Your Daily Poe (Or Edgar Allan If You're Nasty)

As it's officially October (BOO!), I will on every day be reading one short story written by the Master of the Macabre himself, and briefly commenting on it. Enjoy!

Day 6: The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar

Thoughts: Pretty cool premise - can you hypnotize someone at the point of death so they never truly die? - but not really scary/suspenseful enough to hold anyone through an entire short story. Until nearly the end I noticed that the narrator only seemed to meet up with the dying/dead man late at night, which made me wonder "is this just supposed to creep me out?" Reminds me of horror movies when people seek out scary things without turning on the lights, which of course is insane (as I pointed out while reading about the Son of Sam.) About the only thing I ever find myself shouting at a movie screen is, "turn on the goddam lights, idiot!"

Memorable Line: "Yes; -- no; -- I have been sleeping -- and now -- now -- I am dead."

Score from 1 - 10: 3. The single most interesting thing about the story is that when it was first published people thought it was a real medical article, and Poe made sure to take his sweet time before admitting it was pure fiction. I for one say that if, as with The Confederacy of the Dunces, the story ABOUT the story is more interesting than the actual story, that doesn't bode well for the story itself.