History YMMV / TheGreatGodPan

* VindicatedByHistory: At the time of its release it was severely scandalous for its incessant sexual content that was largely on account of one near-unstoppable, shameless woman. Nowadays, the brutal satire on Victorian norms combined with genuinely unnerving writing and existential horror so potent that it inspired Lovecraft has made it a CultClassic of sorts.

* {{Crossover Ship}}: Helen Vaughan with [[Literature/TheDunwichHorror Wilbur Whateley]], owing to parallels between the respective antagonists, since Lovecraft directly based his own story on Machen's. [[https://www.deviantart.com/dark-precipice/art/Privacy-369886011 These drawings]] are some [[https://www.deviantart.com/dark-precipice/art/Danse-Macabre-345294916 romantic examples]], followed by [[https://www.deviantart.com/dark-precipice/art/Smooch-348775409 two more...]] let's say [[https://www.deviantart.com/dark-precipice/art/Flight-370109881 explicit illustrations]]. Doubles as Main/{{Theme Pairing}} in the rubric of Main/{{Cosmic Horror}}.

%% * EvilIsSexy: Helen's shtick.

* ValuesResonance: Depending on who you ask, the fact that the sexist nature of Victorian society is parodied comes across as rather amusing. The story also averts DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale, depicting what Helen (implicitly) does to her male victims as clearly horrific.
* VindicatedByHistory: At the time of its release it was severely scandalous for even alluding to sex and for having a woman as a major, powerful antagonist (hence why Helen is not among the classics for Gothic horror like Dracula or Frankenstein's Monster). Nowadays, the brutal satire on Victorian norms combined with genuinely unnerving writing and existential horror so potent that it inspired Lovecraft has made it a CultClassic of sorts.

* NightmareFuel: This story managed to given Creator/StephenKing nightmares, as he described in the endnotes to his short story collection ''Literature/JustAfterSunset''.
-->[''The Great God Pan''] surmounts its rather clumsy prose and works its way relentlessly into the reader's terror-zone. How many sleepless nights has it caused? God knows, but a few of them were mine. I think 'Pan' is as close as the horror genre comes to a great white whale.

* DracoInLeatherPants: Its only too easy to see Helen as some sort of retribution against the sexist Victorian era world, and she is in fact the subject of a [[http://www.aqueductpress.com/books/978-1-61976-134-6.php fan sequel]] with this premise.

* {{Crossover Ship}}: Helen Vaughan with [[Literature/TheDunwichHorror Wilbur Whateley]], owing to parallels between the respective antagonists, since Lovecraft directly based his own story on Machen's. [[https://www.deviantart.com/dark-precipice/art/Privacy-369886011 These drawings]] are some [[https://www.deviantart.com/dark-precipice/art/Danse-Macabre-345294916 romantic examples]], followed by [[https://www.deviantart.com/dark-precipice/art/Smooch-348775409 two more...]] let's say [[https://www.deviantart.com/dark-precipice/art/Flight-370109881 explicit illustrations]]. Doubles as Main/{{Theme Pairing}} in the rubric of Main/{{Cosmic Horror}}).

* {{Crossover Ship}}: Helen Vaughan with [[Literature/TheDunwichHorror Wilbur Whateley]], owing to parallels between the respective antagonists, since Lovecraft directly based his story on Machen's. [[https://www.deviantart.com/dark-precipice/art/Privacy-369886011 These]] are some [[https://www.deviantart.com/dark-precipice/art/Danse-Macabre-345294916 romantic examples]], followed by [[https://www.deviantart.com/dark-precipice/art/Smooch-348775409 more...]] let's say [[https://www.deviantart.com/dark-precipice/art/Flight-370109881 explicit illustrations]]. Doubles as Main/{{Theme Pairing}} in the rubric of Main/{{Cosmic Horror}}).

