|
Huge fan of Laird Barron. He's said that there are links to his Old Leech mythology in The Light Is The Darkness (which I loved, btw), although it's hard to extract a coherent mythology from his work. I think that lack of clarity actually works wonders for his stories; it feels as though you are truly only seeing a fragment of a horrific whole. I've had his new anthology on preorder from Amazon forever; I hope it actually comes out sometime soon. Also, check out the new collection by John Langan called The Wide Carnivorous Sky. He's good friends with Barron and there's even a story in the collection starring Barron as the main character. Barron returns the favor by writing an endnote story for the collection with Langan as the main character. It's really fun to see horror authors writing their horror author friends into stories.
|
#
?
Jun 16, 2013 22:22
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 29, 2024 17:28 |
|
|
Smapti posted:I've had his new anthology on preorder from Amazon forever; I hope it actually comes out sometime soon. The Night Shade deal has been settled so we should be getting an update sometime soon.
|
|
#
?
Jun 16, 2013 22:30
|
|
|
Ornamented Death posted:The Night Shade deal has been settled so we should be getting an update sometime soon. Cool -- I'm really looking forward to it. Also, I don't know if this has been mentioned in this forum yet: there's a new Ligotti-themed anthology called The Grimscribe's Puppets being released this month. The stories are all original to the anthology and there are some pretty fantastic authors lined up.
|
|
#
?
Jun 16, 2013 23:59
|
|
|
I'm glad that my constant recommending of Laird Barron has accomplished something. Now I need to get all of you reading Caitlin Kiernan...
|
|
#
?
Jun 17, 2013 04:30
|
|
|
Smapti posted:Huge fan of Laird Barron. He's said that there are links to his Old Leech mythology in The Light Is The Darkness (which I loved, btw), although it's hard to extract a coherent mythology from his work. I think that lack of clarity actually works wonders for his stories; it feels as though you are truly only seeing a fragment of a horrific whole. I've had his new anthology on preorder from Amazon forever; I hope it actually comes out sometime soon. Huh, that's really interesting. That implies pretty heavily that the Imago Sequence stories are set in the same world, too - since The Light is the Darkness seems to have some more obvious connections to those. That makes the mythology crowded. Now I want to know what the post-human abominations think of the Children of Old Leech. Although from one of the stories in Occultation, many of the newer Children are in fact post-human abominations themselves, given how they breed.
|
|
#
?
Jun 17, 2013 12:14
|
|
|
Ornamented Death posted:I'm glad that my constant recommending of Laird Barron has accomplished something. This thread got me reading Barron, and so far I'm really enjoying the Imago Sequence. So thanks. Where would you recommend someone starting with Kiernan?
|
|
#
?
Jun 17, 2013 18:10
|
|
|
Ornamented Death posted:Now I need to get all of you reading Caitlin Kiernan... This seems like very high praise indeed: quote:In his review of her novel (2009 The Red Tree), H. P. Lovecraft scholar S. T. Joshi writes: "Kiernan already ranks with the most distinctive stylists in our field – Edgar Allan Poe, Lord Dunsany, Thomas Ligotti. With Ligotti's regrettable retreat into fictional silence, hers is now the voice of weird fiction."
|
|
#
?
Jun 17, 2013 22:50
|
|
|
The Red Tree is as good a place to start as any. Actually, the problem with Kiernan is similar to the problem with Ligotti; a lot of her stuff is out of print. All of her short story collections are done by Subterranean Press, and as of yet they haven't put out ebooks. She has a number of novels in paperback, but I can't attest to their quality as the subject matter hasn't caught my interest (outside of The Red Tree, of course). Her stories can be found in any number of high(er)-profile anthologies, though. I know she has a story in The Book of Cthulhu, The Book of Cthulhu II, and New Cthulhu. My recommendation would be to grab one of those and The Red Tree and to see if you like her. If so, you can start trying to get ahold of the SubPress collections.
|
|
#
?
Jun 18, 2013 02:34
|
|
|
Ornamented Death posted:The Red Tree is as good a place to start as any. Oh no you don't.  I ain't gonna be diggin up no out-of-print books of blasphemous horrors the likes of which Man Was Not Meant to Know. I learned my lesson already with that Alhazred fella. Leave them ding dang forbidden books alone!
|
|
#
?
