The Great God Pan by Authur Machen and the Sublime - Jacob Hamilton

 Our class discussions of the sublime made me think of the short horror story by Authur Machen entitled the Great God Pan. This story really captures the essence of a sublime experience of the world. The tale begins by recounting an account of a mad scientist who performs a brain surgery on a young woman. He endeavors to accomplish such a task in order that she may experience the full grandeur of nature. When he completes the surgery, the girl goes mad. The tale then fast-forwards several decades later begins to focus on a mysterious and dangerous woman named Helen.  I don’t want to get into too much detail, but Helen through her sublime grandeur is able to cause individuals to die from sheer terror. It is revealed in the end that Helen was born from the young woman who had lost her mind from the brain surgery she underwent at the hand of the mad scientist. The implication is that, somehow, the woman had become impregnated by the Greek god Pan and Helen was the product of this unholy union.  

Pan is an interesting figure among the Greek Pantheon. He is not an Olympian. Rather, he is a god of the wild and represents what lies beyond the city. The word “panic” is derived from his name. The Greek word “pan” means “all.” Here, perhaps, lies the terror of the god. A city is defined by its limit. Its walls are meant to guard against the terrible forces of the wild. Nature stands in contrast to the city as it lacks a boundary. Pan is the god of nature in that he does not possess the clearly defined limits of the Olympians. Limits make things intelligible and definable. Without a limit, something is unintelligible and sublime. Pan is the strange satyr god that symbolizes the awful sublime forces of the world.