What do you think; was C.A.Smith thinking of "The House on The Borderland" when he was writing "The Treader of The Dust"? (the part of the book where time speeds up and everything crumbles to dust, including the narrator physical body)

I haven't yet read C.A. Smith's "Treader of the Dust". But when I read "The House on the Borderland" (1908), the thought occurred to me that the final scenes of sped-up time were inspired by the final time-travel scenes in H.G. Wells' "The Time Machine" (1895).



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 6 Jul 18 | 04:25PM by Platypus.

Just read "Treader of the Dust", and there does seem to be a similar feel to certain passages in THE HOUSE ON THE BORDERLANDS. The literal ideas involved, however, are somewhat distinct.

By the way, what exactly does "though the word be unspoken save in thought" mean? It seems to be very ambiguous and I am not certain if:

a) the word that calls the demon is too horrible to think of
b) even if one thinks about the word without saying it aloud one can evoke the demon

I am working on translations of several CA Smith´s stories and this sentence is a real challenge. :-)

Minicthulhu Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> By the way, what exactly does "though the word be
> unspoken save in thought" mean? It seems to be
> very ambiguous and I am not certain if:
>
> a) the word that calls the demon is too horrible
> to think of
> b) even if one thinks about the word without
> saying it aloud one can evoke the demon
>
> I am working on translations of several CA
> Smith´s stories and this sentence is a real
> challenge. :-)

I'm pretty sure the answer is b).

Thanky oyu very much for the answer. You are probably right because there is a passage at he end of the story: "But-let it be understood that he who readeth to himself in the silence of his chamber, the formula given hereunder, must incur a grave risk.