Poe Short Story Discussion Group

[Dark Muse]

The Premature Burial

[Quark]

The Premature Burial

Ha, I can't think of a more Poe-esque subject.

[Dark Muse]

Ha, I can't think of a more Poe-esque subject.

Hehe indeed!

[PabloQ]

Hi everyone, sorry for dropping in like this but I was just curious to know a thing.

I have read only one Poe short story and that was quite some time back. The problem is that I can't recall it's title.

The storyline is as follows:- (Spoilers ahead)

Well, a man is about to be hanged. The rope is tied around his neck. He somehow manages to escape his hanging and runs away into wilderness. To cut it short, in the end he feels a great pang of pain and dies. The reader then knows that all the while, the man had not managed to excape and he eventually was hanged

I'm pretty sure this is not a Poe story. It sounds like An Incident at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce.

[Dark Muse]

Because of renewed interest in this thread I have decided to begin another story for discussion.

The story that will be up for discussion is:

The Premature Burial

Though this story is considered to be one of his stories of Mystery and Horror it can just as easily be considered to be one of his works of Humor and Satire. It is a story which deals with one of Poe's greatest fears, and a fear that is a reoccurring theme throughout many of his works, in addition to being a real genuine fear for the time period in which he was writing.

That is of course the fear of being buried alive. In a time which lacked the medical understanding and technology we have today it was in fact frightfully common for people to be buried alive and mistaken for dead. There have been coffins found with scratch marks on the inside lid where its occupants have tried to escape.

Though in "The Premature Burial," Poe has a little fun with this fear, and in fact does mock himself. In some ways the story can be seen as a parody of his terror gripping tales.

One of the interesting things about the story is the way in which he helps set up both the mood of the story and the stories narrator by beginning the story with a series of accounts of actual premature burials that were known to have occurred.

Online Text: http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/blpremburial1.htm
http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-st...PremBuri.shtml
http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/wor...866&pageno=111

(There is no difference in the texts, they just provide different formants so readers can choose whichever is easier for them to read)

Enjoy the story and you may begin discussion at anytime. Once I have had the chance to re-read the story I myself will begin posting comments upon the story and different parts of the text.

But we need not follow a specific order if there is something on your mind that you really want to get out there.

Just post warnings if you do want to bring up something that happens later on in the story.

[Quark]

Good story, DM. I'll probably post a response tonight when I get back from visiting friends.

[Dark Muse]

I am glad you enjoyed it, and I look forward to your comments. I haven't yet had the chance to read it again but hopefully I will be able to do so soon.

[Quark]

Though this story is considered to be one of his stories of Mystery and Horror it can just as easily be considered to be one of his works of Humor and Satire.

Yeah, when a piece of fiction begins by explaining that its subject is "too entirely horrible for the purposes of legitimate fiction" one knows something is afoot. The paradox here is a wink to the reader. We start the story knowing that the conclusion cannot be anything satisfying because the work is fictional. Instead of the "severity and majesty of truth," we're probably going to get something a little less divine and a little more absurd. Really, what could be more absurd than the tomb he designs for himself? The thing has more amenities than George Costanza's handicap bathroom. Doesn't he even have food in there? It's a little over-the-top.

Poe seems to be going for something similar to Ann Radcliffe's The Italian: an anti-gothic, gothic novel. "The Premature Burial" is a bit of an ant-horror, horror story. Unlike Radcliffe's novel, though, which challenges whether the entire gothic, imaginary world has any substance and truth, Poe seems to leave the door open on horror in general. The true "direct testimony" that he records in the beginning of the story is never actually refuted. It stays unchallenged, and reminds readers that horror does exist. It just can't be fictionalized. Radcliffe undercuts the veracity of imagination and the gothic, but Poe's story reinforces it--in an odd way. Poe's attack on fictionalized horror reasserts horror's presence in actual, lived experience. The three instances of "direct testimony" do more than just lull the reader into thinking that narrator's story will be more "direct testimony." The three mini-stories at the start of the text show the very real presence of horror, and they never get overturned as the narrator's story eventually is. At least, that's one way of reading it. You could argue that the ending of the narrator's story rewrites the early stories to have similarly anti-climatic endings. The narrator's story could be a commentary on the previous "direct testimony." I think that's a weaker reading, though. It seems more likely that the story maintains the presence of horror in real life. The last paragraph, especially, seems to make that the case.

That's how I read the satire of the story, but I could be wrong. This is the first time I've read the tale. I'm new to Poe.

[Dark Muse]

Yeah, when a piece of fiction begins by explaining that its subject is "too entirely horrible for the purposes of legitimate fiction" one knows something is afoot. The paradox here is a wink to the reader. We start the story knowing that the conclusion cannot be anything satisfying because the work is fictional. Instead of the "severity and majesty of truth," we're probably going to get something a little less divine and a little more absurd. Really, what could be more absurd than the tomb he designs for himself? The thing has more amenities than George Costanza's handicap bathroom. Doesn't he even have food in there? It's a little over-the-top.

