|
Post by Craig Herbertson on Feb 9, 2011 7:47:04 GMT
Just realise how unfair I was to Hodgson earlier over the 'The Boats of the "Glen Carrig"'. I sort of skimmed through it one morning a few weeks back and found it shockingly bad. I read it some years ago in the general teenage Lovecraft phase.
Now having taken it to bed in the depths of the night I revise my opinion. It's a weird and wonderful book full of subtle nuances. The description of the Sargasso with its weeds and lonesome wilds, the hulks of ancient wrecks and the tiny defensive superstructures create by the stranded is top whack.
My one picky thing is that I'm not sure the language is remotely authentic mid 1800's. It was published in 1907 so Hodgson was closer to that time than us but still it doesn't read comfortably to me of that time.
It reminds me that so much is context and mood. Having reestablished in my head where Hodgson belongs in the canon of the weird and wonderful - an original and innovative author - and having established the correct mood - the loneliness of the wee hours - the book comes to uneasy life.
|
|
|
Post by cw67q on Feb 9, 2011 8:17:14 GMT
Just realise how unfair I was to Hodgson earlier over the 'The Boats of the "Glen Carrig"'. I sort of skimmed through it one morning a few weeks back and found it shockingly bad. I read it some years ago in the general teenage Lovecraft phase. Now having taken it to bed in the depths of the night I revise my opinion. It's a weird and wonderful book full of subtle nuances. The description of the Sargasso with its weeds and lonesome wilds, the hulks of ancient wrecks and the tiny defensive superstructures create by the stranded is top whack. My one picky thing is that I'm not sure the language is remotely authentic mid 1800's. It was published in 1907 so Hodgson was closer to that time than us but still it doesn't read comfortably to me of that time. It reminds me that so much is context and mood. Having reestablished in my head where Hodgson belongs in the canon of the weird and wonderful - an original and innovative author - and having established the correct mood - the loneliness of the wee hours - the book comes to uneasy life. I'm really glad to have seen this post Craig, for two reasons: (i) I really like Hodgson; and (ii) I know there is at least one other reader on this forum that sometimes finds themselves drawn back to reread authors or books that seemed to fail on the last encounter. It is funny how some works or authors that either didn't register, or made a poor impression, at the time of reading can resurface at the back of the mind nagging for a revisit. I can't think of another author off the top of my head that would come off worse than hodgson by dipping into one of his books. Hodgson's great strength is his powerful visionary imagination, his prose style however is a bit of a hurdle. Opening one of his books at random and taking a quick sample wouldn't catch WHH's worth at all. But despite this he is one of the giants in this field. - Chris
|
|
|
Post by Craig Herbertson on Feb 9, 2011 8:33:28 GMT
Good stuff. I did really enjoy it first time round when I was a teenager. I'd just forgotten. I read Night Lands quite late on and also enjoyed it. Well 'enjoy' is a bit much for any Hogdson - More like admire. I thought it was one of the very few original works in existence. A work that feels that it has no real antecedents.
|
|
|
Post by jamesdoig on Feb 10, 2011 5:08:47 GMT
I thought it was one of the very few original works in existence. I agree with that - it's a remarkable work. And it's one of those books that polarises opinion - quite a few people I know can't stand it, and most have never finished it. Is there a biography of Hodgson? I only know Sam Moskowitz's work on him, but surely there's scope for a full biography.
|
|
|
Post by Craig Herbertson on Feb 10, 2011 7:40:26 GMT
I'm not aware of any biography. looking at the wiki article he died in the first world war and the biography contains some interesting detail about his life but I guess if there was any substantial work on him there would be more detail.
'At the outbreak of the first World War in 1914, Hodgson returned to England and entered training as a Lieutenant with the Royal Field Artillery. He received a serious head injury in a fall, but eventually recovered and was sent to the front lines near Ypres, Belgium. There he volunteered for highly dangerous duty as a forward observer and, on April 17, 1918 was obliterated by a German shell. He was forty.' wiki
He's certainly deserving of a dedicated work.
|
|
|
Post by David A. Riley on Feb 10, 2011 8:15:15 GMT
There was a pretty good biography of Hodgson published years ago in Dave Sutton's Shadow. I'll try and dig it out later today when I'm home. I remember reading this at the time and being surprised to find that Hodgson spent quite some years in Blackburn, where I work and lived for a few years myself after getting married. It's only the next town from where I live. There are a few details of his misadventures there in the wikepedia article too. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Hope_HodgsonHe also based at least a couple of his short stories on Blackburn in what I think was called The Horror in the Water Tank (?) and another on a statue of Flora in the town's Corporation Park. I tried to get one of the local newspapers to do something about him on the centenary of his birth but without success.
|
|
|
Post by jamesdoig on Feb 10, 2011 20:36:52 GMT
There was a pretty good biography of Hodgson published years ago in Dave Sutton's Shadow. I'll try and dig it out later today when I'm home. Thanks David, I'll have to look those up.
|
|
|
Post by Craig Herbertson on Feb 17, 2011 11:34:42 GMT
Well just finished 'The Boats of the "Glen Carrig"' and confess I was talking absolute mince about it being a poor book earlier. It really is a finely paced and well thought out novel. The horror is genuinely horrific and its not as 'nameless' as I remember. In fact its quite definite in both the landscape - an eerie and awful Sargasso - and the naughty creatures therein - the weed people. There's even a huge crab (was it the first?)
The descriptions of building bows, kites and the stuff about ships is absolutely spot on and serves as a kind of mundane contra point to the horror.
Its been noted that the characters aren't usually named - There are only a few apart from our hero - the crew members of both ships a couple of ladies and the bosun. At first I thought this was lazy writing now it strikes me that this was very deliberate by Hodgson. It tends to focus the mind on the horrors befalling the hero.
For the literary minded I am sure there are metaphoric underlays in this book about masculine loneliness, women (the power of the sea) and so and I get the feeling they might have been deliberate - difficult to say in 1907. If so Hodgson was definitely ahead of his time by some stretch.
|
|
|
Post by Jojo Lapin X on Feb 17, 2011 12:09:22 GMT
It really is a finely paced and well thought out novel. Is it? I remember it as being highly episodic, with little connection between the different episodes.
|
|
|
Post by Dr Strange on Feb 17, 2011 14:58:39 GMT
It really is a finely paced and well thought out novel. Is it? I remember it as being highly episodic, with little connection between the different episodes. Have to say, that's the way I remember it too - like one of those 1930s Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers serials that they showed on TV on Saturday mornings when I was a kid.
|
|