Step-Ladders And Demon-Traps

By Stephen Kirkaldy

Edgar Allen Poe wrote in what was considered the New World. It wasn't. The European settlers brought their emotional and psychological baggage with them - they brought the old horrors and sometimes invented new ones. And there were already horrors there, waiting to be woken...
His work still resonates, but does the horror?
Does it stand up, two hundred (ish) years later, half a world away, a modern world, with all new horrors, with the ravages of analysis, under the harsh Australian sun?
This book explores the relationship of classic horror style in an Australian environ, as well as looking at how we should analyse Poe's arabesque work, in terms of the relationship between the occult readings and the psychoanalytical readings.
Includes three short stories and an essay of exploration.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Stephen Kirkaldy
• Release date: Apr 29, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310900150

Stephen Kirkaldy

Teacher. Author. World Famous Race Car.

Book preview

Step-Ladders and Demon-Traps

Copyright 2007, 2014 Stephen Kirkaldy

Published by Stephen Kirkaldy

(Macquarie University Honours Program 2007)

Smashwords Edition

Smashwords Edition License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your enjoyment only, then please return to Smashwords.com or your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

A Note on the Smashwords Edition

Due to the restrictions of Ebooks and the process in which they are converted from word documents, I have needed to switch the Footnotes to Endnotes, making them less readily accessible. Apologies, it’s not how I originally envisioned the piece.

Aside from that, the text is as submitted.

This edition has left the images in - they are not important to the content of the book, but I happen to like them. If they cause too many problems with formatting for E-devices, I may remove them.

Table Of Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

The Creative Project:

A Minor Chord

The Demons of Poe

The Salvation of the Black Prince

A Diminished Seventh

The Research Project:

The Demons of Poe

Conclusion

Endnotes

More

References

Acknowledgements

Helen, thy beauty is to me

Like those Nicean barks of yore,

That gently, o'er a perfumed sea,

The weary, wayworn wanderer bore

To his own native shore.

On desperate seas long wont to roam,

Thy hyacinth hair, thy classic face,

Thy Naiad airs have brought me home

To the glory that was Greece

And the grandeur that was Rome.

Lo! in yon brilliant window-niche

How statue-like I see thee stand,

The agate lamp within thy hand!

Ah, Psyche, from the regions which

Are Holy Land!

To Helen E.A. Poe

Thanks go to:

Helen, my wife, for her support, her patience and her tolerance.

My family. For reading over my work, especially Jennifer, who tracked down the elusive Marie Bonaparte (in English) from ANU.

Marcelle Freiman, my supervisor, whose knowledge, insights and uncompromising honesty has proved invaluable.

And to my mother, who always believed I could do this, but never got to see it completed.

Introduction

They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night. In their grey visions they obtain glimpses of eternity, and thrill, in awaking, to find that they have been on the verge of the great secret.

‘Eleonora’ E.A. Poe (1)

Baltimore. 1998.

It was a dark and stormy night. (2)

We were at Poe’s grave…

It is time, said my dark haired companion, for you to meet Mr Poe. There was a low rumble of thunder, and the rain fell heavy…

Actually, this isn’t, strictly speaking, true. I was in Baltimore in 1998. But it wasn’t dark. Nor was it stormy. And I didn’t visit Poe’s grave. It was not my first encounter with Poe.

I’d first encountered Poe on a bright sunny holiday, on the coast, in a black and white DC Comic (3), older than myself, sandwiched between a Blackhawk (4) story and a Batman (5) story, if I remember correctly. Which I may not. The problem is that, well, it just isn’t a very appropriate way to encounter Poe – sunshine and lollipops and sand in my hair. Scattered shells and curling waves. I’d like to mention dolphins, but then, that would make it as untrue as the first. (6)

The manner in which I first encountered Poe – a start point so far from the proverbial heart of darkness – is less important than the impression that it left.

Simply – I liked his work.

Admittedly, it would not be until much later that I would look upon ‘The Raven’ and see a rhyme scheme that I could never hope to emulate, that I would look beyond the effect of a piece and see how it was crafted. To my mind, they are crafted with skill.

So, my allegiance is declared. Though this is not some fanboy rising to the defence of one whose reputation has been unduly sullied – that seems far too much like tilting at windmills.

Despite the glorious sunshine of both summer and youth, despite the refreshing change of the southerly, the wonderful smell of cold rain on hot concrete, despite the taste of jasmine, the hum of the cicadas, terror could take hold, and linger. Like creeping tendrils, insinuating themselves into the mind, like…

It is unsurprising that when I turned my hand to creative writing, Poe’s shadow would lie upon my work. Not exclusively of course, but it is hard to avoid that shadow – forays into detective fiction will draw comparisons to Poe’s Dupin (7), intended or not. But here, we will deal with the arabesque – the tales that deal with supernatural themes, the occult, those not so easily rationalised.

As an ‘author’, I am concerned with the conflation of the narrative ‘I’ and the ‘author’. Whilst this tendency has diminished, it is still prevalent, particularly in some of