Thread 24710767

Were Ligotti a less capable writer, this same theme told in repeated variations and always by a first person narrator would soon get tedious. Even so, unless you're a die-hard Lovecraft fan, you might be advised not to read this straight through, but to sample it one tale at a time at spaced intervals. Sort of like really good chocolate: eat too much at once and you get sick. Also, if you're prone to depression, you might be advised to stay away altogether, as even a little of this isn't going to improve your state of mind.

>>24710767 (OP)
I am planning to write to read complete Ligotti but I am mentally unwell so I am not sure.

>>24710767 (OP)
Ligotti sucks.

>>24711420
Have fun with Stephen King's slop you brainlet

>>24710767 (OP)
I like him but not nearly as much as I used to. The constant pivoting into philosophical pessimism/nihilism is very much of its time, so is the obsession with decay and ugliness. All feels very nu-metal/mallgoth edgelord stuff, though it's obviously on a higher literary level than that.

>>24711434
I don't think Ligotti's writing is ugly. His prose makes the darkness beautiful, like some mystery. I don't think a mystery can be ugly.

>nu-metal/mallgoth
No. Ligotti is Dark Ambient or Neo-folk or Black Metal

>>24711434
Funnily enough, I think The Mad Night of Atonement works pretty well as a commentary on AI

>>24711434
To add here his early works (first two collections and some of Noctuary) are preferable to me because there's less of this there. He was clearly less depressed at the time and the Lovecraft derived histrionics show it

>>24711433
>his alternative to Ligotti is Stephen King
Lol, litlet exposed for the second time (I know you're slow so I'll tell you the first time was admitting you like Ligotti).

>>24711463
Maybe I'm weird but I don't find Ligotti's stories at all depressing. They're funny!

>>24711608
Ligotti is incredibly funny when he wants to be. My Work Is Not Yet Done is hilarious, and stuff like The Town Manager and The Nightmare Network have their moments.

>>24711434
>>24711463
The total bleakness of his writing is exactly what makes him so unique. You're right that his style of nihilism is of it's time, which is what I find so disappointing about contemporary writing. Most writers nowadays seek to psychologize sadness and pessimism (writing stories explicitly about being medicated, seeing therapists, etc.) or relate it to social and political themes, whereas Ligotti writes about these themes rather like the inherent state of existence than a psychological disorder. Life-denying writers have always been very rare in the history of literature, but it feels especially so nowadays that everyone demands relatable characters and stories that make moral or political points.

>>24711608
I think the two go hand in hand in his stories.

peedrinky

slikpikki

>>24711537
You are a litlet who can't elaborate his ideas that why he doesn't like Ligotti and just shit up threads.

>>24711439
You don't understand any of those genres if you think that.

>>24712850
Can you explain? Because David Tibet personally sent his whole discography to Ligotti and said that their work share similarities and Ligotti also arrived at this conclusion after listening to those records. Afterwards both of them collaborated to produce at least 5 records. Thomad Ligotti has even released his own Neo-folk album "The Unholy City" on David Tibet's label

>https://youtu.be/rqHhJQAI6gI?si=MIHR3b4cHFzoR7Mn

>>24712866
Actually yeah I mainly object to black metal. There's an energy and aristocratic hatred to (good) black metal incompatible with Ligotti, even waahh life is evil dsbm shit (mgła).

>>24712873
Ligotti can be "aristocratic" in terms of style. But yeah Black Metal is kinda corny shit that doesn't sits well with Ligotti:

> HG: You're a rather daunting personage, you know! What frightens you? What makes you smile?

>Thomas Ligotti: I never knew that I was a daunting person until people with whom I worked at a publishing company told me I was daunting. Of course, they didn�t say that until they got to know me and understood that I was more afraid of them than they were of me. What frightens me? All the ghastly ways in which one can suffer in this world. I think about them all the time and say to myself, "I�ve got to kill myself before something like happens to me." Unfortunately, I�m afraid of dying. Unless I�m in a depressive phase, in which case I�m not afraid of anything. What makes me smile? That brings to might a sentence from E.M. Cioran: "Nobility is only in the negation of existence, in a smile that surveys annihilated landscapes." I think that if I could walk from one end of the world to the other and see nothing but annihilated landscapes, that would make me smile. I�ve always thought that I would make a good last man on earth.

What's the most unique of his stories?