Eureka is an American writerAllan PoeCompleted in 1848prose poemWork.This article mainly describes Poe's view of the universeAubers paradoxSome reasonable explanations were first put forward.A small part of the article is taken from the author's works《The future》。
TO the few who love me and whom I love — to those who feel rather than to those who think — to the dreamers and those who put faith in dreams as in the only realities — I offer this book of Truths, not in its character of Truth-Teller, but for the Beauty that abounds in its Truth,constituting it true. To these I present the composition as an Art-Product alone: — let us say as a Romance; or, if I be not urging too lofty a claim, as a Poem.
What I here propound is true: — therefore it cannot die; or if by any means it be now trodden down so that it die, it will "rise again to the Life Everlasting."
Nevertheless it is as a Poem only that I wish this work to be judged after I am dead.
For the few people who love me and love me - for those who love feeling rather than thinking - for dreamers and those who believe that dreams are the only reality - I present this book of truth not because every sentence in it is true, but because it is filled with beauty;This is the essence of truth.To those who have dedicated this book only as a work of art: - Please allow us to regard it as a legend;If my request is not too high, I may regard it as a poem.
Everything in my book is truth: - So it cannot die: - Even if it is trampled and dies today, it will "resurrect and live forever" someday.
Although this book is only a poem, I still hope it will be judged after my death.[Cao Mingluntranslate]
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The book I Found, written by Poe shortly before his death, is regarded as Poe's masterpiece by the world. It is also a key to interpret all his works. In the sense of literature and science, it cannot be ignored.
Poe's outstanding wisdom and artistic talent turned to a frequently controversial point of view that the world was created, it continued to exist, and it will eventually disappear.Poe created a real and amazing work.From his strange mixture of poetry and scientific rules, facts and fanatical thinking, he showed surprising foresight and foresaw some important scientific discoveries in the twentieth world——Foreword by Patrick Moore.
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IT is with humility really unassumed — it is with a sentiment even of awe — that I pen the opening sentence of this work; for of all conceivable subjects, I approach the reader with the most solemn, the most comprehensive, the most difficult, the most august.
What terms shall I find sufficiently simple in their sublimity — sufficiently sublime in their simplicity — for the mere enunciation of my theme?
I design to speak of the Physical, Metaphysical and Mathematical — of the Material and Spiritual Universe; of its Essence, its Origin, its Creation, its Present Condition, and its Destiny. I shall be so rash, moreover, as to challenge the conclusions, and thus, in effect, to question the sagacity,of many of the greatest and most justly reverenced of men.
In the beginning, let me as distinctly as possible announce, not the theorem which I hope to demonstrate — for, whatever the [page 118:]mathematicians may assert, there is, in this world at least, no such thing as demonstration — but the ruling idea which, throughout this volume, I shall be continually endeavoring to suggest.
My general proposition, then, is this: — In the Original Unity of the First Thing lies the Secondary Cause of All Things, with the Germ of their Inevitable Annihilation.
In illustration of this idea, I propose to take such a survey of the Universe that the mind may be able really to receive and to perceive an individual impression.
He who from the top of AEtna casts his eyes leisurely around, is affected chiefly by the extent and diversity of the scene. Only by a rapid whirling on his heel could he hope to comprehend the panorama in the sublimity of its oneness. But as, on the summit of AEtna, no man has thought of whirling on his heel,so no man has ever taken into his brain the full uniqueness of the prospect; and so, again, whatever considerations lie involved in this uniqueness have as yet no practical existence for mankind.
I do not know a treatise in which a survey of the Universe — using the word in its most comprehensive and only legitimate acceptation — is taken at all; and it may be as well here to mention that by the term “Universe,” wherever employed without qualification in this essay, I mean, in most cases, to designate the utmost conceivable expanse of space, with all things, spiritual and material, that can he imagined to exist within the compass of that expanse. In speaking of what is ordinarily implied by the expression “Universe,” I shall take a phrase of limitation — “the Universe of Stars.”Why this distinction is considered necessary will be seen in the sequel.
