Frases de Arthur Machen

Arthur Machen , escritor galés de finales del siglo XIX e inicios del siglo XX, mayormente conocido por su influyente literatura sobrenatural y de terror fantástico. Su novela corta El gran dios Pan ha ganado la reputación de ser un clásico del horror hasta el punto de que Stephen King lo ha referido como «quizás el mejor [relato de terror] en el idioma inglés». Declaraciones similares se han hecho de otra de sus obras, El Pueblo Blanco. Es también conocido por ser el principal creador del mito de los Ángeles de Mons, leyenda relacionada con las tropas británicas durante la I Guerra Mundial. Wikipedia  

✵ 3. marzo 1863 – 15. diciembre 1947
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Arthur Machen: 10   frases 0   Me gusta

Arthur Machen: Frases en inglés

“We know what happened to those who chanced to meet the Great God Pan, and those who are wise know that all symbols are symbols of something, not of nothing.”

Arthur Machen libro The Great God Pan

Fuente: The Great God Pan (1894), Ch. VII : The Encounter in Soho
Contexto: I can fancy what you saw. Yes; it is horrible enough; but after all, it is an old story, an old mystery played in our day and in dim London streets instead of amidst the vineyards and the olive gardens. We know what happened to those who chanced to meet the Great God Pan, and those who are wise know that all symbols are symbols of something, not of nothing. It was, indeed, an exquisite symbol beneath which men long ago veiled their knowledge of the most awful, most secret forces which lie at the heart of all things; forces before which the souls of men must wither and die and blacken, as their bodies blacken under the electric current. Such forces cannot be named, cannot be spoken, cannot be imagined except under a veil and a symbol, a symbol to the most of us appearing a quaint, poetic fancy, to some a foolish, silly tale. But you and I, at all events, have known something of the terror that may dwell in the secret place of life, manifested under human flesh; that which is without form taking to itself a form. Oh, Austin, how can it be? How is it that the very sunlight does not turn to blackness before this thing, the hard earth melt and boil beneath such a burden?

“You may think this all strange nonsense; it may be strange, but it is true, and the ancients knew what lifting the veil means. They called it seeing the god Pan.”

Arthur Machen libro The Great God Pan

Fuente: The Great God Pan (1894), Ch. I : The Experiment
Contexto: You see the mountain, and hill following after hill, as wave on wave, you see the woods and orchard, the fields of ripe corn, and the meadows reaching to the reed-beds by the river. You see me standing here beside you, and hear my voice; but I tell you that all these things — yes, from that star that has just shone out in the sky to the solid ground beneath our feet — I say that all these are but dreams and shadows; the shadows that hide the real world from our eyes. There is a real world, but it is beyond this glamour and this vision, beyond these 'chases in Arras, dreams in a career,' beyond them all as beyond a veil. I do not know whether any human being has ever lifted that veil; but I do know, Clarke, that you and I shall see it lifted this very night from before another's eyes. You may think this all strange nonsense; it may be strange, but it is true, and the ancients knew what lifting the veil means. They called it seeing the god Pan.

“There is a real world, but it is beyond this glamour and this vision, beyond these 'chases in Arras, dreams in a career,' beyond them all as beyond a veil.”

Arthur Machen libro The Great God Pan

Fuente: The Great God Pan (1894), Ch. I : The Experiment
Contexto: You see the mountain, and hill following after hill, as wave on wave, you see the woods and orchard, the fields of ripe corn, and the meadows reaching to the reed-beds by the river. You see me standing here beside you, and hear my voice; but I tell you that all these things — yes, from that star that has just shone out in the sky to the solid ground beneath our feet — I say that all these are but dreams and shadows; the shadows that hide the real world from our eyes. There is a real world, but it is beyond this glamour and this vision, beyond these 'chases in Arras, dreams in a career,' beyond them all as beyond a veil. I do not know whether any human being has ever lifted that veil; but I do know, Clarke, that you and I shall see it lifted this very night from before another's eyes. You may think this all strange nonsense; it may be strange, but it is true, and the ancients knew what lifting the veil means. They called it seeing the god Pan.

“It was better, he thought, to fail in attempting exquisite things than to succeed in the department of the utterly contemptible.”

Arthur Machen libro The Hill of Dreams

The Hill of Dreams (London: Martin Secker, [1907] 1923) p. 154