Keith Steinbaum's Blog: The Poe Consequence

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Happy to announce the release of The Poe Consequence audiobook narrated through the mesmerizing vocal talents of Mr. Dwight Kuhlman. Available through Audible, Amazon, or i-Tunes.

In a section of Los Angeles near Dodger Stadium, two rival gangs rule the streets. For the Alvarado Street Diablos, it’s been a year since the murder of one of their closest members at the hands of their sworn enemy, The North Rampart Lobos. A drive-by killing in his honor is planned, but things go wrong and an innocent bystander is the victim. Several hours later the one who pulled the trigger suffers a horrifying death, caused by something never before seen in its uniqueness. Many more such cases follow, all involving only these two gangs among the hundreds throughout the city.

And each death occurs at the same time of day. The exact same time of day.

What can these two enemies do to survive against an unstoppable power intent on their mutual destruction? How is a gang-hating young boy’s attempt to save the life of a gang member tied into rescuing a loved one’s soul from eternal damnation? What does a mysterious psychic’s prophesy conveyed earlier in New Orleans have to do with all of this?

Exploring both the hope and darkness that define our emotions, The Poe Consequence integrates social and ethnic divisions through acts of fate and supernatural horror for the reader to observe and imagine.

The post THE POE CONSEQUENCE – BY KEITH STEINBAUM appeared first on THE POE CONSEQUENCE.

In a section of Los Angeles, two rival gangs rule the streets. For the Alvarado Street Diablos, it’s been a year since the murder of one of their closest members at the hands of their sworn enemy, The North Rampart Lobos. A drive-by killing in his honor is planned, but things go wrong and an innocent bystander is the victim. Several hours later the one who pulled the trigger suffers a horrifying death, caused by something never before seen in its uniqueness. Many more such cases follow, all involving only these two gangs among the hundreds throughout the city.

And each death occurs at the same time of day. The exact same time of day.

What can these two enemies do to survive against an unstoppable power intent on their mutual destruction? How is a gang-hating young boy’s attempt to save the life of a gang member tied into rescuing a loved one’s soul from eternal damnation? What does a mysterious psychic’s prophesy conveyed earlier in New Orleans have to do with all of this?

Exploring both the hope and darkness that define our emotions, The Poe Consequence integrates social and ethnic divisions through acts of fate and supernatural horror for the reader to observe and imagine.

The post THE POE CONSEQUENCE – BY KEITH STEINBAUM appeared first on THE POE CONSEQUENCE.

 

Edgar Allan Poe’s works were disregarded at first in the United States, but they gained soaring popularity after well-known French poet Charles Baudelaire, whose own writings were influenced by Poe, gave them recognition in the period around 1850. As the years have passed since then, his stories and poems have been immortalized from the classroom, to film, to the numerous authors who count Poe as a major influence on their own literary creations.

Although Poe is best known for works stemming from the horror genre, he also wrote what is recognized as the first detective story recorded in American literature; “The Murders in the Rue Morgue.” Subsequent publications by other detective writers followed, with the best-known example of these being Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s, Sherlock Holmes, the most popular detective in fiction. The Holmes character was inspired by Poe’s fictional detective, C. Auguste Dupin, the crime-solving guru from “The Murders in the Rue Morgue.”

Another bestselling story influenced by Poe is the fantasy-adventure novel, Life of Pi, although not the story itself.   It was Richard Parker – the name of the tiger on the boat. The name Richard Parker appeared in Poe’s 1838 novel, “The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket” – a nautical adventure story.

For over one hundred fifty years, many Poe-inspired short stories, poems, and novels have been published, and it is with this in mind that I now include myself, author of The Poe Consequence, as another author influenced by the timeless allure that is Edgar Allan Poe.

Sources:

http://education.seattlepi.com/influence-edgar-allan-poe-american-culture-5573.html

http://www.grin.com/en/e-book/97801/edgar-allan-poe-and-his-influence-on-american-literature

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/may/23/top10s.poe

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/first-detective-story-is-published

The post Edgar Allan Poe’s Impact on Modern and American Literature appeared first on THE POE CONSEQUENCE.

The majority of my story, The Poe Consequence, takes place in modern day Los Angeles, and prominently features two fictional Latino gangs – The Alvarado Street Diablos and The North Rampart Lobos. The following is a brief history of the origin of Latino gangs in Los Angeles.

The L.A. area has had a long history of gang activity. As early as the 1920s, Latino youth formed “boy gangs” patterned after earlier social groups of Latino and Chicano men known as palomilla. These gangs were mostly made up of Mexican immigrants who faced discrimination upon settling in Los Angeles. In the following decades, gangs continued to multiply as youths came into conflict with the authorities.