But even of treatises on the really limited, although always assumed as the unlimited, Universe of Stars, I know none in which a survey, even of this limited Universe, is so taken as to warrant deductions from its individuality. The nearest approach to such a work is made in the “Cosmos” of Alexander Von Humboldt. He presents the subject, however, not in its individuality but in its generality. His theme, in its last result, is the law of each portion of the merely physical Universe, as this law is related to the laws of every other portion of this merely physical Universe. His design is simply synoeretical. In a word, he discusses the [page 119:]universality of material relation, and discloses to the eye of Philosophy whatever inferences have hitherto lain hidden behind this universality. But however admirable be the succinctness with which he has treated each particular point of his topic, the mere multiplicity of these points occasions, necessarily, an amount of detail, and thus an involution of idea,which preclude all individuality of impression.
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I've discovered -- Allan Poe's universe
Author:[malingcat]
19th Century American WritersEdgar Allan Poe(Edgar Allan Poe, 1809-1849), has always been regarded as a maverick demonic figure, whose private life and works are labeled "blasphemy", for example, D. H. Lawrence《American Literary Classics》(1923) angrily pointed out that all people in Poe are vampires, especially Poe himself.But what many people ignore is that this same slope once seriously demonstrated the existence of God in front of 60 audiences in a library in New York on February 3, 1847.The lecture notes of this speech were revised and published four months later. This is Eureka, which is called the "American Heavenly Book" by later generations.
Poe clearly regarded this 150 page pamphlet as the highest achievement and the final summary of his life's creation. However, this "artistic posthumous note", which integrates astronomy, logic, theology and aesthetics, inevitably has the suspicion of being complicated and obscure, so it has been neglected for many years - the research community has either ignored it or refused to comment;Or they ignore its importance and think it is "a patchwork of amateur astronomers";What's more, it is simply regarded as a bunch of nonsense in the state of writer's insanity.Interestingly, in the preface to I Found, Poe proudly declared: "What I said in my book is truth - so it cannot die - even if it dies today because of being trampled, it will 'resurrect and live forever'." One hundred years later, Poe's theory was indeed "resurrected": on the one hand, with Valerie, Auden, John OwenA group of famous literary critics led by Daniel Hoffman spoke highly of this work. For example, Harold Bloom declared that "in terms of literary value, I've Found is much more valuable than his poetry";On the other hand, in the 1980s, with the development of astrophysics, scientists proved Poe's greatness. It turned out that what I found in I Found was actually the principle of the birth and death of the universe“big bang”、“Heat silence theory”According to astronomers, Poe is compatible withKepler、Newton, and evenEinsteinA man of comparable genius.
I've Found is really the peak of Poe's career and a summary of all his ideas.Its starting point is cosmology, its central point is the theory of God, and its final point is the theory of life and literature.On the one hand, Poe "discovered" a theological universe rather than a scientific universe;On the other hand, through Poe's "discovery", we can also "discover" Poe's own world of ideas and literature.
(I)
I Found has two subtitles, one of which is "an essay on the universe of matter and spirit".The second is "a prose poem".Here is a question. Why is My Discovery both a scientific essay and a "poem"?First, we should understand Poe's unique definition of "poetry".As early as 1831, when his poetry collection was republished, he announced his poetic creed: "I think a poem is different from a scientific work, and its short-term purpose is not to seek truth but to seek happiness." Curiously, I Found is the combination of a scientific work and a poem: on the one hand, it has scientific truth, on the other hand, it directly focuses on life problems.
