Necrotic Literature

Now I was never really one for english lit. at school, not by a long way - managed to get a U for the O level - turned up for the exam and was able to write my name correctly sort of thing. Never really understood the point of aimlessly dissecting someone else's work in a vain attempt to identify the "underlying metaphor" of the poet's tormented soul. A particular horror was Wilfred Owen's Dulce et decorum est - a poem about soldiers suffering a gas attack in the first world war - what is there to understand - it's about the horror of war not the state of the poet's mind or whether he'd remembered to pay the milkman and put out the cat as english teachers would try to have us believe.
So anyway back to the eternal now. Have been reading some horror classics - and truly dreadful they are - badly written, awful characters you just can't believe - just try Dracula for instance - what on earth is Van Helsing meant to be? Why did Stoker have to try to write in a Dutch accent, this is one literary device which just does not work for me. And as for Oscar Wilde - a portrait of pompous prose would be a more accurate title...and don't even start me on Anne Rice and her catholic niceties in The Vampire Armand. Now I don't want to even contemplate what was on the author's mind at the time of writing.

Must sign off - computer under siege from singing badgers (www.badgerbadgerbadger.com)!