World War Weird: Blackwood and the First World War

This article situates Blackwood’s First World War stories within debates about the tensions between orthodox religious beliefs and the more heterodox beliefs championed at the time by spiritualists and others in publications such as The Occult Review. The article argues that Blackwood’s interest in esoteric beliefs is placed under severe pressure during World War One as he perceives them as endorsing a type of primordial violence that manifests in the carnage of war. These tales reflect on the conflicting demands placed on the subject as they are pulled between the impulse to revel in violence and the ambition to assert a moral stance. Ultimately, a conventional form of Christian piety defeats other beliefs which celebrate violence, sexual desire, and freedoms from orthodox moral constraint. The article also explores how these issues relate to ideas of patriotism, gender, and models of qualified revenge.