TLO Member Interview: Murony_Pyre

TLO Member Interview: Murony_Pyre
Conducted by Phillip Stecco


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

I first encountered the name of Thomas Ligotti in the Joyce Carol Oates edited American Gothic Tales anthology. Remembering the name Ligotti and having heard him mentioned in glowing terms from time to time in passing on the internet (though in exactly what connection I can't recall) I put him on my mental "authors to read" list. It wasn't until I picked up Shudder Again: 22 Tales of Sex and Horror, which included his story "Eye of the Lynx," that I actually read Ligotti. Incidentally, it was also in the same anthology that I first read Robert Aickman, with his excellent story "Ravissante." Frankly, I wasn't too taken by "Lynx," but was interested nonetheless and remembered that I still had his story "The Last Feast of Harlequin" left unread in the aforementioned Gothic Tales collection, so I dug it out and was far more impressed by this story, the writing being more precise and the atmosphere more sustained.

Since that reading of "Harlequin," I've read and reread many more stories which I like better by Mr. Ligotti but it made a definite impression.


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

I can't claim to have read everything Mr. Ligotti has ever written but two of my favorites from what I have managed to read include "The Spectacles in the Drawer" & "The Troubles of Dr. Thoss," feeling these works to be two exemplars of the weird tale, as good as anything by Lovecraft.


3) What other writers do you enjoy reading?

I enjoy reading short stories these days, though I used to read a lot of poetry and full-length novels. Some contemporary writers I like include: Quentin S. Crisp, Mark Samuels, Reggie Oliver, Brendan Connell & Mark Valentine. As for poetry, there's T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Rainer Maria Rilke, Arthur Rimbaud, Robert Creeley, Robinson Jeffers, Charles Olson, and Frank O'Hara. I like prose work by Henry James, Robert Aickman, John Dickson Carr, Paul Bowles, Denton Welch, Jane Bowles, Flaubert, Marcel Proust, Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Joyce Carol Oates, William S. Burroughs, John Cheever & Jack Vance. In non-fiction, I would like to mention The Society of the Spectacle by Guy Debord, for those who've not read it. I must mention that I owe a lot of my interest in weird horror to the late Karl Edward Wagner, both through his own writing, some of which is truly first rate, as well as his incomparable "39 List" comprised of what he considered to be the best horror novels. The compilation of this list is quite an achievement, especially when one considers that most of the greatest writing within the genre has been done in the short form.


4) Do you have any favorite singers or musicians?

I like music by David Jackman, The New Blockaders, KTL, Kevin Drumm, Joseph Hammer, Toru Takemitsu, Ennio Morricone, Arnold Schoenberg, Franz Schubert, and I enjoy Bach more and more. As for pop music I like The Smiths as well as Morrissey's solo work, Bauhaus (The Sky's Gone Out), The Misfits (Static Age particularly), Black Sabbath, Voivod, Slayer (Reign in Blood), The Talking Heads, Robert Wyatt, Bad Brains & King Crimson. Albums I've been listening to lately are Forget by an outfit called Twin Shadow and Returnal by Oneotrix Point Never. While not a huge fan of Portishead, I really appreciate Beth Gibbons' singing voice very much. Last but not least, I admire the poetry and music of Scott Walker's work of the last 35 years, an artist who grows with each successive release and I await each with pent up excitement and anxious anticipation.


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

Painters and illustrators: Paul Gustave Doré, W. Heath Robinson, Mahlon Blaine, Edmund Dulac, Max Ernst (Europa After the Rain), John Singer Sargent, Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (especially the late self-portraits), Jeff Jones (paperback artwork), Francis Bacon (the stasis horrors!), Boris Artzybasheff, Edward Hopper, Edward Gorey, Lynd Ward, & Aubrey Beardsley. I'm sure I'm forgetting many others at the moment. I recommend a book about image appreciation called Ways of Seeing by John Berger.


6) What are some of your favorite movies?

