As Promised Some Edgar Allan Poe Extra Credit

Check out the Extra Credit tab for a series of videos you can watch and review for extra credit. This is extra credit you can earn from home; however, later, I'll also post some a couple of local field trips you can take to places in Richmond connected to Poe.

Vincent Price Performs "The Tell-Tale Heart"

More than anything else, this is an experiment.  Kattar asked me how to include a link to an audio file in his blog, so I am experimenting with adding a video to the blog I use to create announcements for the course. [Kattar, one of the tricks seems to be finding a place online to host your audio file. Let me suggest trying the Internet Archive. Follow the link to "Contributions" at the top of the page.]

Having said this, if you've never seen Vincent Price work with material from Poe, let me encourage you to take fifteen minutes needed to see him perform one of the short stories you are reading this week.  You can even watch this video instead of reading "The Tell-Tale Heart." It is that good. It is an extraordinary performance, and Price does an excellent job of capturing the madness of the character.

Here are the two videos:

Week Six Asssingments and Discussion Starter are Hot.

Greetings,

This week we read the work of one of Richmond's own--Edgar Allen Poe.  Make sure to break up the reading into small chucks.  It looks longer than it is because there are many poems and a few short stories in this week's reading. The most difficult piece, the piece you should start early is Poe's essay, "The Philosophy of Composition," where he describes his theory of poetry and why he writes about the subjects and in the way he does.  If you've been told Poe was a drunk, a druggie, or mad, make sure to read this essay.  Poe was mad, but mad like a fox.

I was able to find etext, wikipedia articles, and audio files for all the week's reading.  If I get time over the week and can track down out-of-copyright movies, I'll post links to free, extra credit Poe movies.  I will also try to update the extra-credit site with possible Poe trips.  It's the 200th anniversary of Poe's brith.  He was born in the same year as Lincoln and Darwin.  When I put together the Poe extra credit, I'll even throw in a Ghost Tour of Richmond and a tour of the Hollywood Cementary.