The Devil's Oblong Mummy

Anything Different is the Devil. . . 

As I was reading The Devil in the Belfry, I kept thinking that there was some deep, dark secret about the man of the Belfry that we would discover in the next line or so. Turns out, that the devil was the one who changed their highly regimented routine.  It was pretty depressing for me to read about an entire town, terrified of change, or anything different, with none of the inhabitants finding their situation to be confining.  I began to get a bit of a potential-utopia feel soon after beginning the story.  Utopias always scare me; they're so creepy and sterile and the same (I know, it's the point, but they're still weird).  Also, I bet it was pretty stinky around these folks , what with all the cabbage and pork they consumed--do you think they were regular?

Some Questions-They'll be posted on the discussion board:

• How do you deal with interruptions of interlopers to your routine?  Do you eventually appreciate the change, more often than not?
• Being fully aware of how little time we actually have, why did these people find it acceptable to waste away their days watching a clock?  Were they a metaphor for the "worker bee" of today's society?
• Why did the children not try to run away? All the adults would have been too scared to run after them. 

Just Throw Some Salt on It. . . 

Anyone who did not immediately jump to the conclusion (given the title and the fact that we're reading Poe) that The Oblong Box contained a body is simply not paying attention.  I did like the mystery involved, but people of that time period sure are outwardly nosy, aren't they?  Imagine how difficult it was for Mr. Wyatt to travel knowing his blushing bride was rotting away in the floor next to him.  Obviously it was excruciating, the man did drown himself over the thoughts of leaving her to the whims of the waters alone.  

Some questions (They're also on the Discussion Board):

• Are you as nosy as the man on the ship? Do you pry into the personal and private details of another's business?  (Sometimes I want to, but I don't because I don't want to look like a weirdo.)
• Would it have been better (or more calming as a passenger) to know that the box contained an embalmed body, packed in salt?  (The narrator said that it smelled fairly strong.)
• How would you have handled the situation, if you were the captain?
• Why was the narrator so openly nosy?

Count Allamistakeo, the Mummy

Once I began to read Some Words with a Mummy, I am pretty sure that I read it in high school, either way, I got more out of it this time.  The electrified monster is a recurring theme in fantasy and mystery writings, Mary Shelly's Frankenstein  and I think I remember a movie on the Disney Channel (Underwraps, if I'm not mistaken) that followed a mummy that came back to life.  Poe's re-invigorated mummy presents different moral, ethical, and historical questions than the others. I found the juxtaposition of the ancient and the modern particularly thought-provoking.   

Some questions: 

• What if history really is written this way? What have we gotten wrong so far?
• What happens when the mummy is never revived?
• At what intervals would you choose to pause and restart your life? Would it be continuous? Or disjointed?
• Would you really want to live for 800 years?
• How much progress have we really made since ancient Egypt?
• Who or what would you like to bring back to life that is currently and has been dead or extinct? Would you be interested purely in the novelty, in the potential knowledge, or a combination of the two?
• If we could travel forwards in time, would the converse apply?

Are you enjoying Poe April? I know I am! Share your thoughts/comments here and join in on the discussion boards!