The Black Cat revisited...

Hi - this is my discussion  page for all things literary... lets wade in with my current obsession: all things gothic. I was recently re-working Edgar Allen Poe's The Black Cat so that I could use it for younger writers (I work at a local primary school, supporting children with developing writing skills). So I came to the moment where Poe writes: 'I took from my waist-coat pocket a penknife, opened it, grasped the poor beast [the cat] by the throat, and deliberately cut one of its eyes from the socket.' I pulled a face, and thought... there is no way I can use this with children. I will have a dozen or so parents banging on my door to complain at animal cruelty!

It struck me then, the inherent cruelty, savagery even, of Poe's writing. Not the thrill of anticipation found in gothic writing perhaps, but rather a sickening sense of horror. The wince, you could say, rather than the thrill!

This aside, what he achieves is a reworking of domestic pet into twisted, gothic grotesque character. Listen to this - Poe describing cat again: 'Wherever I sat, it would crouch beneath my chair, or spring upon my knees, covering me with its loathsome caresses. If I arose to walk it would get between my feet and thus nearly throw me down, or, fastening its long and sharp claws in my dress, clamber, in this manner, to my breast... I started hourly from dreams of unutterable fear to find the hot breath of the thing upon my face.'

Lovely. Affectionate pussycat reduced to grotesque thing. For mine, I eventually decided upon the following, for my younger writers: 'I grasped the poor thing and, holding it in front of me, squeezed my hands around its neck until it became limp.' My watered down version has inevitably lost some of that Poe-esque power - but hopefully parents have coped with this - no complaints so far, anyway!

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