Review of “The Great God Pan” by Arthur Machen: Halloween Countdown

For October 14

Plot:

Dr. Raymond wants to show his friend Clarke his new method of seeing “beyond the veil.” The physical world as we know it is an illusion, but with a little bit of brain surgery, one can see reality, or as he claims the ancients referred to it, “seeing the god Pan.”

Because he can’t very well do brain surgery on himself, regardless of how brilliant a surgeon he is, he needs a volunteer. That volunteer is his adopted daughter, Mary.

“As you know,” Dr. Raymond tells Clarke, “I rescued Mary from the gutter, and from almost certain starvation, when she was a child. I think her life is mine, to use as I see fit.”

After demonstrating Mary’s verbal consent (like she’s going to say no?) to Clarke, Dr. Raymond chloroforms her and slices her scalp open to make “a slight lesion in the grey matter.”

When Mary wakes, she first wonders about something invisible to the men, and then terror fills her face. She collapses.

Days later, Dr. Raymond says what a pity it is but pronounces Mary “a hopeless idiot.”

Years pass, and a series of tragedies follow a woman named Helen V., who likes to walk in the woods alone. People around her seem to die of fright. Later, a string of men she keeps company with—wealthy men—die by suicide.

Thoughts:

Machen’s writings often deal with the mystic and the occult. Here, he uses the idea from the classical world that coming across the divine was terrifying. Poor Mary—whose name should resonate among those familiar with Christian ideas, I imagine—is at first awed by what she sees, then driven insane.

Dr. Raymond’s reaction is instructive—Shrug. Ah, geez. What a pity.

No grief, no regret, or even sympathy. Only toward the end of the book, after perhaps a dozen people have died horrible deaths because of what he’s done, does he take any responsibility. He made my skin crawl more than any of the “horror” elements of the story.

While Machen isn’t popular currently, he was enormously influential with many horror and weird fiction writers in the early and mid-20th century. His idea that the physical world conceals true reality, protecting humanity from it, is part of what inspired H. P. Lovecraft’s idea of cosmic horror. The idea that reality is a mask for a deeper reality grew from classical Neo-Platonism.

Dr. Raymond is a mad scientist, experimenting in places where he shouldn’t—and knows he shouldn’t—on a person whose humanity he had no right to disregard.

Yet, in the end, this is referred to as a mistake. The evil that follows the mistake is regarded by one and all (…men…) with horror and revulsion. I wouldn’t want the person committing the horrors over for dinner, to say the least. Nor would I want the doctor anywhere near my property.

As for recommending the story, I’m on the fence. It offers more sadness than horror, though there is plenty of horror. And more than a dash of misogyny. So—caveat lector.

Bio: Arthur Machen was the pen name of Arthur Llewellyn Jones (1863-1947). Machen, the son of a clergyman, was a Welsh translator, actor, and author. Among his best-known works are “The White People” and “The Three Imposters.” “The Great God Pan” was his first major success. His 1914 short story, “The Bowmen,” gave rise to the Angel of Mons urban legend.


The story can be read here:

The story can be listened to here (2:05:07)



Title: “The Great God Pan”
Author: Arthur Machen (legal name Arthur Llewellyn Jones) (1863-1947)
First published: 1894
Length: novella