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  1. Teladan

    Teladan Contributor Contributor

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    The Disappointing House on the Borderland

    Discussion in 'Discussion of Published Works' started by Teladan, Nov 3, 2020.

    I don't usually post about individual books I read, but this one just frustrated me to no end.

    The House on the Borderland...

    So, another book completed. What will it be, joy or frustration? Unfortunately it's the latter. I genuinely enjoyed the first quarter of this book. Then it became utterly undecipherable and, I admit, made me angry. I was genuinely invested in the narrator's defence of the house with his amiable canine companion, Pepper, and loved, at least, the very first cosmic episode. But from the halfway point I felt almost exasperated by the imagery--not in a good way.

    Dead Sun, Green Sun, Dark Sun, eclipses, glows, cloud-covered spheres in their millions, strange sea vistas, violet rays, dark nebulas with red bubbles... I have no idea what this is supposed to represent. There was about four consecutive chapters in which this sort of imagery, overlapping each other and spatially confusing, predominated. The only part I liked in this whole episode is when time starts to speed up and the sun and moon appear as streaks of gold and white flame across the sky, millions of years passing in seconds.

    The book got a little better after this episode, but I still had no idea what I was reading. Here's the thing: I still don't; even after reading the afterword by Sinclair and the foreword by Moore, I feel as if I've just been bombarded by psychological buzzwords. Moore was fine, but Sinclair's writing was utterly pretentious and at times infuriating.

    I still have no idea what the swine creatures stand for. Was Mary really the narrator's sister? How is the narrator supposed to be William Hope Hodgson's, the true author's, double? Why all the red and green, why all the circles? What are the god idols? Does any of that matter? Why the scratch on the wrist and the phosphorescent glow? Why did Mary not ask why Pepper had died and, for that matter, why did she not turn to dust like Pepper?

    I can't believe I have so many questions. I'm annoyed at a book. I wanted to enjoy this.

    Edit: I've just read some decent analyses that do make some sense of the story, although most of it is tenuous at best. I guess the house can be considered to be one with the narrator, e.g. the cellar subconscious, the weak door of the study being the frailty of intellect, etc. etc. Of course everyone will have their pet theories. I think I prefer my stories to be a little more concrete. The elements in this work seem too jumbled and disparate to be made clear. I still have a lot of questions.
     
    Last edited: Nov 3, 2020

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