Episode 203 – Some Words with a Mummy
We’re having Some Words with a Mummy by Edgar Allan Poe! Won’t you listen in?
A better web starts with your website – check out Squarespace now! 10% off with code HPL.
Thanks once again to reader Joe Scalora for ending the Draculas and kicking off MUMMY MADNESS MONTH -or- IMHOTAPRIL!!!
Check out Electrified Sheep by Alex Boese.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
When I read this story years ago, I thought it was Poe’s way of poking fun of how proud his fellow Americans were of their “enlightened” civilization and “modern” technology, and their nineteenth-century assumption that culture was always ascending to higher and higher stages.
On another note — I saw this story today and thought you might both enjoy it: It seems Harvard’s rare book collection includes a few books bound in human flesh:
https://roadtrippers.com/blog/harvard-discovers-three-of-its-library-books-are-bound-in-human-flesh
It seems a latter-day Wilbur Whateley would find some items of interest at Harvard . . .
This reminded me of the French film “The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Extraordinary_Adventures_of_Ad%C3%A8le_Blanc-Sec_(film)
Looking forward to your show on “Lot No.249”. Went to a lecture last year at Liverpool Museum entitled “Mummies Versus Fenians” which looked at the literary and Egyptology background to this story.
http://daybees.com/events/263816/mummies-versus-fenians-egyptology-imperialism-and-the-popular-fiction-of-arthur-conan-doyle/
The curator of the Egyptology department of the Museum talked about the collection at Liverpool and we got to touch and smell some artefacts.
How about going with ‘Ancient April month for mummies’ for the name. Agreed this one is hard with all the mummies being named & not so iconic as Dracula.