Of the numerous learnings and adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe’s classic moody-broody poem “The Raven,” none is extra enjoyable than The Simpsons’, by which Lisa Simpson’s intro transitions into the learning voice of James Earl Jones and the slapstick interjections of Homer as Poe’s avatar and Bart because the titular chicken. Jones’ solo learning of the poem is to not be missed and exists in several versions on YouTube.
However Jones just isn’t the one classically creepy actor to have mastered Poe’s diction. Above, we now have Christopher Walken, whose unsettling bizarreness is all the time tinged with a certain wry humor, perhaps an impact of his classical New York accent.
Accompanying Walken’s learning are the standard eerie wind sounds and the unusual addition of some distorted metal guitar: perhaps an intrusion, perhaps a novel dramatic impact. The visual component, a montage of expressive pencil drawings, additionally might or might not give you the results you want.
It’s possible you’ll want to contrast this professionalduction with what could be the locus classicus for televisual interpretations of “The Raven.” In fact I imply the hammy Vincent Value learning (above), which lent a lot aesthetically to The Simpsons parody. One in all my favourite little in-jokes within the latter happens during Bart and Lisa’s introduction. Bart whines, “that appears like a school-book!” and Lisa replies, “don’t worry, Bart. You received’t study anyfactor.”
Lisa’s rejoinder is a sly reference to Poe’s contempt for literature meant to instruct or moralize, a tendency he referred to as “the heresy of the Didactic.” Poe’s theory and practice grew out of his want that literature have a “unity of impact,” that it professionalduce an aesthetic experience solely by way of the writer’s abilityful use of literary type. Poe might have anticipated and directly influenced the French symbolists and other aesthetes like Oscar Wilde, however his assured place in excessive culture has thankfully not boughtten in the way in which of pop appropriations of his more unusualball tales, like “The Raven.” A perennial favourite learning of the poem is classic horror actor Christopher Lee’s (beneath), which could be the most straightforwardly creepy of all of them.
Be aware: An earlier version of this put up appeared on our website in 2013.
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Josh Jones is a author and musician primarily based in Durham, NC.
