Ligotti panel at NecronomiCon Providence 2017

[Robert Adam Gilmour]

Sidney-Fryer was a friend of CASmith. He has a bunch of poetry, fiction, non-fiction and autobiography Hippocampus books and I think he's a ballet historian too. Check out videos and audio recordings of him, he seems to break briefly into crying a lot.

[Malachi_Constant]

Quote Originally Posted by Frater_Tsalal

I only went on Saturday, but here's an (edited) version of my experience: Woke up at 9:20 today, 10 minutes before my alarm went off. Decided to chance going to NecronomiCon. Sadly, the Markitty t-shirt I had made for the occasion still hadn't arrived yet, despite the fact that the delivery date was supposed to have been August 11th. So instead I wore my black Grant Morrison Nameless Sigil of AZ t-shirt. Took the 10:20 bus to Providence, arriving at the station a little after 11. It was extremely muggy out. Walked all the way to the John Hay Library at Brown University to check out the Caitlin R. Kiernan exhibit (this library being located at the top of a very tall hill), only to find that the library was closed on the weekend for the summer (you would think that they would make an exception for the convention, but noooooo... luckily it runs till December). Walked all the way back down the damn hill to the damn Biltmore Hotel, where I went to the registration desk on the second floor of the lobby. I showed them my ticket and they gave me a program guide, a memento book, a pin, and a name tag. I wrote my name on the name tag, then, under that, FRATER TSALAL, and (above all that), 'Mark Samuels Rulez.' I walked down the street to the Omni, a nearby hotel that was also serving as one of the convention's locations. The vendor stalls can be found there. Once there I made a beeline for the Hippocampus Press table and end up purchasing Clark Ashton Smith's The Hashish-Eater and an annotated edition of Lovecraft's Fungi From Yuggoth poetry cycle. Out of curiosity I checked out the Dim Shores Press table, where Justin Steele was sitting. He saw the Ashton Smith book in my hands and we got to talking about him a bit: I found him quite affable. Then he got a closer look at my name tag. To my surprise, he recognized my name, and mentioned to me that he had purchased both of my short story collections a month ago, but hadn't got around to reading them yet (he also thought we were friends on Facebook, but I pointed out he was actually friends with some of my mutual friends). We then got to talking about Daniel Mills a bit, and how we were both sorry to hear that he couldn't make it. By this point I figured it would be rude of me to leave without buying anything, so I ended up purchasing the new book he just edited, Looming Low, which he also autographed for me. I then purchased two books from the Broken Eye Books table, but the titles are so dorky I'd rather not post them here (let's just say they both have the word 'Cthulhu' in the title... sweet cover art though). Following my time at the vendor marketplace I sat down in the hallway outside the marketplace and did a bit of people-watching. As you can imagine there was the usual colorful assortment of rotund pasty bearded and bespectacled white guys in death metal t-shirts, sickly Wiccan girls with pentagram earrings and black lace dresses, though I did spot a few cute corset-wearing girls of the Gothic steampunk variety. No face tentacles in sight this year but I did see a number of people wearing Esoteric Order of Dagon capes. At 1:00 I went to the third floor of the Omni to take my place for a panel on Arthur Machen, which began at 1:30. This Machen panel was moderated by Jack Haringa (who I guess is the President of the Shirley Jackson Awards), Donald Sidney-Freyer (a very charming old man with an interesting accent, though I've never heard of him), a woman named Karen Joan Kohoutek, and Michael Cisco. I did like Cisco's description of Machen's writing as "psychedelic pastoralism," and it was very touching when Sidney-Freyer was talking about his love for Machen's "The Great Return" and he got so worked up about it that his voice broke and he almost started crying. Also liked his line how, in regards to Edmund Wilson's criticism of both Lovecraft and Machen, that "No one's having any cult conventions about Edmund Wilson" (to be fair, he did defend Wilson's writing as well). As I made my way out of the Omni I saw this really cute-looking younger guy (a Lovecraftian twink?), so I hung around a bit to check him out (I suppose that sounds less creepy than 'I stalked him from a distance and undressed him with my eyes'). I then left the hotel and crossed the street to the nearby Providence Place Mall, where I got the new Ke$ha album Rainbow (just listened to it today, very entertaining, especially the song "Godzilla"). Around 3:30 I went back to the Biltmore and hung around there for a bit. Took the elevator to the 17th floor, where the Ligotti panel was going to be. Had a brief chat with a young, crazy-looking Hispanic guy who told me he was really hyped about getting to meet Donald Sidney-Freyer later that day (who I guess is a big Clark Ashton Smith expert, he even did the notes and annotations for the edition of The Hashish-Eater that I had purchased earlier that day). Walked to a room where author readings were going on: Nnedi Okorafor was doing a reading at that moment so I listened to a bit of that. I hung around near the Grand Ballroom where the Ligotti panel was going to take place. Jon Padgett showed up and I introduced myself and we chatted briefly. Then at 4:30 the Ligotti panel started, which I've already described here. It was packed. At 5:45 I left the hotel where my parents were waiting for me to give me a lift back home.

