Poe, with a trunk full of ideas, is finally coming home to Boston
April 15, 2014 12:44 PM Subscribe
Edgar Allan Poe will come striding back into Boston this Fall as a life-size bronze sculpture, as designed by Stefanie Rocknak, who has created a number of fluid carvings from wood.
The imagery is a little too literal for me "Get it? We'll have a giant HEART, and a great big RAVEN." But I like the style and sense of movement.
posted by 2bucksplus at 1:04 PM on April 15, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by 2bucksplus at 1:04 PM on April 15, 2014 [2 favorites]
Inspired by the first rough draft of the classic which contained the line:
"Quoth the raven - I gonna eat you in your sleep!"
posted by MCMikeNamara at 1:09 PM on April 15, 2014
"Quoth the raven - I gonna eat you in your sleep!"
posted by MCMikeNamara at 1:09 PM on April 15, 2014
(But seriously, I love it.)
posted by MCMikeNamara at 1:09 PM on April 15, 2014
posted by MCMikeNamara at 1:09 PM on April 15, 2014
Etrigan: "Oh, hey, Boston, sorry that my suitcase is spilling AWESOME all over the place."
"And a heart. Watch out for that one if you're walking behind me. I should probably be more careful with how I transport organs."
2bucksplus, I agree that it's not subtle in the Poe references, and while I wish it were, I can also see this being a statue for the public at large who may only have a passing knowledge of Poe's works.
I really, really would like a miniature version of this statue (and most of her other statues - seriously, the king is a stunning piece, and I was really impressed by the swimmer. Even her small pieces are full of detail.
posted by filthy light thief at 1:10 PM on April 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
"And a heart. Watch out for that one if you're walking behind me. I should probably be more careful with how I transport organs."
2bucksplus, I agree that it's not subtle in the Poe references, and while I wish it were, I can also see this being a statue for the public at large who may only have a passing knowledge of Poe's works.
I really, really would like a miniature version of this statue (and most of her other statues - seriously, the king is a stunning piece, and I was really impressed by the swimmer. Even her small pieces are full of detail.
posted by filthy light thief at 1:10 PM on April 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
Nice statue!
I hereby commission her to do the Lovecraft statue in Providence RI with tentacles galore and a three-lobed burning eye.
posted by Renoroc at 1:11 PM on April 15, 2014 [5 favorites]
I hereby commission her to do the Lovecraft statue in Providence RI with tentacles galore and a three-lobed burning eye.
posted by Renoroc at 1:11 PM on April 15, 2014 [5 favorites]
I think it's cool, but it kinda screams deviantart to me. Like, he's practically screaming for a spunky teen-girl sidekick with brass goggles.
posted by Think_Long at 1:11 PM on April 15, 2014 [6 favorites]
posted by Think_Long at 1:11 PM on April 15, 2014 [6 favorites]
Coming soon to New Bedford, Massachusetts: Melville hoisting aloft a huge harpoon atop a bronze sperm whale - built to scale!
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 1:11 PM on April 15, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 1:11 PM on April 15, 2014 [3 favorites]
I dunno..."subtle" isn't the first word I think of when I think of Poe's own work, so maybe big 'n obvious isn't a problem?
posted by Ipsifendus at 1:18 PM on April 15, 2014 [4 favorites]
posted by Ipsifendus at 1:18 PM on April 15, 2014 [4 favorites]
Oh come on, far too literal! They should have been more conceptual, or at least more interesting. How about: round up all the local ravens and teach them to say "Lenore!" before releasing them back into the wild? Or even replace a whole sidewalk with a gentle throbbing platform which drives people mad? Or breed a new kind of one-eyed cat to roam the streets of Boston but which instinctively flee approaching drunks?
posted by Thing at 1:23 PM on April 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by Thing at 1:23 PM on April 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
How obvious. How refreshingly literal. I love it.
posted by General Tonic at 1:25 PM on April 15, 2014
posted by General Tonic at 1:25 PM on April 15, 2014
In honor of Edgar Allan Poe, we are inviting the best citizens of Boston, Beacon Hill's brightest, to a lavish party, at the end of which they will all be killed with a red gas
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 1:28 PM on April 15, 2014 [6 favorites]
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 1:28 PM on April 15, 2014 [6 favorites]
Boston doesn't have a shortage of famous children, so the city should stop claiming people who were born here but made their fortunes elsewhere. The two most glaring examples are Benjamin Franklin and Poe.
