Welcome back to the new thinkery. My name is David Barr with me is the oyster's my good friend out Spreey Hari ox. How are you? How are you feeling?
Good. I just put the razors in the apples and I'm getting pumped up here. I have to say, you know, I'm not I'm not I'm not some fool Alex. I don't I don't distribute the apples from my own home.
That's our next one selected an neighborhood dislike and I put the apples in front of his house. And so, you know, the can't trace it. That's great. Smart thinking.
Yeah. What about you, Greg? Are you getting a bum candy like candy corn and Withers originals? So the plan right now honestly is they do they celebrate Ashland Halloween on a Thursday night at 6 p.m.
And we my buddies my nectar neighbor and I would we actually we smoke a butt and we hand out coolers to the adult males and women as they want as they walk by for dragging their poor kids along and constantly smoking pork bite on the ground, smoking a bite like smoke a cigar. The first thing we're smoking pork. Yeah, so we'd work and hand out beers to the passersby. I think you're smoking something else.
No, no, it's still illegal in Ohio. I wasn't afraid of that. So today we're talking about Edgar Allan Poe, right? This is our house.
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Happy Halloween. I remember once I got drunk with Alex and Baltimore and we found to read with me Alex and we found his grades.
One of the year I needed dangerously close to it's sad. It's in this broken down cemetery. I think close to UMBC or on UMBC campus. People walks away, people walks away and away from the law school housing and you would trip over.
You wouldn't see it. There's no fanfare about it. But people still pay their respects to Poe who's probably America's most famous murder proto science fiction writer. Right?
Yeah, for sure. Did you say it was a gravesite? What'd you say you saw his house? His no, his gravesite.
His gravesite. He died under a mysterious circumstances. Young too, right? Yeah.
He'd be going like a bender and disappear and then they found him sick or dead or something. No, like a crack on his noggin. And so people don't know if he was rolled by some street tufts or he just fell. He was addicted to a lot of them in absent.
I don't even know what that first thing is. What's that? I think it's something that you drink helps you go to sleep. Oh, like I feel for someone who's wearing Xanax or something like this.
Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So he was addicted to a valuable cunt?
Yeah, exactly. With a tough draft that could suit it. Yeah. But he was a first rate intellect.
So he attended, his parents died when he was young, who was adopted by his uncle and aunt, who sent him to the University of Virginia. I think like a year or two after the school was founded. There's some indication that to when Jefferson was still on campus, he would regularly meet with the students. There's an indication that Poe met with Jefferson.
Get out of here. No, I'm not kidding. I have the additional I have, by the way, I should recommend. Yeah, for sure.
A few years ago, Harvard, the Belk Knapp Press of Harvard University came out with a beautiful annotated edition of Hobbes. It's almost as big as a coffee. Poe of Poe? Poe.
I'm sorry to say that. We were talking about stop-roading. Right. Right.
I think that episode just released today. Of Poe. And so they have selected writings. Beautiful marginalia then include paintings, movie stills, two number of his poems and short stories.
Wow. Yeah. It's a very, very nice edition. I'm gonna have to get that myself.
Yeah. And so, and the introduction is where I'm getting a lot of this. Okay. Oh, you leave?
So his aunt and uncle took him in? Yeah. Yeah. And did he do them a favor by taking in their daughter, his cousin?
Yeah. I don't know if that was their daughter or not, somewhere along the way. He marries this 13 year old cousin, Lem, or Lem, Clem, Clem. Clem.
Clem. How do you claim a name like that? It's kind of hard to resist. Yeah.
I was like, put off, maybe get her a favor. Yeah, I don't know. But he also, so he gets, he leaves UBA. He sees all addicted to a lot in him.
And he is invited. So he gains entrance into West Point. And at West Point, it's really where his literary career starts. And I was gonna say, that's right.
And you got the West Point story. Or the cadets. And so you don't think you think of that, uh, Poe with his funny mustache. He looks all, I mean, that he isn't slept in a week.
So it's funny to picture him as a West Point cadet. Of course, he gets kicked out of West Point for, you know, malfeasance or something. And then he starts his, his literary career. I think his first big hit was either the Raven or the Telltale Heart.
Okay. Why do you think he's so famous? You guys? I mean, I'm very, very, by the way, he was very, very well liked with by the other cadets.
So he wasn't some Andy Pambi. I mean, he was sort of assumed he was a guy you didn't want to hang out with. No, everybody wanted to hang out with him. You know, the, the, the, these are the sons of the who's who in our military style.
