{"id":1445554,"date":"2020-10-29T10:00:11","date_gmt":"2020-10-29T14:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"\/blog\/?p=1445554"},"modified":"2020-10-28T12:20:09","modified_gmt":"2020-10-28T16:20:09","slug":"all-the-ways-edgar-allan-poe-predicted-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/blog\/all-the-ways-edgar-allan-poe-predicted-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"All the Ways Edgar Allan Poe Predicted 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img src=\"http:\/\/img.sparknotes.com\/content\/sparklife\/sparktalk\/edgarallanpoetheravencjpquizMAIN_LargeWide.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Edgar Allan Poe was a time traveler and you can&#8217;t convince me otherwise. Not only did he predict the Big Bang Theory in his short story \u201cEureka\u201d as well as frontal lobe syndrome in \u201cThe Businessman,\u201d he also predicted a terrifying shipwreck that hadn&#8217;t happened yet in <em>The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket<\/em>\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 right down to the name of one of the victims. And if all of that doesn&#8217;t scream \u201ctime traveler,\u201d then his death\u2014in which he died under mysterious circumstances wearing someone else&#8217;s clothes, while allegedly muttering the name of a stranger nobody knew\u2014certainly does.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And that&#8217;s not even all the evidence. I&#8217;m here to tell you that Poe also predicted 2020, and if more people had bothered to read &#8220;The Masque of the Red Death\u201d before March of this year then maybe we would&#8217;ve seen this stuff coming. Here are all the ways Poe predicted this absolute garbage year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>How the whole world would get hit by a major pandemic:<\/strong><br>\u201c\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6far and wide, over sea and land, the black wings of the Pestilence were spread abroad.\u201d \u00a0<br>\u2014 \u201cShadow: A Parable\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>How we would define the term \u201cdoomscrolling\u201d:<\/strong><br>\u201cIt has been the desperate attempt to escape from torturing memories, from a sense of insupportable loneliness and a dread of some strange impending doom.\u201d<br>\u2014 An 1848 letter to Sarah Whitman<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>How self-isolating would affect our daily lives:<\/strong><br>\u201cHis ordinary occupations were neglected or forgotten. He roamed from chamber to chamber with hurried, unequal, and objectless step.\u201d \u00a0<br>\u2014 \u201cThe Fall of the House of Usher\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>How we would all respond upon receiving yet another notification on our phones alerting us to distressing news:<\/strong><br>\u201cUgh! ugh! ugh! \u2014ugh! ugh! ugh! \u2014ugh! ugh! ugh! \u2014ugh! ugh! ugh! \u2014ugh! ugh! ugh!\u201d \u00a0<br>\u2014 \u201cThe Cask of Amontillado\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>How it would feel to binge-watch a Netflix series alone in your apartment with no one to share it with:<\/strong><br>\u201cAnd all I loved, I loved alone.\u201d<br>\u2014 \u201cAlone\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>How some people would be able to hunker down for quarantine but essential workers would still be expected to go to work:<\/strong><br>\u201cThe abbey was amply provisioned. With such precautions the courtiers might bid defiance to contagion. The external world could take care of itself.\u201d<br>\u2014 \u201cThe Masque of the Red Death\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>How Gilead Sciences, Inc. would be the company developing a vaccine for COVID-19:<\/strong><br>\u201cIs there\u2014is there balm in Gilead?\u2014tell me\u2014tell me, I implore!\u201d \u00a0<br>\u2014 \u201cThe Raven\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>How Australia, California, and Colorado&#8217;s 2020 wildfire seasons would break records:<\/strong><br>\u201cHow I revel on the prairie\u00e2\u20ac\u02dc! how I roar among the pines!\u201d \u00a0<br>\u2014 \u201cThe Fire Legend: A Nightmare\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>How misinformation would spread on social media and beyond:<\/strong><br>\u201cBelieve nothing you hear, and only one half that you see.\u201d<br>\u2014 \u201cThe System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>How we would all feel a lot of the time, just generally:<\/strong><br>\u201cI dread the events of the future, not in themselves but in their results.\u201d \u00a0<br>\u2014 \u201cThe Fall of the House of Usher\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>How weeks would go by without anybody realizing it and you&#8217;d think you were going crazy:<\/strong><br>\u201cAnd I hold within my hand<br>Grains of the golden sand \u2014<br>How few! yet how they creep<br>Through my fingers to the deep,<br>While I weep \u2014 while I weep!\u201d \u00a0<br>\u2014 \u201cA Dream Within a Dream\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>How the whole year would play out\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 basically TL;DR:<\/strong><br>\u201cThe year had been a year of terror, and of feelings more intense than terror for which there is no name upon the earth.\u201d \u00a0<br>\u2014 \u201cShadow: A Parable\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Edgar Allan Poe was a time traveler and you can&#8217;t convince me otherwise. Not only did he predict the Big Bang Theory in his short story \u201cEureka\u201d as well as frontal lobe syndrome in \u201cThe   <a class=\"continue-reading\" href=\"#\"><span class=\"continue-text\">continue reading<\/span><svg class=\"continue-icon\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"24\" height=\"24\" alt=\"\">\n    <path fill=\"#007acd\" fill-rule=\"nonzero\" d=\"M13.442 5.558L19.885 12l-6.443 6.442-.884-.884 4.934-4.934L4 12.625v-1.25l13.492-.001-4.934-4.932.884-.884z\"><\/path>\n  <\/svg><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":485,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[628],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1445554"}],"collection":[{"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/485"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1445554"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1445554\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1445555,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1445554\/revisions\/1445555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1445554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1445554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1445554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}