It was very cool meeting you, and very nice of you to pick up Looming Low. I hope you enjoy it. I don't know if I'd call any of the stories Ligottian, but for general weird fiction fans I think (hope) they will find enough in there that they feel it worth the price of admission.

Also, Sam (Dim Shores) had one package that was supposed to be delivered on Thursday/Friday but the hotel misplaced it and he didn't get his hands on it until Sunday. It had the last few copies of several of his sold out chapbooks, including two copies of the Daniel Mills. Let me know if you're interested in that one, and if he still has it I will have him send it your way (on me!). It's my favorite of Daniel's work, and since you're a fan of his I'd love to hear your take on it. Shoot me a PM if you'd like!

[mgriffin]

I attended the Ligotti panel and enjoyed it very much. We sat more than halfway back, and had a hard time hearing a couple of the panelists who were sitting too far from their microphones. Luckily, Jon had very good microphone discipline, and we heard everything he said! Lots of great information and a few anecdotes I hadn't heard before.

The whole convention was a wonderful experience, and the Ligotti panel was among the highlights for me. Other memorable highlights included the Looming Low reading, the Dim Shores room party, accepting the Robert Bloch award for Joe Pulver, and having a chance to meet several online friends (including Jon) in person for the first time.

The NecronomiCon is a great experience all around, and I only wish it happened every year.

[Frater_Tsalal]

Quote Originally Posted by mgriffin

I attended the Ligotti panel and enjoyed it very much. We sat more than halfway back, and had a hard time hearing a couple of the panelists who were sitting too far from their microphones. Luckily, Jon had very good microphone discipline, and we heard everything he said! Lots of great information and a few anecdotes I hadn't heard before.

Yeah, that seems to be a perpetual problem every NecronomiCon, they never have enough microphones at the tables. Cisco in particular I had trouble hearing during the Ligotti one, though not so much for the Machen one (perhaps because it was a smaller room, or because he had a microphone directly in front of him).

Re-reading my breakdown of my experience at the event I realize that some people might take offense at my "rotund pasty bearded and bespectacled white guys in death metal t-shirts" as fat-shaming. To which I would say, as a fan of Huysmans, I sometimes adopt his style of grotesque over-exaggeration, and to which I would also say that there were also many pale, thin, and sickly-looking men dressed in black in attendance... and that latter category is the one that I myself fall in, ha ha.

[mgriffin]

Audibility of panels is always a problem in that room, especially. Two years ago, I was part of a "Contemporary Weird Fiction" panel in that ballroom, and I relentlessly nagged the other panelists to talk into their microphones. People naturally tend to turn toward the other panelists and talk toward them, but then most of the people in the big room are unable to hear!

[Zaharoff]

Quote Originally Posted by mgriffin

Audibility of panels is always a problem ... I relentlessly nagged the other panelists to talk into their microphones ...

You're kidding me.
Why not lose the stands, so talkers have to hold the mics?
Or use the smaller mics and clip them to shirts?

[cannibal cop]

Quote Originally Posted by Frater_Tsalal

Other topics discussed included the first season of True Detective and its debt to Ligotti, the "glamour of Ligotti's Void" (that sounds a little dirty: the words Jon used were "euphoric damnation"...

Maybe they meant "glamour" in an earlier sense, a curse or enchantment that compels the victim to act against his or her will. I can't say glamorous is one of the first words that come mind here.

I'm not sure "euphoric" is the word either, but maybe there's an Anti-euphoria, a state of negative elation, which taken to its extreme may lead to a condition resembling it.

[Calia]

I hope I was one of the panelists who spoke audibly into the microphone!

The panel, the convention, everything about the weekend was a blast. I left with a feeling of creative renewal and a fresh desire to dig even deeper into the weird literature stacks.

If anyone was there, I'd love to read your thoughts on the panel and whether I, as a relative neophyte in this world, made a fool of myself among such esteemed company. And if you weren't there, I'm eager to read your responses once the video goes live.

[mgriffin]

I thought your contributions were very good and worthwhile, and I heard what you were saying. I had the hardest time hearing Cisco, and a bit less trouble hearing Alex Houston and Matt Bartlett.

You did not make a fool of yourself... at least not this time!

[mgriffin]

Also, welcome to TLO, Mr. Calia.

	TLO THOMAS LIGOTTI ONLINE