Michael Hoffman reads Poe's 'The Cask of Amontillado'

In this recording Michael Hoffman, a life-long Poe reader, student and scholar, gives a recitation of Poe’s anti-masonic short story, “The Cask of Amontillado,” followed by a brief analysis. This video was banned from Mr. Hoffman’s YouTube channel on August, 26, 2019 along with several other videos and the “suspension” of his account. YouTube termed this video, among others by Hoffman, “severe hate speech.” You can decide for yourself the veracity of this absurdist judgment on what is in fact a contribution to a more multi-dimensional understanding of American literature. This Poe video was censored by YouTube mainly due to pressure exerted by an organized campaign now underway to cancel Mr. Hoffman’s presence on the Internet.

Hoffman writes:

“I hope when introducing Edgar Allan Poe to students, literature teachers at the high school and college level will go beyond ‘The Tell Tale Heart’ and ‘The Pit and the Pendulum’ to explore the stories that illustrate Poe’s most profound dimensions, as exhibited in ‘Ligeia,’ ‘The Fall of the House of Usher,’ ‘The System of Dr. Tarr and Prof. Fether,’ ‘The Black Cat,’ ‘Never Bet the Devil Your Head,’ ‘The Masque of the Red Death,’ and of course ‘The Cask of Amontillado.’ In terms of a spoken word recital of a Poe story, we have encountered no one who has surpassed Diamanda Galás in her performance of ‘The Black Cat.’ Her total ownership of the spirit Poe sought to evoke in that tale is an aural experience to which all Poe enthusiasts should harken. We also note that the late Basil Rathbone was a worthy Poe reciter, particularly with ‘The Masque’ and ‘Usher.” The Galás performance is on an anthology CD bearing the unfortunate title, ‘Closed on Account of Rabies.’ Rathbone’s recitals are available on various CD compilations.

"When Poe died on October 7, 1849 after being struck by what we believe to be a blow to the back of his head, the early American republic was in the throes of an anti-masonic crusade, in the wake of the 1826 assassination of William Morgan, a former Mason who dared to publish a definitive text on the heretofore secret first three degrees of masonry. That crusade would not end until the eve of the American Civil War, when many distinguished anti-masons such as William Seward and Thurlow Weed served in the administration of Abraham Lincoln.

"The masonic history of these United States — and the chronicle of the populist American counterrevolution contra the Invisible Empire — has yet to be written. When it is, we hope it will be from the pen of a revisionist scholar who will take note of its victims — including one of our nation’s most remarkable authors, whose post-mortem reputation as a slovenly drunk was concocted by his bitter enemies in the Lodge, who he mocked mercilessly in life. To him they were all “Fortunatos."

Michael Hoffman © 2019