So say, what do you mean? It's the, when you're the, uh, 1820s, when are we talking about 1830 1830? So yeah, okay. So these are folks who'd go on to be high ranking folks on the Civil War, they're presumably.
Yeah. Yeah. How about them? I've often, you know, I often ask students, I think I got this idea from Mount Bloom's closing back in mind, you know, what their books influence them the most and what authors they like.
And I'm sort of struck by, um, post seems to be one of the persistent answers the students give. You mentioned he's sort of famous. I used to read them all the time when I was a kid at a huge volume of poem, a nice little sort of hardcover, not a little, it was actually quite large. Well, the story is all I think was the complete works in one volume.
Okay. But I had the same thing. In fact, on St. John's campus, they had an event every year.
I think it was a post-birth thing. It was where they would do readings. It wasn't connected with the college, with the college with the wind, one of their buildings. And I remember that there was only standing room when the actor was giving a, he was reading, he wasn't reading, it's by heart, the Raven.
And I remember standing outside of one of the St. John's buildings, looking in, there was only room for one more person, guess who went in? My dad. So he was stuck outside 30 minutes.
My mom and my little brother was cold. My mom was pissed off. But he used to read us Poe all the time. So I think he just captivates the imagination.
And his English is accessible. Yeah. Right. And the short often, these people, I mean, you look through like a collected writings.
I mean, there's a couple longer pieces, but for the most part, they're pretty short and pretty grippy. Yeah. I really have to search. I mean, was he the person who's coming?
I didn't think of anything like a writer. What is it? Like a horror writer. I mean, they're spooky tales.
Right. Every tradition, one writer going back. Yeah. It does seem novel.
But I mean, when I was doing my, when I was doing my, when I was doing my, when I was doing my, when I was doing my, when I was doing my, for the plot for the session, it does seem like there were genres that, like there were gothics and there were horrors and there were other kinds of things. So, well, there was the gothics. Right. You just said when I was prepping for class and they said, for the show, right.
You think all of us are teacher? No, no, no. It's like, it is kind of like class. Isn't it like prepping for class?
I'm in a way, I know because you can call it. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think about funny jokes to say that's a bit worse in class.
They just come naturally. So tonight we've selected what we have to do. Yeah, you get it. We've selected three classics, right?
Well, yeah, I would say, yeah. So the Raven, which Alex promises to do for memory. I don't know. The Pothail Hark, of course, is very famous.
And by the way, I don't know this, I could track this down, but pose influence, at least whether they realize it or not, on movie makers, has to be poorness. You just take the concept of the Pothail Hark, and you can see how easily it's applied, say to Kubrick's movie, The Shining. Oh, yeah. Like this.
I don't know. Or, I was thinking, I was rereading Hawthorne's The House of the Seven Gables, and then I thought, anyway, I'm digressing, but just these horror stories that also act as metaphors. Or something a little bit deeper. And the third, third piece, the Castle of Monteado, right?
Yeah. Yeah. Well, isn't it? It's with the, yeah.
That's what I was saying. It's Spanish wine, right? So that makes sense. That's what I thought.
But I looked it up and now it's Spanish wine. Okay. Yeah. But even I actually don't know what the double O in the time being.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. You got a guy you like to read with a double L? And he goes, what? Is it one?
He goes, Michelot, Machiaveille? Oh, Machiaveille. Okay. Yeah.
But I don't know. Good point. It's very late here on the East Coast, Alex. I'm sorry.
I can tell David's voice. He sounds like Jeb Bush over here. Well, he's clapping. I'm really nice.
I think he's like, oh, I'm trying to cook a clap. It just went up. I hear something. No, I got to do something.
I'm okay. I'm here. Some of you are my sons are. I don't have too much else to say.
We're doing telltale hard. The Castle of Monteado. And then also the Raven. I will say the following the edition I have.
I think it's the, is it the penguin you said Alex? I can give a goddamn what edition you have. Oh, wait. You have the penguin.
You have the penguin. The only reason I care is I'm talking about, I think this is posed distinctions. The first two are tales and the Raven is a poem. And the tales apparently Poe wrote different kinds of tales.
And these are called antagonisms. And I don't know. I looked around a little bit and couldn't find any too quickly that appears to be posed distinction. He had other kinds of divisions of tales, predicaments, bereavement, and my favorite, my personal favorite, grotesqueries.
