by parnassus » Mon Nov 28, 2005 1:35 pm
He was a great writer, definitely, but a morbid one. I personally don't enjoy gothic fiction at all, but I still appreciate the power he has over language and the way he can bring a scene to life. I don't think it's a question of either having a great mind or being a drunkard - the two things aren't mutually exclusive - but I expect he would have been an even greater writer had he not been addicted to alcohol. Every time you drink you kill some braincells. Prolonged drinking leads to something called Korsakoff's syndrome, which is when your short-term memory disintegrates completely. I think Poe may have had that.
"This above all, to thine own self be true." - Polonius, Hamlet.