First Things First…
Apparently, this has something to do with a guy going to the moon. Not what I would expect out of a Poe story, nor is it the type of horror I always hope for from him, but it could be cool.
3 Things I Like
3. Outrunning His Creditors
This guy, Hans Pfaall, literally traveled by balloon to the moon just to escape the creditors trying to collect his debts, which he couldn’t pay. What a choice!
2. Adventure Journal
It’s odd that Hans, who narrates most of the story through the letter he sends, starts keeping a daily journal of his travel roughly halfway in. By the time he starts journaling, he’s already been through some serious trials that almost killed him.
The journal breaks up this section of a rather long story pretty well. And it covers some cool stuff. This is where Hans writes about the areas he’s flying over, like the Great Lakes and the poles.
Another highlight of the journal starts with Hans’ April 10 entry, which begins…
“I was suddenly aroused from slumber, about five o’clock this morning, by a loud crackling, and terrific sound, for which I could in no manner account. It was of very brief duration, but, while it lasted, resembled nothing in the world of which I had any previous experience. It is needless to say that I became excessively alarmed, having, in the first instance attributed the noise to the bursting of the balloon.”
He goes on to describe this sound in a couple more entries before finally realizing he’s hearing meteors pass by, treacherously close to him.
Even if none of this is real—even if Hans’ whole story is a hoax, which is suggested at the end—it’d be impossible to write an adventure journal during a balloon trip to the moon without some excitement!
1. Dangers of Balloon Travel to the Moon
“I began to find great difficulty in drawing my breath. My head, too, was excessively painful; and, having felt for some time a moisture about my cheeks, I at length discovered it to be blood, which was oozing quite fast from the drums of my ears. My eyes, also, gave me great uneasiness. Upon passing the hand over them they seemed to have protruded from their sockets in no inconsiderable degree…”
Hans Pfaall
Speaking of…
This type of journey wouldn’t just be exciting. It’d be guaranteed to be full of danger.
There are two parts in particular that were my favorite. Probably because, even in a science fiction story, these aspects could fall under horror,.
One of Hans’ earliest struggles happens when an explosion rocks the balloon and causes him to fall over the side of the basket, where luck alone saves him. One foot gets caught in some rope and leaves him dangling, high above the Earth, until he eventually manages to pull himself back up.
Later, as the balloon rises to an altitude of 9 ½ miles, and before he figures out how to alleviate the pressure, Hans begins to struggle to breathe. But more than that, he finds that he’s bleeding from his ear drums, and his eyes are protruding—practically popping out—of his eye sockets.
The description of this scene is as close to horror as we get.
1 Thing I’m Mixed On
1. Moon Landing
“… I had barely time to observe that the whole country, as far as the eye could reach, was thickly interspersed with diminutive habitations, ere I tumbled headlong into the very heart of a fantastical-looking city, and into the middle of a vast crowd of ugly little people…”
Hans Pfaall
In a story that goes into excruciating detail about so many things, Hans’ moon landing gets less than a page. What we get is cool—especially the idea that there’s an “incomprehensible connection between each particular individual in the moon, with some particular individual on the earth”—but I wanted more.
Of course, if Hans’ whole story is bullshit, then it makes sense that he wouldn’t have much to say here.
2 Things I Don’t Like
2. Too Much Science
Some of that excruciating detail I mentioned above occurs throughout the story, as Hans describes his instruments, the measures he takes so he can breathe, the balloon’s ascent and angle of elevation, among other things. It’s very technical and is probably intended, within the story, to make Hans’ tale more believable to the people of Rotterdam who hear it. But there’s SO MUCH, and it really slows the story down.
1. The End
After Hans’ letter is finished, the story still goes on for way too long. There’s some discussion of whether his adventure is to be believed. And this is where the hoax talk comes in. But I couldn’t even say what all of it is about. Coming on the heels of his moon landing, and all the excitement that came before in his adventure journal, the momentum comes to a screeching halt for the last few pages.
Tim Matassa