So these are the first two were reading our antagonisms. I don't exactly what that would mean or why. I guess there's some kind of antagonism or contest going on. But I don't know between whom.
I guess it's obviously the Castle of Monteado, but it's less clear to me that telltale hard. Yeah. I mean, well, I was going to go the opposite. I think there is an obvious antagonism between Fortune and the narrator and the Castle of Monteado.
Yeah. There's an internal antagonism. Are you contradicting me? There's an internal antagonism.
Listen to me. Listen to me. No, may, may impugene l'assessit. Alex Priu.
Okay. It's like acid. It's like acid. It's late.
It's like four in the morning or something. I don't know what time it was. Anyway. Let's go with the Castle of Monteado.
Okay. Okay. Okay. Sure.
Overview. I'll give you overview. Oh, okay. You know what this has to do with Italy.
And I understand the humors of these men. So one man. So one man slights another man a year's prior to the telling of the story, which also happens after the murder many years after the murder. And this man does not forget the slight and lures the offender into the catacombs of his palazzo, where he keeps a nice collection of wine.
The offender, of course, is a wine enthusiast or self-proclaimed. So he lures them with the promise of a rare bottle. Then he chains them to a wall and the man screams and nobody can hear those names. He's chained to the wall.
And he said, and what he does is he has bricks and all this masonry stuff. And he starts to build a wall around the man where he entooms him. Oh, and before he seals it, he throws a burning torch through the hole. And you know, 50 years later, he tells his buddy about it.
And they have a huge laugh. Did I capture that? Well, not the laughing part, but does he tell his buddy about it? I know it's who who's he's telling?
Okay. Yeah. No, no. Okay.
That's suspicion that she's not actually in Italy. Oh, he's named by the way, Montreser. That's his treasure. Yeah.
And the guy for sure not to write. Yeah. For my treasure, yeah, is the one who gets entombed and the monster is just family surname of a name. Yeah.
So I have my, I don't think it's in Italy, because well, early on, he says few Italians have the true virtuoso. He speaks about Italians as though the person's not Italian. Okay. There's there's a curious amount, a number of French references.
Like when he says millionaires, that looks, it's an italics, as though it's French. He talks about the torches as flamboy, he mentions a bottle of midoc and as though he's sort of trying to impress the audience with what he has. And then he talks about how the crypt is similar to the great catacombs of Paris, which could just be like a comparison, but it also, it also might be meant to just in life in the image. So I thought maybe this Italian guy had flighters with the difference.
That could be true. He does refer to his home as a blaza, but maybe that's just standard term. I don't think he could prove this, but my guess is he might be elsewhere in Europe. So maybe he was, he was, um, Which would explain why he can tell the story.
Yeah. Is it or he's French maybe the narrator? Montreal. Could be.
Yeah. If it's something I didn't think, but the murderer, it takes place in Italy. Yeah. Within the story.
Yeah. He may have fled. That's fine. Right.
There are a few other details that I mean, there are, I read this in high school, by the way. Did you guys read this in high school? I know why they would have signed this in high school. It seemed too dark, but no.
There are just a few weird sorts of things. I was published when you were in high school. Well, maybe that's why we got it. First edition.
It was very hot off the press as they say. It went to West Point. Yeah. That's right.
What was I going to say? Um, it's carnival. It's carnival. I don't know if that seems to be sort of important.
I don't know why. I'm sure it's a spirit of party. I just think it's also uproarious. Yes.
It's loud and people are drinking all the kind of stuff. Also, it allows him to get his servants out of the house. Right. Right.
It also creates the suspicion because he's like, I got a cast of a Monteado. He's like, a little carnival. How did you come across or play? They actually never refer to the Monteado as a cast.
That's a play in the title, right? Right. The cast gave that thing. But then also when he's taking it back, he says he pulled down his black mass.
So it allows him to lead a fortune out of without being seen as who he is. Right. They'll be like, we're very fortunate. I don't know.
I saw him with some guy in the black mass. So I think all the carnival plays into all of those details. Right. Is anything religious going on with that?
We do think. Well, I mean, just that that's sort of what the carnival is what? Marty Groff at Tuesday, right? So it's like right before the season, you enter the season of Lent.
I'm just thinking, of course, like this guy gets in tombs and then Christ got in tombs. I don't know. I feel like there's probably some religious significance to what's going on, but I'm not entirely sure. Well, it's just a big party before the day of penance.
