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Episode 475 - Metzengerstein (Patreon)

Published:
2019-11-15 01:27:12
Edited:
2024-12-12 19:02:11
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:

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Content

Who's gonna ride your wild horses?! Metzengerstein! Check it as we cover Poe's first published work!

Special thanks to our reader, Marty Jopson - LET HIM BLIND YOU WITH SCIENCE!

Next up: The Black Cat

Comments

Necropolis Railway

Yeah, this kind of seems like an instance of Poe's law (different Poe, but maybe a descendent, don't know?). There aren't enough actual jokes in it to indicate to the reader that it's a parody, so it just seems like an unintentionally funny imitation of the convoluted gothic plots of ETA Hoffman. The smoke cloud creating a giant horse image is hilarious-- it reminds me of the ending they wanted for Rebecca of the smoke making a giant R but that Hitchcock refused to do because it was too corny.

Jeff C. Carter

Who’s gonna ride your really mean super-horses?!

Peter Larsen

Strangely, this story was the original inspiration for Mr. Ed, but the gutless executives decided to shy away from the horror aspects.

Steve

The French version of the quote, translated and corrected by Baudelaire, is: Par exemple, — l’âme, à ce qu’ils croyaient, — je cite les termes d’un subtil et intelligent Parisien, — ne demeure qu’une seule fois dans un corps sensible. Ainsi, un cheval, un chien, un homme même, ne sont que la ressemblance illusoire de ces êtres." The second part of the sentence reads, "Thus, a horse, a dog, a man even are only the illusory semblance of these beings. I'm not sure that helps but there is also a footnote from the same: "J’ignore quel est l’auteur de ce texte bizarre et obscur ; cependant, je me suis permis de le rectifier légèrement, en l’adaptant au sens moral du récit. Poe cite quelquefois de mémoire et incorrectement. Le sens, après tout, me semble se rapprocher de l’opinion attribuée au père Kircher, — que les animaux sont des Esprits enfermés. — C. B" This reads, "I am ignorant of the author of this obscure and bizarre quote - nevertheless, I allowed myself a small change, in adapting it to the moral sense of the tale. Poe quotes sometimes from memory, and incorrectly. The meaning, after all, seems close to the opinion attributed to Father Kircher - that animals are trapped/enclosed souls/spirits." Again, I'm not sure this helps a whole lot either, although the quote is a bit clearer. Kircher is probably this dude: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athanasius_Kircher

Steve

I think Poe wrote this for the LOLZ. It's German Gothic pushed to the extreme, and as such, it's pretty funny. Compare and contrast with Northanger Abbey.

Eric - Speaker in Digressions

So what we have here is a work that begins, essentially, “Throughout history, people have died in awful ways,” includes some unexplained quotations that have no obvious connection to what’s going on, says it’s going to be about one topic (metempsychosis) but doesn’t explicitly develop the idea, and ends up apparently showing the opposite of what it says it’s going to (the prophecy). This isn’t a horror story; it’s a college freshman essay.

Eric - Speaker in Digressions

By the way, the Martin Luther quote at the beginning reminds me that Luther was a king of trash-talk and would probably have a mean Twitter account if he were alive today. Check out the Lutheran Insult Generator on the Ergofabulous website to get a randomly selected burn from his writings. For example, I went there just now and was rewarded with this one from "Against the Roman Papacy, an Institution of the Devil" (the last work published in his lifetime, 1545): "You are desperate, thorough arch-rascals, murderers, traitors, liars, the very scum of all the most evil people on earth. You are full of all the worst devils in hell - full, full, and so full that you can do nothing but vomit, throw, and blow out devils!"

Darble Yarble

More like "Supernatural Horse-er In Literature," amirite? (I'll leave now.)

Pete Williams

The remaining members of the Metzengerstein clan later emigrated to the small country of Florin and changed their name to Morgenstern.

Forrest Rush

If Poe thought this was a parody through exaggeration of gothic tropes, then I guess The Fall of the House of Usher could just be him riffing on all the house flipping shows.

Louis Hobbs

I was a bit surprised by Poe’s fascination with the beauty of TB afflicted women of his age, but then I remembered my own appreciation of the 1990s “Heroin Chic” hotties. Is there some psychological reason for finding these pale and anemic women so attractive? Discuss.

Richard Angliss

Nothing to do with Poe, but I think you were bemoaning the lack of werewolf stories in a recent episode? I just came across this anthology that might be of interest? https://www.amazon.co.uk/Terrifying-Transformations-Anthology-Victorian-1838-1896/dp/1934555800/ref=pd_aw_sim_14_7?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1934555800&pd_rd_r=c267e4f0-9260-4275-a0cf-2b9c473498da&pd_rd_w=jNMrl&pd_rd_wg=FebtJ&pf_rd_p=dbe19f31-47c5-4e38-b1c1-81c458a41ca4&pf_rd_r=HADD0TK944JHGNV2X9F1&psc=1&refRID=4XWH0BMD8WDMT0YMPXPE

Pearce Duncan

There's a version of this story in the portmanteau film Spirits of the Dead, which re-casts Frederick as a woman, makes Baron Berlifitzing much younger and has her burn down the barn and kill him because he rejected her advances. It casts Jane Fonda as Frederique and her brother Peter Fonda as the Baron, I guess just to make it kinkier (it's written and directed by Jane's husband at the time, Roger Vadim, who had just made Barbarella). It's pretty terrible, but for that one person out there who has simultaneous incest, horse and Jane Fonda fetishes it's probably okay. The film as a whole is worth watching though, mainly for Fellini's adaptation of Poe's Never Bet the Devil Your Head with Terence Stamp, which on its own is one of the best horror movies of the 1960s.

Jack Saul

This story deserved it's own Netflix show: Poe's Jacked Horse Man.

Jason Denen

All these dudes are really into their horses, including the author apparently.

Rick Hound

Was I the only one that thought they were reviewing a heavy metal song on notifications

Chad Anctil

For stories like this I often wonder if it’s falling flat because of societal changes, ideas or concepts that may have been commonplace a century ago that we simply don’t know or understand today. It would be like someone a century from now trying to understand literary references to a woman yelling at a cat, or the phrase ‘I’m Pickle Rick’...

Stewart

Did the horse ghost start the fire? Or was that an unrelated Berlifitzing who decided to skip all the... horsing around and just burn down the castle for some old fashioned ghostly vengeance?

Mark Brett

Going in cold, knowing nothing about the story, I thought it might be a parody based on the title. "Metzengerstein" sounds like a slightly-too-long-to-be-catchy send-up of "Frankenstein" to me. Also... As someone who's written more than one parody that was too subtle for its own good... This feels like it might have that same problem.

G. Monaldo

I listened to the story and this commentary several times trying to put some sense to it. Nope! Still clueless.

Bret Kramer

If this show was Rocky & Bullwinkle, they’d call this episode “The Horse of the Inadvisable”. As for the prophecy, the immortality of the Metzingersein family was the orphaned heir. He’s the last one - the horse, somehow caused the the rival’s death, killed him and ended the line.