Jun 18, 2013 03:07
|
|
|
I'm reading some of Ligotti's short stories. This encouraged me to look up an interview with him. What a mistake that was. He seems insufferable and smugly superior. Sorry your life sucks so much, Thomas, but I like mine. I'll still keep reading the fiction, though. I haven't seen anything really Lovecraftian so far but the stories are good.
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2013 16:56
|
|
|
Neurosis posted:I'm reading some of Ligotti's short stories. This encouraged me to look up an interview with him. What a mistake that was. He seems insufferable and smugly superior. Sorry your life sucks so much, Thomas, but I like mine. I'll still keep reading the fiction, though. I haven't seen anything really Lovecraftian so far but the stories are good. Huh, interesting. I'll admit up front that Ligotti is my favorite author so I'm hardly unbiased here, but I've never read an interview with Ligotti in which he comes off as smug or condescending. He has a particular sardonic tone that might read in that way, but it's useful to keep in mind that he's a hermetic, strange but exceptionally intelligent dude who suffers from acute panic anxiety disorder as well as other semi-disabling ailments and as a result expresses himself in a sarcastic, self-effacing way. I love my life too and philosophically am pretty much the total opposite of an antinatalist but I still love his stories and really like reading his interviews. Dude is exceptionally articulate about the history and ethos of weird fiction in his interviews (eg, check out this interview for some really good insights into the nature of weird fiction). And his introductory essay in The Nightmare Factory is my favorite essay ever on horror. It's absolutely beautiful and nails the purpose of weird horror: quote:This, then, is the ultimate, that is only, consolation: simply that someone shares some of your own feelings and has made of these a work of art which you have the insight, sensitivity, and - like it or not - peculiar set of experiences to appreciate. Amazing thing to say, the consolation of horror in art is that it actually intensifies our panic, loudens it on the sounding-board of our horror-hollowed hearts, turns terror up full blast, all the while reaching for that perfect and deafening amplitude at which we may dance to the bizarre music of our own misery.
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2013 17:23
|
|
|
Neurosis posted:I'm reading some of Ligotti's short stories. This encouraged me to look up an interview with him. What a mistake that was. He seems insufferable and smugly superior. Sorry your life sucks so much, Thomas, but I like mine. I'll still keep reading the fiction, though. I haven't seen anything really Lovecraftian so far but the stories are good. Finally someone who agrees. It's kind of hard for me to reconcile the fact that someone who wrote a story as good as The Town Manager wrote a book as obnoxious as The Conspiracy Against The Human Race
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2013 17:42
|
|
|
Someone who writes like Ligotti just has to be the most miserable person alive. Don't get me me wrong, I'm an unreasonably miserable gently caress too (and I happen to like The Conspiracy), but any fear that I'm too far gone can always be assuaged by just knowing that Thomas Ligotti exists. Thomas Ligotti posted:I couldn’t possibly write something that would reflect the true depths of my aversion to everything that exists. I mean, Jesus.
|
|
#
?
Jun 23, 2013 07:31
|
|
|
I'm actually pretty sympathetic to some of the ideas in Conspiracy, and while I did like it, at a certain point I started thinking "So what? Everything sucks and is pointless, ok. So what am I going to do with that?" I guess it's because I have issues with depression, and I just had to stop and say "This isn't good for me" and put it down. I mean, I like it, but I'll just stick to his fiction from now on. Also I'd give anything for a filmed interview with Ligotti, where it turns out he's a pudgy older guy with a big red face who wears Hawaiian shirts, denim shorts, and sandals. And he loves Jimmy Buffet, tooling around in his convertible, and cigars. quote:10:30, Hooters. Thomas Ligotti washes down his chicken wings with huge gulps of his daiquiri. He whistles to the waitress, and orders another round of shots for the table. "Man, it don't get better than this!" he says. I try to bring the conversation back to his work. "So Thomas, about Grimscribe..." He puts a pudgy finger to his bbq sauce-stained lips and shushes me. "Chill out with that stuff bro. It's just books. Not in front of the lay-dees. "Panama" by Van Halen begins to play in the background. Ligotti grins from ear to ear. "Aw poo poo man, I love this song!" Sharkie fucked around with this message at 12:26 on Jun 23, 2013 |
|
#
?