Franklin left when he was a teen. Sure, he kept his affection for the place, remembered Boston in his will, but he's associated with Philadelphia because that's where he became a historical figure. Any civic promotion of Franklin just looks greedy and crass when there are plenty of other dead people to sell.
The Poenapping is even worse-- Poe hated Boston, didn't have a good thing to say about the city when he was alive. If that statue could talk, all it would say is "fuck you."
posted by Mayor Curley at 1:30 PM on April 15, 2014 [13 favorites]
Franklin left when he was a teen. Sure, he kept his affection for the place, remembered Boston in his will, but he's associated with Philadelphia because that's where he became a historical figure. Any civic promotion of Franklin just looks greedy and crass when there are plenty of other dead people to sell.
The Poenapping is even worse-- Poe hated Boston, didn't have a good thing to say about the city when he was alive. If that statue could talk, all it would say is "fuck you."
posted by Mayor Curley at 1:30 PM on April 15, 2014 [13 favorites]
Renoroc: "Nice statue!
I hereby commission her to do the Lovecraft statue in Providence RI with tentacles galore and a three-lobed burning eye."
They don't need one, the entire town is already Lovecraftian enough as it is. Have you seen the bus stops there? (from the photos I took while taking a walking tour of Lovecraft's Providence a few years back.)
posted by Strange Interlude at 1:52 PM on April 15, 2014 [3 favorites]
I hereby commission her to do the Lovecraft statue in Providence RI with tentacles galore and a three-lobed burning eye."
They don't need one, the entire town is already Lovecraftian enough as it is. Have you seen the bus stops there? (from the photos I took while taking a walking tour of Lovecraft's Providence a few years back.)
posted by Strange Interlude at 1:52 PM on April 15, 2014 [3 favorites]
Mayor Curley: The Poenapping is even worse-- Poe hated Boston, didn't have a good thing to say about the city when he was alive. If that statue could talk, all it would say is "fuck you."
Maybe he's just coming back home to get a better briefcase, then get the hell outta there again.
(And now I'm getting images of Boston's Own Buddy PoeTM, in the style of Buddy Christ. "Boston's tops with me!" ~Poe)
posted by filthy light thief at 1:53 PM on April 15, 2014
Maybe he's just coming back home to get a better briefcase, then get the hell outta there again.
(And now I'm getting images of Boston's Own Buddy PoeTM, in the style of Buddy Christ. "Boston's tops with me!" ~Poe)
posted by filthy light thief at 1:53 PM on April 15, 2014
In Charlottesville, at the University, they still note which dormitory room in the Academic Village Poe lived in for his one year at the school. Take that Boston.
I generally think Baltimore or Richmond when it comes to Poe, tho'. I kind of feel like the raven and what all overwhelms the Poe aspect of the statue.
posted by Atreides at 2:08 PM on April 15, 2014
I generally think Baltimore or Richmond when it comes to Poe, tho'. I kind of feel like the raven and what all overwhelms the Poe aspect of the statue.
posted by Atreides at 2:08 PM on April 15, 2014
If one of you has the bus fare, I've got the stick-on googly eyes.
posted by JHarris at 3:03 PM on April 15, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by JHarris at 3:03 PM on April 15, 2014 [2 favorites]
That's a really handsome statue. Hope to see it up!
Providence has a bust of H.P. Lovecraft in the basement of -- I forget where, some small historical society that I stopped into during NecronomiCon this past year. It was an extremely respectable little place with serious and elderly researchers in it, and I felt a bit out of place having just popped in to see it.
