William Hope Hodgson (1877-1918) - Flawed Jewel
A writer who, tho' odd, I recommend (c'mon, suck it & see). After an active life Hodgson's literary career was short-lived. He joined the Royal Artillery at the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, and was killed in action in 1918.

Here be links, stories online, stuff about him.
Also try checking back "up" the directory tree on these addresses, as some sites have other literature, horror & other parts that you might like to explore:
fanac.org/fanzines/Chanticleer/Chanticleer3-26.html
www.creative.net/~alang/lit/horror/hodgson.sht#web
www.nightshadebooks.com/hodgson.html

You'll need patience for the loading of this one [big grafix & 2D scrolling needed], but there are lots of different bits you can get to from here including Lovecraft stuff and quite different subjects:
home.clara.net/andywrobertson
(don't miss http://home.clara.net/andywrobertson/dslnotesoncontent.html)
... you may recognise one portion :)

For an example of his 'straight' horror/mystery style, see the story 'A Voice in the Night' -
www.litrix.com/vnight/vnigh001.htm
home2.inet.tele.dk/bibliste/text/whh_voic.htm
www.litrix.com/vnight/vnigh001.htm
www.ri.net/schools/Johnston/ferri/a_voice_in_the_night.html
for the story itself (some of these have others of his stories, or ones by other writers).
and also vcme.org/WHH.html
home2.inet.tele.dk/bibliste/text/whh_voic.htm where there is a music piece based on it.
There is supposed to be a movie of it made in 1934, and it was an episode of Hitchcock's Mystery Theatre (or Hitchcock's Half Hour or whatever that old Alfred Hitchcock TV series was called). Probably pretty hard to find either.

Then there's this Lovecraftian site (WHH is in a similar vein to his 'school'):
www.inzenity.com/mythku
Hmmm ... (well, haiku are supposedly 'cooler' than limericks (which I prefer - OK, even Homer nods, but you can say serious things in them - will post examples))

Other, vaguely related things, include Annotatorman (in 'Athens'), someone who obviously has a lot of time on his hands, or doesn't sleep or something. [This is the sort of thing I could do - my brain works that way ... No! No! Retro Satanus! ... that way madness lies.]
Not that I'm ungrateful for it all.
www.geocities.com/ratmmjess/etexts.html
www.geocities.com/Athens/Olympus/7160/annos.html

That'll keep youse-all busy for a while if you're into this type of stuff at all.
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Among the uncollected poems left after his death is this one.
It shows some of both his good & bad features:

To God
I am dying, and my work is all before me;
As a pencil that doth break beneath the knife
So have I brake before the bitter sharping
Of the grim blades of thought that shaped my life,
And made me fit and keen to speak before Thee,
And now I die, just trained enough to sing.

Why must I die when I was fit to speak?
And why the bitter training of these years -
That bred expression's need, and the live promise
That I should sing my song? And now, too weak,
I see my glories through a mist of fears,
As a dumb seer that dies beneath death's kiss,
Seeing great visions from a cask of iron.

O Thou Who Art; but not by man described -
A Force all hidden from the eyes of Proof,
Believed in dumbly, or with foolish word,
By man whose thoughts are by emotions bribed,

If Thou art there, so utter and aloof,
Answer my heart that flutters, here, absurd,
Asking unguided questions of the Dark -
Hope asking - Hope that can but Hark.
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Note that like Shakespeare he can pun in serious mode
(see the Dover Cliffs scene in King Lear).

Labels: poetry

[permalink][comment] - posted by Mez @ 10/09/2002 08:01:00 pm