"Going, Going" and "Resistant to Change"
Meghan Arcuri, "Going, Going" and Adrian Ludens, "Resistant to Change" in Where the Silent Ones Watch , ed. James Chambers (Hippocampus Press: 2024). In William Hope Hodgson’s novel The House on the Borderlands , little is said of the Recluse’s sister, Mary, and, in part, it is this absence of information that makes her a fascinating character. The reader can’t help but wonder about the old man’s sister. Two short stories from the James Chambers edited anthology Where the Silent Ones Watch pick up on themes of Mary’s story, albeit in two different ways. In her short story “Going, Going,” Meghan Arcuri takes the strange and awkward background role that Mary plays in Hodgson’s work as an opportunity to explore the psychological horror of not being seen. The protagonist of Arcuri's story gives a little away and those around her, particularly her partner, take much, much more. She slowly loses herself and disappears from the view of those around her. It is a cre...