During the 1940s, two historical events would unify the Latino population and turn much of the youth into gang members – the Sleepy Lagoon murder, and the Zoot Suit Riots.

The Sleepy Lagoon Murder

On August 2, 1942, a young Latino named José Gallardo Díaz was discovered unconscious and dying on a road near a popular swimming hole called Sleepy Lagoon. He was taken to a hospital, but died.

Despite insufficient evidence, the police arrested 17 Latino youths who were members of the 38th Street Mexican gang. The youths were charged with murder and they went on trial. The way the trial was handled angered many in the Latino community because the judge was viewed as clearly prejudiced against them. The accused were not permitted to change their clothes during the trial on the grounds that the jury should see the defendants in the zoot suits that were “obviously” only worn by “hoodlums.” Nine of the youths were convicted of second-degree murder and sent to prison. The rest were charged with lesser offenses and got locked up as well.

Eventually, the convictions were reversed in 1944 when the state Court of Appeals unanimously decided the evidence was not sufficient to sustain a guilty verdict.

Despite the reversal, stories of trouble caused by Latino youths did not stop, and the Sleepy Lagoon murder case would act as the trigger to the Zoot Suit Riots in 1943.

The Zoot Suit Riots

By the beginning of 1943, America was deeply engaged in World War II. People in Los Angeles felt vulnerable to an attack by Japan, and there were patrols throughout the city as well as anti-aircraft guns. Furthermore, tens of thousands of servicemen could be found in Los Angeles on any given weekend.

After the Sleepy Lagoon trial, the authorities singled out zoot suiters and started to associate them with crime and violence. The local press didn’t help matters either as they continued to inform the public that zoot suiters and gangsters were one and the same.

Tension came to a head on June 3rd, 1943, when eleven white sailors reported that they were attacked by zoot suiters. In retaliation, military servicemen and citizen mobs targeted and beat up anyone wearing a zoot suit. After several days, more than 150 people had been injured and police arrested more than 500 Latinos on charges ranging from “rioting” to “vagrancy”. The local press even praised the attacks by the military servicemen, describing the assaults as having a “cleansing effect” that was ridding Los Angeles of “miscreants” and “hoodlums”.

As the riots subsided, nationwide public condemnation of the military and civil officials followed. But the damage had already been done. Although the riots united the Latino community, it also made many young Latinos believe that they needed to join gangs in order to keep themselves safe.

Sources:

https://web.stanford.edu/class/e297c/...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gangs_i...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoot_Su...

http://www.nationalgangcenter.gov/con...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clanton_14

http://www.southcentralhistory.com/ga...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleepy_...

https://www.mtholyoke.edu/~campo22k/c...

http://www.dailynews.com/general-news...

http://www.laalmanac.com/history/hi07...

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/zoot/eng...

The post History of Latino Gangs in California: Part I – The Sleepy Lagoon Murder & The Zoot Suit Riots appeared first on THE POE CONSEQUENCE.

Although my book, The Poe Consequence, features ideas borrowed more from The Tell-Tale Heart and The Pit and the Pendulum, I do utilize one very important concept concerning specific lines from one of Edgar Allan Poe’s most renowned works, “The Fall of the House of Usher.” First published in the year 1839, this remarkably horrifying Gothic tale features a dark, depressing landscape, a haunted mansion, a strange disease, and a dead body.

Like most of Poe’s stories, The Fall of the House of Usher also has an unnamed narrator, this one being a childhood friend of the main character. Although the reader isn’t given a physical description of the narrator, he plays a major role throughout the action that takes place. The other characters are the gloomy and mysterious, Roderick, and his disease-stricken sister, Madeline – the last descendants of the Usher clan.

The story exemplifies Poe’s literary identity in several ways. As you start to read the story, you’ll become acquainted with the sense of death, to a point that if you open your imagination enough, along with hearing strange scratching sounds and muffled noises, you’ll almost feel yourself rotting in the house. Yes, it is that dark, and, therefore, so wonderfully Poe. Perhaps you’ll feel trapped inside the decaying mansion, experiencing an awareness of claustrophobia as you find yourself focused on the bizarre actions of Roderick Usher until the astonishing plot twist occurs.

“There was an iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart…”

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fal...

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/poestor...

http://www.poedecoder.com/essays/usher/

Photo Credits:

Photo By Renaud Camus via StockPholio.com

The post The Fall of the House of Usher appeared first on The Poe Consequence by Keith Steinbaum.

