A PG-13ish horror show with big themes that it exposes and employs with taste and skill. Was pleasantly surprised to get a lot more than a decent ghost story out of this one—not many folks aim that high, and fewer hit their mark.
I was lately disappointed with quality of movies/shows on NF. But The Fall off the House of Usher was decently good, especially if you know Poe's stories/poetry. Highly recommended, nice classic horror with modern twist.
I would say Fall of the House of Usher is at best surface-level related to Poe's writing. It mostly references character names, a few poem lyrics, and some plot points. But it doesn't have anything of the actual soul of his work, the way guilt or desperation push his characters into insanity.
It's not a bad series, but it's definitely lacking in actually adapting what is most memorable in Poe's works. The parts that reference The Black Cat and The Raven are particularly weak, with the Tell-tale Heart and The Cask of Amontillado being close seconds.
Disagree. The way the utter depravity of the Usher family leads to their ultimate doom is the spirit of Poe, even if the details differ. And using an opioid-pushing empire as the framing device is the cherry on top that modernizes the whole thing.
I think that's still a very surface-level element. Nothing of the details or the actual tone of the stories generally survives. The atmosphere is rarely oppressive in the show, it's typically clinical. The Ushers themselves are generally content, calm and collected throughout, up until the moment of their final murder. The oldest brother is the only exception, and is by far the most interesting character for it; his is the only story that really seemed to catch more than the surface level.
I saw the whole show, and while it's not bad, it had nothing to do with Poe. They could have taken every reference of Poe out of the show, and it would have been exactly the same. It's like the guy running it wanted everyone to know he read Poe in high-school, and it was more of an awkward, forced "wink wink" to the audience.
Seems disproportionately many writers of the 19th and 20th century lived tough (and often short) lives, or at least endured hardship of some kind e.g. Wilde, Orwell, Poe. Wonder if it's true of writers generally?
Many artists in general were probably not very successful and/or otherwise had a lot of hardships in their lifetimes. Some of them became more recognized later. They're the ones you've heard of.
Sometimes I wonder if part of the reason for the US having far more success in exporting media worldwide compared to (Western) Europe is the relatively greater amount of suffering caused by libertarian-ish capitalism and oppression of minorities. Certainly it's hard to see American hip hop being the same kind of thing -- and thus achieving the same kind of sales -- without those two factors.
On the other hand, South Korea has recently had a big boom in its TV show/movie popularity despite being a lot smaller and also having their shows in, y'know, Korean.
Yeah, when the Nigerian movie industry doesn’t have the same worldwide appeal as Hollywood, surely it is because the Nigerians are just living too comfy lives.
Seriously, there are multiple reasons for the cultural dominance of the US, but I dont think “more suffering” is one of them. Historically, cultural influence seem to largely correlate with economic wealth and political power.
Poe was very much loved here in Eastern Europe. I know he was loved in Romania, from where I'm from, my dad had a couple of his translated volumes in our library, in fact The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket is one of the first books I've read as a kid (the title seemed interesting, that's why I had chosen it).
At a quick search I found this blog-post detailing Poe's influence on Russian literature [1], apparently he had been translated in Russian since pretty early on, in the 1840s (via the French translation, not directly from English). Found this part pretty interesting:
> ”Edgar Poe—the underground stream in Russia.” So the Russian Symbolist poet Aleksandr Blok noted in his journal for November 6, 1911, a topic for a future critical study.
Same in NL: one of his translators was Simon Vestdijk, a prolific author and poet himself. In a way, his translations ruined Dutch literature for me: the fantastic imagery of Poe and the lyrical translations of Vestdijk produced a combination that not many home-grown writers could match.
As a Romanian as well, I was quite surprised to find out that Mihai Eminescu was one of the people who translated Poe's work in Romanian. This was especially surprising given how much more modern Poe's work felt compared to Eminescu's, and yet Eminescu was born one year after Poe died...
Poe's letters (a full collection available from the EAP Society of Baltimore, https://eapoe.org/works/letters/index.htm), while for the most part very mundane, provide a unique insight into a most stormy life.
He makes the point - which the article you posted also alludes to - that Poe was not a habitual drinker but would get very drunk on very little liquor when he drank.
Another thing I learned from it was that Poe wrote a lot more than his most famous stories - the complete works have been published as 17 volumes.
https://www.eapoe.org/works/harrison/jahinfo.htm
He was an interesting person.
Poe's death remains a mystery. He was found on the streets of Baltimore in a delirious state, wearing clothes that weren't his. He died a few days later, and the exact cause of his death remains unknown. There have been numerous theories, from alcohol poisoning to rabies.
EAP was incest and a pedophile. Interesting to see him continue to roller-coaster in popularity and gain a fan-base that supports different theories as to why marrying his 12-13 year old cousin was okay.
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[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 88.2 ms ] threadhttps://open.spotify.com/album/1Z4oBiD0q8rTwWIYrDwsys
If you haven't seen the Haunting of Hill House, I definitely recommend it. If you're into that sort of thing.
Haven't watched The Fall of the House of Usher yet, but I'm very much looking forward to it.
But it's a matter of degree, I've liked all of his TV stuff so far. I must go back and watch some of his movies.
A PG-13ish horror show with big themes that it exposes and employs with taste and skill. Was pleasantly surprised to get a lot more than a decent ghost story out of this one—not many folks aim that high, and fewer hit their mark.
It's not a bad series, but it's definitely lacking in actually adapting what is most memorable in Poe's works. The parts that reference The Black Cat and The Raven are particularly weak, with the Tell-tale Heart and The Cask of Amontillado being close seconds.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dHsQekNB64
(According to one of the comments it's the 1999 recording. Probably I'd heard the 1991 recording previously. It did seem a bit different.)
Note that there are two masterings of Tales and I find the harder-to-find 1976 version is cleaner than the punchy 1987 version.
Sometimes I wonder if part of the reason for the US having far more success in exporting media worldwide compared to (Western) Europe is the relatively greater amount of suffering caused by libertarian-ish capitalism and oppression of minorities. Certainly it's hard to see American hip hop being the same kind of thing -- and thus achieving the same kind of sales -- without those two factors.
On the other hand, South Korea has recently had a big boom in its TV show/movie popularity despite being a lot smaller and also having their shows in, y'know, Korean.
Seriously, there are multiple reasons for the cultural dominance of the US, but I dont think “more suffering” is one of them. Historically, cultural influence seem to largely correlate with economic wealth and political power.
Obviously English is a factor. So is being a relatively wealthy country, hence the comparison to Europe.
At a quick search I found this blog-post detailing Poe's influence on Russian literature [1], apparently he had been translated in Russian since pretty early on, in the 1840s (via the French translation, not directly from English). Found this part pretty interesting:
> ”Edgar Poe—the underground stream in Russia.” So the Russian Symbolist poet Aleksandr Blok noted in his journal for November 6, 1911, a topic for a future critical study.
[1] https://simonbeattie.co.uk/blog/archives/2151/
[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fall_of_the_House_of_Ush...
FotHoU is possibly the best love letter to Poe since Alan Parsons made his album in the 1970s.
He makes the point - which the article you posted also alludes to - that Poe was not a habitual drinker but would get very drunk on very little liquor when he drank.
Another thing I learned from it was that Poe wrote a lot more than his most famous stories - the complete works have been published as 17 volumes. https://www.eapoe.org/works/harrison/jahinfo.htm
(Is there anything like it for any other author?)