Allan Poe in I've Found is extremely serious, even a bit pedantic.At the beginning of the book, he announced that he would discuss with readers a most serious, broadest, most difficult and solemn question: "I decided to talk about natural science, metaphysics and mathematics - about the physical and spiritual universe, and about its essence, origin, creation, status quo and destiny".Later, Poe defined the "universe": "refers to the vast space that can be reached by human imagination, including all things that can be imagined to exist in this space, regardless of whether their existence form is spiritual or material".That is to say, Poe regarded the "physical universe" in the sense of astronomy as the "galactic universe", and his concept of the universe included not only the physical universe, but also the spiritual universe.In general, the western concept of the universe has two expressions. One is cosmos, which is derived from the Greek kosmos and originally means order. Its antonym is chaos, meaning chaos.The other is universe, which comes from the Latin word universo, meaning everything.Poe's concept of the universe, on the one hand, includes the former, which explores the order of the universe;On the one hand, it is closer to the latter, which includes everything.The most interesting thing is that Poe's universe has an epistemological premise: human imagination, which has an idealistic color, is also his uniqueness,
Using a fictional "letter in the bottle" from 2848 AD in the future world, Poe criticized the "deductive" represented by Plato and the "inductive" represented by Bacon, which are two "ways to obtain truth".In Poe's view, there is no "self-evident reason" at all. Just like Kepler's discovery of laws, the way of human cognition is through "intuition" and "imagination".Poe "imagined" a set of cosmic particle theory, and then revised Newton'sLaw of universal gravitationAnd the nebula theory of French astronomer Laplace.Poe pointed out that the universe originated from nothingness. Under the original driving force like the "Big Bang", the original particles were produced and formed a variety of materials and galaxies. However, every particle has been in a state of regression and extinction since its birth, that is, returning to the original "unity" in the diffusion movement.It is in the discourse composed of a series of astronomical terms that later generations of scientists are surprised to recognize“big bang”、“black hole”、“Antimatter”, "multi universe", "entropy" and other modern astrophysical theories.It should be noted that it was not until 1948 that papers on the "Big Bang" appeared in the western world. It was not until the 1960s that scientists linked "entropy" with the end of the universe. It was not until the 1970s that they linked "black holes" with multiple universes. In short, Poe's universe theory was quite advanced.
But just like Newton“First driving force”In the end, just as he wanted to convert to God, Poe suddenly turned to God in four fifths of the full text.He pointed out that everything in the galactic universe originates from God. "With every throb of the heart of God, a new universe will grow from nothing to existence and from existence to nothing." The next paragraph immediately went down: "So what is this heart of God?" Poe replied: "It is our own.".
According to Poe's theory, the will of God is the beginning and the end of the universe.In the galactic universe, "substantial nothingness" is the original state of God, which is also a "unified" chaotic state.When God's will began to move, the original particles were created from nothingness, and God itself was decomposed and diffused with the original particles, and each particle returned to the original "unity" state, that is, the "state of God", in the process of diffusion.Therefore, the process of galaxy extinction is also the process of approaching God.In the same way, similar to the material world, in the spiritual universe, the divinity of God is also decomposed into countless particles and diffuses outward, so everyone has the divinity of God. The movement of human life from birth to death is also "God's recovery". Therefore, "death" is a process of "unity" between individual soul and God.The whole universe - material and spiritual - is created, destroyed and recycled in the heartbeat of God.
In this way, I Found points out a way, from the universe to God, and then from God to the human heart.In this sense, it is indeed a "poem", because its main purpose is not to understand the galactic universe, but to take the galactic universe as a medium, by observing it to understand the existence of God, and then to explore the "happiness" of human beings.Poe explained: "Considering this point (that is, death is a return to God), only by considering this point can we understand the mystery of God's injustice and inexorable fate. Only by considering this point can the existence of misfortune become understandable; but it is also because of this point that misfortune becomes more and more bearable.Our hearts no longer resist the misfortune imposed on us - we do so to achieve our own goals - in order - even in vain - to continue our happiness ".The last sentence of I've Found is a mystical appeal full of gospel flavor: "Please remember that everything is life -- life -- life in life -- small life is in the big life, and everything is in the gods."
(II)
On October 7, 1849, more than years after the official publication of I Found, Poe completed his life with many difficulties. His last words were "God helps my soul".In connection with his past cynicism, is I Found a complete negation of his past in the final stage of life?It should be said that the ideas in this article are by no means the product of Poe's impulse.In his life, there is always a place in the universe;In his works, there are also echoes of death and God.
