TLO Member Interview: Gray House

TLO Member Interview: Gray House
Conducted by Phillip Stecco


1) How did you first encounter the work of Thomas Ligotti?

I think I first took note of Ligotti's name when I read something by S. T. Joshi that made a passing mention. Eventually, after reading online about Ligotti, I decided to try one of his books and bought The Shadow at the Bottom of the World, which was the most inexpensive option at the time.


2) What are some of your favorite works by Mr. Ligotti?

"Teatro Grottesco," "Notes on the Writing of Horror: A Story," "Alice's Last Adventure" and "The Strange Design of Master Rignolo" are some of my favorites. I also hold The Conspiracy Against the Human Race in high esteem but that book is very different from the stories and I find it difficult to make a comparison.


3) What other writers do you enjoy reading?

Taken almost at random (there are so many!), William S. Burroughs, Shirley Jackson, Ramsey Campbell, Michael Cisco, Paul Bowles, Leonora Carrington, Rimbaud, Lovecraft, Konrad Bayer, Dunsany, Dan Clore, Robert Desnos.

I recently began reading Mercè Rodoreda's Death in Spring and am very much enjoying it so far. A surreal and potent nightmare.

I recently reread R. H. Barlow's "The Night Ocean." Very poetic prose, even better than I remembered.


4) Do you have any favorite singers or musicians?

John Coltrane, Throbbing Gristle, Sibelius, Pink Floyd's The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, Ash Ra Tempel.


5) Do you have any favorite artists in the visual media?

Leonora Carrington, Harry O. Morris, Giger, Bruegel, Sidney Sime, Al Columbia.


6) What are some of your favorite movies?

David Lynch's Inland Empire is probably my favorite at this time. Others I have enjoyed include Messiah of Evil and Brazil.


7) Do you watch television?

I do not own a TV. I watch movies on my computer. I have little interest in most of what is on television. I have found "House" to be entertaining.


8) What foods do you enjoy eating?

I enjoy snacking on fried mushrooms with melted cheese on bread. I enjoy morning coffee or tea and evening coffee or tea (though not exactly foods and I do not eat them).


9) Do you have any odd hobbies or collecting fetishes?

The wood carving I sometimes do might be called a hobby, as might the story writing I sometimes do. Both can be decidedly odd. For collecting, just books.


10) What recreational activities do you enjoy?

Hiking in areas where there are no other people. Swimming.


11) What makes you laugh?

Mark Twain's "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses."


12) Life?

A very strange phenomenon.


13) Death?

I am very glad life has this limitation. I do not want to die but I would certainly rather die immediately than live forever.


14) Work?

I assemble and ship products for a small family business.


15) Do you have any interesting work anecdotes to relate?

My work is fairly straightforward. No anecdotes to relate.


16) What is your earliest childhood memory?

Probably my earliest memory is of walking on partly submerged rocks in a brook and finding it difficult trying to get back to dry ground, and then seeing my mother hurrying over to me.


17) What is your fondest childhood memory?

There are so many childhood memories. No memory stands out as one I'm fonder of than countless others.


18) Who has been the most influential person in your life?

Probably either one of my parents, even if I am not necessarily conscious of the ways they have influenced me. I think for nearly everyone, whoever raises you as a child is going to be a very strong influence, consciously and/or unconsciously.


19) Do you have a special plan for this world?

I may sometimes act in ways that suggest a belief that large scale ideas I have about how I would like this world to change have a chance of becoming reality, but nonetheless with many of these ideas I do not have any such belief, so I do not think they can be called plans.

I hope to avoid suffering from the plans of those with the will and means to perpetrate disagreeable special plans for this world.


20) What else should we know about you?

A few things that might be amusing, interesting, entertaining:

Night is my most creative time of day. Consciousness of time inhibits creativity. The movement of the sun across the sky makes me very aware of the passage of time. I dislike wearing a watch and I dislike the presence of highly visible clocks. Or perhaps it is avoidance of consciousness of the passing of time that inspires creativity and not the lack of this consciousness itself.

I recently started doing first drafts of stories on an old typewriter rather than longhand, for the novelty of it (it is such an intricate and fascinating machine!), and to see if it seems to have a noticeable effect on my prose. I find, on the typewriter, I tend to thoroughly think out each sentence before typing, whereas, with longhand, I tend to put the words on paper quicker and then change and rearrange them in a process that turns the page into something I am sure would be an indecipherable chaos to anyone but myself.

Pictures of two of my wood carvings can be viewed in the photo album of my TLO member area.