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/lit/ - Literature

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9866594 No.9866594 [Reply] [Original]

Is this book really as tough to read as people claim, or do you get used to the idiosyncratic prose style after a while?

>> No.9866668

It's mostly a slog. 30% eldritch horror adventure AT BEST. The rest is
>muh rations
>muh sore feet
>muh sleep
>muh babyslave
>muh spankings
>muh foot massages
ad nauseum

>> No.9866681

To answer your actual question, the prose isn't difficult, it's just annoying. You'll probably see right through it after the first chapter or so.

>> No.9866684

Read Awake in the Night Land instead. Basically a modern improvement while still staying true to the original.

>> No.9866698
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9866698

>>9866594
Great imagination, bad prose writer, but If you read Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith, you will end up reading Hodgson anyway. The clumsy prose adds a bit to the sense of weird and other-ness. House On The Borderland is more approachable.

>> No.9866732

>>9866594
It's not hard to read. If you can make it through the first 20-30 pages or so you'll get used to it and be fine.

If you're worried then read The House on the Borderland (shorter, more conventional Hodgson that's still good) and The Worm Ouroboros (better use of archaic prose) first.

>> No.9866814

>>9866594
How come this book's been getting attention on /lit/? Did it get a shoutout in a popular vlog or something?

>> No.9866826

>>9866814
Someone was claiming that it might be getting a Hollywood TV miniseries treatment, I think. There are debates over just what that adaptation might look like.

>> No.9866834

>>9866826
Ahh. That'd be neat. I really want atmospheric pulp to get a mainstream break, beyond the Cthulhu/tentacles/madness pastiches that hack video game developers seem to like so much.

>> No.9866845

>>9866834
I'd like to see someone take a shot at a Castle of Otranto adaptation. It has enough surrealistic elements to make for a genuinely weird and haunting film if handled correctly.

>> No.9866929
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9866929

>>9866834
Those developers should read Clark Ashton Smith. Hyperborea is ripe for a videogame treatment, a pre-glacial bronze age of a first civilisation of wizards, thieves, dead cities, and weird Gods from outer space.

>>9866814
Night Land is probably public domain, and it's always been a writer's/critics favourite. It might also be the first 'dying earth' fiction in prose (there is Lord Byron's Darkness in poetry) and that still is a popular idea for SF and movies.

Number of the beast >>9866668
>>9866681
>>9866681
>>9866684
>>9866698

>> No.9866938

>>9866929
Unfortunately most Hyperborea adaptations are probably going to come from Howard rather than Smith. Outside of a few dark corners on the internet, I can't find anyone familiar with Clark Ashton Smith.

>> No.9866962

>>9866938
I know Hollywood reads Clark Ashton. Danny Boyle ripped off his short story 'Phoenix' wholesale in Sunshine. Only the apparently apathetic estate of Smith meant no litigation took place.

>> No.9867445

>>9866962
Other than the main concept of trying to restart the sun Sunshine has nothing to do with Phoenix.