"The Man of the Crowd"

31 January 2022: Had a pretty wonderful time discussing Poe's "The Man of the Crowd" with my seminar this afternoon. Though I tried not to show it too much, I also found myself quite moved thinking about his epigraph: "Ce grand malheur, de ne pouvoir être seul," translated as "This great misfortune, of not being able to be alone." 

For the titular man of the crowd, the narrator supposes some great crime keeps him from being able to be alone. But I raised the idea more generally, offering that I could understand the kind of unease or distress that we might feel when alone, something we try to chase away by being around others. I didn't want to overshare or show how deeply I feel this at times, especially lately, but it was clear that others could see the point I was making. Just one of those moments where we can feel the point a writer makes stretching across time. (Similar moments in ENGL 204 today, as we discussed "The Birthmark" and "The Minister's Black Veil.") 

So far, the seminar is going quite well, more a tribute to the students than to me.