The Hero's Journey

02/04/25 • 28 min

Welcome to Celebrate Poe - This is episode 325 - The Hero’s Journey
During the Christmas holidays, you may remember that I went over the the complete The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, written in 1900. And by the way, when I finished writing the transcript for this episode, I realized that, while it was meant as a temporary transition from Poe’s works to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, examining the similarities, and especially the differences between the literary works serves as a way to better understand Edgar Allan Poe’s stories, as well as L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Often we tend to try and learn more about the essence of a literary work by comparing it to a similar work - but I believe that you can learn a great deal about a literary work by comparing it to a work that is vastly different - and you can’t get much different than The Wizard of Oz and a story by Poe.

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Scrupulous Translations

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Welcome to Celebrate Poe - Episode 325 - Translating Poe
Before Celebrate Poe goes any further, I want to admit that I am going back and dealing with some of the influences of Poe - emphasizing that they were part of Gothic literature or writing that employs dark and picturesque scenery, startling and melodramatic narrative devices, and an overall atmosphere of exoticism, mystery, fear, and dread.
But Edgar Allen Poe got later ahold of Gothic literature in the mid-1800s and succeeded like no one else. In Gothic literature, he found a place to explore psychological trauma, the evils of man, and mental illness. Any modern-day zombie story, detective story, or Stephen King novel owes a debt to Poe. There may have been successful Gothic writers before and after him, but no one perfected the genre quite like Poe.

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Next Episode

Don't Fool With Ivan

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Welcome to Celebrate Poe - this is episode 326 - Don’t Fool with Ivan
From Poe’s favorite melody to Russia’s darkest czar - now In this episode, I want to continue an exploration of Gothic works and the psychological complexities that resonate with Poe’s literary works - in other words, go back and explore the influences on Poe’s works - especially the dark and Gothic. Obviously, I won’t be able to look at all dark literature and relevant historical events, but I ended up thinking an interesting place to start was a look at Ivan the Terrible - He was the Grand Prince of Moscow from 1533 and became the first Tsar of Russia in 1547, reigning until his death. His life and reign were marked by significant territorial expansion, cultural contributions such as the introduction of the printing press to Russia, and a reign of terror characterized by paranoia, violence, and the establishment of a massive, and brutal secret police called the oprichnina. Ivan’s legacy remains one of both remarkable achievements and infamous cruelty
Listen to this podcast episode for more details.

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