Sunday 3 March 2013

Arthur Machen's 150th

 Image by the inestimable Andrea Bonazzi
The fault I find with so many so-called horror-tales (particularly including my own) is that the object of horror too swiftly becomes too solid and concrete. It takes a master of the pen, such as Machen and yourself, to create a proper SUGGESTION of unseen and unknown horror. The illusive shadows lurking at the back of the brain are so much more monstrous and blood-chilling than the children of the actual mind. I’m not saying this like I’d like to say it. But the rustle of leaves when there is no wind, the sudden falling of a shadow across a door, the furtive trying of a window-catch, the sensation of unseen Eyes upon one, these give rise to speculations more monstrous and terrors more cosmically icy, than any chain-clanking apparition, or conventional ghost, that appears in full glory. When a writer specifically describes the object of his horror, gives it worldly dimensions and solid shape, he robs it of half its terrors. Somewhere, somehow, there must lurk in the dim gulfs of our racial memories, titanic and abysmal horrors beyond the ken of the material mind. For how else are we able to half conceive and fear entities we are not able to describe? Seek to draw their images for the conscious mind and they fade away. We cannot shape them in concrete words. Well, I seem to be repeating myself without saying yet what I’m trying to say. But I’ll say this: humanity fears floods and starvation, foes and serpents and wild beasts, but there are fears outside these concrete things. Whence come these fears from the OUTSIDE? Surely in its infancy mankind faced beings that live today only in dim ancestral memories, forgotten entirely by the material mind. Otherwise, why is it we half-visualize in that other, subconscious mind, perhaps, shapes beyond the power of man to describe?
 - Robert E. Howard, Letter to H.P. Lovecraft, ca. September 1930

A big anniversary for Arthur Machen, one of the finest practitioners of the uncanny weird tale, an influence on countless authors, and one of the great under appreciated progenitors of modern horror. For my part, I haven't written much on him: for whatever reason I never "got" The Novel of the Black Seal or The White People, so I guessed he wasn't for me.  But then I read "The Great God Pan," and man did I get it. He truly masters the technique of horrific suggestion in a way I've only seen equalled by Blackwood. I reread it recently, and it remains one of my top twenty horror stories. When I get back on 80 Years of Conan, I'll be discussing "The Great God Pan" and its possible influences on "The Frost-Giant's Daughter."

I don't have much else to say, so here's a great post on the man's work from Stewart Lee.

10 comments:

  1. Though I'd heard of him before, I really discovered Machen just this past summer when I was reading a bundle of Lovecraft and kept getting diverted into various of his influences. I ordered up a bunch of Machen's work and read "The Great God Pan" among others. I'd read it years ago, but this time it took. Look forward to what you have to say about his work, and now I can race to my collection and dig out the story most likely.

    Rip Off

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    1. There are still lots of Machen works out there I haven't checked out due to my reception of Black Seal and White People, but Pan alone sold me.

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  2. Thanks to 'Supernatural Horror in Literature', I read The Three Impostors. It's absolutely great. Thanks, HPL.

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    1. Ah, that's another one I've been meaning to try, thanks DG!

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  3. I'm a great fan of Machen's and can also recommend The Three Impostors. It's fascinating to see how both Novel of the Black Seal and Novel of the White Powder work as stand-alone pieces as well as part of Machen's greater narrative in The Three Impostors. I was first introduced to Machen by an article about him written by TED Klein, whose own work is decidedly Machen-esque...

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  4. I'm a mssive Machen fan, and want to point out that he has a wide variety of items apart from the weird fiction. I admire his prose poems in particular, such as "Rus in Urbe", and such works as "A Fragment of Life" and _The Hill of Dreams_.

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    1. He did indeed, Mr Ellis, thanks for the comment!

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  5. Dear Friends,
    We have already republished Far Off Things - The first volume of Arthur Machen's autobiography in a scholarly, high quality edition in a limited run of 250 copies. As soon as we return enough from the sale of these books, we will print 250 copies of The London Adventure, in the same format. Followed by Things Near and Far, finishing the set. We know that the books are 'out of order' 1,3,2 but we thought the publicity from The London Adventure would help us secure enough cash to secure the third.
    We have put out own money into this and will return no profit. We just love Machen's work and want to see him in print at a reasonable price.
    www.threeimpostors.co.uk
    We hope it's ok to 'advertise' here. If it isn't please delete our post and accept our apologies.

    Mark
    For and on behalf of 'The Three Impostors'

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    1. No problem at all, Mark: labours of love are worth promoting, and I'm only too happy to oblige.

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  6. As part of the World Fantasy Convention in Brighton there will be a panel on Machen and weird tales writers with Joshi chairing. I planned the lineup intending Howard to be covered too hopefully we can stick with that.

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