Jun 23, 2013 12:19
|
|
|
Sharkie posted:I'm actually pretty sympathetic to some of the ideas in Conspiracy, and while I did like it, at a certain point I started thinking "So what? Everything sucks and is pointless, ok. So what am I going to do with that?" I guess it's because I have issues with depression, and I just had to stop and say "This isn't good for me" and put it down. I mean, I like it, but I'll just stick to his fiction from now on. Oddly, I found Conspiracy Against the Human Race to be life-affirming; I completely disagree with his ideas on the morality of living but he articulates them well, and in reading the book (although I admit I didn't get through it -- it is incredibly dense reading) I was forced to consider exactly why I think life is worth living. That is, if you believe as I do that life is worthwhile, then these are issues that are worth grappling with. That's one of the things that makes Ligotti such a brilliant writer: he really believes in the grim philosophy behind his stories, which gives them a moral weight that most authors don't have. Sharkie posted:Also I'd give anything for a filmed interview with Ligotti, where it turns out he's a pudgy older guy with a big red face who wears Hawaiian shirts, denim shorts, and sandals. And he loves Jimmy Buffet, tooling around in his convertible, and cigars. Ha, yeah . . . he actually does have a stated preference for instrumental rock (not sure which kind) and played guitar for a while, and he currently lives in Florida; so this is eerily plausible. Frankly, the idea of Ligotti in a Tommy Bahama shirt listening to Jimmy Buffett is an eldrich horror much worse than anything he's ever written in his stories.
|
|
#
?
Jun 23, 2013 18:17
|
|
|
Smapti posted:Ha, yeah . . . he actually does have a stated preference for instrumental rock (not sure which kind) and played guitar for a while, and he currently lives in Florida; so this is eerily plausible. Frankly, the idea of Ligotti in a Tommy Bahama shirt listening to Jimmy Buffett is an eldrich horror much worse than anything he's ever written in his stories. He apparently goes by YellowJester on his forums, so I assume he's a King Crimson fan.
|
|
#
?
Jun 23, 2013 20:17
|
|
|
Maremidon posted:He apparently goes by YellowJester on his forums, so I assume he's a King Crimson fan. For some reason King Crimson has always given me Lovecraftian vibes...
|
|
#
?
Jun 23, 2013 20:46
|
|
|
Rough Lobster posted:For some reason King Crimson has always given me Lovecraftian vibes... Gee I don't know why that would be In the Court of the Crimson King posted:The rusted chains of prison moons Also, the Dark Tower series isn't strictly cosmic horror, but this is where Stephen King got the idea for his character, I'm assuming? Has he ever confirmed that?
|
|
#
?
Jun 23, 2013 23:33
|
|
|
I thought the specific idea came from the poem 'a Child to the Tower Roland Came' (or something like that, I forget exactly) and all of the mythos stuff was already floating around in his head?
|
|
#
?
Jun 23, 2013 23:44
|
|
|
JerryLee posted:I wanted to thank this thread for turning me on to Barron. I just finished Imago Sequence and it's pretty much a given that I'll be picking up Occultation next time I visit the library. I definitely see what people say about his work being really weird but it didn't seem like more than what I know I'm signing up for when I read cosmic horror, so to speak. I've read more uncomfortable stuff in bog-standard epic fantasy novels. I've been reading Imago Sequence for the past couple of days. The stories are really hit-and-miss - some of them just go on for way too long and just kind of peter out.
|
|
#
?
Jun 24, 2013 02:41
|
|
|
Fallom posted:I've been reading Imago Sequence for the past couple of days. The stories are really hit-and-miss - some of them just go on for way too long and just kind of peter out. As much as I love Barron, "Procession of the Black Sloth" may be the worst short story I've ever read. It goes on and on and on forever and nothing loving happens! But bear in mind that The Imago Sequence is Barron's first collection; he gets markedly better as time goes on.
|
|
#
?
