Poe once wrote that all worldly things contain "the germ of their inevitable annihilation." Pretty cheerful stuff -- clearly this was a man obsessed with ruin and with death. His characters typically suffer from various forms of mental and physical deterioration; their minds seem to have a predilecti

Anxiety, Dark, Death, Gothic fiction, Grotesque, Intense, Lyrical, Sublime, Symbolist poetry, Violent

Niggaz With Attitude. The name says everything. Shamelessly self-promoting and utterly megalomaniacal, N.W.A forged an image of ghetto life that would come to define the entire hip hop scene in LA. They exploited America's most deep-seated fears of (and fascination with) race and violence. They said

In-your-face, Profane, Rough, Slangy, Violent

Seneca lived in an intemperate world, a world corrupt with violent, unruly passions. Rome in the first century A.D. was saturated with viciousness, vengeance, bloodlust, and spite. The desire for political and economic power permeated the public sphere; uncontrollable passions perverted human reason;

Classical roman, Contemplative, Grotesque, Violent, Visceral, Witty

In Sophocles' world, the gods have receded. They've already determined (more or less) the fate of human beings and are content to watch from a comfortable distance. Of course, it's unclear exactly what their motives are; it all seems basically arbitrary and cruel. Indeed, the morality of the gods is

Classical, Classical greek, Excessive, Pathos, Sublime, Tense, Tragic, Violent