Arthur Machen, Thoughts?

[Fried Egg]

Joshi lists the following four stories as Machen's greatest works (in no particular order): "The Three Impostors", "Hill of Dreams", "A Fragment of Life" and "The White People". He describes "The White People" as being infiintely superior to "The Great God Pan".

Not that Joshi's word is gospel or anything; just offering it up as another opinion to consider.

 

[j d worthington]

I wouldn't class "The Great God Pan" that low, but I would class "The White People" as being one of the two or three best weird tales ever written (Blackwood's "The Willows" being another). I would also class Oliver Onions' "The Beckoning Fair One" as quite possibly the best ghost story in the English language; which, given some of the pieces I have read over the years, is saying considerable....

 

[Connavar]

It isn't a weird or horror piece, but the central dream narrative is one of the most powerful pieces of fantastic writing out there....

For a writer who is seen as a master of horror i wanted a horror story or atleast a weird one The Hill of Dreams was not of interest then.

It would be like wanting to try Lord Dunsany and not going for his classic fantasy collections but instead you read his realistic war stories or tall tales by Jorken.

Im in a mode to read,try important writers in classic horror. Im after Machen,Blackwood,the classic gothic novels by Radcliffe and co. Other type of fantastic is not my goal right. Its a big undertaking for me to buy,find books of these authors. They are not easy to find as second hand or in the library atleast not in original versions of the story,the correct langauge.

 

[Extollager]

JDW, I come late to this thread, but I wanted to second your appreciation for Far-Off Things. (I'm not as fond of Things Near and Far; and as for The London Adevnture -- !) My favorite Machen story is perhaps "N," which is not so much a story of horror as of wonder. It resonated with an Australian friend of mine, who had a very remarkable experience, lasting for months. Perhaps I'll write about it, with his permission, sometime.

Machen may have written that true wonder is of the soul somewhere, but, incidentally, he wrote a good essay about food that's in a wartime anthology called We Shall Eat and Drink Again! It's called something like "The Gray's Inn Tavern."

 

[Sargeant_Fox]

Last year I read the three volumes published by Chaosium and liked most of the stuff, although the third volume had some weak stuff. I loved The Terror - both versions - and also The Three Impostors.

I'd love to read "N," but it's not collected anywhere. Joshi calls it crap but what he reveals about its plot - a man discovering another dimension - seems quite interesting.

 

[Fried Egg]

Well, I'm making my way through the second volume of Arthur Machen's best weird tales:

So far read "The Red Hand", a good mystery reprising the great character Dyson I first saw in "The Three Impostors".

The collection of vignettes/prose poems collectively referred to as "Ornaments in Jade" were a pleasure to read.

I've just finished reading "The White People", thought by many to be Machen's most effective supernatural story. It was very good although excessively restrained in it's victorian values. And I'm sorry but single paragraphs spanning about ten pages are just not acceptable in my book!

 

[JustPassingThrough]

OKAY!
I was trying to place the name and then it hit me: This is the gentleman that Stephen King said wrote the maybe the best horror story in the English language.

 

[Fried Egg]

"Fragment of Life" was sublime. Probably the best thing I've read by Machen so far even though it was hardly what one would call "weird".

 

[D_Davis]

So far I've only read The Great God Pan, and I loved it. I have the three volume set on my shelf to read in the future.

 

[Extollager]

Sargeant Fox, S. T. Joshi is a militant materialist-atheist. One would not perhaps expect that he would enjoy "N."

 

[Fried Egg]

Sargeant Fox, S. T. Joshi is a militant materialist-atheist. One would not perhaps expect that he would enjoy "N."

But Joshi's "militant materialist athiesm" doesn't stop him appreciating much of Machen's other work which is pretty much all concerned with themes of spiritualism and criticising materialism. That said, I have not read "N" nor am I familiar with Joshi's reasons for loathing it.

 

[Extollager]

Joshi likes horror but "N" isn't a horror story. He doesn't have to like it. But I would regret it if people gave up the search for it thanks to Joshi's dismissal.

 

[Fried Egg]

Joshi likes horror but "N" isn't a horror story. He doesn't have to like it. But I would regret it if people gave up the search for it thanks to Joshi's dismissal.

I still don't think you're being entirely fair on Joshi. He praises "Fragment of Life" most highly and that couldn't even be called "weird" let alone "horror".

