Ligotti's stories seem useless after TCATHR

[matt cardin]

Or so says black metal artist Jute Gyte/Adam Kalmbach, after a fashion:

Quote

THE QUIETUS: Oh yeah, you mentioned Ligotti, too. ADAM KALMBACH: Honestly, I think if you read Conspiracy Against The Human Race first, as I did, then all his actual fiction ends up reading like rough drafts for Conspiracy, and it loses a lot of his power. So I guess if you're gonna read Ligotti, read Conspiracy last.

FULL INTERVIEW: "Cosmic Pessimism: An Interview with Jute Gyte"

My response to this at the moment is summed up by a monosyllabic "Ummm..."

[Druidic]

This is what inevitably happens when philosophy becomes the main judge of art.

[beakripped]

I think Conspiracy... pales in comparison to much of Ligotti's fiction.

I like to consider TCATR's relationship with the fiction the same way I consider Thus Spoke Zarathustra and Nietzche's other works. They may be the total of the equation (not quite so in Zarathustra's case but close), but the sum is nothing without the numbers and the operations.

I felt like Clark Ashton Smith's stories paled in comparison to his poetry when I seriously delved into it.

[Revenant]

"Conspiracy" is the one work of Ligotti's that (to me) screamed for better editing. Not so with his works of fiction.

Quote Originally Posted by Revenant

"Conspiracy" is the one work of Ligotti's that (to me) screamed for better editing. Not so with his works of fiction.

Let's admit, it was kind of an organizational mess.

[Frater_Tsalal]

TCATHR is, of course, a very, very good book, but there are things in Ligotti's fiction that you won't find in it. For example, clowns that shapeshift into giant flesh-eating worms. And IMO clowns that shapeshift into giant flesh-eating worms trumps philosophy any day.

[Nemonymous]

Quote Originally Posted by beakripped

I think Conspiracy... pales in comparison to much of Ligotti's fiction.

Agreed.

[Robert Adam Gilmour]

Quote Originally Posted by Frater_Tsalal

TCATHR is, of course, a very, very good book, but there are things in Ligotti's fiction that you won't find in it. For example, clowns that shapeshift into giant flesh-eating worms. And IMO clowns that shapeshift into giant flesh-eating worms trumps philosophy any day.

I think Jute Gyte are really good and surprised he wouldn't appreciate this sort of imagery more.