The Cask of Amontillado always shows up. in my head.

Category: dribblings

every now and then i’ll reread Poe’s The Cask of Amontillado. it’s one of those stories that pop up in my head and i’ll go and find my beat up paperback book of Poe stories and read it again for the first time. i read it again this morning, but not out of my beat up paperback, but out of a new book. it’s a collection Poe’s stories and essays written by popular mystery writers (and i think the gimmick is they’re all Edgar award winners) in honor of Poe’s 200th birthday.

the book has a red cover with a black raven on it and the pages are edged in black. very apro-poe. (ha. you loved that. so don’t even.)

anyway, The C of A is just classic and it’s always in my brain. i think it’s because they have us read that story in 6th grade (or maybe it was 7th grade?) and then every year after that as well. so that by the time we’re in college and we decide to take American Lit. because we knew we were too lazy to take on the Shakespeare that we knew would dominate World Lit., and then immediately regretted that choice because of all the Puritan sermons we had to study in Am. Lit., but that’s what you get for being 18 years old and thinking you’re gonna pull a fast one over on Shakespeare.
oh, it was just me?
right.

tangent, sorry.
so by the time you have to study Poe in college you know all about The C of A. you know the code. the puns. the sick humor. the insane narrator.

but every time i read that story, every time, i pick up on something i’ve never noticed before, or it makes me think of other things that relate to it. and what a great thing! not all stories do that. probably most of them don’t.

this morning while i was reading it and when i got to the last little bit where Fortunado is screaming? and then Montresor stops his trowling and starts screaming too? until Fortunado stops screaming? dude! doesn’t that totally remind you of in Silence of the Lambs (which is another one that pops up in my head quite a bit as well.) when Catherine is in the well screaming and Jame Gumb starts screaming too?

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

i know!

of course, i realize that these are creepy thoughts to be having first thing in the morning over a cup of coffee, but i mean, it’s not like i’m going to read The Cask of Amontillado at night.

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