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Brian Murphy

Arcane Arts: Dispatches From The Silver Key

Published 3 months ago • 3 min read

Dispatches from the silver key

Arcane Arts

From the ephemeral to the mythic, another issue of Arcane Arts.

I see S&S…

I’m a bit like Haley Joel Osment in The Sixth Sense, but instead of dead people I see S&S everywhere. Here’s three recent sightings.

Gorgar, GameCraft Arcade. I’m terrible at pinball … but I love pinball machines. And when they’re sword-and-sorcery pinball I geek out. Which describes my reaction to finding Gorgar at GameCraft Arcade in Southington, CT this past weekend.

I was not expecting to see this machine in the wild. It was made in 1979 and today is a collector’s item. It was well maintained and in good working order, devouring my tokens greedily as I was reminded just how bad I am at pinball. But I can now say I’ve met the red demon, face-to-face. Here's more of my experience on the blog.

Have you played Gorgar?

Beyond the Black River, Widowmaker Brewing. Someone at this Braintree, MA brewery is a huge Robert E. Howard-head and I’m here for it. Look at this can art.

I’ve had a few Widowmaker beers and they’ve all been phenomenal, with Blue Comet a personal favorite. I must get Beyond the Black River for the can art alone.

Conan the Barbarian/Conan the Destroyer Double Bill in Portsmouth, NH. I live in MA but I’m right on the border of NH, about 25 miles south of the city of Portsmouth. It’s a quintessential New England seaport and a popular summer destination, known for hosting well-heeled tourists. Not a place I’d expect to see this double bill of barbarism:

Alas, I already have plans for March 14 ☹. If you live on the north shore this seems well-worth your $5. Here are a couple of my old reviews of these films, CtB is a classic and in the top 3 fantasy films ever. CtD is a massive step down and a disappointment, but still a fun watch, if only for Arnold wrestling “Thak” in the hall of mirrors.

What I’m reading

Liturgies of the Wild. I discovered Martin Shaw through Paul Kingsnorth, whose Against the Machine is an absolutely riveting read. Like Kingsnorth Shaw is unafraid to profess his Christian faith but also his love for old pagan myths and the timeless wisdom they confer. But where Against the Machine is a thunderous broadside against the modern machine mindset, Liturgies of the Wild is a warm, approachable, positive call to re-sacralize the world. “Let’s raise our visor to the beauty of the world, again,” Shaw urges in its pages.

I have come to admire the works of both men. Kingsnorth is probably the sharper writer but Shaw has an optimistic outlook and cheerful spirit I admire. Liturgies of the Wild makes me yearn for wandering in the woods behind my home, although the deep snow and bitter cold have currently made that near impossible without snowshoes.

It’s also made me turn to optimism.

Writing is hard (which is a good thing) but I can write negative rants in an unconscious torrent, my outrage flowing through the keyboard. It feels great in the short term; not so the long run. I want to be more like Shaw … with occasional Kingsnorth broadsides.

I listened to it on Spotify and Shaw did the reading, which greatly added to the experience as he is also a charismatic public speaker. Here's the description:

There’s an old Irish belief that if you aren’t wrapped in a cloak of story you will be unprepared for what the world will hurl at you. You remain adolescent at just the moment a culture worth its salt requires you to become a real, grown, human being.
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In Liturgies of the Wild, acclaimed mythographer, storyteller and Christian thinker Martin Shaw argues that we live in a myth-impoverished age and that such poverty has left us vulnerable to stories that may not wish us well. Drawing on the “ancient technologies” of myths and initiatory rites, Shaw provides a road to wholeness, maturity and connection. He teaches us to read a myth the way it wants to be read; provides vivid retellings of tales powerful enough to carry you through life’s travails; and shows you how to gather and reshape your own thrown-away stories. Most vividly, he shares how these ancient technologies led him—unexpectedly—to Christ, “the True Myth,” by way of a thirty-year journey and a 101-night vigil in a Dartmoor forest.
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Combining scholarly erudition with nimble storytelling in the tradition of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, Liturgies of the Wild is a thrilling counsel of resistance and delight in the face of many modern monsters.

In short, it’s an instructional manual for living a better life through myth and story. Recommended.

Do you see S&S, everywhere?

22 Acacia Avenue, Merrimac, MA 01860
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Brian Murphy

Sword-and-sorcery and heavy metal are among a small handful of my great passions. I write about these and other related topics on my blog, The Silver Key (https://thesilverkey.blogspot.com/). Flame and Crimson: A History of Sword-and-Sorcery (2020, Pulp Hero Press) is my first book. I'm working on a second book, a heavy metal memoir.

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