Transcript Slide 1
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 / Depth This 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 murder inside 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?