnished rooms o
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or badly stowed ships that reflect the mental disarray of their occu- et i
pants. Mindful of the fate of many of these characters, I have tried to ek
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jettison all unavoidable encumbrances—replacing footnotes, for bli
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instance, with a succinct account of the secondary resources I have used ets
for each chapter in an appendix to the book. Nearly fifty years ago ersit
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Richard Wilbur suggested that Poe’s overwrought interiors depict the ni
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visionary consciousness of a poetic soul besieged by the mundane, phys- d to
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ical world. The warfare between these two antagonists, Wilbur believes, s
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iws iPtho ed’se c“ofur nhdaas mcoemntea lt osu sbtjreikcte. ”m Oe vaesr ttoiom sec, htehmis avtiiecw. H ofi sP hoeer’so efas sacninda tniaorn- m - lic
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rators frequently find themselves surrounded by a gorgeous clutter that ct.
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the poetic consciousness ultimately sheds—a tactic I propose to emu- n
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late as best I can. ve
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These five chapters take as their point of departure the provocative gr
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conjunction between Italo Calvino’s striking lecture on “Lightness,” w.
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from Six Memos for the Next Millennium, and the trajectory of Poe’s pro- w
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feensgsiaogneaml elnifte .w Citahlv itnhoe c“ietexsi sPteonet aias lo nfuen ocft itohne aorft ilsittiecr patruedree”c emssoosrts winhfoluse- erial fro
enced what Calvino terms his own “search for lightness as a reaction to mat
the weight of living.” Poe’s imagination was forced to contend with this ght
crippling weight in a number of personal and cultural forms: a ballast of pyri
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material and psychological affliction aptly symbolized by the 1832 and
1849 worldwide cholera outbreaks that almost perfectly frame Poe’s
career. To such challenges his fiction repeatedly responds with vivid
explorations of cognitive possibility that he came to understand as the
transmutation of “rudimentary” into “ultimate” life. Poe coined these
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