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Poe’s best-selling book during his lifetime was a guide to seashells

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Re: Poe’s best-selling book during his lifetime was a guide to seashells

#11

Post by tmp65535 »

andi999 wrote: post #7
tmp65535 wrote: post #4

Similarly, I've been writing respectable, sophisticated software for decades but I'm fairly certain that my most widely used piece of software, by a wide margin, is a mildly pornographic app ( http://driftwheeler.com ) Other projects I've published have a trickle of users. But this app, published in 2017, has a continuously growing population of users from all over the world. I get email every day asking whether soft…

Probably the lesson is most stuff boils down to product market fit. Speaking of product: the app is not available through play store, isn't it?

All the major app stores restrict pornographic or sexually explicit content.

But if you Google "porn app", the 4th or 5th search result (SexTechGuide) is a page that features the app, with a review, pros/cons, and the funny icon.

Re: Poe’s best-selling book during his lifetime was a guide to seashells

#13

Post by whiddershins »

I saw a pretty cool Twitter thread pointing out how many people made most of their money from something distinct from what they are known for.

Kanye: clothes

Foreman: grill

Jobs: Pixar?

Not sure about the specifics but it’s definitely a common enough phenomenon to be worth noticing.

Re: Poe’s best-selling book during his lifetime was a guide to seashells

#14

Post by MeinBlutIstBlau »

legerdemain wrote: post #5

I don't know what this is supposed to prove. Poe was a failure whose writing was never popular during his lifetime. The fact that he is better known since his death is entirely due to the activist efforts by Ivory Tower academics and English teachers to make the rambling writings of an ancient hack into mandatory reading for students.

Too many 80s and 90s kids into goth when they went to college but came out as English majors. I think for the most part however instructors just follow a template teaching method and don't change it. I mean, why the hell else do we still make kids read Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn? They are some of the most boring pieces of American literature to date, not even good historical novels. To Kill A Mockingbird does a better job and even that goes way over kids heads.

Re: Poe’s best-selling book during his lifetime was a guide to seashells

#15

Post by robin_reala »

If you’re interested in reading Poe’s non-poetry fiction, I put together all of his short stories and novellas into a free/libre compilation for Standard Ebooks: https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/edgar-allan-poe/short-fict...

Having said that, I personally prefer the writing of Leonid Andreyev (described as Russia’s answer to Poe). Coincidentally, I’ve put together a short fiction compilation for him too: https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/leonid-andreyev/short-fict...

Re: Poe’s best-selling book during his lifetime was a guide to seashells

#16

Post by Andrew_nenakhov »

MeinBlutIstBlau wrote: post #14
legerdemain wrote: post #5

I don't know what this is supposed to prove. Poe was a failure whose writing was never popular during his lifetime. The fact that he is better known since his death is entirely due to the activist efforts by Ivory Tower academics and English teachers to make the rambling writings of an ancient hack into mandatory reading for students.

Too many 80s and 90s kids into goth when they went to college but came out as English majors. I think for the most part however instructors just follow a template teaching method and don't change it. I mean, why the hell else do we still make kids read Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn? They are some of the most boring pieces of American literature to date, not even good historical novels. To Kill A Mockingbird does a better…

As a Russian, Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn were an important part of my childhood, just as "To kill a mockingbird".

Re: Poe’s best-selling book during his lifetime was a guide to seashells

#17

Post by stephenhuey »

Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #16
MeinBlutIstBlau wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Too many 80s and 90s kids into goth when they went to college but came out as English majors. I think for the most part however instructors just follow a template teaching method and don't change it. I mean, why the hell else do we still make kids read Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn? They are some of the most boring pieces of American literature to date, not even good historical novels. To Kill A Mockingbird does a better…

As a Russian, Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn were an important part of my childhood, just as "To kill a mockingbird".

Thank you. The 2 parent comments seem to misunderstand a couple things. Just because something is popular doesn’t mean it’s profound, and vice versa. Also, just because something goes over many students’ heads doesn’t mean it wasn’t worth trying.

Re: Poe’s best-selling book during his lifetime was a guide to seashells

#19

Post by jandrese »

whiddershins wrote: post #13

I saw a pretty cool Twitter thread pointing out how many people made most of their money from something distinct from what they are known for. Kanye: clothes Foreman: grill Jobs: Pixar? Not sure about the specifics but it’s definitely a common enough phenomenon to be worth noticing.

George Foreman is probably better known for the grills now than the boxing career.

Re: Poe’s best-selling book during his lifetime was a guide to seashells

#20

Post by nubb »

whiddershins wrote: post #13

I saw a pretty cool Twitter thread pointing out how many people made most of their money from something distinct from what they are known for. Kanye: clothes Foreman: grill Jobs: Pixar? Not sure about the specifics but it’s definitely a common enough phenomenon to be worth noticing.

50 cent, I think, made the most of his money on purple Vitamin Water.
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