Lionize, transitive verb: to treat as an object of great interest or importance…

We live in the age which lionises celebrities of stage and screens both big and small, sporting stars of team sports and individuals who sell us products splashed across the shirts they wear, and while we are at it we also as oft as not lionize the vacuous for no reason other than the vogue of their existence… Much is made of celebrity culture and how it damages society. The views of a musicians, actors, footballers, or even just a football pundits are both lorded or derided in equal measure depending entirely on the cause celeb on which they have chosen to express their opinion and the opinion of the zeitgeist, or at least those who make it their role to steer the public in the direction they chose. It was, however, ever thus.

In this micro media age of Instagram influencer’s, tiktok dancers and you tube stars, the lionised have become whomever shouts the loudest for our increasingly minimal attention spans. Today you can become a star in your own lunchtime, be a has-been by tea and a never-was by supper time. You don’t have to put much in the way of consideration or indeed apply your intellect to what you say or do, you don’t have to think about it for a moment, just record your opinion and put it out to the world. Demand likes and retweets, and with those you measure your fame. The more vacuous the better frankly if that is your aim. Or perhaps just dance like no one is watching them post it to the internet and hope everyone does. Or film yourself commenting on the artistic merits of a movie without take a moment to consider what that movie may mean…

We are eight billion lost souls, seeking to be celebrated for our celebrity, rather than our achievements. All seeking to be lionised, to become the in thing, that which is, rather than that which never will be or never was…

What, you may be thinking, has this mildly extended rant have to do with the stories of Edgar Allan Poe. Poe’s stories are after all some what at odds to the disposable culture of the twenty-first century. They and their writer, have stood the test of time. Well, for the most part not a great deal, but in the case of this particular story, ‘Lionizing’, everything, because this tale is a satire on the vacuous nature of celebrity, and its all in the nose…

‘Lionizing’ is a tale told to us by Thomas Smith a man born in the city of Fum-Fudge with a remarkable nose, and an even more remarkable interest in noses. He also claims to be the foremost expert on the study of Nosology which he explains is the study of noses. Which is a handy coincidence as his is a particularly fine example.

After a youth spent studying nosology and everything the great and good have ever said on the subject he is kicked out of the family home by a father whom, reading between the lines, is less than taken with his sons obsession. Thomas then goes on to write a pamphlet on the study of noses which, he tells us, he is divinely inspired to do, and takes great pleasure in telling us just how well it was received by. Well by whoever had an interest in noses presumably. Then he goes to visit an artist and displays his nose for all to see and sells the rights to the image of his nose to the artist for a small fortune before becoming a celebrity on the salon circuit where the great and the self important, talk about things of weight and the things that they think should be of weight. While Thomas of course talks about his nose, to various reactions…

‘O beautiful!’ — sighed the Duchess of Bless-my-soul.

‘O pretty!’ — lisped the Marchioness of So-and-so.

‘Horrible!’ — groaned the Earl of This-and-that.

‘Abominable!’ — growled his Highness of Touch-me-not.

In a whirlwind Thomas rises in society, until of course he gets so high on his own self-importance that he reacts to a minor insult by challenging a respected noble to a dual, which he wins by shooting off the others nose… At which point his short period of fame becomes infamy and he is driven out of society.

There is not a great deal of subtly in Dear Edgar’s humour in this tale. He goes for the satirical throat from the off. What he is satirising is not of course the TikTok generation, rather the intelligentsia of the salon circuit and the value and importance that those who moved in such circles ascribed to their own opinions. Opinions that seem quite vacuous from the outside, our nose obsessed narrator Thomas Smith among them. But it is easy to transpose the satire onto the micro media/celebrity age. While Poe is not subtle and this is all a very in your face kind of satire he lands it perfectly. Sure the intelligentsia of the salon circuit isn’t the target it was, but think of it as a satire of social-media stardom and it works just as well as it ever did.

Also I must admit that for me the pair of lines below in it when Thomas is describing one of the many attenders of a salon makes it worth the read alone, As, as a former student of philosophy I can only smile and agree…

There was Sir Positive Paradox. He said that all fools were philosophers, and all philosophers were fools.

What this tale shows once again is that for all he is mostly thought of as a morose writer of gothic horror and murder Poe wrote compelling satire and humour that sits there with the best of them. Subtle as a brick through a window perhaps, but if this short story doesn’t raise a smile and a merry chortle along the way then frankly you’re doing reading wrong…

Of course all that said I’m just a man who spouts vacuous opinions on the internet in the age of micro media so what would I know…

A NOT UNKIND FOUR RAVENS WITH ONE RYE EYE CLOSED EACH, AS IF WINKING AT YOU

Should your read it: With a smile, for the few minutes it will take you…

Should you avoid it: Just read it.

Bluffers facts:  Nosology is a real science, it is not however the study of noses, but in actuality the branch of medical science dealing with the classification of diseases. Nosos being the ancient Greek for disease, something Poe would have been aware of, so doubtless delighted in misusing the term for the purpose of humour. The scamp.