We before weeks of penance. Right. Right. And this guy probably had weeks of penance down there before he passed away.
There was another weird little thing, by the way. Go ahead. No, go on. I'm sorry.
Just leading this guy down there the whole time he's drunk. The nitric until that was, was that serving a specific function? Is it sort of helping get rid of the scent of the dying body? Like, has an area to put it there for a reason?
It's aggravating the guy's cold, the guy's coughing, is that any other? He's drunk. But at one point, he says, I didn't realize you were a mason. And then he goes, oh, I'm a mason.
He lifts up his cloak and shows, you know, like a mason's tool. Right. That's an indecent. But no, I just like, who would keep going at that point?
Like, why? Oh, I mean, it's even worse. There's more than a few signs. One is, what does he say?
He says, when he's coughing, he says, pushing out his, the cough is a beer, nothing. It will not kill me. I shall not die of a cough. Cough true true, I replied.
True true true. He's like, I just got this cast come to me. Why is it all the way in the body? If I was like, I just, hey, I got a new card, Greg, let's go down, you know, into this ravine.
I'm never going into a basin with you ever again, Alex. I learned my lesson once. There's a lot that's suspicious. Yeah.
There's a lot I don't understand. I mean, the both of the short stories we read are the tales, I guess, like, it's told from the point of view of the narrator. So it's told from the point of view of the guy that's doing the killing. I don't know.
It's kind of clear. I'm sorry. That's accomplished in murder. Yeah.
Yeah. And why, it's not actually made clear why Montreresor is so upset with yes. Yes. I agree.
That was a big question for me. To answer it. To answer it with some satisfaction, we're depending on how much Ho wants to answer that question. Also, we'll change the impact of the story, right?
Because if we reveal that, you know, for to not have slept with Montreresor's, you know, best cow or something, you're like, man, he really should is justified and right, right? And to me, his friend, obviously, but we don't really know. We're still on steady. We're on steady with respect to our view of the right and the circle on this.
I was actually, I was wondering about this. So two indications, one is the very first line. He says the thousand injuries are fortune auto, which is a very strange. It makes you almost think it's allegorical.
Like fortune has given me a thousand injuries. But then a couple of pages, this is on page 210 in addition we're using. Montreresor says, come, I said with decision, we will go back your health is precious, you are rich, respected and myer beloved. You are happy as once I was, right?
You are a man to be missed. For me, it is no matter. We will go back. Right.
And so as once I was, that was worth, for me, it is no matter. I think we take them to ways one, like don't worry about the Monteado, but also if I were to die, nobody would miss me. It's not clear. But at the very least, that is once I was thing.
So this seems to have been a major, it's more than a slide, I think, right? It's a major turn in his, in his fortune. I mean, he still has like this massive seller for those. So he's got plenty of consults up.
You know, you're not surprised. It's diminished, right? That's another thing. Like they were used to thrive.
And it's just like him with his massive caverns. It seems like everything's pretty bad. You're not gonna be surprised to know where my head's gonna go here, of course. But I can't, this is that in Italy, you know, all this talk of fortune.
You already mentioned his good name once today. I mean, even in my family had that lovely, we should do an episode on that letter he wrote just friend about visiting that lovely lady, Fortuna, who, the laundress or whatever. But right, I mean, is this just a, I mean, is, I realize I think it actually is more scary, more vivid if we actually take this story quite literally, but is this about trying to bury fortune or something like this? And some mean, block it away in a vault and trying to conquer?
I mean, I don't know what, but I mean, this is kind of what I was getting out of the film is a lot of it like, oh, here's a draft of the graph. Like, these are things that I'm a French person, well, everybody knows what I'm talking about, specifically the graph is like specific. A lot of it sounds like he's talking to a French audience or something. And it is a kind of allegorical, like very sort of embellished story with images and references that are relatable.
Like he calls his cloak of rucka there, right, which is an arm as well. So I do think that it does, that's right. The unfortunate is like this drunken dude who doesn't know anything who's wealthy, but doesn't, it doesn't sort of blind in a way then right, doesn't sort of build out happiness to humans according to their marriage or something like this. Yeah, well, then in two minutes, it's the same bizarre also.
Yeah. Early acting day, she's like, I just thought my interpretation is much stupider. I just thought Poe was he was imagining a literary editor that turns out, right? I mean, don't you guys have hateful walking daydreams about journals out of rejected your interpretive essays?