Poe in his childhood is said to have known the Pleiades map, "the jeweled crescent of Astat and the mountains on the moon".When he was a teenager, a telescope was set up on the balcony of his adoptive father's mansion, which further developed his interest in astronomy.During his college years, he read a lot of books, and his knowledge was amazing. In addition to literature, he dabbled in chemistry, physics, botany, medicine, law and even mathematics, especially astronomy. Poe carefully read the works of the French astronomer Marquis Laplace, and was familiar with the nebula hypothesis put forward in his Cosmic System Theory (1796);I have also read the Astronomical Thesis of Sir John Herschel, a British astronomer, and I am very interested in the possibility of lunar exploration proposed by him.Poe lived in a time when the first technological revolution in the West had achieved results, while the second technological revolution was in the process of theoretical preparation. The whole society was in a positive mood to explore the unknown world.When Poe entered the newspaper industry in the 1930s, it coincided with the era when the public newspaper industry paid more attention to popular science knowledge in order to cater to readers' interests. As a "magazine man" with "magazine habits", Poe continued to develop his interest in astronomy.More importantly, around 1842, the greatest achievement of the natural science community was the discovery of the law of energy conservation and transformation, which was the greatest achievement of physics since the establishment of the theoretical system of Newtonian mechanics. Inspired by it, astrophysics made rapid progress. The first volume of the five volume book Cosmos by German astronomer Alexander Humboldt came out in 1845;Another German astronomer, Johann Heinrich Medler, published The Central Star in 1846;Since 1845, an astronomical telescope with a length of 58 feet and a diameter of 7 feet, named "Giant Beast", has been pointing directly at the sky.All these have prepared the scientific basis for I've Found.
In terms of literary creation, Poe has two series of novels that have been neglected all the time: science fiction novels and speculative novels.It should be said that these novels gave birth to the motif of I Found.
There are three science fiction novels: The Adventures of Hans Puffal (1835) - the hero goes to the moon by balloon, describing the flight principle and space landscape in detail;Balloon Deception (1844) - describes the adventure of crossing the Atlantic by balloon;The Future (1849) - People who traveled by balloon in 2848 AD laughed at the "ancients" 'ignorance of astronomy and philosophy, which is a follow-up and supplement to the "letter in the bottle" appearing in I Found.These three novels are actually the repetition of a novel, that is, through the plot structure of balloon manned flight, to introduce the astronomical theory and the process of imaginary flight.Poe is not a good science fiction novelist. In his fantasy, human beings 1000 years later still use balloons as aircraft. Compared with Verne's submarines, Wells' time machines, and even Mary Shelley's science geeks, Poe is different in scientific imagination.However, it is worth noting that Poe did not fantasize about science for the sake of science fiction. What he really cared about was the corresponding cosmic system behind astronomy.
The novels of speculative color include: The Dialogue between Elos and Shamion (1839) - a dialogue between two souls outside the earth, recalling the story of a comet sweeping the surface of the earth, causing a fire and destroying humanity.The Dialogue between Monos and Eula (1841) - a dialogue between two dead souls, a description of death and a reflection on regeneration.Hypnosis Revelation (1844) - a dialogue between doctors and the nether world, a discussion about whether God is some kind of particle free matter.The Power of Speech (1845) - A dialogue between two souls in the universe about the nature of the world.The form of these four novels is the form of dialogue, and dialogue, in fact, implies that the writer's own speculative process is his own debate with himself.Another feature is that the themes discussed in these four novels are all about death and God. In addition to the Hypnosis Revelation, which is a dialogue between the living and the dead, the other three novels are all dialogues between souls. In other words, the narrative perspective implies the existence of another world, which is a world that cannot be explained from the perspective of ordinary "death".As for God, it can be found that the author's perspective is not orthodox, "God is neither spiritual nor material", God is a "spirit that exists in an unconnected form", and there is a certain "nature" in the dark, just as one soul said to another in the Power of Speech: "If it were in human beings, this view would be regarded as extreme heresy."
The above seven novels account for just one tenth of Poe's total novels.It is these seedlings that gradually generated the towering tree I Found.In other words, I Found is not the last confession of a traitor, on the contrary, it is the last leap of deliberate thought.
