Weird Preternatural FictionIn considering the work of William Hope Hodgson, especially here with reference to the book, The Boats of ‘Glen Carrig’ and other Nautical Adventures, volume 1 – it serves the matter well to distinguish “supernatural” from “preternatural.”Accordingly, the term, “preternatural” was used by scientists to refer to “abnormalities and strange phenomena of various kinds that seemed to depart from the norms of nature, but not inexplicable by the laws of nature.” Whereas, “supernatural” most often refers to “manifestations or events attributed to some force beyond scientific understanding or the laws of nature.”A perusal of examples of modern, fantasy best sellers reveals stories involving spiritual beings, vampires and the like. Such writings are of necessity representative of the “supernatural” type. Whereas, in the writings of William Hope Hodgson (November 15, 1877 to April 19, 1918), an English author who wrote essays, horror, fantasy, and science fiction, many of his fantasies are of the “preternatural” variety.Excerpted below is a portion of a letter published in an amateur fanzine. written by a fan describing his introduction to Hodgson’s writings, and their personal affects:“Your reaction to Lester Dent’s, “The Sargasso Ogre” will depend on your age and the level of integration of past and present experiences over the accumulation of that age. My personal introduction to the Sargasso Sea Legend occurred in a children’s dramatization from a radio program of about 1949 namely, “Adventure Parade”. I cannot refrain from mentioning that the word, ‘captivated’ falls short of my reaction at the age of ten. Well into adulthood I sought out print versions of other stories to no avail, as such stories gained an aura of fascination and charm while my more integrated mind developed. Then, I found a William Hope Hodgson tale, quite appropriately in the Other Worlds Book Store, in N___ P_____, R.I. in the form of a Jungian synchronicity within sight of East Providence where H.P. Lovecraft's footfalls still (for me) disturbed the leaves on dark summer nights along lonely, colonial byways. The specific volume included the reprint of The Boats of Glen Carrig from 1907, by Hodgson, in which a ship is visited at night on a tropical island by slug-like monsters sliding over the deck while the crew cowered below. A particularly nice reprint of this outstanding tale (with illustrations) appeared in the pulp, “Famous Fantastic Mysteries,” of June 1945. And by the age of 30, I found the experiences reverberating within those pages almost intoxicating in their effects. Still later, I lost contact with Hodgson since no new stories were found, and I turned to other subject matter, haunted that great Hodgson stories lurked just outside of my reach. Even Victor Appleton’s, “Don Sturdy in the Isle of Lost Ships,” from 1926, increased my ardor. In rereading of Jules Verne’s, “Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea,” I discovered references to the formation of the Sargasso Sea. And now, of course we have the Night Shade editions of essentially all of Hodgson’s tales and the search for Hodgson’s stories has been most satisfactorily completed.”Hodgson’s stories in the current Night Shade edition, include reference to the perfectly natural, imaginatively transformed over time by exposure to extreme environments, isolated in time and space to a level of uniqueness found nowhere else.To describe the effects of such stories, consider Hodgson’s, A Voice in the Night, where a young man and his fiancée take refuge on an island after being abandoned by their ship’s crew, only to find the island overgrown by a fungus, which soon begins to invade their own flesh. Using tonal progressions Hodgson draws on primal fears inherited without specific contexts from ancient ancestors –thus, a small, warm mammal shrinking against a tree limb in the dark night of a tropical forest, emitting glowing, infrared images sought by the cool coils of serpents seeking nothing but fusion of one flesh with another. Hodgson’s skill is to fill the reader’s mind with such horror that no logical thought is possible.Perhaps inspired by the 1909 Crittenden Mariotti novel, The Isle of Dead Ships, Hodgson imagines the Sargasso Sea and Mysterious Islands where weird, preternatural creatures encounter unsuspecting humans with interactions - for the suitably imaginative reader - delightful beyond all other fictions. Hodgson used his experiences derived from several years in a crew aboard ship at sea to lend authentic detail regarding sailing ship architecture, rigging, nautical language, and the details of navigation of the seas of the world – a knowledge so convincing that the weird aspects of his stories are accepted as the reports of an expert witness.Preternatural writing has been associated with stimulating scientific curiosity in the minds of young readers. Included here is a sample of writing taken from the diary of a youthful author (the document on display in the Grey Craig Antiquarian Library of Portsmouth, Esplanade