History Literature / TheGreatGodPan

* AdaptationHeroism: In [[Helen's Story]] by Rosanne Rabinowitz, Helen Vaughan is the anti-heroine protagonist of her respective story.

->''"Great God, what simpletons! Show them Arthur Machen's Great God Pan and they'll think it a common Dunwich scandal!"''

* DidYouJustRomanceCthulhu: More like "Were you just raped by Cthulhu" and "Did you just romance [[Literature/TheDunwichHorror Wilbur Whateley]]."

-->"Yes, I married, Villiers. I met a girl, a girl of the most wonderful and most strange beauty, at the house of some people whom I knew. . . My friends had come to know her at Florence; she told them she was an orphan, the child of an English father and an Italian mother, and she charmed them as she charmed me. The first time I saw her was at an evening party. I was standing by the door talking to a friend, when suddenly above the hum and babble of conversation I heard a voice which seemed to thrill to my heart. She was singing an Italian song. I was introduced to her that evening, and in three months I married Helen. Villiers, that woman, if I can call her woman, corrupted my soul."

* HalfHumanHybrid: [[spoiler: Implied to be less of a hybrid and more an avatar.]]

* MeaningfulName: [[spoiler: [[TheBible Mary had a child with a divine entity]]]].

* SemiDivine: [[spoiler: Helen is the child of a god and a female human, which make her a monstrous and twisted version of demigod]].

-->"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 tale. [[spoiler: 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]]."

* Semi-Divine: [[spoiler: Helen is the child of a god and a female human, which make her a monstrous and twisted version of demigod]].

[[quoteright:125:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Great-God-Pan_231.jpg]]

Written by Creator/ArthurMachen in 1894 and originally published in a magazine, ''The Great God Pan'' is known for being one of the prototypes of the CosmicHorrorStory. It was a huge influence on Creator/HPLovecraft, who used it as the basis for his own story ''Literature/TheDunwichHorror'', as well as for the [[CthulhuMythos deity]] [[MotherOfAThousandYoung Shub-Niggurath]]. It is worth noting that the main themes of the story - the idea that there are ThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow and [[EldritchAbomination horrors outside of our reality that we do not understand]] - are very Lovecraftian in nature, making these tropes [[OlderThanTheyThink older than you think]].

* DontGoInTheWoods: "Ah, mother, mother, why did you let me go in the forest with Helen?"

* GoneMadFromTheRevelation

* MadScientist: Dr. Raymond has a lot of this going on.

* MysteryMagnet
* MysticalPregnancy
* NatureSpirit: A very, ''very'' dark version.

* SupernaturalFiction

* ThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow

* TheVamp: Helen.

* MeaningfulName: [[spoiler: [[TheBible Mary had a child with a divine entity]]]]

* DisposableVagrant: What Dr. Raymond regards Mary as (see the ValuesDissonance [[YMMV/GreatGodPan entry.]])

* EldritchAbomination: This version of Pan is definitely very different from the satyr god of GreekMythology. In addition, it is strongly implied Pan is also the [[Myth/CelticMythology Celtic god]] Nodens, who would later join Lovecraft's works as one of his eldritch deities...

* EldritchAbomination: This version of Pan is definitely very different from the satyr god of GreekMythology. In addition, it is strongly implied Pan is also the [[CelticMythology Celtic god]] Nodens, who would later join Lovecraft's works as one of his eldritch deities...

* CampbellCountry: Takes place in Britain. [[CaptainObvious Was way before Ramsey Campbell's works]].

Written by Creator/ArthurMachen in 1894 and originally published in a magazine, ''The Great God Pan'' is known for being one of the prototypes of the [[CosmicHorrorStory Cosmic Horror]] genre. It was a huge influence on Creator/HPLovecraft, who used it as the basis for his own story ''Literature/TheDunwichHorror'', as well as for the [[CthulhuMythos deity]] [[MotherOfAThousandYoung Shub-Niggurath]]. It is worth noting that the main themes of the story - the idea that there are ThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow and [[EldritchAbomination horrors outside of our reality that we do not understand]] - are very Lovecraftian in nature, making these tropes [[OlderThanTheyThink older than you think]].

''The Great God Pan'' is also [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_God_Pan#Influence considered by]] StephenKing 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.

-->"Yes, I married, Villiers. I met a girl, a girl of the most wonderful and most strange beauty, at the house of some people whom I knew. . . My friends had come to know her at Florence; she told them she was an orphan, the child of an English father and an Italian mother, and she charmed them as she charmed me. The first time I saw her was at an evening party. I was standing by the door talking to a friend, when suddenly above the hum and babble of conversation I heard a voice which seemed to thrill to my heart. She was singing an Italian song. I was introduced to her that evening, and in three months I married Helen. Villiers, that woman, if I can call her woman, corrupted my soul."

-->"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 tale. [[spoiler: 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]]."

--> -- from "Literature/TheDunwichHorror" by HPLovecraft

Written by ArthurMachen in 1894 and originally published in a magazine, ''The Great God Pan'' is known for being one of the prototypes of the [[CosmicHorrorStory Cosmic Horror]] genre. It was a huge influence on HPLovecraft, who used it as the basis for his own story ''Literature/TheDunwichHorror'', as well as for the [[CthulhuMythos deity]] [[MotherOfAThousandYoung Shub-Niggurath]]. It is worth noting that the main themes of the story - the idea that there are ThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow and [[EldritchAbomination horrors outside of our reality that we do not understand]] - are very Lovecraftian in nature, making these tropes [[OlderThanTheyThink older than you think]].

* CreepySexy: {{Invoked}}.

* [=~Don't Go In The Woods~=]: "Ah, mother, mother, why did you let me go in the forest with Helen?"

--> -- from "Literature/TheDunwichHorror" by H.P. Lovecraft

--> -- from "The Dunwich Horror" by H.P. Lovecraft

* DidYouJustRomanceCthulhu: More like "Were you just raped by Cthulhu" and "Did you just romance [[TheDunwichHorror Wilbur Whateley]]."

Written by ArthurMachen in 1894 and originally published in a magazine, ''The Great God Pan'' is known for being one of the prototypes of the [[CosmicHorrorStory Cosmic Horror]] genre. It was a huge influence on HPLovecraft, who used it as the basis for his own story "TheDunwichHorror", as well as for the [[CthulhuMythos deity]] [[MotherOfAThousandYoung Shub-Niggurath]]. It is worth noting that the main themes of the story - the idea that there are ThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow and [[EldritchAbomination horrors outside of our reality that we do not understand]] - are very Lovecraftian in nature, making these tropes [[OlderThanTheyThink older than you think]].