But anyway, I take your point, no one person's view should be taken as gospel.

 

[antiloquax]

I think I have read "The Great God Pan" years ago, but I'd forgotten Machen's name. Then I saw his name on some lists that Borges put together.
Some of his stories are available on Project Gutenberg (but not "The Shining Pyramid")
[Edit - it's on ManyBooks.net, along with many others!]
Anyway, I've put a couple of them on my Kindle!
a

 

[Extollager]

I still don't think you're being entirely fair on Joshi. He praises "Fragment of Life" most highly and that couldn't even be called "weird" let alone "horror".

But anyway, I take your point, no one person's view should be taken as gospel.

What got this subthread started was someone quoting Joshi as dismissing "N" rather high-handedly. Does Joshi explain why the story seems bad to him? In the absence of any indication as to why he rejects it, I hazarded a comment relating to what I do know about the guy, as something that might have a bearing on a story that suggests life is more wonderful than we usually think. Obviously Joshi thinks well of Lovecraft who loved to say life is a hideous thing, etc etc.

 

[Fried Egg]

Ah, for those who are as yet to buy any of his stories, there is a new Penguin Classics collection coming out in December: The White People and Other Weird Stories. It will apparently contain the following stories:

• “The Inmost Light”
• “Novel of the Black Seal”
• “Novel of the White Powder”
• “The Red Hand”
• “The White People”
• “A Fragment of Life”
• “The Rose Garden”
• “Witchcraft”
• “The Bowmen”
• “The Soldiers’ Rest”
• “The Great Return”
• “Out of the Earth”
• “The Terror”

It is notable that it doesn't contain his most famous story: "The Great God Pan".

 

[D_Davis]

What got this subthread started was someone quoting Joshi as dismissing "N" rather high-handedly. Does Joshi explain why the story seems bad to him? In the absence of any indication as to why he rejects it, I hazarded a comment relating to what I do know about the guy, as something that might have a bearing on a story that suggests life is more wonderful than we usually think. Obviously Joshi thinks well of Lovecraft who loved to say life is a hideous thing, etc etc.

I do agree with you that Joshi tends to overpraise and be infatuated with Lovecraft because they share a very similar outlook on life. From what I've read of Joshi, he tends to dismiss authors who have some kind of a positive, spiritual or religious outlook on life, and tends to love those who are purely secular humanists and have a somewhat pessimistic outlook (not that I believe those two things go hand in hand).

I appreciate Joshi's scholarly work and his work at preserving weird fiction, but I completely disagree with him on almost everything.

 

[Fried Egg]

I do agree with you that Joshi tends to overpraise and be infatuated with Lovecraft because they share a very similar outlook on life. From what I've read of Joshi, he tends to dismiss authors who have some kind of a positive, spiritual or religious outlook on life, and tends to love those who are purely secular humanists and have a somewhat pessimistic outlook (not that I believe those two things go hand in hand).

I appreciate Joshi's scholarly work and his work at preserving weird fiction, but I completely disagree with him on almost everything.

Well, Joshi introduces the first two volumes of the chaosium series of Machen's work and he praises much of his work very highly, despite the fact that Machen's often conducting a war on rational materialism.

Algernon Blackwood is also very highly regarded by Joshi, despite again conveying a very spiritual outlook in most of his stories. Although Blackwood is quite a different sort of spiritualist than Machen.

 

[D_Davis]

Well, Joshi introduces the first two volumes of the chaosium series of Machen's work and he praises much of his work very highly, despite the fact that Machen's often conducting a war on rational materialism.

Oh yeah, and when I read those introductions I was actually quite surprised that Joshi liked Machen at all.

I try not to throw the baby out with the bathwater with Joshi, because I do think he is an incredibly valuable resource and champion for much of the fiction we all love.

 

[D_Davis]

Conversely, I often have troubles with Lovecraft and Ligotti (even though I greatly admire their fiction) because they have such drastically opposite worldviews of my own. I have a hard time comprehending their POV about humanity, but it is these ideas that, strangely, draws me to their work. Being such a positive and spiritual person myself, I am often surprised that I like Ligotti as much as I do, but I think that is a testament to how good of an author he really is.

I think we all tend to gravitate towards things that reinforce our own world views, while many of us are also fascinated by opposing world views. This is something that I think about constantly while reading.