In Chapter 1 of my book, The Poe Consequence, a mysterious psychic calling herself Madame Sibilia, gives a tarot card reading to Warren Palmer, a man seeking knowledge about a job opportunity he covets. What Palmer hears instead is a reading that portends a menacing and destructive future; one that produces consequences of death and dominance over two Los Angeles gangs.

Is tarot card reading real? Can someone who wears flowing robes foretell the future just by looking at the cards, or is tarot reading simply an elaborate scam to entice you to spend your money? Let’s try to look at things from a neutral point of view and learn more about both sides.

The people who think it’s real

While there is certainly room for error, tarot readers argue that the cards can actually describe specific details of a person’s life. Although there are books that guide you through the meanings of each one, it takes practice to be able to deduce the infinite interpretations that spring from the cards. A good reader can see patterns that a neophyte can’t.

Believers state that tarot card readings can tell you the possibilities of any given situation. Of course, none of it is set in stone, and it’s only showing you a fork in the road to decide which path to take.

The people who don’t think it’s real

On the flip side of the debate, disbelievers feel that tarot card reading is nothing more than a scam cooked up by con artists to take money from us. They state that these alleged fortune tellers are simply “cold reading” people to make their victims believe that they are psychics. Basically, cold readers can pick up a great deal of information by simply analyzing a person (facial expression, body language, age, clothing etc.). Afterwards, they will get the person to talk more about his/her situation and manipulate the reading to make it sound convincing.

Skeptics also claim that readers use certain dubious methods like the “you have a curse” line to make people with personal or emotional issues crack and pay readers money to “heal” or help them. Of course, readers also charge large sums of money for the “healing” that they offer.

The Middle Ground

Perhaps most of us reside in this category, conceding that we don’t know for sure, but acknowledging that either we or people we know have heard about or experienced seemingly unexplainable stories about individuals who seem to possess certain abilities that leave us confused over puzzling yet apparent realities.

What’s your take on this?

Sources:

http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/69322

http://science.howstuffworks.com/scie...

http://www.experienceproject.com/ques...

https://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Cold_...

The post Tarot Card Reading: Real or Fake? appeared first on THE POE CONSEQUENCE.

In the first chapter of my book, The Poe Consequence, the reader is introduced to a mysterious psychic named Madame Sibilia. Her grim demeanor and ominous interpretation of the Tarot Cards during a reading launches a series of events that spiral out of control and is a major premise of the story.

The following is a brief history of the origin of Tarot Cards:

Created between 1430 and 1450 in northern Italy, Tarot Cards were only used as playing cards until 1781. It was in that year that Antoine Court de Gébelin, a French clergyman and Freemason, made the claim that Egyptian symbols were represented on the tarot card illustrations. In an essay written in Le Monde Primitif, Aanalysé et Comparé Avec le Monde Moderne (“The Primeval World, Analyzed and Compared to the Modern World”), de Gébelin stated that he believed tarot was not only Egyptian in origin, but a book of mystical revelation with a deep divine significance.

A few years after de Gébelin published his book, Jean-Baptiste Alliette, better known by his pseudonym, “Etteilla”, became the first to devise a method of tarot divination. He soon became the first professional tarot occultist who made his living by card divination, and the first to publish divinatory meanings for cards. In 1788, Etteilla formed ‘Société des Interprètes du Livre de Thot’, a group of French-speaking correspondents through which he continued to publicize his teachings. Toward the end of his life, Etteilla produced the first deck of cards specifically designed for occult purposes by combining his ideas with older forms of French cartomancy (fortune telling by interpreting a random selection of playing cards).

In the 19th century, a French occult author and ceremonial magician, Alphonse Louis Constant, better known as “Eliphas Levi,” extended the concept of the tarot cards by suggesting that the tarot trumps were connected with the Hebrew alphabet. He also incorporated tarot cards into his magical system, and as a result the tarot became an important part of the paraphernalia of Western magicians.

The person that arguably had the most profound influence on the tarot deck was Arthur Edward Waite, an author and Christian mystic. Waite, with the help of artist Pamela Coleman Smith, published his own revised deck in 1909. This version has been widely accepted as the standard deck to this day, and is notable for being one of the first tarot decks to illustrate all 78 cards. The major change was that they no longer resembled playing cards but were now rich with pictures and symbolism.

Tarot cards remain popular to this day and hundreds of diverse new decks have been published since the early 20th century.

 

Sources:

http://www.salemtarot.com/tarothistor...

http://www.collectorsweekly.com/artic...

https://marygreer.wordpress.com/2011/...

http://certifiedpsychics.com/psychic-...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divinat...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarot#O...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoine...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etteilla

Photo Credits:

Photo By Kelly Hunter via StockPholio.com

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