Typecasting. Here we have the merging of two people and a poem who have gone through being typecast, in this case all being creepy.
Actor Christopher Walken has always had the stilted speech pattern with a ghoulish, metallic hint to it, the crystal blue eyes that hold focus on people--all of which has lead him to be typecast as a eerie murderer/mobster/monster in a number of roles he plays, even if it's a comedic movie.
Then we have Edgar Allan Poe, who never met a photograph he didn't want to smile in. Maybe the scowl is what hurts his image, as scholars and part-time readers alike always label his work Gothic, macabre, haunting, even frightening. Is his work really any of that? Maybe if you only watch Up with People routines.
Which brings us to Poe's 'The Raven,' which has become a Halloween staple. Maybe it's the negative repetition of "Nevermore" by the raven that weirds people out. Maybe it's the tone and tenor.
But people forget one thing that Poe mentions in the poem.
'The Raven' takes place in the month of December.
Greatest Christmas poem ever?
Greatest Christmas poem ever.
Yes, yes, yes, I know photography took forever 150 years ago, so no one wanted to stand there for ever smiling and getting a cramp in their cheek. Way ahead of you on that one.
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