Poe seems to be going for something similar to Ann Radcliffe's The Italian: an anti-gothic, gothic novel. "The Premature Burial" is a bit of an ant-horror, horror story. Unlike Radcliffe's novel, though, which challenges whether the entire gothic, imaginary world has any substance and truth, Poe seems to leave the door open on horror in general. The true "direct testimony" that he records in the beginning of the story is never actually refuted. It stays unchallenged, and reminds readers that horror does exist. It just can't be fictionalized. Radcliffe undercuts the veracity of imagination and the gothic, but Poe's story reinforces it--in an odd way. Poe's attack on fictionalized horror reasserts horror's presence in actual, lived experience. The three instances of "direct testimony" do more than just lull the reader into thinking that narrator's story will be more "direct testimony." The three mini-stories at the start of the text show the very real presence of horror, and they never get overturned as the narrator's story eventually is. At least, that's one way of reading it. You could argue that the ending of the narrator's story rewrites the early stories to have similarly anti-climatic endings. The narrator's story could be a commentary on the previous "direct testimony." I think that's a weaker reading, though. It seems more likely that the story maintains the presence of horror in real life. The last paragraph, especially, seems to make that the case.

That's how I read the satire of the story, but I could be wrong. This is the first time I've read the tale. I'm new to Poe.

You make some very good insights here. And I really enjoy your thoughts on the idea of the story being an "anti-horror" story. I do think there is a lot of truth in this. It is very much a parody of Poe's other stories where he treats the subject of being buried alive in a much more dramatic way.

I tend to agree that I do think that testimony presented at the start of the story is there to remind the reader of the very real presence of the fear. I tend to agree that I do not think think the ending of the fictional story, is intended to also undermine the endings to the previous testimonies or to subtract for the presence legitimacy of the looming fear.

I think the testimonies are meant to stand as they are, and Poe than precedes to have a little bit of fun with this fear. Perhaps it was a way of sort of facing the fear.

With all the extremes that the narrator does go through to prepare for just such an episode of the possibility of being buried alive, I think this does alert the reader that there is something afoot.

And for those that are familiar with Poe's work, the reader would not expect that he would so blatantly spell out the story in the begining, and with the very presences of those testimony's provided, lends to the fact that the narrators own story cannot just be another buried alive story, though I do not think one can ever be completely prepared for the end that is too come.

[Quark]

It is very much a parody of Poe's other stories where he treats the subject of being buried alive in a much more dramatic way.

It would be interesting to read one of those stories after this one--to see how they stack up.

I tend to agree that I do think that testimony presented at the start of the story is there to remind the reader of the very real presence of the fear. I tend to agree that I do not think think the ending of the fictional story, is intended to also undermine the endings to the previous testimonies or to subtract for the presence legitimacy of the looming fear.

Yet, it's odd that the "direct testimony" points to the fear and horror in actual life when within the narrator's story real life is reassuring and it's fiction which makes him fearful. "The Premature Burial" inverts itself during the narrator's story. In the first few paragraphs, we're told that real life is horrid and scary, but fiction should steer away from horror. In the narrator's story that's turned upside down. The stories he reads spook him, and real life is reassuring. I suppose we're supposed to read the narrator's story as a perversion of way things should be. After all, it is a satire on him. But it's still odd that his memories and the real events of his life should be reassuring to him. Those should be what scares him if we interpret the "direct testimony" to mean that real life has terrors. The "direct testimony" proves that there are live burials in real life--as well as plagues and earthquakes. What do we make of his jubilant mood on the boat, then?

With all the extremes that the narrator does go through to prepare for just such an episode of the possibility of being buried alive, I think this does alert the reader that there is something afoot.

And you're probably right that that's all it does. I don't think it gives the ending away. Of course, I don't even think the ending gives the ending away. I'm still not sure I entirely understand what we're supposed to make of what happens on the boat. Why does being in the boat cure him? Is his optimistic mood on the boat the correct attitude? If fiction can't examine the horrific, why does Poe write so much about it? The text runs out before many of its questions can be answered.

[Dark Muse]

You pose some interesting thoughts and questions of which I will come back to and answer in detail once I have refreshed myself on the intericate details of the story, and the actual langauge Poe uses. I will try to get the story read tomorrow.

[Quark]

I will come back to and answer in detail once I have refreshed myself on the intericate details of the story, and the actual langauge Poe uses. I will try to get the story read tomorrow.

I don't even know if those questions have answers. No need to rush, though. I'm probably going to be gone most of tomorrow again. When I get back, I'll PM some people and see if I can't scare you up some more posters.

[Dark Muse]

I don't even know if those questions have answers. No need to rush, though. I'm probably going to be gone most of tomorrow again. When I get back, I'll PM some people and see if I can't scare you up some more posters.

No they may not, but it will be fun to examine them and that would be cool!

[Quark]

I reread the story this morning, DM, and I think I see more of what you we're talking about. The story does seem to be a way of dispelling Poe's own fears, and that can help us explain why he reproduces so many actual accounts. These are probably the things Poe himself was coming across. The story may be a way of unburdening himself of those stories that have haunted him. Putting them on paper may have been a way of dispelling pent up anxieties. That would go some way in explaining why he tells us so many different stories when you would think only one would have been enough.

It's interesting to watch both writer and character work through the same fears on different levels. I think it tells you something about the way narrative and character work.

[Dark Muse]

*edit*