A terrific essay, thanks for posting. While I admire both Ligotti and Lovecraft, I feel Ligotti has a playfulness and lightness of touch in his best works that is absent in Lovecraft (though I am sure there are Lovecraftians out there who may correct me on this!). These qualities make the supernatural occurrences (or out and out horror) when revealed more effective and unsettling. Interesting also to note the connection between Ligotti and the French writer Michel Houllebecq who has wrote admiringly of Lovecraft's influence on his own work. While in terms of style and content they are very different they both share the theme of us being slaves in our lives, of us persevering in the face of nightmarish futility.