TLO Member Interview: ElHI

TLO Member Interview: ElHI
Conducted by Phillip Stecco


1) How did you first encounter the work of Thomas Ligotti?

My first time was an aural experience. I listened to an mp3 version of I Have a Special Plan for This World by Current 93 that I had just downloaded (well in fact I had downloaded it at work, split the file over several floppy disks to be able to listen to it at home. Those were the days... It was my first exposure to Thomas Ligotti, and (almost) first exposure to Current 93, you can imagine the shock! Next minute (well in fact, the day after at work once again...) I was searching the web for more of both, and I stumbled upon what was to become TLO. There were a couple of complete short stories available for reading. I started with "The Shadow at the Bottom of the World" and I was hooked. I rushed to buy a copy of The Nightmare Factory through Amazon (it was still available at the time, but I probably grabbed one of the last copies from them...) I Have a Special Plan for This World is still one of my favourite works from Ligotti, and from Current 93 as well. One of the scariest pieces of music / poetry in my opinion.


2) What are some of your favorite works by Mr. Ligotti?

I Have a Special Plan for This World, obviously. I have always liked In a Foreign Town, In a Foreign Land as well (and with a strong link to Current 93 once again).

But "Teatro Grottesco" is probably my favourite short story. I'd be at a loss trying to explain why, though. I'm not very good in analyzing why I like such and such a thing. I guess it's all in the guts, not in the mind...

Other favourites include "The Red Tower," "The Chymist" and the ones that everybody else likes: "Gas Station Carnivals," "The Shadow at the Bottom of the World," "The Bungalow House."


3) What other writers do you enjoy reading?

Robert Aickman. I can read his short stories over and over again and I think I enjoy them more and more, even though I don't understand them any better. Just as most Ligotti's stories.

I also like reading Sarban, some Arthur Machen, Oliver Onions, H.R. Wakefield, Céline, Borges (of course).

Among the living writers I really enjoy Russel Banks, Michel Houellebeq, Quentin S. Crisp, Brett Easton Ellis (His Lunar Park was brilliant), Will Self (My Idea Of Fun !!), Agota Kristof's trilogy, some J.G. Ballard (High-Rise, Crash and Concrete Island) and most of all William S. Burroughs (I know, he's been dead for over 10 years now, but I haven't yet fully realised...)

Guilty pleasures : re-reading Frank Herbert's Dune cycle and J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. I do that once every 2 years, at least...


4) Do you have any favorite singers or musicians?

It keeps changing all the time. I am an obsessive music listener and I haven't time to properly listen to all the releases I buy, let alone those I download from the internet.

Anyway, my current favourite obsessions are :

Ajilvsga and anything by Brad Rose (The North Sea, Sea Zombies... have a look at his label's website ---++ digitalis industries ++---, I keep buying tapes now...),
Emeralds and anything by Mark McGuire,
John Elliott or Steve Hauschildt
Barn Owl and their side projects,
Black Boned Angel and anything by Campbell Kneale,
Nadja and anything by Aidan Baker,
Corrupted and any Japanese drone-doom band singing in Spanish, wait... they are the only ones doing that, aren't they?
Among my more stable references are :
Andrew Liles,
Anything by Andrew Chalk (solo, Mirror, Ora,...),
Current 93,
Bonnie 'Prince' Billy,
Autechre,
and Joanna Newsom (I think I'm in love with her, don't tell my wife!).


5) Do you have any favorite artists in the visual media?

More or less in chronological order : Hieronymus Bosch, Brueghel, William Blake, Salvador Dali, Hans Bellmer, Cindy Sherman, Douglas Gordon, Andrew Chalk.


6) What are some of your favorite movies?

Any David Lynch movie, for the same reasons why I enjoy the stories of Robert Aickman and Thomas Ligotti : I don't really understand them no matter how many times I come back to them. I have a special liking for Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me.

Any David Cronenberg movie, my favourites being Dead Ringers, Videodrome, Naked Lunch, Crash and eXistenZ.

Early Peter Jackson like Heavenly Creatures (I also liked the Lord of the Rings movies, but not for good reasons I guess, and his King Kong is the only version where I didn't cry at the end when Kong dies, even though I must admit Naomi Watts saved the film somewhat, but not by her acting...)

Kubrick's The Shining is a great movie. There's nothing more to add.

I've only recently seen Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind and I really loved it: one of the most moving films I've ever seen.

Guily pleasures : Dumb & Dumber, Ace Ventura Pet Detective (it seems I really like Jim Carrey...), and 2 silly French films La Cité de la Peur and RRRrrrrr!

Another thing I'm a bit ashamed to say : I don't like 2001: A Space Odyssey... I know I SHOULD love it but I've never been able to stay awake till the end...


7) Do you watch television?

I try not to. But I won't miss an episode of Lost or House MD. I'm still waiting for the series that would be the new Twin Peaks though...

Guilty pleasure : Koh Lanta, that's the French equivalent of Survivor. It is fascinating to see what a human being is ready to do in front of millions of people for some money or the sole thrill of being part of a TV show.


8) What foods do you enjoy eating?

Anything. Really. I just LOVE eating, especially eating something I have never tasted before.

And before anyone asks, yes, I do eat snails and frog legs, and they are yummy.


9) Do you have any odd hobbies or collecting fetishes?

I collect dead cats' teeth and broken mannikin limbs...

In fact I just collect books and music. How odd is that? (Even though my wife thinks the books I read and the music I listen to ARE weird...)


10) What recreational activities do you enjoy?

I used to enjoy scuba-diving. But I cannot do it any more for medical reasons. The feeling you get, especially when you are in dark waters and without any visible features is the closest I can imagine to actually flying.


11) So many of our lives are filled with the day-to-day anxiety of existence. Have you personally discovered any ways to relieve stress?

Not in the long term. The escape is only momentary. Too bad.


12) Life?

"The only sexually-transmitted disease that is 100% lethal."


13) Death?

"There are but four ways to die
A sardonic spirit might have said to me -
there is dying that occurs relatively suddenly
there is dying that occurs relatively gradually
there is dying that occurs relatively painlessly
there is the death that is full of pain
Thus, by various means, they are combined
the sudden and the gradual
the painless and the painful."

I can only hope it will be sudden and painless (and not too early...)


14) Work?

The French word for work, 'travail' originally meant torture... You wouldn't get paid for being tortured, so I guess there is a slight improvement.


15) Do you have any interesting work anecdotes to relate?

One day, I was working on board an old survey vessel in the middle of the Atlantic. It was quite hot, the work in itself was quite boring and we were a bit ahead of our schedule. So the Captain decided to stop the boat for an hour or so, in order to let those who wished to swim alongside her. It was great. The water temperature was perfect, the sea was dead-calm. But then I realised there was 4 kilometers of water underneath. That made me a bit uncomfortable. And I got back on board sooner than I had initially intended.

Later, when I told about my feelings with the other participants in our little swimming party, they confessed they had felt the same. Everyone of them. Talk about atavistic fears.


16) What is your earliest childhood memory?

In kindergarten, a girl scratched both my cheeks with her nails. I don't remember why. I can still see the faintest of lines when I look at myself closely in a mirror, some 34 years later.


17) What is your fondest childhood memory?

Summer camping with my parents and cousins.


18) Who has been the most influential person in your life?

It's a bit of a cliché to say that, but that's probably my father. He died when I was 17, and that is when I realised how important he was. And he is still influential in my most important decisions. Strangely, I don't even have a picture of him, and I've never asked my mother for one.


19) Do you have a special plan for this world?

You don't want to know. ;)