Poe in the Present

Descriptions of dark rooms, rich red colors, and heavy fabrics fill the pages of Edgar Allan Poe's stories. After reading a number of them and also his poems, I've become familiar with the setting that Poe uses as the backdrop for his stories. The places seem haunted, old and mysterious. They aren't places I'd see in my day to day life unless I went to a museum. This makes me wonder, if Poe were alive today, would he keep his stories set in these Arabesque style, antique homes?

The setting of his stories adds a great deal to them. The lit candles add a spooky element even though that was the necessary means of light during the time period. I'm not one to enjoy anything that is remotely scary so even these small details alarm me. However, Poe's stories captivate me with their level of description of the setting. If the stories were in present day, in a normal setting, they lose much of what makes them so remarkable. There would be too many easy solutions to the problems the characters face if they were in a present setting. If it is a dark, scary night, just turn on a light and watch a movie. If there is a question about a woman in a coma, take her to a responsible doctor instead of burying her in your spooky cellar. If your friend is going crazy, simply call the police. These simple solutions would take away the scary aspects of Poe's stories. Even though it would solve all the characters problems if the stories were set in the present time I can't help but think that this would cause them to lose much of their drama and mystery.

Revamping Poe

I'm all for fairy-tale happy endings when it comes to movies or books. Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher" ended far from my ideal cheery conclusion or even a pleasant one for that matter. You can imagine that after reading about a man losing his mind and his twin rising from the dead, I wouldn't exactly be experiencing my ideal ending to a story. I'll admit, had the ending been less frightening, it would have taken away some of the drama from the storyline, but I'd like to think if I had been there I could have saved the night from being such a disaster.

Had I been a participant in Poe's story, I would most want to change the book the narrator read to Usher at the end. This may seem like a minute detail that wouldn't have had any affects, but I beg to differ. Reading "Mad Trist" of Sir Lancelot Canning just doesn't strike me as a well thought out book choice to read to someone exhibiting mad behaviors. Although, I do understand the idea to read to Roderick in order to calm him down. Had I been in the story I would have offered two simple solutions to the unfitting book selection. First, I could simply run and grab another book. If time did not allow for this, I would have taken the Sir Lancelot book and instead of reading from it, just pretend I was reading the words on the page and make up my own storyline instead. That's a trick my mom used on me when I was a child. Before I could read she would not read the words on the page, but instead provide her own shorter version of the story in order to get me to bed earlier. Needless to say, Roderick was not a child, but in his mental state it might have been possible to make up a new story that would be more calming and alleviate some of the stress of the night.

I think this simple task of not reading "Mad Trist" of Sir Lancelot Canning would enable the characters to relax. When in a stressful situation many people panic or react in different ways than if they had just taken a moment to relax and reevaluate the situation. Maybe if the story that was correlating with all of the scary noises in the house were different, the scary noises would be perceived in a different way as well. Maybe Madeline would even appear and be intrigued by the story and sit to listen alongside her brother. My hope for a fairy-tale ending may be a stretch, but it seems almost anything is possible in The House of Usher.

Second Life's Achilles' Heel?

Second Life may be a great place to meet new people and form online friendships, but as far as it being an everyday communication technology, like the telephone, I have my doubts. The biggest problem holding Second Life back as a communication technology is the lack of knowledge about the avatars you meet. You may think you met a fun, Pink Floyd loving person with an age similar to your own, but how would you ever know? Walking up to someone and chatting with him or her does not give you tons of information about that person. How do you even know they are being genuine or if they are lying to your avatar's face?

I find it hard to believe Second Life communication could lead to communication outside the virtual world. How would you ever know which avatars to trust enough to meet in real life? Even though there are safe and non-violent people on Second Life, potential predators do exist. It would be difficult to build up enough trust to meet someone in person if Second Life were the only means of communication.

It could be argued that Second Life would not lead to people wanting to meet in real life; they would just maintain online communication. There is no danger in this, but what happens when people start feeling real emotions of friendship or love toward their online friends? I personally would be miserable if I could online chat and walk around with an avatar of a person that I considered my true friend. Being face to face with someone creates different feelings than being with someone virtually. At least with AIM and texting you have met the person in the past and know them outside of that specific means of communication. That other form of interaction eliminates the problem of deception that Second Life encompasses. How Linden Lab addresses this problem could potentially change Second Life drastically, but it may be worth it to know the truth about those who you are encountering in order to make this communication technology stronger.