“The Masque of the Red Death” is among Edgar Allan Poe’s most-read short stories, and it is also among his most dreamlike, or, it might be more suitable to say, his most nightmarish. Poe tells the story of a prince…

You see it and get that nightmarish shiver you can only recall from your dreams. It is an image inviting you to get lost in the world in front of your eyes while the world behind them strives to decipher that strange familiarity. It is an unconventional word and a plot twist in the story. It is absurd and childish. It is real and abstract. A philosophy: surrealism.

Although I had never seen a Wes Anderson film until very recently, I had always known him to be a quirky, indie, offbeat, and whimsical filmmaker. This assumption most likely grew from friends or family who have mentioned him in conversation, or critics whose reviews I have come across.

One of the rich traditions of Irish Culture lies in its unique mythology. The emblem of their history is defined by it, and its close ties to the mysticism and beliefs of paganism idiosyncratic to the island. Festivals of celebration, and the tradition of giving one’s self into excess is, at times, a producer of culture that can sparsely be seen in nations considered “civilized,” which is easily demonstrated by the concoction of tales surrounding Fairies, Banshees, and Gods that are fairly native to the populace of Ireland.