From: cryofan@mylinuxisp.com
Date: Thu Mar 06 2003 - 17:38:01 MST
Anders Sandberg <asa@nada.kth.se> said:
.
>
> This is the cosmology Edgar Allan Poe would have invented - you
> get both crushed and ripped apart in darkness...
Actually, I think he did invent a cosmogony, and parts of it are laid out in
some of his stories. He believed in reincarnation, and an eternal steady-
state universe. When you die, you wait for eons in the nothingness of outer
space, listening to a heartbeat of the universe until you had paid for your
sins.
THis heartbeat of the universe made itself known in this life from time to
time in critical moments, such as when an evil protagonist was involved in
some evil act (e.g., the Tell Tale Heart). This periodic sound may be have
used as a type of sound effect to create a certain mood (another of Poe's
firsts). But it may also have been a foreshadowing device, reminding the
evildoer of the eternity he would spend in the nothingness of outer space,
atoning for his sins.
Just a theory...AKA "my senior thesis".
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