Celebrate Poe

Send us a text Welcome to Celebrate Poe - Episode 362 - Poetry and Dreams I was looking through articles about Poe to find information for a future article regarding why do so many people read Edgar Allan Poe. And I found some great stuff and certainly will be writing an episode or two about that subject. But I found an article that said that more Americans - almost 3/4 - are familiar with Edgar Poe - more than any other poet. Shakespeare is second. Now this was the episode wher...

04-20

21:00

Send us a text Welcome 361 Vampires and Religion Now I was planning to do some Easter theme episodes on Celebrate Poe - yes there is a connection - and looked at the calendar - assuming that Easter took place in March or early April - but I was really surprised to find out that this year Easter takes place on April 20 - one of the latest possible dates for the holiday. Now this is where it really gets into the weeds - tThe timing of Easter is determined by a combination of astronomical ...

04-18

26:33

Send us a text Welcome to Celebrate Poe - Episode 360 - Dracula at Church Welcome back to Dracula at Church - and if you have not listened to the previous episode, it might really help you to understand some fascinating ideas about the unintended role of vampires in religion. Now the Church's depiction of vampires as demonic entities provided solace to believers by framing these creatures within a Christian moral and spiritual framework, offering both explanations for their - an...

04-15

25:06

Send us a text Welcome to Celebrate Poe - Episode 359 - Vampires and the Last Supper When I started this podcast, I assumed the topics of the Last Supper and Easter would have nothing to do with anything related to Poe - oh sure, we do have evidence that the Allans attended the Anglican - or Episcopal Church in Richmond - but basically we don’t really thing of anything related to religion when we think of Edgar Poe. I know I had said the we would soon delve into Bram Stoker’s Dracula - but ...

04-14

30:59

Send us a text Welcome to Celebrate Poe - my name is George Bartley, and this is episode 358 - Pre Dracula 2 or Calling Me By Your Name. The title of this episode - Calling Me By Your Name - is a variation on a phrase - Call Me By Your Name - taken from the text of a letter written to Walt Whitman by one of Whitman’s admirers - none other than Bram Stoker, the author of Dracula. Now remember that Edgar Poe proceeded Bram Stoker, and never specifically used the word vampire in his works...

04-11

24:55

Send us a text Welcome to Celebrate Poe - Episode 357 - Pre Dracula I promise you that after this and the following episode, I will begin a series of episodes about the big one - at least the big one in the field of vampirism - Bram Stoker’s Dracula. You see, before there was the blood-drinking figure in a black cape, there were reanimated corpses (also known as the “undead”) who caused harm to the living. In Slavic and Germanic traditions, these beings were often blamed for disease, c...

04-09

28:18

Send us a text Welcome to Celebrate Poe - Episode 355 - Poe and Vampires While Edgar Allan Poe didn't write about traditional vampires, his exploration of vampiric themes places his work within a broader context of vampiric literature, showcasing the versatility of the concept beyond just blood-drinking monsters. And hopefully within the next few minutes, Mr. Poe will make an appearance to address that very subject. To begin with, Poe’s story "The Fall of the House of Usher," the rela...

04-07

24:59

Send us a text Welcome to Celebrate Poe - Episode 355 - Why All the Fuss About Dracula Episode 354 should be a relatively short episode - the subject is Stoker’s Dracula - and I want to briefly explore some reasons WHY Dracula is considered a great book. But before I start, I am going to be talking about all kinds of aspects of Dracula - and I know some of them are completely new to you - stick with me, and in several episodes, hopefully all this will make sense. The novel unfolds th...

04-05

18:13

Send us a text Welcome to Celebrate Poe - Episode 354, Encountering Poe’s Ghost Revisited I looked at the time I have left for podcasts this month, and realized that I had just enough for one more episode - and this will not be a long episode at all. So I would like to revisit the first episode, and update it a little bit. By the way, this first episode was one of the most listened-to of all 354 episodes of Celebrate Poe. You see, there was a time when one of my favorite things ...

04-02

18:31

Send us a text Welcome to Celebrate Poe - and this is episode 353 - Loathsome Mass of Detestable Putridity Hello, my name is George Bartley, and the Ghost of Mr. Poe is here right beside me. I hope you have listened to the previous episode for sections from 5 of Poe’s six hoax stories. But there is one more - a story that is very much a hoax, - not an exploration story or trip to the moon - but a really creepy tale - and today Mr. Poe will read from that story. By the way, the tw...

03-31

26:10

Send us a text Welcome to Celebrate Poe - Episode 352 - Poe’s Hoaxes, Part One Being April Fool’s day, today I want to look at Poe’s six hoax stories - in fact, Edgar Allan Poe approvingly called his time the “epoch of the hoax.” Even though Poe’s motives in writing hoaxes may sometimes seem odd or obscure, his hoaxes live on as a quirky and fascinating part of literary history. After a great deal of thought, I decided to deal with five of the hoax stories in this episode, and ...

03-31

22:44

Send us a text Welcome to Celebrate Poe - Episode 351 - From Feast of Blood - This is the final episode of Celebrate Poe - at least for now - devoted to Varney the Vampire. Now, as mentioned in a previous episode, the entire work spans 876 double-columned pages and 232 chapters, totaling nearly 66,000 words. And the author does a rather good job of holding your interest from issue to issue. Thank you for experiencing Celebrate Poe.

03-29

27:54

Send us a text Welcome to Celebrate Poe - Be Content to Suffer - This is episode 350 of Celebrate Poe - a bit of a milestone for this podcast. And I must admit that when I started Celebrate Poe, I had no idea I would make it this far - and there is still so much of Poe’s life, his works, and the many influences on his writing to delve into - and I would be most honored if you take that journey with me. Thank you for experiencing Celebrate Poe.

03-25

24:49

Send us a text Welcome to Celebrate Poe - episode 349 - Varner (I mean, Varney) the Vampire Hope you have listened to episode 348 about Varney the Vampire but you might be asking yourself, How does Varney's sympathetic portrayal differ from other vampire stories of the time? Well, Varney the Vampire stands out as a pioneering sympathetic portrayal of vampires, differing significantly from other contemporary vampire stories. Unlike the purely evil vampires of his time, Varney is depicted as ...

03-24

24:40

Send us a text Welcome to Celebrate Poe - Episode 348 Feast of Blood Varney the Vampire is an extremely influential work in the vampire genre, first appearing as a serialized gothic horror story between 1845 and 1847. The was well before Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Varney was published as a series of weekly cheap pamphlets known as "penny dreadfuls," targeting a mass-market audience interested in fast-paced, suspenseful narratives. By the way, the story is often referred to as The Feast of ...