Dissertation
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ABSTRACT “Man Is Made a Mystery”: The Evolution of Arthur Machen’s Religious Thought Geoffrey Reiter, Ph.D. Director: Joe B. Fulton, Ph.D. Arthur Machen (1863-1947) was a Welsh author now known almost exclusively for his late nineteenth-century weird horror tales such as The Great God Pan (1894) and The Three Impostors (1895). The few Machen critics who have researched his corpus as a whole sometimes deride his later works, and whether they do or not, most have tried to read his entire body of work as a thematic unity. Even if they admit that his changing outlook on life did affect his fiction, critics often believe his interest in mystical ecstasy—as articulated in his 1899 work Hieroglyphics—can be read across his entire career. Absent from this critical discourse is an examination that takes seriously the distinct worldviews of Machen’s fiction at its various stages. This dissertation represents a diachronic examination of Machen’s fiction, treating the entire scope of his fiction while proposing several stages in which his altered philosophy led to a concomitant alteration of literary style and structure. Because the events of his life are important to this diachronic reading, chapter one begins with an introductory biography of Arthur Machen, then proceeds to a summary of the critical response to Machen’s work and the relevance of this dissertation in that critical conversation. Chapter two treats the first major phase of Machen’s career (1890-95), arguing that the horror of his most famous works stems from a fear of the implications of his own skepticism at the time. Chapter three traces his second phase (1896-99), when his initial doubt gives way to belief in a form of ecstatic mysticism, a belief that is still ill-defined and polymorphous, resulting in a fiction characterized by florid imagery but philosophical tension. Chapter four examines the impact of Machen’s conversion to Christianity on his twentieth-century career (1899-1936), suggesting that it is marked by a technique of juxtaposition, in which mundane reality is contrasted with ecstatic spiritual experience. Chapter five evaluates some late writings in Machen’s Christian career (1930s), positing that their acknowledged aesthetic failure results from a return to the themes of his first stage even though his worldview can no longer accommodate such terrors. “Man Is Made a Mystery”: The Evolution of Arthur Machen’s Religious Thought by Geoffrey Reiter, B.A., M.A. A Dissertation Approved by the Department of English ___________________________________ Dianna M. Vitanza, Ph.D., Chairperson Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Baylor University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Approved by the Dissertation Committee ___________________________________ Joe B. Fulton, Ph.D., Chairperson ___________________________________ Gregory T. Garrett, Ph.D. ___________________________________ Anne-Marie Bowery, Ph.D. ___________________________________ Kevin J. Gardner, Ph.D. ___________________________________ Joshua S. King, Ph.D. Accepted by the Graduate School August 2010 ___________________________________ J. Larry Lyon, Ph.D., Dean Page bearing signatures is kept on file in the Graduate School. Copyright © 2010 by Geoffrey Reiter All rights reserved TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments v Dedication viii Chapter 1: Arthur of Camelot: The Long Quest of Arthur Machen 1 The Chronicle of Arthur 3 “Among the Very Great” 14 “Superficial Variety”? 25 Chapter 2: “The Abyss of All Being”: The Great God Pan, The Three Impostors, and the Death of Metaphysics 33 Dead Poets’ Society 36 The Black Cinder 59 “A Relentless Mechanism” 70 Chapter 3: Hieroglyphics and Ornaments: The Search for the Source of Ecstasy in The Hill of Dreams and “The White People” 87 “The Best Symbol of My Meaning” 88 Lucian’s Journey 97 The Two Ecstasies 115 Chapter 4: “I Saw My Treasure Found at Last”: Eruptions of Christian Ecstasy in A Fragment of Life, The Secret Glory, and Machen’s Journalistic Tales 124 “They Changed Their Lives, Like King Arthur” 127 iii Horbury’s Bane 143 Transcendence and Terror in the Evening News 153 Chapter 5: “The Rough, Unfinished Ends in the Tale”: The Failure of The Green Round and Arthur Machen’s Long Road Home 189 Works Cited 212 iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Those familiar with my dissertation know what a bizarre and circuitous path its completion has taken, and in the process I have required the assistance (and the grace) of a great many people. I am particularly indebted to my director, Dr. Joe B. Fulton, who has been an advisor and friend on more than just this project and who was understanding and supportive of me in my hour of need. Thanks are also due to the rest of