(III)
For contemporary readers, the reason why I Found is strange is largely due to its "inclusiveness": the combination of scientific concepts and theological concepts.In fact, this is not Poe's original creation, but it has always been an organic part of the western philosophy tradition. It should be noted that before modern times, western philosophers regarded all human knowledge as their own research category, so theology and science are no exception.Philosophy is concerned with the ultimate problem of human beings: who we are, where we come from, where we go. It is here that theology and science have crossed, forming a quite unique system:Cosmology(cosmogony)。Contemporary scholars point out that one of the most puzzling ironies of western philosophy is that physics, especially astrophysics, looks like science, but in fact, together with theology, is the most metaphysical academic.It seems that the more people know about the universe, the more they feel that there is a decisive force in the universe. So Einstein, who discovered the theory of relativity, sighed: "This kind of deep, intuitive belief that there is a higher power of thinking, shown in the incredible universe, is my definition of God." Entering the 20th century, the dialogue between science and theology continued to occur,Big Bang TheoryJust published three years ago,Catholic ChurchIt was announced in 1951 that it was consistent with the Bible;In 1975, American particle scientist Kapura published The Way of Physics, turning from scientism to mysticism;Since the 1980s, Paul Davis has emerged《God and New Physics》The Heart of God, Stephen Hawking's The Nature of Time and Space, Boyer's Interpreted Religion and other famous works;At the same time, academic institutions such as the European Society of Science and Theology, the Science and Religion Forum, the Berkeley Theology and Natural Science Center and so on were born, and "Science and Religion" became a course in universities.In a sense, only by reviewing "I Found" from this system can we find the tradition it belongs to and the breakthrough it brings.
The western cosmology is diverse and complex. Generally speaking, it is based on the ancient Greek philosophy, absorbs some ideas from Egypt and West Asia, and combines with Judaism and early Christianity. After the transformation of scholasticism, it integrates the scientific discoveries after the Renaissance.Among them, the key concepts are“First driving force”, "light", "particle" and "idea", which are all related to the concept of "Logos".
In terms of the "first driving force", Aristotle, the master of Greek philosophy, was the first to put forward this concept. In 340 BC, he wrote The Analects of Heaven, pointing out that the "first driving force" is the ultimate reason for the movement of celestial bodies, and the first driving force is actually God.Ptolemy, a great Greek astronomer in the 2nd century AD, conceived a cosmological system based on Aristotle's theory, which was adopted almost intact by Christian thinkers.In the Antipaganism Anthology by Thomas Aquinas, a scholastic philosopher, there is a classic expression: "If the world and movement have a beginning, it is very obvious that some reason is needed to explain the origin of the world and movement." If it is still a logical inference in Aquinas, it has been "scientifically proved" by Newton,The three laws simply proved the scientific necessity of "the first driving force", and Newton created the theology of "science".The following Deism in the 18th century opposed the personality and trinity of God, but they regarded nature as a huge machine driven by God and still recognized the existence of the "first driving force".
Secondly, particle theory.As early as in the ancient Greek philosophical schools, Araksagora, the founder of the Athens School, attributed the origin of the universe to the "seed". The seed was driven by the "reason" (Nuss) that brought order, and all things were separated by vortex movement.Democritus did not think much of the "seed". He reduced the universe to atoms and believed that the structure of atoms in the void dictated the nature of things.
