Ethan’s Reviews > Complete Tales and Poems > Status Update
Ethan
is on page 354 of 864
“The Business Man”: A slightly amusing satire, once you get past the brief antisemitism early on. Sometimes I can’t tell if the odd names of things/people (like “Messrs. Cut & Comeagain” here) are a Poe thing or a time period thing. ⭐️⭐️⭐️
— Oct 24, 2023 08:34PM
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Ethan’s Previous Updates
Ethan
is on page 404 of 864
“The Colloquy of Monos and Una”: Monos sucks, and this is another afterlife conversation without much happening. But he writes beautifully about death by the end. ⭐️⭐️⭐️ ½
— Oct 29, 2025 07:13PM
Ethan
is on page 398 of 864
“The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion”: Telling an old friends about the end of the world in the afterlife. Long-winded and less interesting than the last one. ⭐️⭐️ ½
— Oct 29, 2025 06:08PM
Ethan
is on page 392 of 864
“The Power of Words”: A philosophical conversation between an angel and a dead guy. Nothing happens, but too short to be a drag. ⭐️⭐️⭐️
— Oct 29, 2025 02:41PM
Ethan
is on page 388 of 864
“Maelzel’s Chess-player”: A well-written essay debunking a real-life, chess-playing automaton. An interesting read and window into Poe’s thought process, but not a story. ⭐️⭐️⭐️ ½
— Oct 31, 2024 03:45PM
Ethan
is on page 372 of 864
“The Man That Was Used Up”: This is a story about the narrator asking about someone and never getting a straight answer. It’s exactly as boring and frustrating as it sounds. ⭐️⭐️ ½
— Oct 31, 2024 02:07PM
Ethan
is on page 364 of 864
“Mellonta Tauta”: A rumination on how and what we remember of history, made more interesting by the years since it was written. Occasionally funny, and occasionally too long. ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
— Oct 30, 2023 07:04PM
Ethan
is on page 346 of 864
“Loss of Breath”: It’s fine. Wikipedia seems to say it’s deep, but I feel like that’s been lost in the present day. That leaves a story that I have no strong feelings on whatsoever. ⭐️⭐️⭐️
— Oct 21, 2023 09:36PM
Ethan
is on page 336 of 864
“The Angel of the Odd”: I’ve decided I hate trying to decipher accents that are written phonetically. It destroyed any immersion or pacing in this story. ⭐️⭐️
— Oct 21, 2023 08:30PM
Ethan
is on page 328 of 864
“X-ing a Paragrab”: In contrast to Poe’s unfunny essay/articles, the short stories can be amusing. Nothing particularly deep or memorably funny, but amusing enough of a read. ⭐️⭐️⭐️
— Oct 19, 2023 09:28PM
Ethan
is on page 322 of 864
“Diddling”: A “joke” essay about scams, which mostly consists of ideas for scams. I don’t find these funny in the slightest. ⭐️½
— Oct 19, 2023 08:44PM
