One very good reading is of William Hope Hodgson's odd, hard-to-define novel The House on the Borderland. I've never been quite sure of Hodgson. He has many admirers and his best work is powerful. But his style is starchy and his ideas are often maddeningly vague. THotB is probably his most accessible book. The central idea - of a strange house besieged by weird 'swine things' - really stays with you, as does the rather Wellsian cosmic reverie of the unreliable narrator.
Oh, and did I mention this reading is by Jim Norton? Yes, Bishop Brennan himself. Wonderful voice.
1 comment:
I am very fond of THE HOUSE ON THE BORDERLAND, and of Hodgson's work in general. No other author, save Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith, painted the cosmos as such a vicious and brutal chaos in which mankind, a mere footnote in the scheme of things, is unfortunate to exist in. THE HOUSE ON THE BORDERLAND, especially, holds an unaccountable fascination for me: it seems a remarkable fusion of the stupendous cosmic vistas of H.G. Wells and Olaf Stapledon and the brooding supernatural horror of Machen, Blackwood, Lovecraft, and Poe, a style which is rarely encountered, and even today is still unique.
I really appreciate this blog and is connexions; it is an inviting sanctuary in times when all that is supernatural, mystical, and mysterious is in danger vanishing completely.
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