Thomas Ligotti

Thomas Ligotti
Born (1953-07-09) July 9, 1953
Detroit, Michigan, United States
Occupation Short story writer
Nationality American
Period 1981–present
Genre Horror fiction, dark fantasy

Thomas Ligotti (born July 9, 1953) is a contemporary American horror author and reclusive literary cult figure.[1] His writings have been noted as rooted in several literary genres – most prominently weird fiction – and have overall been described by critics such as S.T. Joshi as works of "philosophical horror", often written as short stories and novellas and with similarities to gothic fiction.[1] The worldview espoused by Ligotti in both his fiction and non-fiction has been described as profoundly pessimistic and nihilistic.[1][2] The Washington Post called him "the best kept secret in contemporary horror fiction."[3]

Overview

Ligotti started his career as a published writer in the early 1980s with a number of short stories published in various American small press magazines. He was contributing editor to Grimoire from 1982-1985.[4] While his tales gathered a small following, Ligotti's relative anonymity and reclusiveness led to speculation about his identity. In an introduction to a collection of Ligotti fiction, The Nightmare Factory (1996), Poppy Z. Brite mentioned these notions with a rhetorical question: "Are you out there, Thomas Ligotti?"[5]

He has cited Thomas Bernhard, William S. Burroughs, Emil Cioran, Vladimir Nabokov, Edgar Allan Poe, and Bruno Schulz as being among his favorite writers. H. P. Lovecraft is also an important touchstone for Ligotti: a few stories, "The Sect of the Idiot" in particular, make explicit reference to Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos, and one, "The Last Feast of Harlequin", was dedicated to Lovecraft. Also among his avowed influences are Algernon Blackwood, M.R. James, and Arthur Machen, all fin de siècle horror authors known for their subtlety and implications of the cosmic and supernatural in their stories.[1] He has also invoked the influence of philosophers such as Arthur Schopenhauer and Peter Wessel Zapffe.[1]

Ligotti has suffered from chronic anxiety and anhedonia for much of his life; these have been prominent themes in his work.[1] Ligotti avoids the explicit violence common in some recent horror fiction, preferring to establish a disquieting, pessimistic atmosphere through the use of subtlety and repetition. Ligotti has stated he prefers short stories to longer forms, both as a reader and as a writer,[1] though he has written a novella, My Work Is Not Yet Done (2002)[6] In 2011, he published The Conspiracy Against the Human Race, a non-fiction work.

In 2015, Ligotti's first two collections, Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe: His Lives and Works, were republished in one volume by Penguin Classics as Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe.[7] Michael Calia of The Wall Street Journal wrote of the reprint that "Horror writer Thomas Ligotti is about to enter the American literary canon. Next month Penguin Classics will publish a volume of Mr. Ligotti’s short stories, making him one of 10 living writers, including Thomas Pynchon and Don DeLillo, among the hundreds the imprint has published in the U.S." [8] Ligotti's work received high praise following the publication from the likes of The New York Times Book Review,[9] The Los Angeles Times Review of Books,[10] The Washington Post,[11] and The New Yorker.[12] Terrence Rafferty contrasts Ligotti with Stephen King, observing, "King, the great entertainer, needs the story as the comedian needs the joke, and when he can’t quite deliver it he dies (in the comedian’s sense). King is a master of horror, though. When inspiration fails, he has the technique to fake it. Thomas Ligotti is a master of a different order, practically a different species. He probably couldn’t fake it if he tried, and he never tries. He writes like horror incarnate."[9]

Influences in other media

In 2014, the HBO television series True Detective attracted attention from some of Ligotti's fans because of the striking resemblance between the pessimistic, antinatalist philosophy espoused in the first few episodes by the character of Rust Cohle (played by Matthew McConaughey) and Ligotti's own philosophical pessimism and antinatalism, especially as expressed in The Conspiracy Against the Human Race. Prior to accusations that dialogue from Cohle's character in True Detective were lifted from The Conspiracy Against the Human Race,[13][14] the series' writer, Nic Pizzolatto, confirmed in The Wall Street Journal[15][16][17] that Ligotti, along with several other writers and texts in the weird supernatural horror genre, had indeed influenced him. Pizzolatto said he found The Conspiracy Against the Human Race to be "incredibly powerful writing".[17] On the topic of hard-boiled detectives, he asked: "What could be more hardboiled than the worldview of Ligotti or [Emil] Cioran?"[17]

Collaborations with musicians

Ligotti collaborated with the musical group Current 93 on the albums In a Foreign Town, In a Foreign Land (1997, reissued 2002), I Have a Special Plan for This World (2000), This Degenerate Little Town (2001) and The Unholy City (2003), all released on David Tibet's Durtro label. Tibet has also published several limited editions of Ligotti's books on Durtro Press. Additionally, Ligotti played guitar on Current 93's contribution to the compilation album Foxtrot, whose proceeds went to the treatment of musician John Balance's alcoholism.[18]

Personal life

Ligotti attended Macomb County Community College between 1971 and 1973 and graduated from Wayne State University in 1977.

