
A couple of quotes showing that Hodgson's attitude toward the porcine might not have been particularly favourable:
"As the sounds ceased I saw something was rising up through the middle of the "defense". It rose with a slow steady movement. I saw it pale and huge through the swaying, whirling funnel of cloud - a monstrous pallid snout rising out of that unknowable abyss.... It rose higher like a huge pale mound. Through a thinning of the cloud curtain I saw one small eye.... I shall never see a pig's eye again without feeling something of what I felt then. A pig's eye with a sort of hell-light of vile understanding shining at the back of it." - The Hog
"It was a gigantic thing, and moved with a curious lope, going almost upright, after the manner of a man. It was quite unclothed, and had a remarkable luminous appearance. Yet it was the face that attracted and frightened me the most. It was the face of a swine." - The House on the Borderland
Full texts of 'The House on the Borderland', 'The Night Land', the Carnacki stories, and more of Hodgson's fiction is available to read online via places such as Project Gutenberg.
Hodgson was a writer ahead of his time in many ways and although reading him is sometimes pretty tough going (the cod-archaic style of 'The Night Land' a case in point) I believe he made a lasting contribution to Weird fiction. China MiƩville's excellent introduction to this collection, now unfortunately out of print (I bagged a copy before the prices shot up) is well worth reading for anyone interested in the author and his works.
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