Jun 24, 2013 03:26
|
|
|
Maremidon posted:He apparently goes by YellowJester on his forums, so I assume he's a King Crimson fan. He actually said in an interview that 'The Court Of The Crimson King' is his favourite piece of music.
|
|
#
?
Jun 24, 2013 03:34
|
|
|
Ornamented Death posted:As much as I love Barron, "Procession of the Black Sloth" may be the worst short story I've ever read. It goes on and on and on forever and nothing loving happens! That's the exact one I was thinking of, and the name was on the tip of my tongue. "I get it already, it's like Jacob's Ladder!" Tiny Timbs fucked around with this message at 04:13 on Jun 24, 2013 |
|
#
?
Jun 24, 2013 04:10
|
|
|
Ornamented Death posted:As much as I love Barron, "Procession of the Black Sloth" may be the worst short story I've ever read. It goes on and on and on forever and nothing loving happens! The Wild West one was also kind of crap. Proboscis was weird but I liked it a lot more in hindsight and I thought Hallucigenia was awesome.
|
|
#
?
Jun 24, 2013 14:05
|
|
|
Neurosis posted:So, I have read The Imago Sequence and Other Stories, The Light is the Darkness, The Croning, 70% of Occultation and Other Stories... I like most of the stories, but I must say that Barron's best stories are those that are mythos-building cosmic horror. The universe still feels Lovecraftian in that it takes little note of human activities, but he introduces some unique attributes: the most prominent being that while the big fish are indifferent to us in every sense, there are bottom-feeders who enjoy our suffering. They love us, as he has said several times. And they want to devour us in some fashion. Probably something involving a lot of teeth. This post just made me spend almost 50 bucks on Amazon for all 3.
|
|
#
?
Jun 24, 2013 22:36
|
|
|
Richard Matheson passed away last night  .
|
|
#
?
Jun 25, 2013 01:20
|
|
|
Ornamented Death posted:Richard Matheson passed away last night drat. He must have been over 80, though, so a good run.
|
|
#
?
Jun 25, 2013 07:38
|
|
|
I was wondering if I could get some people's opinions on the title short in Occultation. I can't make my mind up whether or not it was mundane or not. Was the black spot on the wall just a shadow, or was it literally some otherworldy worm? Was the giant turtle some sort of hallucination? And the ending, did the dude secretly slip off the bed and roll under it and laugh, or did some worm come out of the then dead guy? . I guess the story is made in such a way to keep you thinking. I just can't decide whether or not it was a drug fueled yet mundane episode or something darker. Maybe I am too much a simple person to follow any subtle clues there might have been, but to cut myself some slack I did read it late last night.
|
|
#
?
Jun 25, 2013 08:03
|
|
|
Maremidon posted:Finally someone who agrees. When an interviewer asked him what sorts of things make him smile Ligotti gave possibly the gooniest reply I've ever read: quote: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 kind of wish I hadn't read his interviews, because after enough poo poo like that a lot of his stories end up feeling less like pieces of fiction to be read and thought about and more like some guy clumsily presenting his ideology and saying "I bet you disagree with me, don't you, but that's just because it's too EXTREME for regular minds to comprehend!" Maybe that's unfair to him--I know he suffers from intense depression and panic disorders, so it makes sense he'd come off as less than socially comfortable--but drat, he just seems so smugly "above the intellectual plebs" in all his interviews.
|
|
#
?
Jun 25, 2013 10:50
|
|
|
CharlesDexterWard posted:I was wondering if I could get some people's opinions on the title short in Occultation. I can't make my mind up whether or not it was mundane or not. Was the black spot on the wall just a shadow, or was it literally some otherworldy worm? Was the giant turtle some sort of hallucination? And the ending, did the dude secretly slip off the bed and roll under it and laugh, or did some worm come out of the then dead guy? . I think it was a callback to his earlier story about the prostitute who pulled her head off. I'm pretty sure the guy did that at the end, Thing-style. It was kind of a let down of a story though. Barron seems really hit and miss on his stories.
|
|
#
?
Jun 26, 2013 00:16
|
|
|
Dark Regions Press is having a 50% off sale on all in-stock titles. There are a number of titles that would probably be of interest to the folks in this thread.
|
|
#
?
