So Many Nights Of Futile Tears And Screaming

[G. S. Carnivals]

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By all accounts that old institution was a chamber of horrors, if not in its entirety then at least in certain isolated corners. It was not simply that a particular room attracted notice for its atmosphere of desolation: the gray walls pocked like sponges, the floor filthied by the years entering freely through broken windows, and the shallow bed withered after supporting so many nights of futile tears and screaming. There was something more. Perhaps one of the walls to such a room would have built into it a sliding panel, a long rectangular slot near the ceiling. And on the other side would be another room, an unfurnished room which seemed never to have been occupied. But leaning against one wall of this other room, directly below the sliding panel, would be some long wooden sticks; and mounted at the ends of these sticks would be horrible little puppets. Another room might be completely bare, yet its walls would be covered with pale fragments of weird funereal scenes. By removing some loose floorboards at the center of the room, one would discover several feet of earth piled upon an old, empty coffin. And then there was a very special room, a room I had visited myself, that was located on the uppermost floor of the asylum and contained a great windowless skylight. Positioned under that opening upon the heavens, and fixed securely in place, stood a long table with huge straps hanging from its sides.       Thomas Ligotti - “Dr. Locrian's Asylum” Added by: G. S. Carnivals on 08-02-2008 #295

[dr. locrian]

Ah--well chosen!

Quote

But leaning against one wall of this other room, directly below the sliding panel, would be some long wooden sticks; and mounted at the ends of these sticks would be horrible little puppets.

Sheer brilliance... Still gives chills after all these years...

[Aetherwing]

Well, the two of you just quoted the exact two bits from DLA, my favorite Ligotti story (well, it and TSotI) that immediately spring to mind whenever I think of that tale.

Both are simply ripe, pregnant with suggestive horrors. I can imagine full well the insane vistas the Doctor wished to evoke with the skylight, and quail at the unthinkable tableau that were enacted with the puppets on their sticks.

Rife with portent, and probably the ideas that won me over to Ligotti for ever and ever.

Thanks for the mid-morning dose of the numinous, Jon & Phil.

-Aether