Paper # 1

Paper #1 I ask a simple question, why do you like to read Edgar Allan Poe stories and poems? You are going to give a simple answer along the lines of, “I like dark stories” or “he is my favorite writer”. That however, doesn’t truly answer my question of why. We all have a personal literary aesthetic, what we enjoy reading and what we don’t. What makes for a good read? A bad read? We all as readers have differing opinions on these concepts. I would like to discuss my personal literary aesthetic, addressing what’s of literary quality and what isn’t, what I consider good and what I consider bad, and what’s worth reading and what isn’t. There are many characteristics of what I consider good work. There are the basics such as grammar, good plot, good characters, language, etc. Then there are the particular things about the stories that I read that either enticed me or deterred me from reading further, which I will mention as I go through the different types of reading materials. The first thing I would like to discuss is what I consider of literary quality and a pleasure to read. Edgar Allan Poe's work is something I find pleasurable and it has great literary quality. I find his work pleasurable because it delves into the psychologically dark recesses of our minds and forces us to think about the dark side of humanity. I find this interesting because we all would like to think we would never do the things the characters in Poe’s work would do, but when you really think about it you may be surprised. Poe has an ability to wind the reader up with his writing and make you feel just as tense as the situation your reading. For example, in the Tell Tale Heart the narrator is attempting to spy on the old man without waking him and he manages to make you feel like you’re there with the narrator moving an inch at a time being completely silent “I proceeded-with what caution-I went to work. I turned the latch of his door and opened it-oh so gently” (Poe