Science Fiction and Edgar Allan Poe's "A Descent Into the Maelstrom"

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This short story is what Poe called a 'Tale of Ratiocianation;" one where we look for reasons to solve a mystery. It is also an early science fiction thriller.

In previous podcasts I read and discussed Hawthorne and the birth of Sci-fi, now we turn to Edgar Allan Poe.

Hawthorne wrote science fiction in a romantic style, with elevated even poetic language; Poe, on the other hand, wrote science fiction in the precise literature of empirical science.

In this episode I give you a brief history of the first five years of the Royal Society of Science in the mid 17th century, and how that has shaped our minds through fiction to this day.