Published in 1894, Arthur Machen’s novella The Great God Pan was declared immoral by many reviewers of the time. It has survived and was partially responsible for the idea of hidden dimensions behind reality. A world of monsters. HP Lovecraft was a colleague of Machen’s and they shared the same interest in that notion, which continues to influence modern day writers such as Stephen King.
Although there is plenty of the somewhat clunky old fashioned language to get past, the ideas are brilliantly laid out and tell much of the era the story took place in. At the start a Doctor uses a girl he had rescued from the slums in her childhood for an experiment that would allow her to perceive the hidden world. He plainly states that he can do with her as he pleases. Apparently that went far because after “Mary” saw the monsters and fell into a coma she never exited, she eventually gave birth to a daughter before conveniently dying the instant the baby is safely in the story. (I imagine that was one of the items that scandalized the Victorian era reviewers.)
Later, the girl, named Helen, runs amok both in Victorian society as well as with creatures who are neither dead nor alive, neither beast nor human, yet are. Until a strike force similar to that in Dracula forces her to commit suicide, Helen has a good old time ruining and killing as many men as she can; even denying them Heaven.
Unfortunately, we used to have a need to see the good guys always win, even though they are usually tedious dullards (Hollywood films used to require that nonsense). Helen did not ask to be born as half human and something so unspeakable that men wondered (I paraphrase) “how the earth borne, and the sun dared to light it.” And there is hint of racism in the piece for she is described as having darker skin and looks inconsistent with the Victorian ideals of femininity. I believe “swarthy” was used. And even though she was a child of the rape of her ill-used mother, she (spoiler alert) winds up a sort of pinata that is half human and the other half all rotteness and evil, and it is all her fault, damn it.
Still, despite the ending (which pissed me off), there are tremendous moments in The Great God Pan. The idea that reality is merely a changing palimpsest writ on something that cannot be understood without inviting madness is brilliant and has inspired many stories over the past hundred-thirty years.
Leila
literally stories 
Interesting post! (and you used one of my favourite words, ‘palimpsest’ – it’s right up there with ‘lush’). Ever since I read ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ in my teams, I’ve been a sucker for Victorian horror, so I’ll give ‘The Great God Pan’ a try. Incidentally, there’s a successful 1960s hippy community in the north of Scotland, one of whose founder members is celebrated for having seen The Great God Pan strolling down The Mound in Edinburgh city centre.
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Hi Mick
I read that it took Stevenson four days to write Jekyll and Hyde. Such a brilliant idea and still superior to the many imitators. Machine wasn’t in the same class, but his little book is worth the while; something like fifty pages
Thank you!
Leila
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Dear Mick,
A successful hippy community in the north of Scotland sounds like a place I want to visit some day (or even move to permanently). Even if I don’t make it over, it’s great to know about it! Thanks for mentioning.
Sincerely,
Dale
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Hiya Dale, It’s called the Findhorn Eco-Village and it’s on the coast of the Moray Firth; there’s a website.
Saw your reply to Leila about Stevenson. Thought you might be interested in the biography of Stevenson written by his nephew and secretary, Graham Balfour. One of the appendices reproduces the three different beginnings to Stevenson’s ‘Weir of Hermiston.’
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Thanks for bringing this writing to light. As you point out, it sounds as if it has inspired many works since.
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Hi David
Yes it is easily a quick read. Take care and thank you as always.
Leila
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Ha! “ bri gong” is hidden dimension language for “bringing.”
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Hi David
Bet you didn’t know I could fix that!
At least I didn’t know I could till now. But maybe I should leave the words of others lay.
Leila
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Great piece. Machen cited as influence by writers ranging from Jorge Luis Borges to HP Lovecraft. And he certainly did hold some ‘unfortunate’ views in later life. Superb evocation in itself, that “creatures who are neither dead nor alive, neither beast nor human, yet ARE.”
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Oh yes indeed. But I like to think if Lovecraft was born a century later he would be intelligent enough to understand that some of his views on race were severely flawed.
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Dear Leila,
Thanks for introducing me to a work I’d never heard of before. I’m eager to seek it out now, and/or read more about the author’s life.
The idea/s behind this story reminded me in many ways of the work of Philip K. Dick. His fiction, yes, but also his life story, as he gave a talk at a science fiction conference in France in the mid-’70s, a talk that didn’t focus on fiction at all, but on what he called “reality.” His entire spiel attempted to convince his bewildered, frightened, and increasingly discomfited audience that “reality” is indeed a “changing palimpsest” and that everyone in the audience (and everyone in the world) is being manipulated by the dark, unseen forces behind the veil that we don’t consciously know about (he named Richard Nixon as a great example). And that good things won’t come of it. He later saw a way out by writing up a new kind of gnostic Christianity in thousands of pages that the priests and pastors of this world wouldn’t even recognize (but that Jesus might have).