About the journals, maybe specific reviewers, these identities, I don't know. Where you go. Yeah, particularly, I'm not sure I'd want to assume them, but yeah, I mean, I'm wrong. I know I'm wrong with this interpretation.
There are no literary references in this, right, in this piece. So his identities, it probably sprinkled some of that in, then you could have more fun with interpretation along this line. And I knew it. Go ahead.
Go ahead. I was going to change this up a little bit. So go ahead. No, I was just going to say in favor of this kind of more, or like a bit of word as a terra grichina.
I mean, these stories, like tell it to a heart I think as well, we'll get into this. I'm sure it has a number of layers. Like it's about the building the heart, but there's all these subtle illusions to, you know, little like, insanities, and then you're trying to put together the backstory because there is obviously a backstory being alluded to. So I do think it's not beyond the wrong possibility, right, that po is being and remember, remember, Alex, in my little background research, what I text you, he was into cryptography.
Though I do think Mr. Po may have written a little, he's so terribly well, one thing we might we can transition to the next table. If we don't go to tell tale heart, one difference between the pieces is the author aside from just we're beyond a tale to an untold interlocutor retelling it to himself. It's unclear.
He's entombed his victim. Right. And so we don't get the sense at least we're not, he doesn't relay any sense of foreboding that this man's spirit will come and get him. He's not troubled by his act.
At the very end, there's one sign he might be, right? He's like, it's rather something that he's like, no, no, no, that's a must be to be the the nighter. It's not it's not my conscience. My heart was was eight years on like that, but it was the damp air.
Yeah, I wasn't. And that's immediately after the murder. Right. Right.
It's not after the telling of now I rest my trembling pen or something like that. Oh, no, it's nothing like that. And so the difference, I was thinking of, Oh, yeah, there's no regret 50 years later. Right.
Right. And so I was thinking of the joke, the rest in peace. Right. And so I was thinking of the two men of his victim in this story versus the much weaker entombed of the victim in the telltale heart, he's just beneath the floor boards.
That's true. Both of them have a secretive aspect. But he's still able to get, she's able to get into the person's head from the floorboards. He's not properly absconded away.
See what I'm saying? I don't know. No, say that again. I'm sorry.
I don't think I followed it. Just in the first in the in the cast tale, somebody's into a wall, right? And then it's the narrator's Oh, the audience. I think I think I see what you're saying.
What's interesting is that we chose these two stories on sort of just the most popular ones, but it seems like the telltale heart, it's a dead heart that sells him out that has an effect on the sort of he sort of perceives as it's right beneath his feet. It's a here it is a human being still alive and it has no effect on him. Right. And you're much deeper underground.
No, no, very good. And so I don't know how far we want to push metaphor about bearing, you know, one's furies or something, but damn very far in the back of the way far back behind the medox. That's the lesson guys. When we set out to murder hell, people from a different podcast, that's they got strikingly similar to ours.
You got to put them way underground. Yeah, can I throw out another possibility for what's going on with this background service? Yeah. So he mentioned that one point is crest, the family crest of the Montre's stores, right?
It's on two cents. Something like that. And it's a it's a golden foot against the blue back to 11. Yeah.
Yeah. And it's treading on his snake. When he's just crushing the snake, a huge human foot door and a field as you are the foot crushes a serpent rampant whose fangs are embedded in the heel. And the motto?
I said it already. No one provokes me with impunity, but in Latin. Now there's a there's an interesting at the beginning of the story says I must not only punish but punish with impunity. Right.
So there's a sense the way that he's praised the language, right? Like the way he started off. And then in addition, the fact that the the the seal says exactly what is going to happen. You stepped on me and I'm going to bite you back.
One is highly allegorical. So who knows it could still be all made up for all you know, but it does seem like he's trying to get some like familial revenge. So maybe he right now, but but this doesn't make sense. For sure, I was an old man, maybe he's dimensionless, but there used to be lots of people and he doesn't know what the much your stores were like.
So I think this goes to the point, your point, Greg, this is probably allegorical because for tonight, it doesn't know what he's done because it's just chance that it's he's going about his own business. And this seems to be many generations, right? Later that this has happened. So it doesn't make sense that we won guy.
So it is in a way a story of his like a kind of tale of him taking revenge for what's happened to his family. Right. But I guess because it's allegorical or it's sort of maybe made up that maybe it's just like the best you can do is win in fiction or something. Is it neat?