For 23 years Ligotti worked as an Associate Editor at Gale Research (now the Gale Group), a publishing company that produces compilations of literary (and other) research. In the summer of 2001, Ligotti quit his job at the Gale Group and moved to south Florida. He politically identifies as socialist.[19]

Awards

Ligotti has received numerous awards and nominations for his work:

In July 2015 Born to Fear: Interviews with Thomas Ligotti, edited by Matt Cardin, was announced as one of the nominees for that year's World Fantasy Awards.[26]

Bibliography

By him

Books

Stories/poems/screenplays

About him

Comics adaptations

Other works

Ligotti gives a favorable quote in the introduction to Nova Scotia, Canada, fiction writer Barry Wood's short story "Nowhere to Go" (2008) published in Postscripts #14. Ligotti has also provided blurbs for books by Eddie M. Angerhuber, Matt Cardin, Sarah Perry, Michael Cisco, John B. Ford, the philosopher Eugene Thacker, and Thomas Wiloch.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Interview with Thomas Ligotti – web interview from Published in The New York Review of Science Fiction Issue 218, Vol. 19, No. 2 (October 2006).
  2. ↑ "Thomas Ligotti". Dark Moon Rising. Archived from the original on 2007-09-29.
  3. ↑ Blurb from Ligotti's The Nightmare Factory.
  4. ↑ Schweitzer, Darrell, ed. (2003). The Thomas Ligotti Reader. Holicong, PA: Wildside Press. p. 178.
  5. ↑ Ligotti, Thomas & Brite, Poppy Z. (1996). "Foreword". The Nightmare Factory. Carroll & Graf. ISBN 978-0786703029.
  6. ↑ Ligotti, Thomas (2002). My Work is Not Yet Done. Poplar Bluff, MO: Mythos Books. ASIN B003U2ENPI.
  7. ↑ Ligotti, Thomas (2015). Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe. New York, NY: Penguin Classics. ISBN 0143107763.
  8. ↑ Calia, Michael (September 21, 2015). "Penguin Classics to Publish Ligotti Stories". The Wall Street Journal.
  9. 1 2 Rafferty, Terrence (October 29, 2015). "Stephen King's 'The Bazaar of Bad Dreams' and More". The New York Times Book Review.
  10. ↑ Clune, Michael W (January 27, 2016). "Loving the Alien: Thomas Ligotti and the Psychology of Cosmic Horror". The Los Angeles Times Review of Books.
  11. ↑ Dirda, Michael (October 27, 2015). "Michael Dirda's picks for Halloween chillers: Get ready to be grossed out". The Washington Post.
  12. ↑ Bebergal, Peter (October 29, 2015). "The Horror of the Unreal". The New Yorker.
  13. ↑ CNN, By Todd Leopold. "'True Detective' writer accused of plagiarism - CNN.com". CNN. Retrieved 2016-05-26.
  14. ↑ Davis, Mike (2014-08-04). "Did the writer of "True Detective" plagiarize Thomas Ligotti and others?". Lovecraft eZine. Retrieved 2016-05-26.
  15. ↑ Calia, Michael (January 30, 2014). "The Most Shocking Thing About HBO's 'True Detective'". WSJ Speakeasy.
  16. ↑ "The Arkham Digest: Interview: Nic Pizzolatto, creator/writer of HBO's True Detective". www.arkhamdigest.com. Retrieved 2016-05-26.
  17. 1 2 3 Calia, Michael (February 2, 2014). "Writer Nic Pizzolatto on Thomas Ligotti and the Weird Secrets of 'True Detective'". WSJ Speakeasy.
  18. ↑ Smith, Richard (11 December 2004). "Obituary: John Balance". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 20 November 2013.
  19. ↑
  20. ↑
  21. ↑ "Rhysling Anthology and Awards: 1986". Sfpoetry.com. 2003-11-08. Archived from the original on 2016-03-05. Retrieved 2015-09-19.
  22. 1 2 3 "World Fantasy Awards - Complete Listing". Worldfantasy.org. Archived from the original on 2013-10-15. Retrieved 2015-09-19.
  23. 1 2 3 4 5 "Horror Writers Association - Past Bram Stoker Award Nominees & Winners". Horror.org. 2011-06-13. Retrieved 2015-09-19.
  24. ↑ "The Locus Index to SF Awards: British Fantasy Awards Winners By Year". Locusmag.com. Retrieved 2015-09-19.
  25. ↑ ":: ihg :: International Horror Guild :: ihg ::". Horroraward.org. Retrieved 2015-09-19.
  26. ↑ "World Fantasy Awards Home Page". Worldfantasy.org. Retrieved 2015-09-19.
  27. ↑ Ligotti, Thomas & Brassier, Ray (2010). The Conspiracy Against the Human Race: A Contrivance of Horror. Hippocampus Press. ISBN 978-0982429693.
  28. ↑ Schweitzer, Darrell, ed. (2003). The Thomas Ligotti Reader. Holicong, PA: Wildside Press. pp. 178–79.
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