The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar
by Lorna Derksen
When Edgar Allen Poe wrote The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar he may have chuckled to imagine the great hoax he was preparing to present to the literary and scientific world. In 1845, first numerous American periodicals and then journals in England, Germany, France and Austria published the tale, most with the understanding that it documented a fantastic but verifiable medical experiment attended by reputable doctors and nurses in Bronx, New York. The experiment was the mesmerizing of a man moments from death. The objectives were to see if one at the edge of death could be mesmerized, how the condition of death would effect mesmerization, and for how long a period the process of Death might be halted through mesmerization. The hoax of getting thousands to believe that a man had been suspended between life and death was indeed an accomplishment, but Poe seems to have accomplished much more than an effective hoax. The story illustrates a deeper hoax that most of us have been caught in: that of interpreting lies as fact (click here for a brief retelling).
Poe, deeply influenced by the scientist Mesmer, was fascinated with the philosophy of mesmerism. Mesmer held that when hypnotising a patient, a magnetic fluid streamed from his hands into the patient's body, empowering him to subdue the troubles of the patient or put him to sleep. It was also believed the once mesmerised, a patient had access to a transcendent plane, a plane not commonly traversed. Poe described this access in another tale, "Mesmeric Revelation" in which the narrator questions a hypnotized friend and receives deep and cryptic answers about the form of God and man's relationship to God.
The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar begins with the words of a knowledgeable and trustworthy mesmerist, offering the facts in an extraordinary case which, because it was leaked to the outside world, had become garbled in its explanation. The narrator's purpose is clear by the end of the first paragraph; he will quell any misconceptions about Valdemar's mesmerising, clearing away any triggers of disbelief allowing the reader to fully believe that a man near death had been hypnotized, that death had been abated for 7 months and that the release from 7 months of hypnosis to death was horrific beyond description.
Poe had most of his audience believing every detail of the tale for a number of reasons. At the time of publication many experiments and much literature speculated on the ability of hypnosis to hold back death. People were fascinated by the topic, some wanting to believe that the speculation was true. Elizabeth Barrett Browning was among those who wanted to believe. She loved Poe's tale so much that she insisted it be included in a book of his tales she was buying. The tale had been so convincing for her and her friends, they were thrown into the most "dreadful doubt as to whether it can be true" (Walker, p. 148). For those who wanted to believe the tale, Poe gave every reason to believe. He used the words 'facts' and 'succinctly', outlined his three motives, recorded verbatim a note from the patient, named the reputable doctors present, used notes recorded by a medical student and was very scientific in his explanation of Valdemar's condition throughout the process.
Although many believed, some questioned whether the tale was a true account or merely a wonderful story. One American critic speculated that "it was extremely improbable that a person having any reputation whatever would run the risk of a fabrication, which on its detection must exclude him from society" (Walker, p. 151). Critics may have hoped for honesty in part because in Europe there was already little dependence to be placed upon American veracity.
When it became evident that the story was a hoax, Poe explained that he wanted to insure attention for the philosophy of mesmerism and thus wrote it into a 'real' situation. He had not deliberately intended to deceive. In fact when asked of the tale's truth, Poe, tongue in cheek, suggested that, "we leave it to speak for itself" (Williams p.111).
If readers understood the tale to be only a gruesome story, then Poe may have tricked them a second time. One critic, Michael J. S. Williams (pp. 106-113), suggests that Poe's main purpose in Valdemar is to illustrate the mysterious territory between fact and fiction. Although we may think it simple to ascertain the difference between the two, Poe suggests in his cryptic story that we may not always know what is real.
The Contamination of Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar
At last the singular authority of Poe's written word will give us the facts. Or does it? In spite of his claims of singularity of voice, Poe's sources parallel the multiple sources of gossip. To inform us of the experiment, he depends on notes from the attending medical student, notes which initially are verbatim, then condensed and finally and admittedly interpreted by Poe. Additional sources of his 'facts' are the note written by Valdemar and comments given by the medical staff. Thus, "the distinction between Poe's text and the multi-authored versions of gossip begins to collapse" (Williams, p. 109).
The line between fact and fiction blurs even more when Poe describes Valdemar's medical condition before mesmerization. With the authority that most doctors command, Poe details the patient's symptoms using medical terminology. With confidence, we know that Valdemar's ossified lungs, adhering to his ribs in places, are not in good health. He obviously is a perfect candidate for this experiment. These bodily facts, however, are actually fiction. Descriptions of internal organs such as the lungs and aorta are available only after post-mortem. Some symptoms, in fact, only apply to a person already dead. Trust me, Poe says, and then he offers fictionalized 'facts'.
It is the written word that Poe has told us is so credible. Valdemar then, as a compiler of bibliography, as one who has control over the written word, is a most credible volunteer. In fact, Valdemar's pseudonym, Issachar Marx, when translated tells us that he brings gifts (Issachar) through the act of marking (Marx) or writing words on a page (Williams, p. 110). The words offer the gift of meaning. Therefore, Valdemar is a translator of meaning, in a similar way that the human body is the representation of the soul. The similarity is significant as we see Valdemar's body become more and more like text, like the written word, as it increasingly decomposes. Eventually, this body turned to text speaks in a meaningful way just as words on a page can.
The metamorphosis from man to text is
Valdemar's body continues its startling transformation as Williams so wonderfully explains (p 111). Before mesmerization Valdemar's face wears a leaden hue. After hypnosis, the skin resembles 'not so much parchment as white paper' and from a hole in this paper erupts a 'swollen and blackened tongue.' Speech and text combine, as the tongue, the black word on white paper, speaks, 'I am dead.'
Control of the written word is now lost for Poe. His Valdemar text cries out for a quick end to the hellish purgatory between life and death. When Poe acts to awaken Valdemar, the tongue screams, 'dead!' and the body, that which delivered the message, rots instantly into a 'liquid mass of loathsome - of detestable putrescence.'
So, of Poe's 'succinct and objective' account of Valdemar's mesmerization, what is fact and what is fiction? Is the written word more trustworthy and controllable than the spoken word?
What is the fiction which hides within the words and ideas which we think are fact? And in what sense is fiction then true? Over what do we assume control when in fact it is impossible to 'recompose the patient?'
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