SUPERHEROES ARE DAMN-NEAR EVERYWHERE XIII

Primary JANET AGREN acted in HANDS OF STEEL.

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Primary JENNY AGUTTER acted in CAPTAIN AMERICA;WINTER SOLDIER, among others.

SUPERHEROES ARE DAMN-NEAR EVERYWHERE XII

Peripheral MARIO ADORF acted in SHORT NIGHT OF GLASS DOLLS with--

Primary BARBARA BACH, best known for THE SPY WHO LOVED ME.

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Primary BEN AFFLECK acted in the 2002 DAREDEVIL, as well as some other minor flick this year.

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Peripheral CASEY AFFLECK acted in INTERSTELLAR with--

Primary MICHAEL CAINE, who acted in BATMAN BEGINS.

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Primary JOHN AGAR acted in the Arabic fantasy THE MAGIC CARPET.

MS. FOUND IN A BOTTLE (1833)

MS. FOUND IN A BOTTLE, though it may have been intended to be something of a burlesque of other "tall tales of the sea," shows Poe finally giving full rein to his daemonic imagination.

The "message" is purportedly one abandoned to the seas in a bottle, written by a man lost at sea. His sailing-vessel is caught up by a titanic storm, and, instead of simply being sunk, the ship is caught up and pulled along by the force of the storm. The narrator and one other man survive the initial torrent, but this already fantastic situation turns wilder when the ship he's on is destroyed by a second, larger ship, also being borne along by the great storm. The other survivor apparently perishes, but the narrator is flung onto the second ship. This ship still has a crew, though all of the sailors are so aged that they don't even apprehend the narrator's presence. Still alone even among these Sargasso-like survivors, the storm finally hurls the whole megilla down into an endless abyss-- though apparently not one so endless that the bottle with the message fails to show up in the mortal world once more.

I frankly didn't know whether or not Poe really believed that such phenomena were possible, or if it was all just a jape. This site, however, suggests that Poe harbored some eccentric beliefs about the structure of the known universe, and that MS. may be based in part upon those beliefs-- so I've decided to label it as "marvelous."

FOUR BEASTS IN ONE (1833)

Like "Tale of Jerusalem," this naturalistic tale is based on a bit of archaic lore. A narrator relates to the reading audience a story of ancient Antioch. It seems that at one point in history, both wild and tame animals were allowed to run free in the streets. This seems to work out well until the advent of the city's ruler-in-name-only: a huge "cameleopard" (giraffe), which the citizens of Antioch have decided to elevate to kingship. The long-necked fellow attracts the gustatory lusts of the roaming predators (certainly a lot of food-motifs in the early stories), and that's the end of the Giraffe King. More erudition for its own sake.

BON-BON: A TALE (1832)

Another comic story involving His Satanic Majesty. The "restauranteur" known as Bon-Bon combines cuisine with philosophy, as the author tells us that "it is to Bon-Bon that Kant himself is mainly indebted for his metaphysics." The Devil comes calling, and the two of them discuss food for the stomach and food for thought. Again, pretty tough sledding for moderns. Bon-Bon may or may not perish at story's end.

LOSS OF BREATH (1832)

The comedy is better sustained this time out. The story's narrator, in the middle of arguing with his wife, suddenly finds that he's no longer able to breathe. He doesn't die of this inconvenience; he just can't speak beyond croaking noises. He keeps his malady secret and flees his home. Through a series of weird coincidences, he's sat on by a fat man, who mistakes him for a corpse because the narrator neither breathes nor speaks. The narrator escapes various predicaments, only to be mistaken for a lookalike criminal. He's hanged by the neck, which doesn't really bother him, after which his immobile body is interred. He does survive all of these experiences in a story that serves as a precursor to "The Premature Burial."

A TALE OF JERUSALEM (1832)

This seems to be Poe's first publication of a naturalistic story. It takes place in ancient Jerusalem, and seems based on an authentic Talmudic story of how the priests of the Temple coped with a siege from an invading army. Because the priests needed proper animals for daily sacrificial rituals, they came to an arrangement to buy said animals from their enemies: sending gold coins over the wall in a basket, and then the enemy would send back the requested animals in the same basket.

The arrangement comes to an end when the Jews' enemies send them an unclean animal, a pig. Very much a simple "gimmick" joke, based on an obscure bit of Jewish lore.