Weird Murmur

  Arthur Machen, "N" in The Cosy Room and Other Stories (Rich & Cowan, 1936). Sitting over drinks, Arnold, Harliss, and Perrott reminisce about the London neighborhoods, streets, and architecture that have changed for the worse over time. The old, narrow, and crooked streets, the charming jumble of different shapes, styles, and building designs, the enchanted mix of architectural eras, all now flattened to practical, uniform, and straight lines in a modern age that erases the spirit of a place to replace it with the concrete, the functional, and the mundane. Through memory and imagination, these men peel back that modern facade and recall the old days and the old ways. Without moving from their chairs, they mentally walk the streets of London and its suburbs as the city once stood. There is something eidetic about the tour. As the men talk, they can see the old Strand as it once was. In a telling moment, Arnold even gives directions to the now non-existent St. James’s M...

  Arthur Machen, The Hill of Dreams , (1907).  Lucien Taylor, the main character of Arthur Machen's novel T he Hill of Dreams , takes himself to have solved the mystery of the alchemists when he hits upon the primacy of the imagination and language over physical reality. The historical, popular focus on the alchemical transformation of lead to gold is myopic and that change is usually understood in a way that largely misses the point. For Lucien, the change is a matter of a shift of mind, imagination, and conceptualization. Finding the base world appallingly cruel and miserable, Lucien changes it. For him, things start with language, with words; words to generate images in the mind. Finding the right words, the right poetry, the right prose--this is the magic. The magic is powerful and all too effective. Lucien ends up transforming himself into something non-human and that comes with a cost. The default interpretive view is that the price Lucien pays is much too high, but it i...

Arthur Machen, "The Happy Children" in The Masterpiece Library of Short Stories , ed. J. A. Hammerton (Educational Book Co: 1920). Read for free here Through its tone and use of description, this story delivers a unique kind of weird creepiness. In addition, the central horror is simultaneously terrifying and non-threatening—a great example of how the very existence of something can horrify even when the thing itself is recognized as something that means no harm. It is worth noting the inspiration that Lovecraft took from this story. Not to diminish Lovecraft, but, in some ways, “The Happy Children” does Lovecraft better than Lovecraft before Lovecraft ever did it!   The description of the old town and the procession to the abbey on the hill is certainly reminiscent of Lovecraft’s “The Festival.” Machen’s story also features impossible geometries folded into architecture and even a gambrel roof makes an appearance!