Nevermore

I wonder how many of you, after reading the title of this piece of writing, started thinking that it would be about the show Wednesday? Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you feel about the show, I have yet to finish the second season but seeing the reception so far online, so I have very little to talk about the show at the moment and not for the foreseeable future as there is an absolute torrent of content out now that it’ll take ages to go through all of them.

So what is today’s “Nevermore” about? Perhaps some of you more astute readers out there have already figured it out. But before I reveal the answer to everyone. A quick tangent.

It’s been about a week since I started this challenge of mine and I’ve received a couple of messages from my readers about how I come up with the topics that I write about. I wanted to use one of the days to explain the whole process but I felt that I was cheating a little by taking up one of these slots for what is basically a glorified announcement post.

Basically, it’s a little bit of prep. Thinking ahead a few days for topics and listing them down on my calendar. Then on the day itself, I would either use that topic or if I have another topic that is crawling around my mind I would use that instead. So it’s a bit of impromptu writing and the structure of Inktober having a list set out ahead of time. It was more of a spur of the moment thing this year, but perhaps I can find a more official list or a better list of requirements to challenge myself. But for now, it’s both seat of the pants writing and some ideas that have percolated in my brain for a while.

I hope that clears it up for some of my readers and for a little bit of inside baseball, today’s topic was inspired by crows.

I guess that would have switched on a couple of bulbs in the minds of my readers. The famous story about a bird with a glossy, black coat, tormenting a lonely man, spiraling him into madness. The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe. While crows and ravens are two separate species, they share many similarities. And perhaps I could write about the fierce loyalty that crows exhibit, even towards humans who show a modicum of friendliness towards them.

But instead I decided to talk about my literary history. About how my first exposure to a “famous” author was not J.R.R Tolkien or C.S. Lewis books or their movies but in a children television show called Tiny Toon Adventures. It was a show that featured child characters in the Looney Tunes universe like Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck but unlike the Muppet Babies these weren’t just baby or younger versions of the original characters but original ones created for the show. The show would have shorts of popular works acted by the characters of the show interspersed with more contemporary homages or original shorts.

And it was there that I was enamored by one of their shorts, The Ravin! A parody of Poe’s poem. It takes Poe’s solemn and depressing poem and turns it into a comedy of sorts as a man is driven mad by the incessant interference of the raven in the man’s affairs, all the while quoting “Nevermore.” The Simpsons would parody the same poem nearly a decade earlier in the first iteration of their Simpsons Halloween Special - Treehouse of Horror that is now a staple of the Halloween season.

I don’t know why this work resonated with me instead of the usual works of writing that many have gravitated to. Perhaps it’s the structure of the poem. Repeating. Accentuating the futility of the narrator trying to comprehend his situation. Quote the Raven “Nevermore.”

Or perhaps even at a young age, I leaned more towards the mysterious. Wondering if there was more to the world beyond what our mortal eyes could see. Something so inconspicuous as an ebony bird, representing our hopelessness to change what is around us. Quote the Raven “Nevermore.”

The voice in our minds, goading us. Telling us that our struggles are all for naught. Better to give up now and accept our fates. Quote the Raven “Nevermore.”

In a way, it seems seductive. To succumb to our present circumstances. The comfort of knowing that it is all as it should be instead of fighting against the raging current. Just go with the flow and it’ll all work out fine. But is that a life that you will find acceptable? Or do you desire more? Will you quote “Nevermore.”