William Hope Hodgson and the Rise of the Weird: Possibilities of the Dark (Perspectives on Fantasy)

The first comprehensive study of the works of William Hope Hodgson, one of the true innovators of Weird fiction, this book digs into the Weird novels and stories upon which his posthumous reputation rests, his non-fantastic writing, identifiable literary influences, and the historical contexts in which he wrote. Calling upon such standout works as The House on the Borderland (1908) and The Night Land (1912), Timothy S. Murphy surveys topics including Hodgson’s experiments with code switching and vernacular intervention; his depictions of racial and ethnic differences and gender and sexuality; the function of space and place in his writing; the adaptation of his shipboard experiences; the influence of the sea; and his use of abysmal time. With special attention paid to his paradoxical nihilist humanism, this book explores what made Hodgson a respected precursor to later innovators such as H. P. Lovecraft and C.L. Moore, and what makes him an important ancestor to 21st-century writers such as China Miéville, Greg Bear, and Charlie Jane Anders. Demonstrating how his work is both of his time and ‘untimely’, Murphy recovers Hodgson as the most significant figure to precede the fantastically popular but deeply controversial Lovecraft, wherein his work challenges what has thus far been accepted about the genre and the frames through which we view it. "The first comprehensive study of the works of William Hope Hodgson, one of the true innovators of Weird fiction, this book digs into the Weird novels and stories upon which his posthumous reputation rests, his non-fantastic writing, identifiable literary influences, and the historical contexts in which he wrote. Calling upon such standout works as The House on the Borderland (1908) and The Night Land (1912), Timothy S. Murphy surveys topics including Hodgson's experiments with code switching and vernacular intervention; his depictions of racial and ethnic differences and gender and sexuality; the function of space and place in his writing; the adaptation of his shipboard experiences; the influence of the sea; and his use of abysmal time. With special attention paid to his paradoxical nihilist humanism, this book explores what made Hodgson a respected precursor to later innovators such as H. P. Lovecraft and C.L. Moore, and what makes him an important ancestor to 21st-century writers such as China Miéville, Greg Bear, and Charlie Jane Anders. Demonstrating how his work is both of his time and 'untimely', Murphy recovers Hodgson as the most significant figure to precede the fantastically popular but deeply controversial Lovecraft, wherein his work challenges what has thus far been accepted about the genre and the frames through which we view it"-- Provided by publisher The first comprehensive study of the works of William Hope Hodgson, one of the true innovators of Weird fiction, this book examines the Weird novels and stories upon which his posthumous reputation rests, his non-fantastic writing, identifiable literary influences, and the historical contexts in which he wrote. Focusing extensively upon major works such as The House on the Borderland (1908) and The Night Land (1912), Timothy S. Murphy surveys topics including Hodgson's experiments with code switching and linguistic experimentation; his depictions of racial and ethnic differences and gender and sexuality; the function of space and place in his writing; the adaptation of his shipboard experiences; and his use of abyssal time. With special attention paid to his paradoxical nihilist humanism, this book explores what made Hodgson a respected precursor to later innovators such as H. P. Lovecraft and C.L. Moore, and what makes him an important ancestor to 21st-century writers such as China Miéville, Greg Bear, and Charlie Jane Anders. Demonstrating how his work is both of his time and 'untimely', Murphy recovers Hodgson as the most significant figure to precede the fantastically popular but deeply controversial Lovecraft, as well as a figure whose work challenges what has thus far been accepted about the genre and the interpretive perspectives from which we view it. Cover Contents Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations Preface: Weird before the Weird Introduction: Decognition and the Labor of the Weird Decognitive Estrangement Weird Materialisms Part One Hope in Space and Time 1 The Larger English 2 Spoken to My Own Brother 3 Teach Him to Know a Man Part Two Hope Out of Place 4 The Sea Is All the God There Is 5 A Cemetery of Lost Ships and Wrack and Forgotten Things 6 Familiar Land of Strangeness Part Three Hope Out of Time 7 The Time That Is Left Us 8 That Song Past Human Tongue to Sing 9 Beautiful Things Hid in the Abyss of the Years Envoi: Hope’s Legacy References Index