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A review by beaconatnight
MS. Found in a Bottle by Edgar Allan Poe
3.0
The events depicted in "MS. Found in a Bottle" (1833) – only Poe's second publication – are difficult to fathom, but there's the clear air of supernatural catastrophe.
The narrator is a well-read scholar on board of a ship that set out from Batavia (nowadays's Jakarta, Indonesia). When hit by a severe hurricane his entire crew goes overboard. As the ship floats southwards wondrous things happen as the aurora of the polar nights grace the sky. It suddenly crushes into a black galleon and the narrator finds himself thrown on board of this other ship. For all we know it's a ghost ship, since none of the passengers appear to take notice of the stowaway. By the end, the ship is pulled into a vast vortex at the center of Antarctica.
To my mind this is the kind of story that wants to be experienced rather than analyzed. Still, the experience is charged with further meaning when you realize (or like me, are made to realize by reading articles online) the symbolism and themes that Poe weaved into the story. For one thing, there is the popular legend of the Flying Dutchman of which there are reported sightings in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The ending also tells us something about the nature of the world, as the message in the bottle is probably meant to evidence the Hollow Earth hypothesis according to which the poles are connected by an inner passage.
On an intellectual level, I don't think I'll vividly remember the tale in the future. Alas, my acquaintance with the sea is more than limited (in this respect I'm like Poe himself). So, where the narrative sets out to conjure up images of the raving sea and ghostly sailors, my mind struggles to go beyond the most cartoonish abominations. It was still fun, nonetheless.
"A Descent into the Maelström" was more darkly picturesque. The narrator tells us of an old man he met during his travels in Norway. After they've reached the summit of a Lofoten mountain, we learn that the second narrator only appears to be old. It was on a fishing trip with his brothers a few years ago that immensely straining events changed his outer appearance and made him so very weary of life.
The horror entirely comes from the vivid descriptions of the whirling forces of nature. The brothers partook in a journey on sea when their ship was hit by a hurricane. Everything around them was pulled into the vortex, and the bigger the objects (and depending on their geometrical shape) the more relentless the suction effect. Unlike his maddened brothers, he is somehow able to save himself by bravely jumping into the Maelström. He tells us of the somber beauty he eventually registered in the horrifying events, and Poe's story well conveys the sentiments.
The narrator is a well-read scholar on board of a ship that set out from Batavia (nowadays's Jakarta, Indonesia). When hit by a severe hurricane his entire crew goes overboard. As the ship floats southwards wondrous things happen as the aurora of the polar nights grace the sky. It suddenly crushes into a black galleon and the narrator finds himself thrown on board of this other ship. For all we know it's a ghost ship, since none of the passengers appear to take notice of the stowaway. By the end, the ship is pulled into a vast vortex at the center of Antarctica.
To my mind this is the kind of story that wants to be experienced rather than analyzed. Still, the experience is charged with further meaning when you realize (or like me, are made to realize by reading articles online) the symbolism and themes that Poe weaved into the story. For one thing, there is the popular legend of the Flying Dutchman of which there are reported sightings in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The ending also tells us something about the nature of the world, as the message in the bottle is probably meant to evidence the Hollow Earth hypothesis according to which the poles are connected by an inner passage.
On an intellectual level, I don't think I'll vividly remember the tale in the future. Alas, my acquaintance with the sea is more than limited (in this respect I'm like Poe himself). So, where the narrative sets out to conjure up images of the raving sea and ghostly sailors, my mind struggles to go beyond the most cartoonish abominations. It was still fun, nonetheless.
"A Descent into the Maelström" was more darkly picturesque. The narrator tells us of an old man he met during his travels in Norway. After they've reached the summit of a Lofoten mountain, we learn that the second narrator only appears to be old. It was on a fishing trip with his brothers a few years ago that immensely straining events changed his outer appearance and made him so very weary of life.
The horror entirely comes from the vivid descriptions of the whirling forces of nature. The brothers partook in a journey on sea when their ship was hit by a hurricane. Everything around them was pulled into the vortex, and the bigger the objects (and depending on their geometrical shape) the more relentless the suction effect. Unlike his maddened brothers, he is somehow able to save himself by bravely jumping into the Maelström. He tells us of the somber beauty he eventually registered in the horrifying events, and Poe's story well conveys the sentiments.