Thank You, Mr. Poe
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child are definite derivations of insane Poe characters in “Fall of the House of
Usher” and “Murders in the Rue Morgue.”
Not only is Poe’s horror legacy evident in Preston and Child’s novels, but
his influence on the mystery and detective aspects of the story is just as pertinent
and can be traced back to the story, “Murders in the Rue Morgue.” However,
unlike the horror elements borrowed from Poe’s legacy, which are intended to
convey a sense of time past, the mystery elements have been updated and
developed to fit into the modem contexts of the stories. The use of the lockedroom mystery is solved in one case using GPS and in the other case, the crime is
committed with the use of microwaves.
The implementation of the detective sidekick is evident in all three of the
modem works but has been enriched and developed to be the dynamic character
in each of Preston and Child’s novels. While Dupin’s sidekick remains as
unchanging as Dupin himself, Nora Kelley, Corrie Swanson, and Vincent
D’Agosta each begin their respective stories down on their luck, but through
their success in helping Pendergast solve the crime of the story, each one
develops and is a different character by the end of the story. This modem
adaptation does not weaken Poe’s legacy regarding the creation of the detective
sidekick, but strengthens its legacy because of its adaptability over time.
Along with these two mystery story devices, Pendergast is a direct
descendent of Poe’s detective Auguste Dupin. Dupin’s rational, deductive crime
solving process using the Bi-Soul method has been reincarnated, in greater detail
of course, with Pendergast’s implementation of his Mystery House. Both
characters are known for their remarkable crime solving abilities, and
Pendergast has Dupin’s (Poe’s) invention of ratiocination as the process of
pairing intuition and knowledge to thank for his success. Pendergast’s unusual
adeptness at solving crimes comes with a price, however, similar to Dupin’s
consequence of genius. Both detectives, due to their eccentric natures, are forced
to live on the periphery of normal society and neither is satisfied with the
practice of police in his respective era. Like the inanimate devices of the
mystery story themselves, Pendergast has been updated also to sort of fit into the
modem world, as best as an outcast of his nature really can.
The authors Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child owe a great debt to their
predecessor in horror and detective fiction, Edgar Allan Poe. I have spent the
duration of this argument detailing exactly the specific elements derived from
Poe’s works that are evident in the modem novels of Preston and Child;
however, Poe’s most significant and far-reaching endowment to Preston and
Child, as well as to many other contemporary fiction authors, is the wedding of
horror fiction and detective fiction to create the hybridization of horror detective
fiction, which is so evident in today’s pop culture. Since detective fiction is
often considered as being created primarily by Poe, because he combines the
horror elements of gruesome murders and body concealment in “Murders of the
Rue Morgue” and uses ratiocination to detail the acts of murder in some of his
horror tales, Poe can logically be considered to be the father of this blending of