Episode 150: Sacramental Reality: On Arthur Machen's "A Fragment of Life"

Weird Studies

Phil Ford and J. F. Martel

Society & Culture, Arts, Philosophy

4.8 • 688 Ratings

🗓️ 5 July 2023

⏱️ 86 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

"A Fragement of Life" opens with Mr. Darnell waking up from a dream and going down to breakfast, where it is described that "before he sat down to his fried bacon he kissed his wife seriously and dutifully." He then proceeds to take the tram to visit a friend, with whom he has a long and tedious conversation about plants, clothes, kids, and how best to spend ten pounds. The story continues on in this mundane manner for quite some time, which is probably not what we would expect from Arthur Machen, virtuoso of the weird. But, as Phil and JF discuss, this writing style intentionally draws attention to the absurdity of modern, materialist life, creating a striking contrast with the mysterious other world that Mr. and Mrs. Darnell eventually begin to pursue. Support us on Patreon and gain access to Phil's podcast on Wagner's Ring Cycle. Listen to Meredith Michael and Gabriel Lubell's podcast, Cosmophonia. Download Pierre-Yves Martel's new album, Mer Bleue. Visit the Weird Studies Bookshop Find us on Discord Get the T-shirt design from Cotton Bureau! REFERENCES Arthur Machen, A Fragment of Life Weird Studies, Episode 3 on “The White People and Episode 87 on “Heiroglyphics” Karl Marx, Capital James Machin, Weird Fiction in Britain Thomas Ligotti, “The Order of Illusion” in Noctuary Weird Studies, Episode 20 on the Trash Stratum Artur Schnitzler, Traumnovelle Weird Studies, Episode 59 on Walking Carl Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Spectrevision Radio
0:02.0	Welcome to Weird Studies, an arts and philosophy podcast with hosts Phil Ford and J.F. Martel.
0:20.0	For more episodes or to support the podcast,
0:23.3	go to weirdstudies.com. Welcome to Weird Studies. This is Meredith Michael.
0:52.3	There's one thing I've noticed about how modern subjects think about enchantment,
0:58.0	which is the idea that people and cultures of the past somehow had access to knowledge or experience
1:05.0	or insight into the enchanted other world that we no longer have access to,
1:10.0	that the world has changed so much in the past 50, 100, 150 years,
1:15.6	that that secret knowledge is lost to us.
1:18.6	Except, like the mythical golden age in the film Midnight in Paris,
1:23.6	the farther back you look, the farther that knowledge recedes.
1:26.6	It's almost as if access to the other realm has always been a little bit the farther back you look, the farther that knowledge recedes.
1:32.1	It's almost as if access to the other realm has always been a little bit elusive.
1:35.1	Illusive, but not inaccessible.
1:40.6	120 years ago, Arthur Macon wrote the story, a fragment of life,
1:43.1	about a modern couple living in London.
1:46.0	Mary and Edward Darnell worked their jobs, invest their money conscientiously, squabble about how best to decorate their sitting room.
1:52.0	The most pressing questions in their lives are how best to spend 10 pounds they have just received.
1:58.0	They live in a world where the most radical interpretation available to them
2:01.9	of mysterious events is disappointingly banal. None of this sounds out of place in 2023.
2:09.3	It is easy for the mundane realities of living in a materialist, capitalist society to convince us
2:15.4	that reality has no inherent meaning, that there is no mysterious
	...

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