History Creator / ArthurMachen

--> -- from "Literature/TheCallOfCthulhu" by '''Creator/HPLovecraft'''

* DrivenToSuicide: The subject of [[spoiler: "The White People" ''may'' be an example of this. It depends on whether the line "she poisoned herself in time" was supposed to be literal or figurative]].

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[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Machen Arthur Machen]] (real name Arthur Llewellyn Jones; 3 March 1863 – 15 December 1947) was a Welsh author and actor best known for his fantasy/horror tales set in the decadent [[TheEdwardianEra Edwardian era]]. He was a major influence on Creator/HPLovecraft, who considered him a modern master who could create "cosmic horror raised to its most artistic pitch." In addition to ''Literature/TheGreatGodPan'', Lovecraft also praised "The Novel of the Black Seal" and "The Novel of the White Powder" (''The Three Imposters'') as "approach[ing] the absolute culmination of loathsome fright" and used them as the basis for his own works ''Cool Air'' and ''Literature/TheColourOutOfSpace''. Along with his American contemporary Creator/RobertWChambers, Machen is noted today as one of the forerunners of the [[CosmicHorrorStory Cosmic Horror]] genre Lovecraft pioneered.

[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Machen Arthur Machen]] (real name Arthur Llewellyn Jones; 3 March 1863 – 15 December 1947) was a Welsh author and actor best known for his fantasy/horror tales set in the decadent Edwardian era. He was a major influence on Creator/HPLovecraft, who considered him a modern master who could create "cosmic horror raised to its most artistic pitch." In addition to ''Literature/TheGreatGodPan'', Lovecraft also praised "The Novel of the Black Seal" and "The Novel of the White Powder" (''The Three Imposters'') as "approach[ing] the absolute culmination of loathsome fright" and used them as the basis for his own works ''Cool Air'' and ''Literature/TheColourOutOfSpace''. Along with his American contemporary Creator/RobertWChambers, Machen is noted today as one of the forerunners of the [[CosmicHorrorStory Cosmic Horror]] genre Lovecraft pioneered.

[[quoteright:264:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Machen_1_1786.gif]]

--> -- from "Literature/TheCallOfCthulhu" by Creator/HPLovecraft

[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Machen Arthur Machen]] (real name Arthur Llewellyn Jones, 3 March 1863 – 15 December 1947) was a Welsh author and actor best known for his fantasy/horror tales set in the decadent Edwardian era. He was a major influence on Creator/HPLovecraft, who considered him a modern master who could create "cosmic horror raised to its most artistic pitch." In addition to ''Literature/TheGreatGodPan'', Lovecraft also praised "The Novel of the Black Seal" and "The Novel of the White Powder" (''The Three Imposters'') as "approach[ing] the absolute culmination of loathsome fright" and used them as the basis for his own works ''Cool Air'' and ''Literature/TheColourOutOfSpace''. Along with his American contemporary Creator/RobertWChambers, Machen is noted today as one of the forerunners of the [[CosmicHorrorStory Cosmic Horror]] genre Lovecraft pioneered.

* ShoutOut: The title of ''The Three Imposters'' is a ShoutOut to the''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treatise_of_the_Three_Impostors Treatise of the Three Imposters]]'': a supposedly heretical text denouncing organised religion.

* AdaptationDistillation: One of his final novels, ''The Terror'' was later paired down to a small fraction of its original length by a magazine editor and republished as a short story, ''The Coming of the Terror''. Machen himself was very impressed with the result.

* ThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow: Take a shot whenever one of the protagonists on his novels becomes scared shitless twhen they learn that society is not what it seems and there are stranger and wilder crazies other there. Given his personal beliefs, however, this is unique in that it may be satire.

* [[spoiler:ScrewYourself]]: [[spoiler:Implied in "Novel of the White Powder", with a truly horrible outcome.]]

* [[YourVampiresSuck Your Fairies Suck]]: "The Novel of the Black Seal" has Professor Gregg speak on the cute image of fairies and how inaccurate they are. In fact, Gregg goes on to say that the image was partly the result of humans trying to downplay how cruel the Fair a Folk could be; much like how they were referred to as "Fair" and "Good," so, too, were they pictured in beautiful forms, so as to let humanity sleep well at night.

* CampbellCountry: Was way before Campbell, though.

[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Machen Arthur Machen]] (3 March 1863 – 15 December 1947) was a Welsh author and actor best known for his fantasy/horror tales set in the decadent Edwardian era. He was a major influence on Creator/HPLovecraft, who considered him a modern master who could create "cosmic horror raised to its most artistic pitch." In addition to ''Literature/TheGreatGodPan'', Lovecraft also praised "The Novel of the Black Seal" and "The Novel of the White Powder" (''The Three Imposters'') as "approach[ing] the absolute culmination of loathsome fright" and used them as the basis for his own works ''Cool Air'' and ''Literature/TheColourOutOfSpace''. Along with his American contemporary Creator/RobertWChambers, Machen is noted today as one of the forerunners of the [[CosmicHorrorStory Cosmic Horror]] genre Lovecraft pioneered.

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_White_People "The White People"]]

* ThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow

* PlatonicCave: Machen's favorite theme. In essence, the man believed that Victorian society and its norms was artificial, which combined with his general interest in the occult lend to most of his stories being about some poor idiots going mad from [[ThingsManIsNotMeantToKnow discovering]] that the reality they know is a shadow from the true nature of the universe, which may itself be simply a reflection from a truer spirit world (i.e. ''Literature/TheGreatGodPan'', for instance). Whereas its literal is debatable in some cases, however, as the narrator of ''The White People'' flat out considers this to be simply a metaphor for the shock of people going beyond their worldview.

%%* LuckBasedSearchTechnique: A common element of Machen's early fiction, especially in ''The Three Imposters''.

* PlatonicCave: Machen's favorite theme.

* FairFolk: Machen went straight back to the earliest legends and created a particularly nightmarish version he called the "Little People." A general summary of these things can be found [[https://www.yog-sothoth.com/wiki/index.php/Faerie here]]. They are truly EldritchAbominations before Lovecraft.