1.29.08 | Poe

• Business?• What is Evidence?• Monkey Business on the Rue Morgue• CSI: Criminal Intent• Prep for Auster.• HW– Read to end of chapter 4. We are still thinking Evidence. – Auster paragraphs for tomorrow before class.– Responses by Friday. Remember, one response for every

Writer.

Murder Mysteries as a genre

• How many of you have read or seen a murder mystery?

• How do they usually proceed? What is the plot structure?

• What role does the audience usually take?

Evidence

• What is evidence? • What is it supposed to do?• How do you recognize evidence?

Murders on the Rue Morgue

Structure / Plot?1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Murder Mystery

• What’s with the first part on reason v. fancy?• What is Dupin like? • How does he solve the crime? What evidence

does he need to figure it out?• Why couldn’t anyone else get it?

The Reader

• How many of you figured out monkey that likes to shave?

• Were you supposed to figure this out?• Could you figure this out?• Is it possible to figure this out before it is

revealed in the narrative of the story?• Return to the beginning: Why the intro on

reason v. fancy, etc.?

So what?

• Reason vs. Fancy?• Evidence?• Sign?• Meaning?

Tell-Tale Heart

• Let’s forestall the is-he-crazy question that I know is dying to come out and come at this from a different angle.

• Note, though, that like the last story, this one begins with a question about REASON.

• Why does this narrative exist? What is the reason/ circumstances of the telling?

• What happens? Plot summary.

I’m not crazy

• There are really two investigations here: the murder, the psychiatric evaluation.

• Evaluation:– He claims to be not crazy. What is his evidence?– What binary does this set up?– Is this a true opposition? Can you be rational AND

crazy?

Mystery: Surface / DepthThis story has a lot of surfaces that conceal a depth. As

it turns out, it is the narrator’s inability to maintain a surface/depth structure that leads to his undoing.

What surface/depths do you find in this story?some I found:

• superkind the week before, while plotting his murderinside his room

• open eye• heard shriek outside• beating in his head, not in his head• under the bed• suspects police of dissembling.

buried under floor boards, had to be dug up.

So what?

We have a strong observation: there are lots of surface/depth relationships. In order to pursue this as a line of inquiry, however, we have to be able to make something of it. So…

• Is there anything interesting about the predominance of surface/depth structures in this story?

• Does it have anything to do with the rational/crazy/passion/body structures?