Poppy Foster - Weird Fiction

A classic example of weird fiction is the 1907 short story “The Willows” by Algernon Blackwood. The story follows a pair of friends, the narrator and the Swede, as they canoe down the River Danube and make camp on an admittedly unstable island, covered in willows, for the night. Throughout the story the narrator describes feeling something profound which he can’t quite put to words other than a general sense of it being intensely disquieting and unpleasant. After a restless night and experiencing things beyond reasonable explanation, the narrator comes to learn that the pair’s equipment has been damaged, stranding them another day and night. The narrator learns the usually unimaginative Swede also shares an uneasy feeling about the place and shares the narrator’s belief that they are on the borders of some world beyond our own, with beings beyond their comprehension working against them. The pair is originally joined on the island by strong winds which block most other sounds until they quiet, being replaced by an ominous humming noise which they can only be figure as the sounds of the four-dimensional beings which accompany them. The story ends when upon waking up the next morning the river has soothed, and the humming noise vanished, the cause eventually being found out as a successful ‘sacrifice’ being made in the form of a peasant washed upon their shore, dead, in the night. When approached, the corpse was observed, to the narrator’s horror, to be covered have funnel-like indents across its skin, just like indents he had previously witnessed across the campsite. “The Willows” contains many of the core concepts shared in works of weird fiction, and throughout its pages exemplifies how humans have become estranged from nature through the expression of these themes.

As a reflection of how humans have become estranged from natural environments, authors of weird fiction such as Algernon Blackwood seem to pick up on the disconnect happening between people and place arising in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries. In Episodes Before Thirty, Blackwood’s autobiography, he describes feeling as one with nature from a young age in a way he felt he did not share with his family. Blackwood describes an intense relationship to the natural world “so intense, so flooding, was the elation of joy Nature brought”, as well as expressing this feeling in isolation to his family, who do not share his senses of the environment. Blackwood’s works are written as a reaction “against the Victorian scientism and technology” which led to the estrangement from nature Blackwood observed in the people around him. Blackwood provides a core sample of what weird fiction authors at the time were feeling, and his seminal work “The Willows” reflects these feelings well throughout its pages.

A prime way in which weird fiction reflects humanity’s estrangement from natural environments is in its opposition to anthropocentrism. The increasing ability of humans to spread their influence across the globe due to the results of the second industrial revolution can be seen as supporting the anthropocentric idea, as there were seemingly fewer things each day that could reasonably threaten the continuation of humanity. The increasing prevalence of this belief is one fundamentally opposed by authors of weird fiction, showing this disproval through writing about the greater powers that rest within nature. By presenting landscapes and environments beyond human comprehension weird fiction reflects human estrangement to natural environments in light of the second industrial revolution. Weird fiction is a way for authors to express that people’s growing perception of humanity’s power has led to people no longer being in touch with nature and expressing the true power which can be found outside of the standard cities or town people were increasingly congregating within.

In his book Man and the Natural World, Keith Thomas argues that man’s superiority comes from our ability for speech, reason, and religion. Those are what put us above all other species. Thomas argues that man no longer fears the forests due to its control over them, they are no longer ‘a wild wood’ as they were previously perceived, as in the pursuit of iron and other natural resources many forests were gotten rid of and what remains is largely maintained and planted through deliberate attempt by people. This process, starting in the seventeenth century, took much of the mystery out of the forests. Thomas argued that after this time trees received an almost pet like status, used as a show of humanity’s wishes triumphing over nature, controlling it in England for centuries through determination. Thomas also implies the dominance of man over nature through the use of trees as personal monuments representing the closest man can come to immortality. Though even this attempted use of nature to be closer to the material world shows a certain estrangement from natural environments. Through domesticating trees man does not become closer to nature, or truly exert a real sense of control over it, all they do is show their true distance by putting it into a controlled environment where it can be easily monitored and contained, carefully tended to whenever necessary, taken from its wild roots. Despite complications over whether mankind had the right to use animals or not, Thomas maintains throughout that the natural world remains for man to control.

Weird fiction opposes this viewpoint, as it explores the world beyond what man can control. Weird fiction imagines places beyond what can be easily conceived by the human mind thus challenging the notion that humanity has or will ever be able to exert complete control over the natural world. Almost in reaction to this, it asserts the true majesty of nature is something beyond human comprehension, and a force that is altogether frightful when any attempts are made. Weird fiction “undercuts anthropocentrism by thematising the insufficiency of science and human reason to comprehend the universe,” exploring the true limits of humanity by embracing nature that has been otherwise neglected. Defiance of anthropocentrism is a theme of weird fiction that underlies most stories, and lies at their very core, often influencing other concepts common to the stories.

In The Willows the lack of control the narrator and the Swede have can be found weaved throughout the story. The characters are originally stranded because they chose to ignore warnings from locals not to land on sandbanks because of their danger. The characters brush aside the multiple warnings given to them by the local people, dismissing their beliefs as “all sorts of rubbish”. In doing so they assume themselves to be more powerful than nature, and that any problems it could cause to arise would be easily countered by their preparedness. Here the estrangement from natural environments is shown as the semi-rural local community is shown to be still somewhat in touch with nature, knowing it contains strange forces too powerful for man to overcome. Whereas the people venturing into the untouched landscapes assume that they could manipulate nature to suit their own needs, dismissing anybody that would suggest otherwise. The travelling duo, in ignoring the local townsfolk, reflect the hubris of a society which believes in an anthropocentric viewpoint from an advancing world which believes they have conquered all natural environments. By the end of the story the men’s view of the world has been forever changed, and this notion forever scared out of their minds. Though the characters ignore the clear warnings, they quickly become aware that the Danube will test how easily they think they can assert their dominance, unable to predict its movement as it does not adhere to any strict rules they would expect. The river is personified as having an “aliveness” and as “singing to the moon” once night falls. Upon entering the region locals warned the duo about the river is given a consistent agency in all it does, showing how the narrator cannot understand a truly natural environment without likening its abilities to that of humans. The lack of control is also shown in the latter parts of the story when the Swede seems overcome by the force of the willows and talking of the need for a ‘sacrifice’ to calm the forces that be, and eventually attempting to take his own life in a frenzy. In using these techniques weird fiction reflects how humans have become estranged from natural environments as they find themselves utterly incapable of properly comprehending an environment in which they are not in control

Weird fiction uses aspects of what is now termed the ecoGothic to maintain a tense atmosphere which displaces humans as the central figure and focussing nature indirectly, questioning the anthropocentric view. Similarly, these stories reflect the state of society by showing a subversion of expectations. This is done through presenting landscapes where humans lack control, rather than hold it, and are powerless to both act on and conceive what is happening around them. Weird fiction reflects how humans have become estranged from natural environments through observing the change happening in society and expressing the ways in which they manifest fragile mindsets about the superiority of humans.

Last modified: Fri, 27 May 2022 11:50:40 BST