video/offline;

[paterelohim]

[Chuck has been hanging around the House of Awesome all day today- a rarity, for him, as he only returned to his apartment once or twice, but spent the rest of the day being almost social. Depending on the time of day and location, you'll find him either in his wheelchair or on a pair of crutches that he's named "Ke$ha" and "Beezlebub

Comments

[caveatwalls]

I'm not sure "poet" and "journalist" quite coincide.

[paterelohim]

What about the literary executor who writes a man's obituary and sole biography?

[caveatwalls]

Biographer.

[paterelohim]

No shit. But managing a man's legacy and doing so through the medium of newspapers put Griswold in a journalistic position with a responsibility for the truth, in the same way that a reporter does.

video;

[quackery]

He wrote something about a raven? What was it?

video;

[paterelohim]

Not a raven, The Raven. It was a long poem about this sort of... unbalanced guy talking to a raven that flew into his study.

video;

[quackery]

It didn't hurt him, did it?

video;

[paterelohim]

Nah. He thought it was talking to him- it was left pretty ambiguous in the poem- but mostly he drove himself insane by asking the raven impossible questions about the afterlife and his dead wife until he lost his sh- his cool.

video

[askedtobe]

And then hey, some of us just end up taking on even more responsibility.

video

[paterelohim]

That's what separates the assholes from the decent human beings.

video

[askedtobe]

Depends on what you mean by decent, I guess.

[paterelohim]

Good. Not awful. Ethical. Et cetera.

[drinkthebleach]

Wasn't dat de guy who wrote a lotta morbid crap?

[paterelohim]

[ ... ]

Yeah. That's the one.

[drinkthebleach]

[He scratches the back of his head, trying to access the scattered memories from his booze-soaked childhood.] Yeah. Dere was one I kinda remember, it had a guy dat hated some other douche bag, so he left him in a wine cellar to rot and die.

[paterelohim]

Yeah. [That's surprising.] The Cask of Amontillado.

That's... very literate.

video;

[tiny_schemer]

I liked the one with the bad guy buried beneath the floorboards. And the good guy kept hearing his heart just thumping and thumping! What a spooky story.

[pause, headtilt]

Do you want anything? I could bring you something, like a snack.

video;

[paterelohim]

The Tell-Tale Heart! Oh, that's an awesome one. Good choice. A man driven insane by his own guilt- it's one of those tales for the ages, almost, if you're willing to look past the total insanity of it.

[Pause.]

If you bring me a snack, you have to promise to bring enough for you, okay? And to let me make you a milkshake. [He has such a srs face.] It's vital.

video;

[tiny_schemer]

Is it insane? I thought you just said Edgar Allen Poe wasn't crazy. [thoughtfully] Doesn't seem like all people are so knotted up over killing people, but from what I've seen, guilt can be just like that, like some noise you can't escape. It breaks people sometimes.

[It's come close to completely destroying him, the abomination that he is, having destroyed the only person who ever meant anything to him.]

...So... um, should I bring you a blender or do you wanna meet in the kitchen? [smiling a little awkwardly]

video;

[paterelohim]

Well, the story is crazy, but that doesn't mean the author was! The story is about exactly that, actually- guilt destroying people in incredible ways.

[He headtilts, giving Benjamin an obviously interested look. Most kids don't get it like this.]

I'll meet you in the kitchen. We have stuff. Is that cool?