Becoming-Spooky #1: Edgar Allen Poe - The Fall of the House of Usher

Holberg’s novel follows Niels Klim, who falls through a cave opening and discovers a vast subterranean world. He travels among bizarre countries inhabited by intelligent trees, animals, and other unusual beings. These imaginary societies allow Holberg to satirize European politics, religion, social hierarchy, gender relations, and intellectual pretensions. The book combines travel narrative, utopian and dystopian speculation, comic fantasy, and philosophical debate. Its playful depiction of nonhuman civilizations makes it an important early work of science fiction and speculative literature.

Machiavelli’s Belphegor is a comic and satirical tale concerning a demon sent from Hell to investigate why so many men blame their wives for their misery. Belphegor assumes human form, marries, and experiences the frustrations of domestic life firsthand. The story reverses conventional religious expectations by portraying human society, especially marriage, as a source of torment comparable to damnation. It combines folkloric demonology with social satire and skeptical commentary on human behavior. The work is often read as an entertaining example of Machiavelli’s ironic treatment of institutions, hypocrisy, and the conflict between idealized appearances and lived experience.

Emanuel Swedenborg’s Heaven and Hell presents a detailed vision of the spiritual world and the condition of souls after death. Rather than depicting divine judgment as an externally imposed verdict, Swedenborg argues that spirits move toward heavenly or hellish communities according to their deepest loves and dispositions. Heaven is associated with love, charity, and service, while hell reflects self-centeredness and destructive desire. The work emphasizes continuity between earthly character and spiritual destiny. Its unusual account influenced religious thinkers and helped shape the intellectual environment surrounding William James.

The story begins with the narrator visiting Roderick Usher, who has been suffering from an unspecified illness. Roderick's sister, Madeline, is also ill and falls into deathlike trances. As the narrative unfolds, the narrator becomes increasingly entangled in the eerie and supernatural events surrounding the Usher family and their mansion. Roderick believes the house is alive and connected to the family's fate. The story culminates in the terrifying revelation that Madeline may have been buried alive, leading to the simultaneous deaths of the twins and the collapse of the House of Usher itself.