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Rating: Literature becomes art when the author in question decides to use it as a pretext to convey knowledge. These are the cases in which works of quality are born, the eternal, unmistakable ones, the same that today appear, if not exactly on the brink of extinction, surpassed by the inferior part of entertainment reading; that of joke collections, footballers' autobiographies, archaeological thrillers filled with suspense and plot twists, but which in the end turn out to be devoid of a plausible moral. An effective way to avoid this paper decay is to look back to retrace the steps of the great masters, those who filled their texts with the most diverse forms of knowledge, giving the works philosophical, anthropological, and sometimes even scientific nuances, merging them into a "narrative pretext" capable of instilling a bit more culture into the judgment of the reader at hand.
Edgar Allan Poe is undeniably placed in the category of the great masters of the past. He was one who used the imaginary as a pretext to tell of the weaknesses of the human psyche. He was one who daubed his works with unmistakable pessimism; a defeatism that the reader was often forced to share, however disturbing that was. He was one who, with a handful of pages, could annihilate at least twelve volumes of any scribbler sold to business.
This short story from 1846 contains all the ingredients of the master of literary terror. The Sphinx is a journey suspended between materiality and omen, between semblance and tangibility; it is a nightmare that digs into the most remote clouds of the mind, crossing the most inviolable shard of human subjugation. It features two individuals forced to retreat to a cottage on the banks of the Hudson, to avoid being infected by a violent cholera epidemic unleashed on New York. But the real narrative pretext is another: a sinister appearance, a monstrous anomaly that seems to descend a steep hill visible on the horizon, beyond the glass of one of the cottage's windows. The narration of the two protagonists who discuss the event only reveals Poe's genius, as he uses the two characters to personify their respective human reactions: on one side the disturbing effect caused by a shocking apparition, on the other a sober caution governed by reasonableness and skepticism. To this end, when the reader closes the book, smiling and thoughtful after reading the last line, the question they will ask themselves is the following: “To which human reaction do I belong? Which of the two protagonists do I most resemble?”
Obviously, you will know how to answer this question only after delving into the ominous plots of The Sphinx, a text suspended between horror and paranoia, against the backdrop of a bitter reflection on human mental disturbances. Revealing more would spoil the pleasure of discovery, so, happy reading!
Federico “Dragonstar” Passarella
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