All The Tropes

The Great God Pan: Difference between revisions

Page Discussion

The Great God Pan (view source)

Revision as of 08:55, 9 January 2014

5 bytes added ,  10 years ago
m
Mass update links
VisualWikitext
m (remove unneccessary quote box template)
m (Mass update links)
Line 2:
[[File:Great-God-Pan_231.jpg|frame]]
 
{{quote|''"Great God, what simpletons! Show them Arthur Machen's Great God Pan and they'll think it a common Dunwich scandal!"''|from "[[The Dunwich Horror (Literature)|The Dunwich Horror]]" by [[HPH.P. Lovecraft (Creator)|HP Lovecraft]]}}
 
Written by [[Arthur Machen (Creator)|Arthur Machen]] in 1894 and originally published in a magazine, ''The Great God Pan'' is known for being one of the prototypes of the [[Cosmic Horror Story|Cosmic Horror]] genre. It was a huge influence on [[HPH.P. Lovecraft (Creator)|HP Lovecraft]], who used it as the basis for his own story ''[[The Dunwich Horror (Literature)|The Dunwich Horror]]'', as well as for the [[Cthulhu Mythos|deity]] [[Mother of a Thousand Young|Shub-Niggurath]]. It is worth noting that the main themes of the story - the idea that there are [[Things Man Was Not Meant to Know]] and [[Eldritch Abomination|horrors outside of our reality that we do not understand]] - are very Lovecraftian in nature, making these tropes [[Older Than They Think|older than you think]].
 
''The Great God Pan'' is also [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_God_Pan#Influence considered by] [[Stephen King]] to be "one of the best horror stories ever written. Maybe the best in the English language." He has stated that 2008 novella ''N.'' was a "riff" on it.
Line 20:
* [[Cosmic Horror Story]]: As mentioned above, Lovecraft cited this story as one of his main influences.
* [[Death By Sex]]: The unspeakable horrors that drive Helen's victims to suicide are strongly implied to be sexual in nature, although Victorian propriety prevented Machen from elaborating.
* [[Did You Just Romance Cthulhu?]]: More like "Were you just raped by Cthulhu" and "Did you just romance [[The Dunwich Horror (Literature)|Wilbur Whateley]]."
* [[Don't Go in The Woods]]: "Ah, mother, mother, why did you let me go in the forest with Helen?"
** "The man in the wood! father! father!"
Line 26:
* [[Eldritch Abomination]]: This version of Pan is definitely very different from the satyr god of [[Greek Mythology]]. In addition, it is strongly implied Pan is also the [[Celtic Mythology|Celtic god]] Nodens, who would later join Lovecraft's works as one of his eldritch deities...
* [[Gone Mad From the Revelation]]
* [[Half -Human Hybrid]]: {{spoiler|Implied to be less of a hybrid and more an avatar.}}
* [[Have a Gay Old Time]]: [[Drinking Game|Take a shot]] every time "queer" is used instead of "weird" or "strange". Also: "gay curtains".
* [[Humanoid Abomination]]: Helen was probably one of the first in modern literature.
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Special:MobileDiff/513367"