I was just in a book discussion of Machen at a local science fiction society. The topic was the Penguin volume THE WHITE PEOPLE, although most people just hunted down the stories from online sources. Didnt go over very well. I made the comment that Lovecraft is the gateway drug who inevitably leads one to Machen, but we had people who had read Lovecraft and never heard of Machen. Obviously not very profound Lovecraft readers, or even people who read introductions very much. I am afraid we made no new converts. There were about ten people there. Most did not really care for Machen, finding him slow-moving and wordy and too indirect. Surprisingly, they liked the later, journalistic stories more, e.g. The Bowmen or The Terror, not The White People or The Novel of the Black Seal. Its entirely possible that most readers just do not have the patience or sensibility for Machens beautifully textured prose. But he is clearly a writers writer, who influenced EVERYBODY who came after him, all the way up to such contemporary figures as TED Klein, Ramsey Campbell, Stephen King, and a host of lesser lights including myself. One hopes this is passed on to the next generation, or something rich and strange will be lost. Best line of the discussion (when someone was talking about writers who are pioneering but not very good): The difference between E.E. Doc Smith and Arthur Machen is that no one ever accused Doc Smith of having written the most beautiful book in the English language. Somebody said that about THE HILL OF DREAMS. I forget who. It is alluded to on the back cover of Mark Valentines Machen study.
Posted on: Mon, 19 May 2014 23:17:58 +0000
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