so i was listening to edgar allen poe's Fall of the house of usher on tape.....

What a bunch of drivel. it is just as bad as listening to Shakespeare. Just tell the story in sane person English...

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hunkalove · 61-69, M

When I worked in a bookstore a teenager asked me if we had any Edgar Allan Poe that wasn't in Old English. I started to tell him it wasn't in Old English but then I decided he had a good point. There used to be a big difference between written English and spoken English. Moby Dick usually gets the credit for being the first novel written in spoken English. Nathaniel Hawthorne did it too. American voices.

SunshineGirl · 36-40, F

@hunkalove Yes, but a century and a half later Moby Dick feels more antiquated and strange than more 'literary' novels precisely because it is written in the vernacular.

hunkalove · 61-69, M

@SunshineGirl I don't think so. It really isn't much of a novel, but the writing is good.

SunshineGirl · 36-40, F

@hunkalove I love the book, but it's not an easy read for me. I feel modes of speaking date more quickly than literary style.

LILY61

@SunshineGirl when i read old stuff like that...i keep reading other stuff like that from the same age. it makes it easier to read if you stay in that mode. i can't keep going back and forth from the 50's to 2023 to 1889...i get confused