Mystic Fiction

[nihilsum]

"The White People" by Machen may be my all time favorite story. Though I've read plenty of Lovecraft and Ligotti before I discovered it - it is the one story in which can truly attribute my obsession with weird and fantastic literature.

There is some magic in Machen's prose and imagery in that story especially that resonates with me like no other. Machen shows you the beauty and mystery of nature and what glorious (and/or) infernal things may lie within it. This is a recurring theme in many of his stories due to his interest in religion, folklore, and the occult, and yet no other story has left me with a greater sense of wonder, and of "sorcery and sanctity".

Reading it is like gazing upon one of the most masterful and enigmatic paintings of the Pre-Raphaelites or Symbolists (art has been my passion long before I turned to literature). The same feeling of mystery I've often times felt reading certain passages from the Bible or William Blake's poetry. As for weird fiction and horror, some of Algernon Blackwood's stories are in a similar vein, even sometimes Lovecraft when he is describing the hills of New England. Some of Richard Gavin's fiction applies, too.

Here I note a distinct, subtle branch of the supernatural: a kind that evokes a sense of sublime mysticism. Not necessarily only the weird or horrific. I think Machen's work is a prime example of this, in particular his stories dealing with paganism/the occult, the holy grail, and the little people.

Am I alone in these observations? Are there any authors or stories that in which you feel convey a sense of mysticism very well? Ron Weighell's fiction seems to be what I'm looking for by the looks of it, but I don't know when I'll ever get to read his work!