Episode 87: Glyphs, Rifts, and Ecstasy: On Arthur Machen's Vision of Art

Weird Studies

Phil Ford and J. F. Martel

Society & Culture, Arts, Philosophy

4.8 • 688 Ratings

🗓️ 25 November 2020

⏱️ 67 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It would be wrong to describe Arthur Machen's Hieroglyphics: A Note Upon Ecstasy in Literature (1902) as a work of nonfiction, since the book features a narrative frame that is as moody and irreal as the best tales penned by this luminary of weird fiction. But if the eccentric recluse at the centre Hieroglyphics is a fictional philosopher, he is one who, in Phil and JF's opinion, rivals most aesthetic thinkers in the history of philosophy. The significance of this text lies in its willingness to disclose a function of art that few before Machen had dared to touch, namely its capacity to generate ecstasy by confronting us with the mystery that beats the heart of existence. In this episode, your hosts discuss a work which, in their opinion, comes as close to scripture as the nonexistent field of Weird Studies is likely to get. REFERENCES Arthur Machen, Hieroglyphics: A Note Upon Ecstasy in Literature Thomas Ligotti, Songs of a Dead Dreamer Weird Studies, Episode 3 on the White People J.F. Martel, Reclaiming Art in the Age of Artifice Weird Studies, Episode 63 on Colin Wilson’s 'The Occult' William Shakespeare, Hamlet Indra’s Net, philosophical concept James Machin, Weird Fiction in Britain, 1880 – 1939 Weird Studies, Episode 5 on Lisa Ruddick's 'When Nothing is Cool' Oscar Wilde, The Soul of Man Under Socialism Rudolph Otto, German theologian 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 weird Studies. This is Phil.
0:53.5	As I was waiting for Scrivener to finish updating before sitting down to write this introduction,
0:59.3	I idly thumbed through an anthology of Arthur Mocken's stories and glanced at the last page of
1:05.2	The White People, a story we discussed all the way back in episode three.
1:10.8	My eyes fell upon the concluding phrase,
1:14.0	wonder is of the soul. It's an ambiguous line. It could mean that the soul is inclined to wonder,
1:21.8	or perhaps that the soul is constituted in wonder, or vice versa. it's not clear in context. Whatever else it might
1:30.4	mean, though, I take it to be a statement of Machin's lifelong project. He was about wonder,
1:36.3	and he was about soul. He spent a lifetime chasing that wonder and recreating its feeling
1:42.3	in us through his weird fictions.
1:45.2	The topic of today's show, Machin's aesthetic treatise hieroglyphics, a note upon ecstasy
1:51.1	in literature, chases wonder by other means. It is a theory of art founded upon wonder,
1:57.2	or ecstasy. He uses the words almost interchangeably. Hieroglyphics makes ecstasy the indispensable
2:05.0	desideratum of art. In hieroglyphics, Machin starts out defining art by what it isn't. Machen had no
2:14.3	time for romance, or politics, or the sports pages, or the society pages.
2:20.8	These are things that belong to life, and for Machen, life is by and large, a dreary affair.
2:27.3	No, what matters most to him is a sense of ecstasy.
2:31.9	Ecstasy is the atmosphere in which Homer and Poe live.
2:35.3	Without it, there can be no lyric poetry.
2:38.3	Neither ritual nor reverence can find a home in a world without ecstasy.
	...

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