#ultimately all you know are the facts: he wrote the orangutan. he married virginia. she was younger than him‚ and he saved her from poverty | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

pleckthaniel · 4 years ago

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I feel like the thing with Eddie Poe marrying his cousin is like, you can make arguments one way or the other but ultimately the question is one of whether the marriage was consummated. Was he compassionately providing for his younger cousin, or just a pedophile taking advantage of her vulnerability after she was orphaned? We just can't ever know, and that honest to God seems to freak people out more than if he actually was just a creep.

#similarly the whole 'is he racist' question that gets brought up here every few years when the orangutan post goes around again #ultimately all you know are the facts: he wrote the orangutan. he married virginia. she was younger than him‚ and he saved her from poverty #what do you do with that? do you throw the whole man away?#scout talks #idk ive just been thinking lately about how ambiguity is really difficult for people #it's okay to want a simple answer to everything - i sure do - but sometimes the world does not provide one #personally i like poe too much to throw him out over what is‚ ultimately‚ more of a question than a condemnation #but it's still a question‚ and i do think it's disingenuous to present it as otherwise #just english major things <3

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