I’m pretty sure Stevenson wrote J & H whilst consuming large quantities of cocaine, tobacco, and alcohol. That was one reason he penned it so fast. He brought the manuscript to his wife and step-son and they didn’t like it. So he tore it up in a rage and rewrote the whole thing. It proves that a masterpiece CAN be created while (mentally) ill and abusing drugs (for good or ill) and that rewriting your story is a good thing.
Thank you Leila! Looking forward to exploring more.
Sincerely,
Dale
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Thank you Dale
Dick wrote lots of good stuff. The community of writers such as him, Harlan Ellison, Theodore Sturgeon and Vonnegut always gave students something to talk about. Mainly because of honesty (in Ellison’s case perhaps too honest).
Thank you!
Leila
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Quite probably an unpopular opinion. Of the Dick books (take that as you want) that were turned into movies or TV, I always liked the filmed versions better.
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Hi Doug
Everyone is entitled to his/her opinion without fear of repudiation. Still, I do not speak for Electric Sheep.
Glad for the rain here, too!
Leila
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Hi Leila,
Vonnegut was one of the first writers I devoured as a youngster. And remain a lifelong fan. “Cat’s Cradle” was my favorite of his back then. I later read “Slaughter House 5” at least 20 times (or more, until the paperback fell apart). He’s like a reincarnation of Mark Twain (maybe he IS a reincarnation of MT). (Also love his later writings, where he remains an atheist, but preaches about the REAL teachings of JC. He was like Einstein in that way, and other ways.)
Dale
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Yes. JC as a teacher was the thing. Vonnegut always quoted the Sermon on the Mount. And how can you resist a writer who smoked Pall Mall for seventy years
Thank you again, Dale!
Leila
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Dear Leila,
Thanks for pointing out KV and the Sermon on the Mount (and for knowing about it). Nothing more important on this Good Sunday.
Sincerely,
Dale
(PS,
He said he kept trying to kill himself via his cigarette habit but it simply wouldn’t work.)
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In Electric Sheep I kept waiting for the point. Still waiting.
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It was
Baa baa, baa baa baa Ann
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Beach Boys or the Regents?
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The Wool “Lights”
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My Vonnegut impression. Business and industry bad. New is bad. Possibly incomplete.
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My 2 cents is that A SCANNER DARKLY is PKD’s best novel, far and away. It’s a 1970s, autobiographical drug novel in the form of a paranoid fever dream. (Right up there with Poe, Hunter S. Thompson, and Thomas de Quincy). The prose ain’t sterling, but the humanity can bowl a reader over (hilarious humor and heart-breaking tragedy). (He also predicted the internet, cell phones, AI, and the rise of Trump at least half a century early.) (And he wrote reams of bad prose (while on amphetamines) and never blotted a line or altered a word, throwing his work at his pulp publishers as fast as he could churn it out while also writing a bunch of realist novels, every single one of which was rejected.)
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Hi Leila,
Interesting posting which has caused many a comment!
…All good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hugh
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Excellent review. I read this book about ten years ago when I got interested in the god Pan and remember it being pretty depraved right up to the last minute, where the author ends on the note of Helen being in her right place or where she belongs, even though in the story, that place turns out to basically be hell. It had a very dark metaphysical quality to it that reminded me a lot of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, most likely due to the Victorian English vernacular. This is a compelling explanation of the book that makes me want to read it again. Thanks for sharing!
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Thank you!
Yes it is good to reread some items every few years. I was just going to scan it for the article because I’ve read it two or three times, but it hooked me again.
Leila
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There seem to be some parallels with Guillermo Del Toro’s movie “Pan’s Labyrinth” from 2007, about a girl called Ofelia who is really a spirit from the underworld but who doesn’t know it, and has to journey in real life through our own surface world where darkness reveals itself in every day life… but she is capable of seeing the shadows behind, in actual monster form.
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These old novels from that particular esoteric, mystical Victorian era have such a kind of potency to them that deserves more attention and renown.
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Thank you Paul
Yes there were many good minds writing back then–some daring topics too!
Leila
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Hi Leila!
Dylan just declared “The Great God Pan” to be one of his favorite books on Twitter/X the other day. There are several stories about it on the internet. Pretty wild!
D.
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Hi Dale
It makes sense that he would like it. Despite the premise and old language, the book told the truth about how shitty the class system was–which is always present everywhere, especially in America.
Thank you!
Leila
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