Corresponding to the "particle" in ancient Greece, in Jewish Christian doctrine, it is the concept of "light".Similar to the particle theory of Greece, particles are not completely natural particles, and light is not completely natural light.In On Creation, Philo, the father of Christianity, pointed out that the light that God first created at the beginning of creation was certainly not the light that we could see with our naked eyes, because the sun, moon and stars were not created at that time. This invisible light can only be understood by our spirit (Nuss). It is the light of wisdom sent by Logos and the source of starlight.Neo PlatonismProtino, the main representative, put forward the concept of "Taiyi", "Taiyi should be imagined as a radiation from the sun". Taiyi first flowed out of Nus, and matter was the receiver of light.Christian theologySaint Augustine, the founder of, believed that holiness shines all over the world in the form of light. Light is God's grace to benefit people. "Whoever knows truth knows the light; whoever knows the light knows eternity".Gradually, the theory of "illumination" represents a kind of revelatory truth.Grostes, the first president of Oxford University, is both a bishop and a scientist. He wrote a book, "On Light" (about 1240), which combines the ancient natural philosophy, Augustine's illumination theory, and the mathematical and optical knowledge at that time. In his view, God first created light, which instantly fills the universe and gives everything form.The light emitted into the universe first forms the sun, then the celestial bodies, and finally the earth.The famous Thomas Aquinas believed that the idea of God was form, and form must have light, so Logos created the order of the universe.reachRenaissanceBruno also believes that the universal light of reason "fills all things, shines on the universe, and guides nature to produce all things according to their categories."
Interestingly, there are two theories of modern optics, the "particle theory" of light and the "wave theory" of light, which are also used by theology. They are integrated with the particle theory and the light theory mentioned above, and become“Logos Centralism”Is a vassal of.In the beginning, there was Tao, and Tao was Logos.Logos flows out of God's heart, fills the world like light, and makes people grateful.Man has divinity because he has logos.Therefore, Logos became an intermediary for people to get salvation and return to God.The theory of logos is complex, and there are different supporters of "speech theory", "idea theory" and "Christ theory".
If we can say that the above concepts had an indirect impact on Poe, and had a direct impact on him, it would probably be the various philosophies popular in his time and the United States.
Jonathan Edwards, the greatest American Puritan theologian, pointed out that God's mind is the place where things exist in space.The world is just a kind of spiritual existence, which mainly exists in the mind of God, conceived by the free will of God, and also exists in the mind of people. God transmits a series of interrelated and orderly ideas to us.The universe always starts from God, just as light keeps starting from the sun.Through the operation of God, the universe becomes a revelation from God's mind to the created mind.The way to God is through the heart, not through the head.Edwards' thought later developed into a monotheism, which dominated the culture of New England in the 19th century.Poe lived in New England for many years in his adult life, and was inevitably influenced by it.
The prevailing Scottish realism at that time may also enlighten Poe. For example, Francis Bowen pointed out that if the self of the whole universe has a direct causal force, the omnipresent self is God, and God is the ultimate reason for the movement of all things or all particles in the universe.
Kant, the influential German philosopher, published it in 1755《General Natural History and Celestial Theory》(also known as "Introduction to the History of the Development of the Universe"), whose subtitle is "Attempting to solve the entire structure of the universe and its mechanical origin according to Newton's theorem", in the book, Kant proposed the nebula hypothesis of the solar system according to the law of universal gravitation: in the early days, the universe was full of primitive material particles, which were constantly gathered due to the action of gravity,Because of the repulsive force, it rotates and gradually concentrates to a plane, and finally becomes a celestial body system where planets revolve around the sun.On the one hand, the original material particles continue to form a new world; on the other hand, the world continues to burn and decompose into the smallest particles. He pointed out that "the reason why this nature's fire phoenix burned itself is to recover its youth from its ashes and get reborn."Kant's genius idea was inherited by British astronomer William Herschel and French scientist Laplace, which directly influenced Poe.
It can be seen from this that in "I've Found", the ideas such as the pulsation of God's heart, the overflow of particles, and the formation of nebulae are not Poe's original creation, but have deep roots.But Poe is still a genius. His genius is manifested in the same ideological source and the same cosmological concept, but he has reached subversive conclusions.When his predecessors and contemporaries were optimistic about God's universe, he was the first to point out the bleak prospect of the extinction of the universe.While others are constructing the universe, they are dissolving it.If we say that the universe of others brings us a bright Gospel, Poe's universe shows us a gloomy apocalypse.It is this nature that makes his scientific hypothesis and philosophical concept, though despised at that time, can be connected with the post-modern world in one continuous line.
