​Welcome to Binge Thinking. We invite professors and experts to give lectures in bars around Boston, NYC, and DC!

In a world of AI slop, doomscrolling and brainrot, Binge Thinking brings real experts into real places for nights of learning, conversation, and community.

Think Responsibly.

​TOPIC:
A Halloween Mystery: How “The Raven” Became America’s Most (In)famous Poem

SPEAKER:
Dr. Paul Lewis, Professor Emeritus at Boston College

(Signed Copies of Dr. Lewis' book will be available to be purchased at the event!)

​In 1845, American magazines published over 5,300 poems. Almost all of them quietly vanished, and honestly, most deserved it. One did not. Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” swooped in, got reprinted everywhere, and has been haunting English classes, Halloween parties, and pop culture ever since.

​People loved it. People roasted it. People wrote parodies of it. So what made one moody bird tapping at a chamber door outlast thousands of its peers? And did Poe’s messy reputation as a savage book critic, a literary brawler, and a man battling money troubles and alcohol actually help the poem take off?

​In this talk, Dr. Paul Lewis unpacks the case of how a single poem became an American icon, and whether it proves that there’s no such thing as bad publicity.

​Topics include:

​Why “The Raven” grabbed attention from the very day it was published

​How it got reprinted, praised, criticized, and mocked within weeks

​What kept people obsessed with it from 1845 all the way to today

​How Poe’s reputation as a feuding critic and troubled genius shaped the poem’s reception

​Whether scandal and controversy were secretly the poem’s best marketing

​Beyond the poem itself, this is a story about fame, gossip, and how icons are made.

​Long before viral posts and celebrity feuds, Poe was already living the drama. His rivalries, his struggles, and his razor sharp reviews all followed “The Raven” into the spotlight, turning a gloomy poem into a cultural phenomenon.

​Come for the spooky season vibes. Stay for the literary true crime. Nevermore will you read it the same way.

​About the Speaker

​Dr. Paul Lewis is an Americanist, a past president of the Poe Studies Association, the curator of exhibitions on literary Boston, and the neologist who coined the word “Frankenfood.” He is Professor Emeritus of English at Boston College. He earned his bachelor’s degree from the City College of New York, an M.A. from the University of Manitoba, and a Ph.D. from the University of New Hampshire.

​As board chair of the Edgar Allan Poe Foundation of Boston, he helped get a square at Boylston Street and Charles Street South dedicated to Poe in 2010, then had a statue of Poe installed there in 2014. He also co-organized Poe Takes Boston: The Fifth International Edgar Allan Poe Conference in 2022, and the Poe Studies Association recently honored him with an Honorary Membership. His books include Cracking Up: American Humor in a Time of Conflict, Comic Effects: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Humor in Literature, and The Citizen Poets of Boston: A Collection of Forgotten Poems, 1789-1820.

​Agenda

7:00 PM - Doors Open (Grab a seat and drinks!)
7:30 PM - Lecture Begins
8:10 PM - Audience Q&A
8:30 PM - Drinks & Conversation
9:00 PM - Event Ends

​Join us and grab a drink as we crack a Halloween cold case. How did one gloomy bird outlive 5,300 other poems?