Edgar Allen Poe, The Black Cat

Question

This latter was a remarkably large and beautiful animal, entirely black, and javascript:xtip(468) to an astonishing degree. In speaking of his intelligence, my wife, who at heart was not a little javascript:xtip(537) with superstition, made frequent allusion to the ancient popular notion, which regarded all black cats as witches in disguise. Not that she was ever serious upon this point -- and I mention the matter at all for no better reason than that it happens, just now, to be remembered.

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Hi,

From, Edgar Allen Poe, The Black Cat.

The underlined part means that the reason he is mentioning is that the story just happened to come to his mind?

With no serious allusions to something?

CSnyder · Accepted Answer

Yes.

Anonymous · Answer

Even in a short story there is a lot of space to be filled up with more or less meaningless text.  The story here is quite brief:  man murders his wife and unknowingly walls up her cat with her.   To this sketchy outline must be added a lot of filler in order to flesh out the story.   The underlined section, essentially meaningless and unnecessary, serves to help fill up the story with words.  Indeed the whole quoted section is basically filler.

Pructus · Answer

Thanks CSynder and an Anonomous...

Now, I understand that in "It happens to be remembered", "it" is not a dummy "it", but refer to the story...

Edgar Allen Poe, The Black Cat

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