As a disclaimer: I'm not that interested in horror films, I vastly prefer reading horror; I'll watch a horror film every now and then but there aren't too many to "write home about," as they say. Some horror films I do like (off the top of my head) include: Kubrick's The Shining, Bruno Dumont's Twenty-Nine Palms, Night of the Demon. Zombi 2 and Hammer's Quatermass and the Pit. I'd also like to mention film and dramatic work by Harold Pinter, Jean Genet, Peter Hall (who directed both the film of Pinter's The Homecoming and an excellent version of the Oresteia of Aeschylus performed at the Old Vic theatre in the early '80s, (this version is available on video from libraries), Michael Haneke (Code Unknown), Bruno Dumont (Humanité), John Cassavetes (A Woman Under the Influence & The Killing of a Chinese Bookie), Kenji Mizoguchi, & Yasujiro Ozu (Floating Weeds & The Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice). Practically anything by Andrei Tarkovsky, Robert Bresson, Mike Leigh and Carl Th. Dreyer are examples of what I consider to be "great" film work.


7) Do you watch television?

I don't have a cable hook-up but from time to time I like to catch some series on DVD.


8) What foods do you enjoy eating?

I like both foods that "batter the senses" and those possessing more subtle flavors. Examples are rack of lamb, blue cheese (where cheese is required) and I drink copious amounts of Japanese green tea of the sencha and matcha varieties, but not necessarily all of these foods together at once.


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

Odd never appears odd to the eccentric, as perhaps some would classify me, but as for "fetishes," though my instincts are dulled by all this comfortable, modern living, I live for "the thrill of the hunt" where books are concerned and enjoy tracking down desirable and rare books, if at all possible in person. I recently found a copy of The Delicate Dependency by Michael Talbot in very good condition at a secondhand store for 88¢. Patience is often rewarded.


10) What recreational activities do you enjoy?

I like going for walks but I don't have the drive, at times, to partake of this as much as I would like to for health and amusement's sake, sad to say. Telling yourself to do things with no set purpose is easy in theory but difficult to apply, to badly butcher a great quote by Henry Miller.


11) What makes you laugh?

The Pythons, Kids in the Hall, Mr. Show with Bob and David, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Yes Minister, Father Ted and so many other things, mostly with an absurdist lean.


12) Life?

See 13).


13) Death?

Remember not to forget to (die).


14) Work?

The nightshift.


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

I work for arguably the most flamboyantly gay man in this city, not that there's anything wrong with that, but he can be a particularly narrow-minded flamboyantly gay man, which makes for interesting if predictable interaction. Let's just say I've had a few too many conversations about different types of personal lubricant and their relative merits.


16) What is your earliest childhood memory?

Finding a bubble gum wrapper in my mom's linen room. It was from blueberry Hubba Bubba. I was less than 3 years old at the time. I've loved blueberries ever since, although I find they smell and taste very little like their artificial counterpart.


17) What is your fondest childhood memory?

Experiences with a Boston terrier pup, the runt of the litter, no less, named "Spuddy" when I was about 7 or 8 years. Spuddy used to sleep at the foot of the bed and warm my feet at night--he also enjoyed chewing things. I used to wake up, come downstairs for breakfast, my pajama-bottoms resembling the pantaloons of a shipwrecked sailor. Despite these nocturnal "Spuddy snacks" (presumably he was dreaming of soup bones), the adjacent flesh of my ankles remained strangely unscathed by tooth or claw.

Another fond, though unrelated, childhood memory was my piecemeal reading of Naked Lunch in the public library of the small town in which I grew up, at a tender age. "Young boys dig it special."


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

An "old country and western singer," may he remain in ignominy, taught me to be constantly self-reflective and more than a little self-conscious.


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

Though I wouldn't characterize myself as a Candide-like optimist, if Ligotti says "why?", I am forced to say "why not?"


20) What else should we know about you?

Honestly, a little glibness did go a long way in helping to answer the rest of these questions. Also, in my least proud moments, I sometimes impotently yell at my computer when it is working slowly, referring to it as some would a female dog in heat; I christen this "internet rage"--I endeavor to remain calm. Also, I "enjoy" (this isn't the right word to use exactly) writing (mostly poetry), when I can't stop myself from doing so.