Ligotti is unafraid to be visceral, such as when he describes "a mutilated carcass, something of terrible rawness, a torn and flayed thing whose every laceration could be traced in crystalline sharpness" in "The Spectacles in the Drawer," but he isn't out to disgust you for its own sake. In fact, while the stories here epitomize the nightmarish more than any other writer I know, it is more of an atmospheric dread at work than the sudden provocation of explicit frights.
The Nightmare Factory then is an apposite title in this regard: these are indeed nightmares, stories whose peripheral glimpses into the inexorability of decay and darkness leave an exquisite aftertaste of terror. Ligotti is efficient; some stories are better than others, but every single one is a superior example of literate horror, resulting in a consistently excellent anthology.
By no means though should you assume that Ligotti simply churns out tales like an automaton working from a template. The metaphysical horror he draws his tales from may be a single fount of dreadful inspiration, but an infinite darkness holds infinite terrors, and this is what Thomas Ligotti knows best of all.
Article comments
1 - Eric Olsen
Thanks Andrew, very fine job, welcome!
2 - Eric Olsen
Whoa, your name just a lot longer, dude.
3 - Andrew
Is that all right?
4 - Chris Kent
OK Andrew, I'm really pissed off. I am going to have to add yet another book to my reading list. Thanks for the blog as I had never heard of this author....
5 - Andrew
You're welcome, Chris! It's my privilege to piss you off in this way. *laughs* If you want to know more about Ligotti, feel free to explore this site.
6 - Paul Chadwick
Ligotti is an insane brilliant treasure.
His latest, My Work Is Not Yet Done is up for a Stoker award, deservedly so.
A great, but seldom updated, Ligotti site is at http://longshadows.com/ligotti/
7 - Chris Puzak
I have to agree. Thomas Ligotti is a brilliant author. Did anyone read that unaired X-Files script he wrote? It was great stuff.
8 - Andrew
For Paul Chadwick: Your name sounds familiar. I'm not certain if you're the comic book writer, but your name seems to be something I came across before somewhere, perhaps in relation to horror fiction. Did you ever write a review or anything?
In any case, I agree when you say, "Ligotti is an insane brilliant treasure."
I forked up a significant amount of cash just to pick up My Work Is Not Yet Done, and it was well worth it, though I'm still reeling from the actual decrease in my funds.
I also posted that link, but Longshadows is dead in the water, which is unfortunate, as I enjoyed trawling through that site. The Current 93 writeups formerly on it were quite good, too.
Still, it pleases me to know that Thomas Ligotti Online is still around.
For Chris Puzak: They used to "Crampton" online, but I never got to read it, though. If you have that copy on your computer, I'd greatly appreciate it if you could email it to me. I'm dying to read it, and someday, I'll order the release from Durtro, but at the moment, as I said above, funds are low.