The Raven - Creativity in Poe

The Raven is our 1st movie in GV Katong. Situated inconveniently in the midst of a residential district, it gives us an opportunity to grab last-minute tickets on a weekend. The Raven talks about a fictionalized account of the last days of Edgar Allan Poe's life, in which the poet and author pursued a serial killer whose murders mirrored those in Poe's stories.

The film started off with Poe losing his creativity. He has become a social pariah (outcast) and penniless drunkard whose stories have not been circulated for some time. He used to be a much better author - writing up poems such as the Raven and a book titled "The Murders in the Rue Morgue". But nowadays, he has to resort to begging the newspaper editor to publish his column.

The pace of the movie increased - when murders were conducted in succession. All murders were carefully scripted. And soon the detective realised that it was carried out with reference to the murder stories penned by Poe.

All murders were gruesomely executed with flair & precision. One of the bloodiest scenes was that of Poe's rival - Rufus Griswold. He was a literary critic and has competed with Poe to publish articles for the Baltimore newspapers. Griswold was strapped to a table and a Pendulum Knife was being swung and yet lowered gradually. The knife sliced off Griswold's tummy - bit by bit as it was lowered, until his upper half was separated from his lower half and the Pendulum could move no more. During crime investigation, Poe was requested to be present and realised that it resembled a scene from one of his stories - "The Pit and the Pendulum".

Poe was creative - an ability that is sorely lacking in today's world. His stories were intrinsically written & I wished I could harness the imagination that he possess. His level of creativity was further accentuated when he had to write in order to save the one he loves.

And yet when creativity becomes enacted in reality, it becomes bloody and detested by people. When people are not able to differentiate their thoughts from their acts, their lives become a mess. Maybe it is that fear of being a mess that creativity was never promoted. Why? Are people not encouraged to think?