Poe vs Hemingway, whose short story style actually holds up better today?

[WearyScholar]

Edgar Allan Poe and Ernest Hemingway represent genuinely opposite short story philosophies, with Poe's dense, atmospheric, adjective rich prose building dread through accumulation while Hemingway's famously spare, understated style does the opposite, building meaning through what's deliberately left unsaid. Both remain massively influential but for genuinely different reasons and different kinds of writers. Curious whose specific style people think actually holds up better for a modern reader

Doesn't need to be a clean universal answer, curious how people weigh atmospheric density against minimalist restraint here. Both approaches genuinely still get taught and imitated constantly

Who's your pick, and why specifically. Genuinely curious how differently people are weighing this

[TheRizz00]

Poe's atmospheric density still works genuinely well for horror and suspense specifically, a genre where that accumulated dread actually serves the story rather than feeling excessive. Hemingway's minimalism doesn't translate as naturally to that specific genre. Depends heavily on what kind of story you're actually trying to tell

[BigDog26]

Both writers get imitated constantly but honestly badly most of the time, with amateur Poe imitators producing overwrought purple prose and amateur Hemingway imitators producing flat, lifeless minimalism that misses what actually made the original work. Says something about how hard both styles genuinely are to execute well despite looking simple or straightforward on the surface. Difficulty of imitation might be the fairer measure of actual craft here

[NebulaKnight]

Hemingway's style genuinely ages better for a modern reader honestly, since contemporary fiction has largely moved toward that same economical, showing rather than telling approach he pioneered. Poe's denser prose can feel genuinely overwrought to readers used to leaner modern writing. Different eras clearly favor different specific approaches

[BigDog10]

Honestly think Poe holds up better for readers who actually enjoy being told a story with full atmospheric commitment, while Hemingway holds up better for readers who prefer inferring meaning themselves. Neither approach is objectively superior, just suited to genuinely different reading preferences. Personal taste probably decides this debate more than either writer's actual technical skill

[Sequence]

Modern journalism and genuinely a huge chunk of contemporary literary fiction feel like they owe more to Hemingway's economical style than Poe's more genre specific influence on horror and mystery writing.

Poe's influence runs deep within specific genres though, arguably as foundational there as Hemingway is to literary fiction broadly. Different scope of influence entirely