I'm sorry, Machiavelli when he's talking about fortune. Does he ever I know he describes it having to hold her down in Peter, you ever say anything about chaining? No, not like the thing that he says, I mean, the river has to be damned in dykes. So there is sort of very physical what you're doing to it.
One small detail I already mentioned that Montresur shows this trowel to show that he's a mason of different kind, but that joke is made because for tonight, it reveals himself to be a mason, a member of the Freemasons. So there's just more cryptography and stuff like that, more secret society kinds of business. And the masons were unbelievers, right? Yeah, yeah, big, all right.
Yeah, of course, there you go. So it's sort of divine chaotic force that has no divinity to it. Yeah, very good. Yeah, that would be even that would only confirm even still that it's algal or hulforcinato.
Yeah, very good. Very carnival. Oh, yeah, there's definitely something going on here. So we have to write this up.
It's so funny. He gets he's like, Oh, don't you basically pose out the thing? And the guy isn't like, why do you have a trowel? No, it's a trowel.
It's what he says later. Yeah, to break him in. So it's like, it's like, I mean, it's like, it's like you saying, are you a, to me, are you a blutter or quid? And we're just walking around and Marty going, it's blood and then there's just like a pile of blood and you're like, Oh, that's really funny guy.
Yeah. It's crazy. Yeah, you're funny. Let's go get the line.
Well, no, he's like, cavern where there's Yeah. And he's like, he's like, you seem to be alien. Are you sure you want to go fathoms deeper into my wine collection? That's funny.
You're drink this drink more. Well, move. So last question, we can go to the telltale heart. Was this a crime of opportunity?
Because he spots him drunk. So no, he had it planned. I mean, he's unclear. It's unclear.
With no, yes and no, right? So the long term planning, I think, isn't right. Right. And there's some parts of the plan don't go well.
So you're right. I mean, again, it's fortunate enough. It's a lot. He finds and drunk.
He's willing to go down. All these people are out of town at the Dallas house. But like the guy still was up while he's bearing him. Yeah.
And speaking to his, he does say, we talked about this a long ago, but he does say for a brief moment, I hesitated, I trembled when I heard him screaming. So like, he there is some tinge of guilt, at least originally, but they sort of quickly pushed to this high. I probably just hijacked your question. Sorry.
No, no, no, no. That's really funny. Just, I mean, the point you made, right? It's Fortune does Fortune in.
Yeah. But now I'm remembering that. Yeah. He's like, hey, lady, Fortune Otto's waiting for us.
So how is there any, I mean, his wife is still right. Fortune the woman at least is still around. So maybe that's a very good mock. Is he saying waiting for us?
Yeah, she'll be, I think he says, I was the second last page, sorry. What one? I mean, you know, what the ultimate revenge, oh, your husband's got missing. I'm financially room.
Oh, you need a new husband. Oh, you also have the money from your previous husband. I forgot. That's not about the not maybe leading us at the Palazzo, the lady for tonight on the wrist.
I thought maybe that was a last day. Oh, that's great. Hey, hey, let's play this pretend it's a joke, man. Right.
Right. Now, maybe he cooked this up with the man's wife. But yeah, that's not bad. I like that, actually.
Fortune, not his last words. I mean, I don't have to rethink this tale now is I really do think there's some serious religious stuff going on because his last words are for the love of God. Yeah, won't reservoir. And like, yes, exactly for the love of God.
Yes, I said the love of God. He wants out. So maybe he's gotten into sort of for go is me, right? Right.
Maybe that's the revenge he gets is it's I don't know, maybe this is divine revenge. Right. It's something the interpretation of this story reveals more about us. Us.
Well, I mean, like, just one possibility would be that he's if he has a mason, he sort of represents sort of unbelief has his is his offense connected to that only. And does Montresore see himself as sort of the an actor of divine justice on Earth or something that maybe that's way too far field. But I mean, the final word, like, yes, for love God. Yes, I did this for love God.
I mean, that's a sort of strange idea. Yeah. So maybe it's maybe the tale is like, you know, maybe he's often France, like gusty to do these finally lost his plot. So he's just hang around and this is his sort of revenge fantasy because I'm a just guy and this other other people do well, right?
Right. Right. You know, bodies this tendency and then it was so interesting to be both kind of pious revenge, but also like a kind of impiety is it would be acknowledging that chance plays a greater role than profit. You got it.