* {{Crossover Ship}}: Helen Vaughan with [[Literature/TheDunwichHorror Wilbur Whateley]], owing to many parallels between the respective antagonists, since Lovecraft directly based his story on Machen's. Doubles as Main/{{Theme Pairing}}.

* NightmareRetardant[=/=]:{{Narm}}: Helen Vaughan's final form:

** Also the "gay curtains", though to be fair he didn't know [[HaveAGayOldTime language would evolve]].

* UnfortunateImplications: Some modern readers have criticized "The Great God Pan" for misogyny.[[http://weirdgenesis.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-great-god-pan-1890-by-arthur-machen.html]][[http://somanybooksblog.com/2012/10/31/the-great-god-pan/]][[http://ttapress.com/1030/on-machen-misogyny-and-mad-women-in-attics/]][[http://www.blackgate.com/2012/10/30/arthur-machen-and-the-great-god-pan/]] ''The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction'' (1993) is widely quoted as stating that "The story begins with an sf rationale (brain surgery) which remains one of the most dramatically horrible and misogynistic in fiction."[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_God_Pan#Critical_opinion]] That said, [[https://books.google.com/books?id=4ksJAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA62&dq=helen+vaughan+antichrist&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjJ-8665fbcAhUIjlkKHXxBBCwQ6AEIKTAA#v=onepage&q=great%20god%20pan&f=false some]] [[https://www.blackgate.com/2012/10/30/arthur-machen-and-the-great-god-pan/ also]] interpret the story as basically a female revenge story against a patriarchal society; given that Arthur Machen was in general critical of the artificial Victorian society...

* EvilIsSexy: Helen's shtick, albeit with apparent UncannyValley.

* CompleteMonster: [[TheVamp Helen Vaughn]], the spawn of Pan and a mortal woman, is a seemingly respectable woman who [[HumanoidAbomination delights in cruel perversion]]. Having [[MindRape broken the mind]] of a boy when she was young, her "friend" Rachel returned from the woods, half-naked and insane, begging her mother to know why she let her go into the woods with Helen before vanishing forever. Helen married one respectable man ruining and eventually murdering him before taking part in cults that involved orgies and HumanSacrifice, [[DrivenToSuicide driving others to suicide]] or murdering them in her wake.

* CompleteMonster: [[HumanoidAbomination Helen Vaughn]], the spawn of Pan and a mortal woman, is a seemingly respectable woman who delights in cruel perversion. Having [[MindRape broken the mind]] of a boy when she was young, her "friend" Rachel returned from the woods, half-naked and insane, begging her mother to know why she let her go into the woods with Helen before vanishing forever. Helen married one respectable man ruining and eventually murdering him before taking part in cults that involved orgies and HumanSacrifice, [[DrivenToSuicide driving others to suicide]] or murdering them in her wake.

-->"... or one instance I saw a Form, shaped in dimness before me, which I will not farther describe. But the symbol of this form may be seen in ancient sculptures, and in paintings which survived beneath the lava, too foul to be spoken of... as a horrible and unspeakable shape, neither man nor beast, was changed into human form, there came finally death." [[note]]It's a blatant reference to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erotic_art_in_Pompeii_and_Herculaneum the erotic art of Pompeii]]. In other words, the horrific EldritchAbomination turned into a ''giant penis''.[[/note]]

* ValuesResonance: Depending on who you ask, the fact that the sexist nature of Victorian society is parodied comes across as rather amusing.

