Among the many readings and adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe’s classic moody poem,the raven“There’s nothing more fun than this.” simpsonsLisa Simpson’s intro segues into James Earl Jones’ reading voice and slapstick dramatic interjections of Homer as the incarnation of Poe and Bart as the titular bird. Jones’ poetry reading You can’t miss it. There are several versions on YouTube.
But Jones isn’t the only classically macabre actor to master Poe’s language. The photo above is of Christopher Walken. His disturbing strangeness is always tinged with a kind of sarcastic humor, perhaps the influence of his classic New York accent.
Walken’s reading is accompanied by the standard eerie wind sounds and the unusual addition of a distorted metal guitar. Perhaps an intrusion, perhaps a unique dramatic effect. The visual component, a montage of expressive pencil drawings, also works sometimes and sometimes not.
This work, classic trajectory For TV interpretation of “The Raven.” Of course, I’m talking about Vincent Price’s funny reading (above). simpsons Parody. One of my favorite little jokes in the latter comes during the introduction of Bart and Lisa. Bart whines, “It’s like a textbook!” Lisa replies, “Don’t worry, Bart. You won’t learn anything.”
Lisa’s rebuttal is an insidious reference to Poe’s disdain for literature that aims to educate or moralize, a tendency he called “The heresy of didactics” Poe’s theory and practice grew out of his desire that literature has a “unity of effect” and that aesthetic experience is created only through the author’s skillful use of literary form. Poe may have anticipated and directly influenced French symbolists like Oscar Wilde and other aesthetes, but his secure place in high culture thankfully didn’t get in the way of pop appropriations of his more outlandish stories like “The Raven.” My all-time favorite reading of this poem is by classic horror actor Christopher Lee (below), which may be the most frankly creepy of all poems.
Note: An earlier version of this post appeared on the site in 2013.
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Edouard Manet paints Edgar Allan Poe the ravenFrench edition, translated by Stéphane Mallarmé (1875)
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Grateful Dead pay tribute to Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The Raven’ at 1982 concert: Listen to ‘Raven Space’
josh jones I’m a writer and musician based in Durham, North Carolina.
Source: Open Culture – www.openculture.com
