That Thing Invisible

Runt of the Litter

The rain that began last night continued right through to this morning (and indeed the afternoon), but I braved it to see 'Harry Potter' and 'The Simpsons Movie'. More on them later, no doubt. I was going to make it a hat trick and go to the new Japanese animated version of Ursula Le Guin's 'Tales of Earthsea', but when the ticket seller said it was assigned seating I gave up the idea in preference for a coffee. Coffee and Carnacki.

'The Casebook of Carnacki - Ghost Finder' is now finished. With 'The Hog', the final story, it is very easy to see the seeds of Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos; an evil force (one of the 'Outer Monstrosities') that once dominated the Earth, was banished, but seeks to return, finds a gateway back to our world through the dreams of a sensitive man. Carnacki even has his own Necronomicon; the Sigsand Manuscript. Unfortunately Hodgeson's insistence on the most ludicrous of supernatural agents - a whistling room, a crazy dagger, a spectral horse in a house, and now a giant pig's head - threatens to throw the whole thing over into farce. In this story, I think it does.

Sometimes Carnacki's 'scientific' paraphernalia doesn't help either. In the climactic experimentof 'The Hog', both Carnacki and the unfortunate victim of swine abuse are wearing full rubber suits, complete with rubber ear flaps. Snazzy! The grunting, squealing victim doesn't aid matters. I mean it could all be scary, it's certainly unnatural, but it has to be done right. And a giant pig's head emerging from a gate of Hell is questionable to say the least. At least Lovecraft left most of his indescribable horrors without description. To compound matters, Carnacki's constant querying of his audience - 'Am I making this clear?', 'Can you imagine?', 'Do you understand?' - also annoys. And while I am about it, what otherworldy version of Ireland did Hodgeson write of with placenames like Kraighten, Iastrae, etc..

And yet I am still a fan. Hodgeson's was a unique vision. Granted he borrowed from Wells, Arthur Conan Doyle and others, but what he took he put in the service of a very strange take on horror. 'The House on the Borderland', generally regarded as his best novel, is a bizarre mix of the far future elements of 'The Time Machine', an anticipation of '2001: A Space Odyssey', and the found manuscript stories of Hogg and Poe. It is way ahead of its time while still being mired in some very Victorian attitudes. Personally I love 'The Ghost Pirates' (I've been writing a film adaptation off and on for ages), while 'The Boats of the Glen Carrig' is a strange mix of Verne and Stephen King. And as for 'The Nightland'! I'll have what's he's having!

Nevertheless, for all their deficiencies, the Carnacki stories are as strange as anything Hodgeson has written. As the introduction points out, Dennis Wheatley couldn't have written 'The Devil Rides Out' without Carnacki's Electric Pentacle and Magic Circle. And in his sceptical, yet open attitude, not to mention his espousal of science, it's not hard to see Mulder and Scullys' great-great-granddaddy pottering around in these tales. Anyhow take my disappointment with a grain of blessed salt. I have high expectations when it comes to Hodgeson. Though it may not be great art, it is fun. Give him a try.

By the way, I have decided that rather than go through my past posts and populate them with the relevant pictures, I am going to post photos taken with my phone over the past year arbitrarily, hence the Adelaide photo above.