It's been many years since I read this, and I've really appreciated your discussion, particularly the centering of the theme of grief. This is all from memory and your recap, but I can see how grief could unite the home invasion and cosmic strands of the story. I don't mean to reduce the Recluse's defense against the pig creatures to crude allegory, but there was something that struck me about the relentlessness of the assault, the way in which the things that want to hurt you keep snuffling around and clawing at the door, and the need to be constantly on guard, that seemed very much like a certain mode of experiencing grief and loss, especially early on. Then the journeys across time and space and the wish to both preserve a moment for eternity and to escape present circumstances are more explicitly tied to the Recluse's sense of loss. Clearly that's not all that's going on thematically in this book, but your discussion drew that thread out for me. Thanks!
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Lovecraftian Fiction
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Wow, this certanily is one of my favorite epsiodes I listened to, and the novel is a great work too (the third work of Hodgson I read).
Although I also found the story disjointed when I read it (it was basically a change of genre AND story), I found it very rich in ideas, and at the same time exciting in several places. What I found most striking, however, was that it seems to contain for me the missing element in Lovecraft's inspirations. In fact, it contains the core of 'weird fiction' that Lovecraft could not have found as purely from Poe, Machen or Dunsany. Hodgson's wrestling with the subject matter not only provides much material for a fine episode on Elder Sign, but also makes the story in this case a proto-weird story. Madness, cosmicism (as in "awe-struck") and especially the uncertainty and incomprehensibility as to the reality of the fears, I think makes this a key inspiration for Lovecraft's work. Lovecraft mixes this with, among other things, gothic elements of Poe and the fantasy of Dunsany, but in most cases is never as "cosmic" a la 2001 A space Odyssey (as Lars Henriks aptly said) as Hodgson is here.
What a difference by the way - this story and 'The Goddess of Death', also by Hodgson: a story I didn't like at all because of its high scooby-doo content. Fortunately, that is different here!
I never questioned the two parts of the narrative going together well or not, until listening to your discussion.
I listened to an audio book version of the novel a few years ago and I was thoroughly immersed in it all the way through - Which might have been largely due to the great reader, too.
I remember disliking the idea of the "swine things" visually while being fascinated with the way the space/time/trippy parts resembled the ending of "A Space Odyssey" (which clearly found some inspiration here!), so I guess I liked that part a little better, but I do think all of the craziness comes together as a mystifying, weirdly moving whole that might very well be about grief and its diverse appearances.
It certainly finds ways to address the finiteness of humand life in a vast, infinite, unknowable universe.
I like this reading a lot. From his sister's perspective, too, he's behaving this way even though nothing is happening. He's responding to imaginary threats out of an intense fear of losing his home and his dog and his sister, which could easily be a response to some other loss.