Thomas Ligotti; more links

I have encountered several resources that I would like to share. The first is an essay on Ligotti and Lovecraft by Matt Cardin. Cardin provides a very concise discussion of the lives and works of both authors and then takes a detailed look at similarities and differences in both author's worldview and how this influences their writing. I found this quite informative. I have always found the connection between the works of Ligotti and Lovecraft when considered in their entirety overstated. Some works like Ligotti's "The Last Feast of the Harlequin" and "The Sect of the Idiot" have an obvious connection but as Cardin rightly points out the differences between the two authors works or personal philosophies are far more important in understanding their works than any similarities. This point is also reinforced in the Weird Studies podcast below.

The Masters' Eyes Shining with Secrets:
H.P. Lovecraft and His Influence on Thomas Ligotti by Matt Cardin

from the introduction
"Jonathan Padgett, the originator of Thomas Ligotti Online, relates the following anecdote in his Ligotti FAQ: "In a phone conversation I had with Mr. Ligotti in the Spring of 1998, he explained that Lovecraft's fiction had had the most profound influence on his life rather than his fiction, as reading HPL's work was the impetus for Ligotti's writing career. Aside from this fact, Lovecraft really has had very littles to do with the subject or style of Ligotti's writing"

http://www.ligotti.net/showthread.php?t=218

Thomas Ligotti's Angel (a discussion at Weird Studies)

ABOUT THIS EPISODE

In his short story "Mrs. Rinaldi's Angel," contemporary horror author Thomas Ligotti contrasts the chaotic monstrosity of dreams with the cold, indifferent, and no less monstrous purity of angels. It is the story of a boy whose vivid dream life is sapping his vital force, and who resorts to esoteric measures to rectify the situation. In this episode, Phil and JF discuss the beauty and horror of dreams, the metaphysical signifiance of angels and demons, and the potential dangers of seeking the peace of absolute "purity" in the wondrous flux of lived experience

https://www.weirdstudies.com/46

"Mrs. Rinaldi's Angel" by Thomas Ligotti

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wm1iH6EIMAA

The Mystics of Muelenburg - Thomas Ligotti

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Zt01ZuSUXQ

Image; detail from The Nightmare Factory; Carroll & Graf, 1996, cover illustration not attributed.

Hopefully none of the links above are violations of copyright; if you have any concerns please leave a comment.

Weird Studies Podcasts

"I do not recall distinctly when it began, but it was months ago. The general tension was horrible. To a season of political and social upheaval was added a strange and brooding apprehension of hideous physical danger; a danger widespread and all-embracing, such a danger as may be imagined only in the most terrible phantasms of the night. I recall that the people went about with pale and worried faces, and whispered warnings and prophecies which no one dared consciously repeat or acknowledge to himself that he had heard. A sense of monstrous guilt was upon the land, and out of the abysses between the stars swept chill currents that made men shiver in dark and lonely places. There was a daemoniac alteration in the sequence of the seasons — the autumn heat lingered fearsomely, and everyone felt that the world and perhaps the universe had passed from the control of known gods or forces to that of gods or forces which were unknown." 

from Nyarlathotep by H.P. Lovecraft

A couple of days ago Helen mentioned a Podcast called Weird Studies. Great stuff the creators cover a variety of topics, including Lovecraft, Philip K Dick, David Lynch, Borges, David Cronenberg, and one I am really looking forward to William James's essay "Does Consciousness Exist"

Followers of this blog might especially enjoy episode 29: On Lovecraft. Ford and Martel are really well read and interweave a lot of their reading, no just in genre literature, but elements from literature, poetry, media studies, philosophy, anthropology, music and film into their podcasts. I have listened to three episodes and the discussion is so wide ranging and thoughtful that I want to listen to them again so I can take notes.

https://www.weirdstudies.com/29

ABOUT THIS EPISODE

Phil and JF indulge their autumnal mood in this discussion of Howard Phillips Lovecraft's work, specifically the essay "Notes on the Writing of Weird Fiction" and the prose piece "Nyarlathotep." Philip K. Dick, Algernon Blackwood, and David Foster Wallace make appearances as our fearsome hosts talk about how the weird story differs from conventional horror fiction, how Lovecraft gives voice to contemporary fears of physical, psychological and political infection, and how authors like Lovecraft and Dick can be seen as prophetic poets of the "great unbuffering of the Western self."

REFERENCES

H. P. Lovecraft, "Notes on Writing Weird Fiction"
H. P. Lovecraft, "Nyarlathotep"

1974 Rolling Stone feature on PKD
Graham Harman, Weird Realism: Lovecraft and Philosophy
Theodor Roszak, The Making of a Counterculture: Reflections on the Technocratic Society and its Youthful Opposition
Algernon Blackwood, "The Wendigo"
Algernon Blackwood, "The Willows"
Ann and Jeff Vandermeer, The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories
H.P. Lovecraft, "Supernatural Horror in Literature"
Charles Taylor, A Secular Age
E.E. Evans-Pritchard, Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande
Peter Sloterdijk, You Must Change Your Life
David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest
H.P. Lovecraft, "The Music of Erich Zann"
H.P. Lovecraft, "The Colour Out of Space"
H.P. Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu"
Weird Studies, Episode 2: Garmonbozia
Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man