Free Will+Morality=Self Reliance

             Oh Dilbert...just because it sums up what we said in class in Sunday Comics form :] 

            Why is it that I’m rather ashamed, frightened, worried about how people will perceive me if I say how I truly feel about Poe. Oh fuck it…I like Poe. I really like Poe. Like, we’re talking top 10 favorite authors here. How come I feel like this isn’t a good thing…

            Maybe it’s because Poe gets such a bad reputation as a “creeper?” Maybe it’s because people say he died as a drunk? But, can I just please ask/beg the literary community to put all of those preconceived notions aside and read Poe with a clean conscious devoid of preconceived stereotypes? Really read Poe. Beautiful (and creepy) imagery, more attuned to the human psyche than other authors have ever dared to tread, and probably one of the greatest psychic horror authors (and I hate horror movies and scary books; but I like Poe—that’s saying something) ever to grace us with his works—that is the real Poe.

            So, I like Poe. There. I said it. I love Poe.

            I have never read such dark, disturbing, frightening imagery that at the same time rivals some of the most truthful, beautiful language I have ever read. Poe could write. There’s no denying it. With lines as profound (rivaling with Emerson in their level of impact on my psyche and soul) as, “I dread the events of the future, not in themselves, but in their results” (The Fall of the House of Usher),“I am above the weakness of seeking to establish a sequence of cause and effect, between disaster and the atrocity” (The Black Cat), and “All in vain; because Death, in approaching him, had stalked with his black shadow before him, and enveloped the victim” (The Tell-Tale Heart), what’s not to love?!

            But, to get to the core of this blog post:

            As Suzanne told us in class, there are typically 3 forces that motivate the way the narrator of “Black Cat” acts: intoxication, satanic possession, or free will. I can see why critics would want to use intoxication and satanic possession as excuses for Poe’s narrators’ acts, but I think Poe was above using such simple forces to mold his protagonists. I think Poe was deeper than that. I firmly believe that Poe’s narrators are simply fictional embodiments of the concept of free will and how such fervent dedication to one’s own concept and feeling of free will can (and will) take you far, far away from the moral constraints that usually bound us, the so-called ‘normal people,’ into our everyday, rigid societal-formed actions, motivations, and personalities.

            I loved what Justin said in class—that Poe’s narrators aren’t necessarily bad; they are just hopelessly unrestrained. Justin…that was an amazing insight. Compliments to Justin, this then led into a whole new branch of discussion and prompted Vianca to add, “What is free will when you have morality digging in and restraining you?” You’re absolutely right, Vi. Absolutely right. I’ve debated this idea a lot during my thinking life, and probably to the dismay of my parents, I strongly feel that morality is a human-made creation; it is not founded in religion. Religion is a human-made creation, and one of its sole jobs is to create moral boundaries for its devotees. Nothing wrong with that at all. I identify myself as Christian. But, I understand that morality is something that varies between cultures and people of differing backgrounds; it is not a set-in-stone, inborn quality. Are my actions motivated, encouraged, guided, and restrained by my morals? You bet. But, that’s the difference. I have chosen to partake in the morality of Christianity and society at-large. Poe’s narrators have not. Poe created the amoral being, the person so attuned to his own emotional whims that free will, if he/she was even conscious of said philosophy, is the sole governing force in his/her life. The narrator of “The Black Cat” and “The Tell-Tale Heart” certainly didn’t let morals get in their ways. What they truly wanted to do in that moment, kill a cat or kill a man, was the whim to which they let themselves succumb.

            Maybe I’m a sicko to admit that I admire something in these narrators? Not the killing of course (that is the last thing I’d ever want to do), but that they are unrestrained by what society deems correct. If I only could bottle up a bit of that idea of free will and still maintain my morals, then maybe I could finally get to a place where Emerson would be proud of me—an ultimate state of self-reliance. Free will+morals=self reliance. That’s my equation, and I’m sticking to it.
           Wow...that was incredible. I feel like I just blogged/wrote myself into a new truth. Life looks different now. I'm typing faster and faster and can't stop thinking. Head spinning. Heart racing. I get it! I get it, Poe! Wow...wow, Poe was good.
           On that note, I'm going to go vacuum my dorm room and do laundry--all the while still thinking about Poe. If I could bottle up the experience of writing myself into a revelation like that, I would be one, happy college student. I can't believe that came out of blogging. This is awesome.  Suzanne, making us blog was an excellent idea. Just saying!

Poe, Edgar Allen. Complete Tales and Poems. New York: Castle Books, 2002. Print.