Episode 55: The Great Weird North: On Algernon Blackwood's 'The Wendigo'

Weird Studies

Phil Ford and J. F. Martel

Society & Culture, Arts, Philosophy

4.8 • 688 Ratings

🗓️ 11 September 2019

⏱️ 83 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

No survey of weird literature would be complete without mentioning Algernon Blackwood (1869-1951). As with all masters of the genre, Blackwood's take on the weird is singular: here, it isn't the cold reaches of outer space that elicit in us a nihilistic frisson, but the vast expanses of our own planet's wild places -- especially the northern woods. In his story "The Wendigo," Blackwood combines the beliefs of the Indigenous peoples of the Eastern Woodlands with the folktales of his native Britain to weave an ensorcelling story that perfectly captures the mood of the Canadian wilderness. In this conversation, JF and Phil discuss their own experience of that wilderness growing up in Ontario. The deeper they go, the spookier things get. An episode best enjoyed in solitude, by a campfire. Header Image: "Highway 60 Passing Through the Boreal Forest in Algonquin Park" by Dimana Koralova, Wikimedia Commons SHOW NOTES Glenn Gould, The Idea of North Algernon Blackwood, "The Wendigo" Game of Thrones (HBO series) Weird Studies, Episode 29: On Lovecraft H. P. Lovecraft, "Supernatural Horror in Literature" Edgar Allan Poe, "The Philosophy of Composition" Fritz Leiber, The Adventures of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser Richard Wagner, Parsifal David Lynch, Twin Peaks: The Return Peter Heller, The River: A Novel The Killing of Tim McLean (July 30, 2008) Weird Studies, Episode 3: Ecstasy, Sin, and "The White People" Mysterious Universe: Strange and Terrifying Encounters with Skinwalkers Jacques Vallée, Passport to Magonia: On UFOs, Folklore, and Parallel Worlds Graham Harman, Weird Realism: Lovecraft and Philosophy Arthur Machen, Hieroglyphics: A Note Upon Ecstasy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Spectrevision Radio.
0:03.3	Welcome to Weird Studies, an arts and philosophy podcast with hosts Phil Ford and J.F. Martel.
0:23.3	For more episodes or to support the podcast, go to weirdstudies.com. Hi, this is Phil.
0:51.7	Canadians like nothing more than to tell you about Canadian stuff.
0:55.2	Like, did you know that William Shatner is Canadian?
0:58.3	Did you know that Canadians invented the snowmobile, the snowblower, ice hockey, and table hockey?
1:03.9	To say nothing of the light bulb, the telephone, and canola oil?
1:07.6	And how about Putin?
1:09.0	Arguably Canada's greatest gift to the world. Don't even get me
1:12.8	started on the Avro Arrow. Canadians love to tell you just how very Canadian they are, and J.F. and I are
1:19.4	no exceptions. So, in this episode, as we discuss Algernon Blackwood's classic weird story,
1:25.7	The Wendigo, we focus on what we take to be its real
1:28.5	main character, the Canadian Boreal Forest. Of course, it's about the Wendigo, a figure of
1:34.7	Algonquin lore that possesses human beings and transforms them into ravening man-eating monsters.
1:41.2	But in this episode, J.F. and I suggest that the Wendigo is the personification of the
1:46.3	Northern Tiga, a fathomless stretch of trees, lakes, bogs, and ancient weathered granite that
1:52.3	still, every year, seduces and swallows up unwary travelers. It's not right to say that we grew up
1:59.0	in that forest, because really hardly anyone does.
2:02.2	You grow up at the fringes of it and the shadow of it, and tenuous community scraped out of the vast
2:07.6	granite floor of the Canadian Shield, where you feel its looming presence and camping trips or
2:13.0	visits to a family cottage. As Glenn Gould says in his radio documentary,
2:18.2	the idea of North,
	...

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