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12-22-2015 | #1 | |||||||||||
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The William Hope Hodgson thread
And Lo! The Prodigious Hodgson thread!
He's the first writer I ever fell in love with. william hope hodgson | A blog about the writer of THE NIGHT LAND and HOUSE ON THE BORDERLAND The Night Land - Home Here's what I said on the Lovecraft/Octavia Butler thread The complete poetry book isn't coming out because of a lack of interest. I've just read the four main novels but I've got all the Night Shade collections, Lost Poetry, Voice Of The Ocean and the Wandering Soul biography. Aside from a few poems, I think that's everything. James on the Lovecraft tribute anthologies thread in which I mentioned the 2 Night Land tribute anthologies and a Carnacki one. | |||||||||||
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12-22-2015 | #2 | |||||||||||
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Re: The William Hope Hodgson thread
I've heard some say that Dream Of X keeps everything good about The Night Land but I've also heard that it's an incredibly clumsy abridgement that just chops out whole sections of the book without any real editing.
It might be a bit too wishlisty to ask for more monsters, but I brought a lot of hopes to The Night Land because the concept sounded so impressive. But actually the main feature I wish it had more of was darkness. Sure, there is a never-ending night and there are portions where he is in complete darkness but for the majority of the book he can see quite clearly. I thought it'd be much better if he was in total darkness for more of the duration and struggled to see most of his attackers. A lot of people don't like the latter half of House On The Borderland but I think those are the most intense parts. Boats Of Glen Carrig on the other hand has a disastrous second half. A surprising amount of music has been based on his work. Hodgsonian vibrations Recently Ahab did an album called Boats Of Glen Carrig. | |||||||||||
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12-22-2015 | #3 |
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Re: The William Hope Hodgson thread
The Night Land uses darkness and light in an interesting way early on in the book, such as when he must use his Diskos for light whilst climbing a declivity. It is portrayed as momentous and beautiful that the narrator encounters such strange light in the first (!) Gorge, and this extends to the prodigious amount of fire-hole light he encounters in the Country of the Sea. It is a shame that after that the book ceases to use darkness/light in an interesting way.
My biggest disappointment with The Night Land was how the way back home was pretty uninteresting compared to the way there, yet was so protracted. I think when I next read through this flawed jewel I shall skim many parts of the second half. Discovering the strange alien landscape was much more interesting than backtracking through it whilst kissing and giggling and whipping a lot. There is so much wrong with The Night Land, but when it gets things right it is peerless and infinitely evocative. The image of the Watchers towering among the shadows, fixedly gazing at the Pyramid in their inexorable approach is unforgettable dream fuel and the weird enigmatic tid bits such as the Great Laughter and House of Silence are true horror. It is an incredible piece of work, for its countless flaws and tedious longueurs. I can't stop obsessing over it. |
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12-22-2015 | #4 | |||||||||||
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Re: The William Hope Hodgson thread
About time! I often considered beginning a thread to Hodgson myself, but did not. I still think Hodgson, along with even Blackwood, is somewhat underrated. I have said this before, but Hodgson was the Lovecraft of the Edwardian era: the cosmicism of Machen and Blackwood was often nullified by their optimistic mysticism, whereas Hodgson, whose weird vision was similar to the other two, eschewed mysticism and embraced science, thereby spawning a type of cosmic (astronomical) horror that truly found despair in the thought that the Earth and its inhabitants are but transient specks of dust in a vast and boundless cosmos (though Hodgson was prone, as Lovecraft remarked, to thinking the universe as actively evil, as opposed to fundamentally indifferent).
As you all know, I am a profound enthusiast of The House on the Borderland, and will go to the grave defending this as a work of art. So many ideas and images condensed into one novel -- the cosmological vistas of H.G. Wells and Olaf Stapledon are wedded with the supernatural terror of Machen, Lovecraft, and Poe in a potent mix that even today still remains unrivalled in sheer creativity without degenerating into standard Tolkien-esque phantasy. It is set to be reprinted by Dublin's Swan River Press in the foreseeable future -- with illustrations by John Coulthart!!!! | |||||||||||
I believe in the power of the imagination to remake the world, to release the truth within us, to hold back the night, to transcend death, to charm motorways, to ingratiate ourselves with birds, to enlist the confidences of madmen.
-- J.G. Ballard |
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12-22-2015 | #5 |
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Re: The William Hope Hodgson thread
Which are his best short stories? I have only read The Voice in the Night and would like to read some Carnacki tales. I heard his short stories are more conventional and accessible, so I was less intrigued by the idea of them than his hypnotic, unique novels.
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12-22-2015 | #6 |
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Re: The William Hope Hodgson thread
Thanks, I'll check them out when I have finished rereading the backtracking through the Upper Gorge from The Night Land, with the shadowed, oppressive, seemingly mountain-lidded (!) valley stretching on and on, whilst the protagonists are haunted by the hints of fire-lit slug creatures. Very eerie.
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12-22-2015 | #7 | |||||||||||
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Re: The William Hope Hodgson thread
Try "The Derelict" "The Call in the Dawn" "The Wild Man of the Sea" "The Stone Ship". You'll be surprised at how good they are.
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4 Thanks From: | Doctor Dugald Eldritch (12-22-2015), Gnosticangel (12-30-2018), miguel1984 (12-22-2015), Robert Adam Gilmour (12-22-2015) |
02-10-2016 | #8 |
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Re: The William Hope Hodgson thread
At first I was worried this would just be a retread of The Voice in the Night, but it had its own flavour. I'd love to rework this and set it somewhere more mundane, such as my local Tesco. |
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03-05-2017 | #9 |
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Re: The William Hope Hodgson thread
And lo! I think the old fashioned white knight romance element works well for The Night Land and adds to the strange archaic futurism Hodgson is crafting. It is the repetition Hodgson indulges in when describing it that leaves something to be desired.
I don't know anything about this article's writer, but it's nice to see somebody similarly passionate about this novel. |
2 Thanks From: | miguel1984 (03-05-2017), Spiral (03-05-2017) |
03-05-2017 | #10 | |||||||||||
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Re: The William Hope Hodgson thread
We've discussed Wright a bit in a few threads. Recently concerning his Night Land stories which I've heard good things about. That there is a more complete collection Hidden X and I would not buy because it's published by one of the major figures in the Alt-Right. But most of the stories are contained in William Hope Hodgson's Night Lands 1-2 edited by Andy Robertson.
Wright is one of the most notorious figures in SFF for his opinions and involvement in the Puppy movement. Then there's this new book by Avalon Brantley New Zagava book from Avalon Brantley - THE NIGHTMARE NETWORK Nikhil Singh here Strange Horizons - Nikhil Singh By Geoff Ryman Donald Sidney Fryer is one of the only people I've heard say they were moved by the romance in The Night Land. I was too but it's definitely a screwed up relationship. | |||||||||||
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2 Thanks From: | Druidic (03-05-2017), miguel1984 (03-06-2017) |
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