TLO Member Interview: Keith418

TLO Member Interview: Keith418
Conducted by Phillip Stecco


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

A friend who was a fellow horror enthusiast turned me on in the late 1980s.


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

I am an admirer of all of his different periods - from the earliest to the most recent - but I especially love the stories in Teatro Grottesco. That said, I think his finest work are the pieces in In a Foreign Town, In a Foreign Land. The last story there is, perhaps, one of the single best horror stories I've ever read.


3) What other writers do you enjoy reading?

I read a lot. For fiction, I like many contemporary dark fantasy and weird authors like D. P. Watt, John Gaskin, Mark Samuels, Joel Lane, etc. I have read all of Reggie Oliver's books & stories and I think he and Mark Valentine are about the best we have right now. I also like classic authors like Aickman, Sarban, and many of the older authors published by Tartarus Press. I am a man who "collects Machen" as well and have some rare books by him. Like many other readers I made an effort to track down and read all of the novels and stories in HPL's Supernatural Horror in Literature. I like many of the Weird Tales writers, of course, but incline - at this stage of my life - towards Clark Ashton Smith. I have collected all the "Ballantine Adult Fantasy" series and appreciate William Morris and David Lindsay's work as well.

I also have a passion for the "Hard Case Crime" books, and vintage "noir" pulp fiction in general. Charles Willeford is my favorite author in this category, but I have a perverse fondness for the work of Robert Leslie Bellem too. Needless to say, I revere Raymond Chandler.

I read less science fiction than I used to, but still get back to Philip K. Dick and J. G. Ballard.

In terms of non-genre fiction, I have become quite passionate about Louis Auchincloss and I am working my way - steadily - through all of his novels and short story collections. When it comes to contemporary fiction, I appreciate Jonathan Lethem's novels and stories as well as those of Jonathan Franzen. I like older authors like Hubert Selby, Alfred Chester, and Paul Bowles especially.

When it comes to non-fiction, most of my studies are in occultism and conservative European political philosophy. I study the work of Aleister Crowley and his school, as well as the writings of Nietzsche, Oswald Spengler, Carl Schmitt, Julius Evola, René Guénon, Martin Heidegger, and their associated philosophers and theoreticians.


4) Do you have any favorite singers or musicians?

I am very fond of 1950s and '60s folk music - Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, Shirley Collins, Phil Ochs, and John Jacob Niles. I also collect and enjoy 1960s psychedelia (Love, early Pink Floyd, The Grateful Dead) and what has come to be known as "wyrd folk" or psychedelic folk music: Forest, Bread, Love, & Dreams, Vashti Bunyan, Sandy Denny, Bobby Beausoleil, Perry Leopold, Tudor Lodge, Nick Drake, Satwa, Pearls Before Swine, etc. Unsurprisingly, I am very fond of modern European neofolk, martial industrial, and dark ambient music: Current 93, Coil, Sol Invictus, Sixth Comm, In Gowan Ring, Blood Axis, Of the Wand and the Moon, Der Blutharsch, etc. My two favorite bands in these categories are Death in June and Les Joyaux de la Princesse.


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

I am very invested in classically influenced sculpture from Europe - artists like Arno Breker and Georg Kolbe. I adore the paintings of Yves Tanguy and Roberto Matta and I have a large collection of books by and about Henry Darger. I also admire and collect the the work of Hannes Bok, George Grosz, Margaret Keane, and Richard M. Powers. My favorite contemporary artist is Andrew Brandou.


6) What are some of your favorite movies?

I admire the works of directors like David Lynch (I'm a big "Twin Peaks" advocate), Roman Polanski (his Chinatown is my single favorite film), Jodorowsky, the Brothers Quay, as well as the smaller American films of the late '60s and early '70s like Five Easy Pieces, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, Smile, and The Last Detail. I am slowly going through all of Eric Rohmer's films now. I have a healthy number of classic Hollywood examples of film noir. I also hunt down Italian neorealist films and classic and contemporary Japanese cinema.

I have a particular weakness for Spaghetti Westerns and own more than 100 of them on DVD. I also collect the films of what has been called "para-cinema" or the kind of movies described in Incredibly Strange Films.


7) Do you watch television?

Yes. I appreciate some of the smarter sit-coms ("Community," "Modern Family," "Bored to Death," "Curb Your Enthusiasm," and "The Office"), as well as BBC America fare, and AMC's "Rubicon" and, of course, "Mad Men." When it was running, I was devoted to "The Sopranos."


8) What foods do you enjoy eating?

I live in a very "food centric" environment so I regularly sample Chinese, Mexican, and Ethiopian food. I have come to the sad conclusion that one cannot live on sushi alone - and I know this because I have tried to.


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

I have been described as "obsessive" in my collecting habits - books and music (see above), as well as comic books. I also collect Blythe dolls, toys and memorabilia related to Gerry Anderson's Supermarionation programs, vintage G. I. Joe figures and accessories, and more recently produced 1:6 scale historic soldiers from the DiD and Dragon companies.


10) What recreational activities do you enjoy?

I like hiking in the hills around Berkeley and Oakland and playing badminton.


11) What makes you laugh?

Patton Oswalt and Louis C. K.


12) Life?

"Something there was in her speech of time and its mystery; something of that which lies forever beyond time; something of the grey shadow of doom that waits upon world and sun; something of love, that pursues an elusive, perishing fire; of death, the soil from which all flowers spring; of life, that is a mirage on the frozen void." - Clark Ashton Smith


13) Death?

"The length of thy longing shall be the strength of its glory. He that lives long & desires death much is ever the King among the Kings." - Liber Al II:74


14) Work?

"As you have probably heard me state before, I am in favor of going to the utmost possible limit." - C. F. Russell


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

I have done some field work and can say that there's quite a lot of weirdness lurking - all over the place - and often in plain sight.


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

Beyond my parents and my spouse, I'd have to say my yoga teacher of more than 20 years.


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

"Only in communication and in struggle does the power become free." - Martin Heidegger


18) What else should we know about you?

Some of my occult adventures are described in a book floating around on the Internet called The Black Lodge of Santa Cruz. An old friend wrote it and some find it interesting. A few lectures and some interviews with me can still be found on the "Thelema Coast to Coast" podcast.