* UnfortunateImplications: Some modern readers have criticized "The Great God Pan" for misogyny.[[http://weirdgenesis.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-great-god-pan-1890-by-arthur-machen.html]][[http://somanybooksblog.com/2012/10/31/the-great-god-pan/]][[http://ttapress.com/1030/on-machen-misogyny-and-mad-women-in-attics/]][[http://www.blackgate.com/2012/10/30/arthur-machen-and-the-great-god-pan/]] ''The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction'' (1993) is widely quoted as stating that "The story begins with an sf rationale (brain surgery) which remains one of the most dramatically horrible and misogynistic in fiction."[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_God_Pan#Critical_opinion]] That said, [[https://books.google.com/books?id=4ksJAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA62&dq=helen+vaughan+antichrist&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjJ-8665fbcAhUIjlkKHXxBBCwQ6AEIKTAA#v=onepage&q=great%20god%20pan&f=false some]] [[https://www.blackgate.com/2012/10/30/arthur-machen-and-the-great-god-pan/ also]] interpret the story as basically a female revenge story against a patriarchal society; given that Arthur Machen was in general critical of the artificial victorian society...

* ValuesResonance: Depending on who you ask the fact that the sexist nature of Victorian society is parodied comes across as rather amusing.

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: One of the text's greatest strengths is how both incredibly vague it is and how the prudish, stuck-up POV characters contrast with Machen's own occultist viewpoints. Is Helen and Pan truly demonic beings, or are they agents of liberation and, as some reviewers put it, the "revenge of the atavistic"?

* [[AlternateAesopInterpretation Alternate Aesop]][/][[AlternateCharacterInterpretation Character]] Interpretation: One of the text's greatest strengths is how both incredibly vague it is and how the prudish, stuck-up POV characters contrast with Machen's own occultist viewpoints. Is Helen and Pan truly demonic beings, or are they agents of liberation and, as some reviewers put it, the "revenge of the atavistic"?

* AlternateCharacterAesop[/][[AlternateCharacterInterpretation Interpretation]]: One of the text's greatest strengths is how both incredibly vague it is and how the prudish, stuck-up POV characters contrast with Machen's own occultist viewpoints. Is Helen and Pan truly demonic beings, or are they agents of liberation and, as some reviewers put it, the "revenge of the atavistic"?

%% * EvilIsSexy

%% * TheWoobie: Poor Mary and Trevor.

* ValuesRessonance: Depending on who you ask the fact that the sexist nature of Victorian society is parodied comes across as rather amusing.

* UnfortunateImplications: Some modern readers have criticized "The Great God Pan" for misogyny.[[http://weirdgenesis.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-great-god-pan-1890-by-arthur-machen.html]][[http://somanybooksblog.com/2012/10/31/the-great-god-pan/]][[http://ttapress.com/1030/on-machen-misogyny-and-mad-women-in-attics/]][[http://www.blackgate.com/2012/10/30/arthur-machen-and-the-great-god-pan/]] ''The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction'' (1993) is widely quoted as stating that "The story begins with an sf rationale (brain surgery) which remains one of the most dramatically horrible and misogynistic in fiction."[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_God_Pan#Critical_opinion]]

->"or one instance I saw a Form, shaped in dimness before me, which I will not farther describe. But the symbol of this form may be seen in ancient sculptures, and in paintings which survived beneath the lava, too foul to be spoken of... as a horrible and unspeakable shape, neither man nor
beast, was changed into human form, there came finally death."
[[note]]It's a blatant reference to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erotic_art_in_Pompeii_and_Herculaneum the erotic art of Pompeii]]. In other words, the horrific EldritchAbomination turned into a ''giant penis''.[[/note]]

%% * TheWoobie: Poor Mary and Trevor.
* UnfortunateImplications: Some modern readers have criticized "The Great God Pan" for misogyny.[[http://weirdgenesis.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-great-god-pan-1890-by-arthur-machen.html]][[http://somanybooksblog.com/2012/10/31/the-great-god-pan/]][[http://ttapress.com/1030/on-machen-misogyny-and-mad-women-in-attics/]][[http://www.blackgate.com/2012/10/30/arthur-machen-and-the-great-god-pan/]] ''The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction'' (1993) is widely quoted as stating that "The story begins with an sf rationale (brain surgery) which remains one of the most dramatically horrible and misogynistic in fiction."[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_God_Pan#Critical_opinion]]