InPoeMation Overload

For our sixth episode in the series, we are taking a dive into Poe's seminal work, "The Tell-Tale Heart." Like so many other genre-defining works of his, this too would inform countless other writers in the way that mental illness could be approached in writing. As Mike and Dave discuss in the episode, the particular flavor - it's the best word we could come up with - of the madness suffered by your protagonist here is different from that in "The Black Cat" previously or of the narrator in "The Cask of Amontillado," which will be the focus of our next show.

Diagnosing the specific illness of the narrator becomes relatively impossible nearly two hundred years later and with utterly different medical terminology, but for the sake of what we talked about, a schizoaffective disorder seems possible. In keeping with this, the auditory hallucinations suffered by the protagonist could be in keeping with that incredibly layman's diagnosis. Interestingly, in researching the topic, we came across a study by Stanford, which is somewhat simplified in a report on NPR, that details the differences in the types of sounds or voices heard depending on culture or location.

Speaking of location, as a final little thing, Poe absolutely could have seen a turkey vulture given the extent of the range of those remarkable birds whose faces - and appetites - certainly may inspire feelings of terror or revulsion.

Anyway, we hope you enjoy the episode!