Answer either:
1. What is it in the prefatory piece "Tales of the Folio Club" that points to the context of Poe's time? And what do you find perplexing in the text?
2. After listening to Lou Reed's "The Shadow" and having listened to "The Cask" in class, what kind of techniques does the artist employ in his recreations / musical adaptations of Poe? Exemplify.
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1. What is it in the prefatory piece "Tales of the Folio Club" that points to the context of Poe's time? And what do you find perplexing in the text?
2. After listening to Lou Reed's "The Shadow" and having listened to "The Cask" in class, what kind of techniques does the artist employ in his recreations / musical adaptations of Poe? Exemplify.
Lou Reed uses various voices/actors to express certain tones and emotions from the stories that he combines in these songs. Male or female, high or low, gravelly or smooth, all of these vocal qualities contribute to the overall feeling that the listener is left with after the song. In addition, Reed's instrumentals add an atmosphere of mystery, suspense, and mystique. Reed also selects certain excerpts from the pieces he bases his songs that evoke for the viewer an image of the time the story came from and give a glimpse of the stories true content, however he modernizes many aspects such as names of characters, dialogue, and locations. For example, in "The Cask," actor Willem DeFoe recites "I've had my doubts. I was silly enough to pay the full price in the matter, but you were not to be found, and I was fearful of losing a bargain." However, the character of Fortunato is now named Edgar. In these songs, Reed couples talented voice acting performances with haunting instrumentals to conjure feelings of the noir and images of the time Poe wrote in, while also modernizing aspects so as to be relevant and understandable to the listener in the current time.
ResponderExcluirBrendan Dolan
ResponderExcluirOne of the most evident techniques in “The City in the Sea” is rather chilling tone established by the background music and words of the speakers throughout the song. The opening lines reiterate the idea that “death has reared himself a throne” and has taken over life in this city through the words of people who sound to be a part of a small cult. Reed, in a sense, gives life to death in these opening lines and towards the end of the text, when death says
"I am a shadow
And I dwell in the catacombs
Which border
The country of illusion
Hard by the dim plains of wishing"
The metaphor of death as a shadow is apparent throughout as well, and is first introduced when it is said to make a mockery of God. Just as the song reaches it point of maximum intensity, a woman’s voice faintly plays in the background, which helps present a ritualistic visual of the encounter between death and the people.
The techniques employed in “The Cask” share some similarities with those in “The City in the Sea”, although, a few different ones are presented as well. For example, the usage of words with opposite meaning make the direction of Edgar’s opening monologue difficult to follow. “Right to left”, “Left to right” and the placement of “in” and “out” exemplify this notion. Moreover, there is a clear rhyme scheme throughout Fortunato’s speech. Similarly to “The City in the Sea” Reed uses a solid beat that remains unchanged for the majority of the song, with the exception of clear additions later on. He also uses the speaker's voice to indicate periods of heightened intensity, specifically when Fortunato yells “Mr. Bolo is an imbecile” and “For the love of God” at the end.
The very concept of the Folio Club is indicative of the time that Poe wrote his stories: a time when literary criticism was considered the ideal pass time for the upper class. The narrator initially loved the idea of the Folio Club, having "profound sentiments of admiration and respect" and he clearly admired it enough that he chose to join even though he was simply a replacement. The narrator's initial judgements show that the Folio Club was thought to be an institution of the highest regard. It was a product of its time, a time when people wanted to get together and discuss literary pieces of work. The main question I had was thus not why the institution of the Folio Club was popular, but rather why the narrator would have ever come to disrespect it. The Club embodies one of the most popular activities at that time and is clearly of the highest regard in social circles, what could have taken place that he would have come to disrespect it?
ResponderExcluirWill Rand
ResponderExcluirI think both of these videos emphasize the use of their voices and background music. As opposed to reading a story and trying to imagine the emotions these versions clearly set the mood of the story. It is much easier to follow the flow of each story in Lou Reeds's versions. In "The Shadow" it opens with ominous music and really focuses on the first line "Death has reared himself a throne", which is repeated multiple times by different characters. Each voice uses a different tone despite whether they are speaking about the same thing. Also Reed uses pauses throughout the story to highlight his choice of music. I feel that the rapid change of voices throughout "The Shadow" helped me as a reader understand what was going on as each character had a different urgency. In "The Cask of Amontillado" this technique wasn't really necessary as there were only two characters throughout the story. Instead they made Fortunato's voice much louder as he was the so-called villain to Montresor who came off as cool and collected. This made it obvious that Montresor was scheming something again Fortunato.
Bryan Schaffer
ResponderExcluirLou Reed’s musical rendition of Edgar Allen Poe’s The Cask of Amontillado brings the short story to life in a variety of ways. The techniques employed by Poe through writing are portrayed vocally in Reed’s adaptation. The cunning nature of the narrator is exemplified by the low and raspy voice of Willem Dafoe. He tactically gives greater emphasis to certain words through changes in volume, pointing the listener’s attention to words like “wickedness.” This makes the vengeful motives of the narrator clear. Poe does the same in his writing through italicized words like “length,” painting a simple word with passion in order to illustrate the extent of the narrator’s rage.
Reed also employs poetic tools such as rhyme to further illustrate the nature of the characters. The first several lines spoken by Fortunato, voiced by the eccentric Steve Buscemi, are reminiscent of a Dr. Seuss story, as he rhymes each line in a high-pitched, almost childish voice. The rhyming exposes his drunken, playful state, which notably contradicts the current state of the narrator. Reed deliberately includes rhyming in Fortunato’s monologue in order to reveal his pride and vulnerability.
The instrumental also plays a major role in the changing emotional state of the characters. At the 3:30 mark, the narrator beings to play towards Fortunato’s prideful side, asking him if he feels too sick to continue, knowing full well that he will strongly reject this notion. As tensions grow in this moment between the narrator and Fortunato, the music builds in both pace and volume. This gives the listener a sense of the riffed relationship of the two characters. Towards the end of the piece, the music becomes ruffled, like a freight train on a track. The sound is loud and painful, representative of Fortunato’s cries for help at the end of the story. The music changes with Fortunato’s deteriorating state, slowly fading to represent the end of his life.