Cats as Supernatural Vehicles: A Postmodern-Revivalist Analysis of the Macabre

As we all should know, cats play a major role in life. Whether as harbingers of doom or domestic pals, felines play a major role both inside and outside the world of literature. Edgar Allan Poe (author of unforgettable classics such as "The Black Cat") knew this all too well, and used our furry friends as weapons in his quest to unleash the macabre on the masses. In "The Black Cat", the main character completely loses his mind due to a series of increasingly unfortunate run-ins with not one, but two kitties. The first feline, Pluto, is initially greeted with open arms by the antihero, until a drunken misunderstanding leads to a lot more human guilt and a lot less cat eyeballs. Plagued by the guilt of his monstrous deed, the man hangs Pluto in what he considers to be the end of his malfeasance. The nightmare appears vanquished, for the man has been rid of the cat who pains him so. However, not all is as it appears in the world of fantasy. Lo and behold, a second, somewhat ethereal cat waltzes into the man's life shortly thereafter, triggering a hopeless spiral of events ending in a chimney full of corpse. The concept of cats as vehicles through which gothic fantasy is conveyed is far from limited to "The Black Cat", or even Edgar Allan Poe's works. After a quick bout of shopping, I realized that we are far from finished with felines in our fantasy-fueled fervor; "Aura", a novella by none other than Carlos Fuente, features a cat of its own on the cover and, presumably, within its pages.