Field House) to illustrate the matter of preternatural experience as a prelude to serious scientific investigation – a matter admitted by a number of prominent scientists. A prominent cosmologist as a teenager was inspired by Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Venusian and Martian series, as John Carter moved to Mars by preternatural transport from a desert cave. The author of the paper reported below at the time was a budding naturalist involved with microscopic studies in local ponds and streams. The reader will notice certain synchronous events in William Hope Hodgson’s, The House on the Borderland. Note the essence of being entirely alone for protracted intervals when the commonplace is transformed by weird epiphanies."The locales about M____ and P______ from the 1920's to early 40's - both barren marshes and windswept heaths with atmosphere flavored with mists from the breakers of Narragansett River are as described - I wandered these environs aimlessly seeking terrain of the most isolate in search of SOMETHING from bleak February mornings into late Summer. No clear vision of the sought for particulars presented itself - only the vague urgings of neuronal, Boolean logics, inherited from eons past and hidden securely, hinted of a state of my being completely alone - since they never lent themselves to direct observation, save at night. On summer evenings the moonless sky was very black about my tiny cottage retreat, surrounded by a expansive tract of low shrubs heaths, and bogs - and my imagination - I would wait sleeplessly as the night progressed. Then I would hear them…from the darkness came formless rubbings against the cottage walls, softly as from a depth...embodied in delirious, preternatural thoughts of the sodden and ravenous. Only once I caught the labored breathing or vocalizing as gas extruded in shuddered sighs through labyrinths of appressed, glutinous membranes - I knew them...overgrown from microscopic motes of pilfered bios from vernal pools and swales - Chaosian forms long sought - primitive denizens not derived from a typical Darwinian paradigm but my primitive, Lamarckian insights - chimeras of instinctive myth, elemental fear and rational plasticity - above all defying cerebral interpretation. Such visitations continued many summers, and then they retired. These sights and sounds had created a passing like no other...for here the creative forces of nature were at work producing a world transformed by sobering epiphanies.”One must be careful to point out that Hodgson cannot be dismissed simply as a “pulp hack,” since writers with the merits of Alfred Lord Tennyson and Samuel Taylor Coleridge have contributed similar works, albeit in poetic form. In fact, Hodgson wrote some of his fantasies in the archaic language of earlier times – creating a certain melodic poetry in his prose.Tennyson = The KrakanUnnumbered and enormous polypiWinnow with gaunt arms the slumbering green.There hath he lain for ages, and will lieBattening upon huge sea worms in his sleepUntil the latter fire shall heat the deep;Then once by man and angels to be seen,In roaring he shall rise and on the surface die.Coleridge: The Ancient Mariner:The very deep did rot: O C____!That ever this should be!Yea, slimy things did crawl with legsUpon the slimy sea.Hodgson:Weep for I am dying in my gloryAnd the foam swing round and singsAnd the great old chaunt and the whitened hills are failingAnd am dying in my glory -Dying, Dying, Dying.The best introduction to the preternatural fiction of William Hope Hodgson is to read the stories themselves. If the stories are already known this impressive Night Shade volume is a delightful avenue into a setting for renewed acquaintance. Incidentally, preternatural fiction is best read in the hours of 11:30 PM and 2:00 AM (The “Lovecraft Hours”) when dream-like subconscious thought replaces the reflective thought of the waking hours. The personality of the many faceted William Hope Hodgson is fascinating in itself, including his origin in an impoverished family, earning training and service as a ship’s mate, undergoing a system of body building and physical culture to eliminate being bullied, serving in World War I where he suffered his ultimate demise, and related knowledge all might provide valuable insights into the mind of a fruitful personality. Of course, Art is to be judged on its own merits, not those of the creator – but in this case the art and the artist seem indelibly connected. Hodgson’s Boats of ‘Glen Carrig’ and the rest included in the present edition are well worth a place in any imaginative mind.The specific contents of the book in question, The Boats of Glen Carrig and Other Nautical Adventures vol. 1, includes Tales from the Tideless Sea, The Mystery of the Derelict, The Thing in the Weeds, The Finding of the Graiken and The Call in the Dawn. In total twenty four stories packed into almost five-hundred pages. All of these are superb examples of the artistry of a writer skilled at the highest levels in story telling.You Old Buddy,Whizbang!!