...Swaying blade my lullaby...

Happy Friday the 13th! I'm not very superstitious so the day was normal for me. No bad luck. Actually, good luck considering that I finished my science project. Now all I have to do is a math project and an ELA project. *shudder* I'm so behind on my math... Anyway, today after school my mom and I went to get our nails done. That's like one of the "mother/daughter bonding" times that we have. Gross. That sounded so cheesy. But we did our nails and I got (this is so funny because I swear my feet are completely different than the rest of me) black on my nails with an awesome white-and-silver design on the thumbs (for free! Thank you Korean lady!) and "Ballet Slippers" pink on my toes. That's right. PINK. But it's actually a really super light pink that's almost white. It actually does look like those whitish, worn out ballet slippers. But I love both colors, especially my nails cause the design is awesome. It's like a feather of silver and white spurting from the corner. I love it!

Well today I want to talk about some of the greatest short stories ever. For my ELA project, I have to read 2 books, do a retelling of both and design a reading log in 8 days. And-like always-there is a LOT of extra credit stuff that we can do like an opinion, a rating, adding designs on the log, top five reasons why I would recommend it....etc. So, I asked her (since I felt it impossible to read 2 books in 8 days and still comprehend it on top of doing everything else) if I could read a bunch of short stories by..... Edgar Allen Poe! And she said it was alright! So I'm here to share with you two of my favorite stories.

The Pit and the Pendulum

This is the story that the song The Poet and the Pendulum is based off of. It's about a man who is captured by an Inquisition and then put in a giant, metal pit. He spends at least 2 days trying to figure out the size and shape of the pit in the pitch black darkness. When he wakes up, he finds a loaf of bread and a pitcher of water. He is beyond thirsty at this point, so he drinks and gets drugged. Upon waking he finds himself on the floor, bound to a wood plank. A perfectly seasoned steak lays next to him on a plate, but there is no water. Above him swings a pendulum that is slowly, millimeter by millimeter, descending. He shoos rats away as they eat his steak and bite his hand. For days he lays there with no water and a descending pendulum above him. Then, as it starts to shred his robes, he starts rubbing the bindings, causing the rats to bite his hand and chew off the ropes just in time. Well, just in time for the pendulum to ascend and the walls of the pit start to close in. There is another pit in the center of the floor that is filled with human cries and fire(?). Just as he slid over the edge to the pit, the walls move out and some French guy saves him.

I found the ending very disappointing. I know the guy was French and this Inquisition was torturing him as a captive, but where did the French savior come from?! And there was so much suspense building up to his death and then he lived! I personally thought the pendulum should have killed him, but maybe that's just me...


The Tell-Tale Heart

This is the first story I ever read by Poe. It's about a man who is good friends with another man. But the friend has a weird blue eye. So the main character decides to kill him. (okay...) Every night at midnight the main character sticks his head in the door and opens a lantern just enough so a stream of light falls upon the eye. But the eye is always closed. Then one night the old man wakes up. The main character waits with his head and the lantern in the door because it's pitch black and he knows the man can't see him. He can hear the old man's heart beat in his ear. Then he opens the lantern upon the eye and it's open so he gets angry at the eye and throws the bed over the man and crushes him. (again, okay...) Then He dismembers the body in the bathtub and hides the pieces under the floor boards. he cleans up everything and then the police come. They say that they heard someone shriek. He says that he's watching over the house because the old man is away and it was he who shrieked during his dream. The police search everywhere but found nothing, so the guy pulls in three chairs into the very room that he hid the body (because he's so confident) and chats with the police. Then he starts hearing the pounding of the dead guy's heart in his ear. And he starts getting restless and the pounding gets louder and louder and louder. And finally he screams that it was him who killed the man and his body is hidden under the floor boards.

I love this story because I love the detailed way the Poe describes everything and I LOVE the way he describes the man getting up and pacing and thrashing his chair around and the police laughing and chatting. You would think the police would notice all this, but it's what the man sees and hears within the state of his guilt and insanity.


I really love Edgar Allen Poe, he writes amazing stories and poems. You should all read them! so on that note, goodbye!