Intro and Alternate Opinion on Poe's Novel

Alright, this is waaay late but I just got access to the blog. My name is Adam Porritt, and I'm a sophomore double majoring in Political Science and International Affairs with a minor in Spanish. I'm from Fayetteville but my father's in the military, so I've pretty much moved around my whole life. I love to play soccer, snowboard, and just about any other sport where I can compete against other people. I'm a complete goofball and I like having fun doing just about anything. I really like to travel and try new things/meet new people so feel free to facebook me. I was somewhat dismayed by the fact that I seemed to be the only one who was not overly critical or analytical of Poe's novel. I very much enjoyed reading the piece because of the overwhelming amount of action and adventure. I do concede that the novel jumped around a bit and seemed to be more like a patchwork of short stories, but I did not feel that it detracted from the novel at all. We know that Poe wrote the novel because of financial woes, and I think that may have caused the lack of a cohesive flow. I feel like the novel, being an action/adventure story, completely served it's purpose though. I thought that the only hinderance to the read was Poe's tendency to venture into long descriptions of less interesting topics, such as the water-bags in large tortoises. This however, was still necessary in order for some parts of the novel to make sense. If the description of these bags of water were not explained then several men surviving off of one tortoise for several days would have been even more farfetched. Also, there were some instances in the novel that were a bit incredulous such as when Pym pulls out a pen and paper when he's being chased on Tsalal. I think that knowing Poe's motives for writing the novel and a certain amount of suspension made me less critical and enabled me to fully enjoy the novel.