my committee: Dr. Greg Garrett (“That’s what we do”) and Dr. Anne-Marie Bowery (my outside reader, at last!), as well as Dr. Josh King and Dr. Kevin Gardner. Also at Baylor, I am profoundly grateful for the no-nonsense solace of Dr. Peaches Henry in that trying first year, and to Dr. Jay Losey who, as Graduate Program Director, was influential in allowing this dissertation to appear in its current form. I am likewise indebted to English Department Chair Dr. Dianna Vitanza for helping me get the credits and funding I needed to finish out. It would be remiss of me not to acknowledge the dedicated staff of Baylor’s Osofast interlibrary services, to whom I became a strange and mythical figure with my numerous and esoteric requests. I would never have gotten this far on the weird trails of Arthur Machen without the help of my dear friend and professor at Nyack College Dr. Charles Franklyn Beach, who, like me, reads Machen for fun as well as scholarship. v Lurking beneath the surface of this dissertation is the influence of Dr. Gwenfair Walters Adams and Dr. Stephen Spencer, the professors at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary who were willing to bear with a crazy student who wanted to write a Church History M.A. Thesis on H. P. Lovecraft. Dr. Peter G. Epps, my friend and fellow weird fiction enthusiast, has likewise informed the backdrop of this project. The administration and fellow faculty at the Baptist College of Florida have certainly been instrumental in helping me conclude the dissertation in a timely manner. Special thanks are due to President Thomas Kinchen, Vice President R. C. Hammack, and Dr. Robin Jumper for their support, and especially to my Division Chair, Dr. Roger Richards, who has been a gracious and flexible colleague and friend. Also invaluable has been BCF’s Interlibrary Loan specialist Alison Jones, whose friendship I have doubtless strained with my many requests, as well as John Shaffett, whose work in stocking the library has kept Alison from getting even more requests. Thanks are likewise due to my grader, Justin Grack, who helped with many dissertation-related tasks over the Spring 2010 semester. There are countless other friends, co-workers, and students who ought to be acknowledged here, whose prayers, support, and assistance have allowed this quest to reach its satisfying dénouement. My family has been with me since the vi beginning, giving encouragement and love: my parents, siblings, extended family, and in-laws. This completed degree will mean a great deal to them, and also to my children, Greta and Simon, who have had to miss their father on many a weekend as he holed himself up with books and a computer. More than anyone, however, my thanks and love must go to my longsuffering wife Mary for bearing with me and my many idiosyncrasies and habits throughout this long process. It has finally paid off! vii To Mary We read about the Grail-quest, men’s summation Of Jesus’ sacrifice, the ancient story, How God became a man became a gory Love offering. And so this celebration We seek in churches, sunsets, intimation Of His great Passion. This one allegory, This cup that caught Divine love amatory, Is symbol of the source of our elation, That we with God at last may have relation. And so, within my own heart’s inventory I count my beats, draw strength to chase His glory, To seek each day anew His consummation. With you I’ll travel every winding trail; With you I’ll seek that source, that Holy Grail. viii CHAPTER ONE Arthur of Camelot The Long Quest of Arthur Machen Why study Arthur Machen? It is a valid question, for his is hardly a household name—utter it, and one is likely to meet with a blank stare and an awkward pause in the conversation. Even in his beloved hometown of Caerleon- on-Usk in southern Wales, where his birthplace is humbly marked, one cannot be certain his name will be recognized. His work is probably known best indirectly, through his literary disciples such as John Betjeman, H. P. Lovecraft, Clive Barker, or Stephen King. Those who do know who he is may be familiar with one or two works, perhaps The Great God Pan or a chapter from The Three Impostors. Few indeed know that he was a prolific author with a career spanning half a century, able to wield different styles and voices, capable of weaving in and out of various genres. Few realize that he was a self-consciously literary artist who thought of writing as his one true calling in life, and that, for a brief time, he did have a carefully cultivated reputation as an author of some merit. Given his obscurity, why study Arthur Machen? There are several responses one might give to such a question. Though he is by no means widely celebrated, Machen has nonetheless been the subject of 1 some solid criticism, during his lifetime and in the decades since his death.