Boston (or Salem, or Newburyport) would do well to have a Lovecraft statue, since he wrote enough fiction in it or its close analogues. I frequently pass through the North End, and when I'm there I always think about how ridiculously prim and disgusted Lovecraft was about the place in "Pickman's Model."
posted by Countess Elena at 3:06 PM on April 15, 2014 [2 favorites]
Providence has a bust of H.P. Lovecraft in the basement of -- I forget where, some small historical society that I stopped into during NecronomiCon this past year. It was an extremely respectable little place with serious and elderly researchers in it, and I felt a bit out of place having just popped in to see it.
Boston (or Salem, or Newburyport) would do well to have a Lovecraft statue, since he wrote enough fiction in it or its close analogues. I frequently pass through the North End, and when I'm there I always think about how ridiculously prim and disgusted Lovecraft was about the place in "Pickman's Model."
posted by Countess Elena at 3:06 PM on April 15, 2014 [2 favorites]
It was an extremely respectable little place with serious and elderly researchers in it, and I felt a bit out of place having just popped in to see it.
Maybe this is just my Midwestern oafishness combined with a love of American history, but it is not a real trip to New England for me if this doesn't happen at least three times.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 3:20 PM on April 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
Maybe this is just my Midwestern oafishness combined with a love of American history, but it is not a real trip to New England for me if this doesn't happen at least three times.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 3:20 PM on April 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
Providence has a bust of H.P. Lovecraft in the basement of -- I forget where, some small historical society that I stopped into during NecronomiCon this past year. It was an extremely respectable little place with serious and elderly researchers in it, and I felt a bit out of place having just popped in to see it.
Was there a faintly fishy odor in the air? Did you detect the aged archivists making small, furtive movements out of the corner of your eye? Were they slightly squamous? Have you been having weird, vivid dreams ever since?
posted by Atom Eyes at 3:21 PM on April 15, 2014 [6 favorites]
Was there a faintly fishy odor in the air? Did you detect the aged archivists making small, furtive movements out of the corner of your eye? Were they slightly squamous? Have you been having weird, vivid dreams ever since?
posted by Atom Eyes at 3:21 PM on April 15, 2014 [6 favorites]
Oh, I been havin' them dreams for ages. No, the people seemed tweedy and very proper, and as it was the weekend of the Lovecraft convention and a steampunk convention, they were no doubt seeing a lot of people like me, randos in weird T-shirts with no library voices barging in to see the bust. The expressions on the faces I saw were decidedly unimpressed.
posted by Countess Elena at 3:26 PM on April 15, 2014
posted by Countess Elena at 3:26 PM on April 15, 2014
It seems like every city from the Mississippi river to the Atlantic ocean has a Mark Twain house. Dude got around but every city has to commemorate the spot. For example: the Mark Twain House, library room and Samuel Clemens hall in Buffalo, NY where he lived for a whopping 13 months. So hey, even if Boston had a more tangential relationship with Poe it would still be an honor to have a kick ass statue for a kick ass writer.
posted by munchingzombie at 3:31 PM on April 15, 2014
posted by munchingzombie at 3:31 PM on April 15, 2014
I'm not always big on statues but I really, really like this one.
posted by Lutoslawski at 3:34 PM on April 15, 2014
posted by Lutoslawski at 3:34 PM on April 15, 2014
Every age has its aesthetic and uses it to interpret what came before. This strikes me as perfect for now...
posted by jim in austin at 4:34 PM on April 15, 2014
posted by jim in austin at 4:34 PM on April 15, 2014
It looks like 3D Creepy cover art. That's not a bad thing.
posted by davebush at 7:01 PM on April 15, 2014
posted by davebush at 7:01 PM on April 15, 2014
It definitely looks better than that Steve Jobs memorial.
posted by bukvich at 7:03 PM on April 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by bukvich at 7:03 PM on April 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
as a boston resident, ive been quite excited about how awesome it looks. its exactly what one would want from a poe statue. very impressive work by the artist, especially considering the travesties of memorial sculpture were recently seen.
posted by young_son at 2:28 PM on April 16, 2014
posted by young_son at 2:28 PM on April 16, 2014
« Older You'll never walk alone | Wikipedia: Condensed For Your Pleasure Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by Etrigan at 12:47 PM on April 15, 2014 [3 favorites]