First Things First…
Another Poe story I know nothing about. This has been true of most of his early works. I’m still waiting for one of them to jump out and grab me. So far I’ve been disappointed.
3 Things I Like
3. The Brilliantly Rotund Pierre Bon-Bon
We spend the entire story with Pierre Bon-Bon, and he’s a fascinating character. We learn in the beginning that he’s an incredible restaurateur, but he’s equally brilliant as a philosopher.
The story’s opening paragraph says, “Bon-Bon had ransacked libraries which no other man had ransacked—had read more than any other would have entertained a notion of reading—had understood more than any other would have conceived the possibility of understanding…”
In other words, this guy has put in the work. I especially love using the word “ransacked” here. He’s attacked his scholarly pursuits with relish.
The disheveled state of his home/café also reveals his unquenchable thirst for knowledge and wisdom, with books escaping the safety of bookshelves and spilling over everywhere. You’ll also find “an oven-full of the latest ethics” … “volumes of German morality were hand in glove with the gridiron” … and “Plato reclined at his ease in the frying pan.”
Bon-Bon even wants to engage the devil in conversation so he can “elicit some important ethical ideas, which might, in obtaining a place in his contemplated publication, enlighten the human race, and at the same time immortalize himself.”
This crazy MF’er isn’t afraid of the devil. He wants to use the devil to prove his own brilliance.
2. Philosophy Satan Is Still Scary
This devil kind of seems like a gentleman. He dresses decently, speaks eloquently, and likes to make deals.
And Bon-Bon welcomes him with open arms. He recognizes his uninvited visitor almost immediately and, after his initial shock, “Every shadow of anger faded” and “he shook him cordially by the hand, and conducted him to a seat.”
But despite the devil’s propensity for dealmaking, and his willingness to talk philosophy, he’s still the devil. And though this story is more comedy than horror, at least we get a nice horrific description of the devil. When he first talks to Bon-Bon, it says, “… the devil, dropping at once the sanctity of his demeanor, opened to its fullest extent a mouth from ear to ear, so as to display a set of jagged and fang-like teeth…”
A few moments later, when the devil removes his glasses, Bon-Bon sees he “had no eyes whatsoever… for the space where eyes should naturally have been was… simply a dead level of flesh.”
1. Too Much for the Devil
The gist of the story is that the devil makes deals in which he’s awarded, and EATS, souls. Philosophers are especially tasty treats. He’s had Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, and a whole bunch more.
Bon-Bon wants to be next, such is his penchant for dealmaking. And as a brilliant, learned metaphysician, he believes this is a no-brainer of a deal for the devil.
The problem is that Bon-Bon is also a lush. He gets drunker and drunker as the devil’s visit continues, to the point where he can barely keep up a conversation through his hiccups. And despite pleading to make a deal, the devil—yes, the devil!—says it would be “very unhandsome in me to take advantage of your present disgusting and ungentlemanly situation.” And he walks out, just like that.
How boorish and unseemly must your behavior be to put off the devil and cause him to simply walk away from such a willing soul?
1 Thing I’m Mixed On
1. Dealmaker
It’s important to establish up front that Bon-Bon LOVES making deals, of any kind, for any reason. It makes it more believable when he’s so keen to make a deal with the devil.
However, he doesn’t even care if he wins or loses the deal?
It says he’ll take “a trade of any kind, upon any terms, or under any circumstances,” even if it ISN’T to his advantage.
Wouldn’t it make more sense if he always tried to get the better of every deal, and he was trying to one-up the devil?
Tim Matassa
