The other day I read "The Masque Of The Red Death" by Edgar Alan Poe and since then I have been wondering about the arrangement of the imperious rooms. Do you think they were arraneged in the same way the pictures show?

"In many palaces, however, such suites form a long and straight vista, while the folding doors slide back nearly to the walls on either hand, so that the view of the whole extent is scarcely impeded. Here the case was very different, as might have been expected from the duke’s love of the bizarre. The apartments were so irregularly disposed that the vision embraced but little more than one at a time. There was a sharp turn at every twenty or thirty yards, and at each turn a novel effect. To the right and left, in the middle of each wall, a tall and narrow Gothic window looked out upon a closed corridor which pursued the windings of the suite."

[slideplayer.com]

This is a fascinating topic, since "The Masque Of The Red Death" has always been my favorite work from Poe's pen, and the arrangement of the rooms something of a puzzle. I need to re-read the story, and perhaps watch Roger Corman's film version again before commenting further, but the journey through those seven rooms is always worth repeating!

Oldjoe Wrote:
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> This is a fascinating topic, since "The Masque Of
> The Red Death" has always been my favorite work
> from Poe's pen, and the arrangement of the rooms
> something of a puzzle. I need to re-read the
> story, and perhaps watch Roger Corman's film
> version again before commenting further, but the
> journey through those seven rooms is always worth
> repeating!


Right! The Corman film (maybe his best) is vivid in my mind. As I recall it, in the film it's simply linear--you start by entering a room thru an entryway--like a doorframe--and walk thru it and exit it entering the next room, straight on thru.

As I recall it, I took my then-girlfriend--we were both juniors in high school--in the summer of '64, I think. It was at the local drive-in.

Very vivid. It may be the closest to the feel of a CAS story--or vice-versa.

Merry Christmas, all!

--Sawfish

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"The food at the new restaurant is awful, but at least the portions are large."
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Having now re-read "The Masque Of The Red Death", it does seem to me that the arrangement of the seven rooms as shown in Alexia Amberly Holt's slides does satisfy the wonderful description in Poe's original prose. The complicated arrangement of the rooms seems to be in accord with the Prince Prospero's own taste for novelty and the bizarre.

Thanks Minicthulhu for prompting me to re-visit that magical story!

Quote:

And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all.

CAS' The Isle of the Torturers offers an interesting contrast.

In some substantial ways the two stories share the central plot point of an overwhelming plague, and there is, too, the thematic element that the plagues seem to serve the purpose of a moral comeuppance as well as blind and indifferent nature (can a star-borne disease be considered natural, or divinely malign?). But for Poe there is no redeeming center, as there is in the CAS story, where the young king, who symbolizes a just an orderly world, emerges victorious--albeit in a way so ironic that it clearly places CAS' creative stamp upon it.

Personally, I feel that there's more ethical "meat" on Isle, in that we can explore the justifications for taking one's own life, and the satisfaction received from a well deserved vengeful justice, a bit of innocent romance, with an understory of perverted, sadistic love etc. There's just more to CAS' story, I think.

Happy New Year, Oldjoe, and all other EDers!

--Sawfish

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"The food at the new restaurant is awful, but at least the portions are large."
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By the way, "The Masque Of The Read Death" brings a clear message our elites should take into consideration - even the strictest lockdown does not work.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 1 Jan 22 | 10:54AM by Minicthulhu.

Shirley you jest.

--Sawfish

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"The food at the new restaurant is awful, but at least the portions are large."
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May the new year hold promise of collective awakening from enforced illusions. Best wishes to us all.

I re-watched the Roger Corman film version of The Masque Of The Red Death. It is of course quite different from Poe's original prose work, but it's interesting to observe how the seven rooms of the original are truncated to four, and how the movie allows for back-and-forth movement from the red-and-black room that terminates the sequence in Poe's version.

This is highlighted in the journey of the character Juliana, who is desperate to cement her ties with the Satan-worshipping Prince Prospero by pledging herself to Prospero's master. Having done so in that terminal red-and-black room, she then repeats her journey in reverse through the other three rooms, and meets a grim fate when she emerges into the great hall of Prospero's castle.

All of the Satanic shenanigans are original to the film version, but provide some added depth as the rooms become a metaphor for the separate paths that the two principal female characters (Francesca and Juliana) take in resolving their complex relationships with the powerful (and malicious) Prospero.

Good insights, Oldjoe!

--Sawfish

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"The food at the new restaurant is awful, but at least the portions are large."
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Having previously only seen one Roger Corman film, which did not impress me, I now watched The Masque Of The Red Death for the first time and quite liked it. Effective production, as Corman was famous for. Very colorful and expressive! And I enjoyed how the Red Death immediately obliterated Prospero's pompous Satanism.

But I have never been able to take Vincent Price seriously. Can't help but compare him to Christopher Lee, every time I see him. He comes across as a comic book caricature of Lee, drawn by Wally Wood.

Knygatin Wrote:
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> Having previously only seen one Roger Corman film,
> which did not impress me, I now watched The Masque
> Of The Red Death for the first time and quite
> liked it. Effective production, as Corman was
> famous for. Very colorful and expressive! And I
> enjoyed how the Red Death immediately obliterated
> Prospero's pompous Satanism.
>
> But I have never been able to take Vincent Price
> seriously. Can't help but compare him to
> Christopher Lee, every time I see him. He comes
> across as a comic book caricature of Lee, drawn by
> Wally Wood.


Most or Corman, as a producer or a director, is pure junk, so far as artistic merit; his main stated concern was to never lose money on any given film--and it shows. His best stuff induces (in me, at least) a sort of vulgar fascination, like a carnival side show. It's like going to see Jake, the Alligator Man.

[en.wikipedia.org]

So Corman's two best films, in my opinion, are Masque, and St. Valentine's Day Massacre.

Watching Price, you are never unaware that he's Acting, with a capital "a". In fact, he is a "thesbian", and that the stilted term implies, rather than a mere "actor".

--Sawfish

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"The food at the new restaurant is awful, but at least the portions are large."
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Sawfish Wrote:
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>
> Watching Price, you are never unaware that he's
> Acting, with a capital "a". In fact, he is a
> "thesbian", and that the stilted term implies,
> rather than a mere "actor".

Yes, a peculiarly gay modulation.

Inspired by The Masque Of The Red Death, I have now also watched Corman's House of Usher (1960) and The Pit and the Pendulum (1961). The Pit... was about as good as Masque..., but with more dramatic turns. I love the setting. But best of all three was House of Usher. My respect for Vincent Price has grown! He was perfect as Roderick, really came into his own; so wonderfully morbid!

Knygatin Wrote:
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> Sawfish Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> >
> > Watching Price, you are never unaware that he's
> > Acting, with a capital "a". In fact, he is a
> > "thesbian", and that the stilted term implies,
> > rather than a mere "actor".
>
> Yes, a peculiarly gay modulation.

Like Paul Lynde...

>
> Inspired by The Masque Of The Red Death, I have
> now also watched Corman's House of Usher (1960)
> and The Pit and the Pendulum (1961). The Pit...
> was about as good as Masque..., but with more
> dramatic turns. I love the setting. But best of
> all three was House of Usher. My respect for
> Vincent Price has grown! He was perfect as
> Roderick, really came into his own; so wonderfully
> morbid!

--Sawfish

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"The food at the new restaurant is awful, but at least the portions are large."
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