Exactly. I can bet something. I love that. These are eventually in a sea splope through my head all day long.
I mean, all day. I know. This actually is not we're not actually according to steps of David. This is about planned invention.
And here's Dr. Bill, actually. I see. I actually one of the things I was going to ask about this was I wonder if part of the one of the questions I had is is the appeal of this?
I assume that part of the appeal of these kinds of four stories is like a safe way to feel like, Oh my God, I'm being scared. But I also wonder if it's a safe way to do what you were just talking about, right? Like to live out your events, it's like I can I can imagine killing people. And so therefore that it's a safe way to let loose these otherwise sort of nasty desires.
I mean, it's house. It's a lot of what Quentin Tarantino's needs to do. Right. It's a very good point.
Yeah. Because retelling of certain bits of our history. Yeah, that's a good point. So that's what my colleagues are doing movie night every once in a month here in the Ashwick program.
And he's doing the exercise or something like this. And he was asking a bunch of us. Yeah, I was just like, you know, none of us, none of us like war movies. And I just don't really understand the appeal.
So maybe that's something we're trying to moment. But here, I think I started starting to see the appeal. Like, you're the murderer that hadn't occurred. But then also that that Poe is he has a steady pen.
So he doesn't have the problem with modern day horror films. Alex is the film book here, really. Right. Right.
But with the these, it seems like it started with it starts with noir and then somewhere along the lines, it goes fully off the rails with just gore. And that's easy shock. All these stuff. Yeah, I don't know.
I've never been into horror films. Noir films are really compelling because they are kind of like, and this is I think maybe something that's related to Poe, right? But there's a kind of, it's always a kind of urban setting. And there's a sense that you have to be criminal to get by.
And so earnest sentiments end up going down criminal paths and things like that. And it's a comedy. Right. Then move on to the telltale heart.
We should. Somebody was supposed to actually, you're supposed to give us a synopsis of the film. I think it's a synopsis. Yeah, absolutely.
So let me do the synopsis. So what ends, all right. So it's a guy telling a story. But let me tell you the basics of the story and then maybe touch on a couple of the background details to get started about what's going on here.
Give me with the daddy. He's living in a house with this guy. Who's? Who's he?
Who's he? The narrator. The narrator. Okay, got it.
The narrator's living in the house with his old man who has like this weird glass eye kind of thing. He looks like a vulture eye. And it's freaking about. And he decides he's going to kill the guy because his eye.
And so he starts slowly opening his door and he's headed in a minute. It sounds funny when you're saying it. It's so funny. I remember reading this as a kid.
And this is detail. So I was like, this is stupid. It takes an hour to stick his head in the door. And it's like, that's how careful I was basically.
That seems really uncareful. That's way a lot of time to like sniff or sneeze or something. Like, right. Anyway, so he does that.
And then on the eighth night, he kind of accidentally makes a sound with his lantern. He has a blacked out lantern. I don't know why he brings the black out lantern at first. But he opens it to see the eye and he'll he wants the guy to be asleep because he doesn't want to wake him.
But he wants the guy to see the guy's eye because that's why he wants to kill him. So he goes in there and he opens it. And so it seems like the guy has to be awake for him to want to kill him. So why is he being so quiet?
He's just go in, open the lights and see the eye and murder the guy. Anyways, finally, the eighth day the guy hears him. He wakes up. He sees the eye guy shrieks.
He the old man shrieks. So the narrator throws him on the ground and pulls the bed over him. I guess he just suffocates him under the lead of this. I was actually I'm gonna ask him.
Okay. Yeah. So we can talk about that. But anyways, the guy dies.
He then just members him, which is important because he when he sticks on, he just remembers him. I don't remember that part from when I read it as a kid. Yeah. cuts off his head cuts him up.
Make sure there's no blood. He's very proud they left no blood. So he doesn't the top or something like that? Yeah, it doesn't the top.
Okay. Natural is no blood, which is good because now nobody will catch him with wank. Right. Cut some up, put some of the floorboards.
The next day's neighbor heard a shriek. And it's unclear. It's either the old man shriek or it was his own because he cried out as well. So anyways, they heard something as described as a shriek and old man said to shriek.
But anyways, he got so three deputies are come to the house and they say, Hey, we've got a heard of a complaint from the guy's like, Oh, nothing to worry about here. The old man's on vacation. Let me show you around shows around the house. Look over here.