2: Calculating Effect, with Poe
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore —
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
“ ’Tis some visiter,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door —
Only this and nothing more.”
FULL TEXT HERE (scroll down slightly)
AUDIO HERE
And the Simpsons version:
Edgar Allan Poe
Opening lines from The Raven, 1845Narrative poem
~ ○ ○ ○ ~
In one of my first college literature classes, we went over 'The Raven' and were asked our thoughts. A student in the row behind me waxed rhapsodic over the musicality of it, the brilliance of the imagery, the intensity of the feeling..."raw artistic genius" etc. (Ugh, lit students ;D )
Then we moved on to 'The Philosophy of Composition'1, the essay in which Poe claims to have worked out 'The Raven' almost like a math problem to achieve a singular effect for mass appeal2 (and deconstructs how it could be done again). Despite this being objectively cool, above student became angry to the verge of tears arguing that works of genius can't be made that way.
To the best of my knowledge, this person was a lit student but not a writer, and that kind of explains a lot. I have heard many people since talk about genius being all about inspiration, or even brag about ignoring homework on literary analysis in their student days because it "ruins it", and not a one of these individuals did anything creative themselves.
While I assume Poe was at least partially full of shit in how everything about 'The Raven' was worked out rationally in advance (as opposed to some happy accidents, or some tightening up after the fact — also 'The Raven' is an overtly soppy poem and despite its popularity its merit is in fact arguable), what he describes in 'The Philosophy in Composition' still leaves plenty of room for random inspiration as part of the process, and is moreover basically the method of most artists whose work I like, whatever the medium. The whole reason artists bother getting an education in things like meter, diction, literary history (for writers) or the elements/principles of design and art history (for visual artists) is because these are the building blocks of art, to be put together consciously for best effect (even if the conscious effort is on a second or third pass, rather than the first).
In any case, the fact that artworks can be put together deliberately and geared towards this effect or that is what makes audience worth thinking about in the first place — because as the artist, you do have a lot of control about who'll be getting what out of your work.
NOTES:
1. If you don't want to read the whole thing, at the bottom of this page there's a summary.
2. And 'The Raven' was indeed immediately popular and remains so, so if Poe's not completely lying about his approach it's hard to argue the outcome.