Jun 26, 2013 02:18
|
|
|
Gooble Rampling posted:I think it was a callback to his earlier story about the prostitute who pulled her head off. I'm pretty sure the guy did that at the end, Thing-style. Ahh that makes a lot of sense now. I feel silly for missing that. I love the atmosphere that he builds up through the story but come to think of it the last couple of endings of his that I've read have been a bit of a letdown when compared the tension that is built up.
|
|
#
?
Jun 26, 2013 04:53
|
|
|
For those who haven't heard them, Ligotti's few musical pieces are on youtube, and yes that's his voice narrating. You can find the others in the sidebar. They're all minimal, repetitious, and rather amateur, but still interesting in that you experience a side of him not really attainable through the page. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fetSoZFyBw Someone said he must be the most miserable gently caress alive, and I distinctly remember seeing a picture of him for the first time, something I'd put off even after knowing the image was floating about the internet. It was a blurry workplace I.D. of all things, and my first impression was, indeed, jesus he looks like the most miserable gently caress alive. Skinny, droopy, sunken, just ... totally wrecked by life. Not that we look our best in workplace I.D.'s of course. Von Sloneker fucked around with this message at 05:50 on Jun 26, 2013 |
|
#
?
Jun 26, 2013 05:46
|
|
|
Ornamented Death posted:Dark Regions Press is having a 50% off sale on all in-stock titles. There are a number of titles that would probably be of interest to the folks in this thread. Neat! Are there any that you'd recommend in particular? I'm not familiar with their catalog apart from Simon Strantzas and Richard Gavin. Also, in further Ligotti news, Bad Moon's reprint of Ligotti's Death Poems is now available for preorder. There'll also be an ebook.
|
|
#
?
Jun 26, 2013 16:34
|
|
|
Smapti posted:Neat! Are there any that you'd recommend in particular? I'm not familiar with their catalog apart from Simon Strantzas and Richard Gavin. For those that haven't read them, Stranzas and Gavin are two of the three standouts published by Dark Regions. Any and all of their titles are worth picking up. I'm a huge fan of Jeffrey Thomas; you can't go wrong with any of his books (though you'll want to pick up Letters From Hades before starting any of the other Hades books). Voices From Punktown would probably be the closest fit, thematically speaking, for this thread. His brother, Scott Thomas, is also a good writer, though he does ghost stories more than anything else. Allyson Bird's Isis Unbound won a Stoker, though I haven't personally read it. William Meikle, William Ollie, and Rick Hautala are all pretty good writers from what I've read of their work, which doesn't actually include anything published by Dark Regions so I can't personally attest to their available titles. W.H. Pugmire is basically an institution unto himself for Lovecraft mythos stories. You really can't go wrong with just about anything put out by Dark Regions, especially for these prices.
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2013 02:05
|
|
|
Ornamented Death posted:W.H. Pugmire is basically an institution unto himself for Lovecraft mythos stories. I know the man knows his Lovecraft, but the few stories I've read from him have been really hard going. Really dense writing style without the stories to make up for it.
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2013 08:10
|
|
|
Does anyone have an opinion on Cody Goodfellow's Radiant Dawn books? I've nearly finished reading Radiant Dawn on the strength of a plug from Laird Barron. It's okay, but I feel like he needs to develop a little bit more in terms of his technical writing ability. and maybe research some of his stuff more. When the Lovecraftian elements show up they are pretty good, but they're sparse. I have read that the sequel, Ravenous Dusk, is heavier on the horror, but I'll have to see.
|
|
#
?
Jul 2, 2013 09:57
|
|
|
I don't think there's going to be anymore Thomas Ligotti fiction. I think he's too miserable to write now.
|
|
#
?
Jul 3, 2013 08:55
|
|
|
Actually, according to him, he's had a few good days recently and wrote a few stories in March of this year.
|
|
#
?
Jul 4, 2013 00:41
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 29, 2024 17:28 |
|
|
Of course it would take something like "severe physical trauma" to elevate Ligotti's mood. I guess if there's hope for him, there's hope for anybody.
|
|
#
?
Jul 4, 2013 02:18
|
|