The Literature of Urban Ruin and Decay (Seeking Recommendations)

[Malone]

One of my favourite aspects of Ligotti's fiction is those protagonists who wander dead cities and ruins, locked in the solitude of their minds. Other writers that come to mind in this vein are Baudelaire and Pessoa (in The Book of Disquiet). Just wondering if anyone knows of any other writers for whom this is a theme?

Many thanks!

[MagnusTC]

Giuseppe Ungaretti.

[Nicole Cushing]

Quote Originally Posted by Malone

One of my favourite aspects of Ligotti's fiction is those protagonists who wander dead cities and ruins, locked in the solitude of their minds. Other writers that come to mind in this vein are Baudelaire and Pessoa (in The Book of Disquiet). Just wondering if anyone knows of any other writers for whom this is a theme? Many thanks!

I have some recommendations, but they may be authors you've already checked out.

Ramsey Campbell comes to mind (especially in Demons by Daylight). There's one Clive Barker story you may also want to consider, "The Forbidden" (overall, I find Barker's stuff uneven, but I found this one moderately enjoyable).

It seems to me that the cities that Campbell and Barker present to the reader aren't uniformly dead and nightmarish. However, tiny corners of them are. These stories often seem to relate a character slipping from the gritty and mundane reality of the city to the gritty and nightmarish supernatural world.

[luciferfell]

Kafka's The Castle, Lucas's Throat Sprokets, Leiber's Smoke Ghost, Ellison's I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream.

[Karnos]

Many stories by J. G Ballard come to mind...

And I agree, A LOT, about Clive Barker's fiction. I often approach with with lots of enthusiasm, just to be disappointed a few pages into the book. Although some of his early fiction is pretty much of my liking.

[gveranon]

W. G. Sebald

Wittgenstein's Mistress by David Markson

Samuel R. Delany's Dhalgren (although the strange characters are more often gregarious than solitary in that novel)

[Michael]

Eddie Angerhuber "Nocturnal Products" has to go on the list as the paragon of this type of fiction. I'd include a lot of Simon Strantzas's work and Mark Samuels has some great pieces as well along this line of literature. I would agree with Nicole about Ramsey Campbell as well (The Face That Must Die comes immediately to mind).

[MagnusTC]

Georges Rodenbach is another author that could be added to the list.
And the graphic works by the danish artist Palle Nielsen (1920-2000).

[Malone]

Many thanks to everyone for all the recommendations thusfar! I intend to check out all the authors mentioned.

[MagnusTC]

By the way, Edgar Allan Poe's "The Man of the Crowd" springs to mind as a key story in this subgenre. When I read it recently I was especially struck by its resemblance to Ligotti's "The Dreaming in Nortown". Also a strong influence on Baudelaire, I believe.