(IV)
Adding a reference system may help to better understand slopes.In the eyes of American academic critics, Poe andEmerson Like a pair of natural enemies, people who like Poe cannot like Emerson, and vice versa.Harold Bloom, a famous American literary theorist and critic, pointed out that I Found is a response to Emerson's On Nature.
On Nature, published in 1836, also put forward a holistic theory of the universe, including its origin, status quo and ultimate;It also believes that people know truth through intuition, and everyone has an internal divinity, so in a certain range, people are God.However, the difference between the two is particularly obvious.John Douglas Healy pointed out that "Poe's theory is a theory of dissolution and extinction, a theory of ultimate extinction, which can be realized through claustrophobia." Emerson's theory is a dynamic theory, a constructive theory, which can be realized through the capitalization of the Chinese characters.Poe is an extreme pessimist. He admits that God can be known, but he also declares that the particles of God's divinity are abnormal in human beings, because "any deviation from normal contains a tendency to return to his (God)", that is, obedience to destruction, instinct, hardship, disintegration, and degradation becomes worship of God.Emerson is an extreme optimist. He believes that God can know and discover the divinity of God from man himself. Although he also acknowledges the evil of society and the disaster of life, he is fearless. His affirmation of construction, spirit, happiness, nature and morality is the process of his going to the holy self.If Poe's God is not a qualitative God, what he brings to people is "disintegration" and "destruction", Emerson's God is an affirmative God, and what he brings to people is "creation" and "life".Poe is passive and more inherits the Southern Catholic tradition. He believes that the original sin is inescapable, that people must be cursed, doomed to bear sorrow, and inevitably to be destroyed.Emerson was positive, more inclined to the Puritan spirit in the north, and took "self-help" as a magic weapon against original sin.Probably because of this clear-cut position, Poe hated Emerson very much and firmly believed that Emerson, like Whitman and Lincoln, was not a Christian, a royalist or a classicist.
If Poe represents nihilism, Emerson represents pragmatism.If Poe's God symbolizes Freud's "death instinct", Emerson symbolizes Nietzsche's "life will".It is precisely because Emerson's thought inherits the liberating religious concept with American characteristics, and conforms to the spirit of the times of rapid development and high emotion in American society, so it finally merged into the main stream of the American spirit characterized by individualism, idealism and self-reliance.Poe was bound to be misunderstood by the United States at that time, became a loner of the times, and was forgotten by Americans for a long time.Only in the 20th century, when the American Dream began to break, could Americans find resonance in his pessimism, so critics now evaluate Poe as "modern".Bloom pointed out that "Emerson was and still is the soul of the United States, but Poe was and still is our hysteria, which is the incredible consistency we show in our depression."
If you understand Poe's universe and God, you will also understand the novel world he created.In his writing, there are no beautiful mountains and rivers of the United States, and there is no bright prospect of civilization. When contemporaries praised nature and frontier life, he created a world of constant nightmares.He divided his novels into three categories: "grotesque", "terror suspense" and "reasoning", no matter which one is full of monsters and gloomy clouds.Poe claims that "my terror does not come from Germany but from the mind". Indeed, from Poe's cosmology, there is no absolute boundary between dream and awakening, life and death, and sobriety and madness. Unlike German romantic horror novels, his creation "uses insanity, telepathy, and other abnormal or special mental states as means",Abnormality has become the natural state of human beings. Instinct and environment always conflict, and destruction is often the final outcome of works.Poe praised imagination, and the same imagination that deduced the galactic universe also created a huge and terrible world: "This imagination is full of pessimistic, desperate, gloomy thoughts, horrible hallucinations, and impending panic of mental collapse.There is not even a ray of sunshine in this world. It is a sad and desolate world, only dark, disaster, terror, revenge and sin. It is a world completely under the wing of madness and evil, hysteria and disease, hysteria, destruction, disintegration and death. "——If we say that the universe is a universe that tends to dissolve and perish, Poe's novels can be said to be the most true reflection of this universe.In this way, death and abnormality become the theme of the novel, and the disintegrating world is the central image of the novel.
