TLO Member Interview: DoktorH

TLO Member Interview: DoktorH
Conducted by Phillip Stecco


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

From a Boing Boing post on The Conspiracy Against the Human Race: Philosophy of Thomas Ligotti, a horror writer who can't feel happiness - Boing Boing I read the preview available on Amazon.com, wound up ordering it from Hippocampus Press. (I don't like dealing with vendors who ship via UPS.) While I waited for what I could tell was the kind of misanthropy I enjoyed in Lovecraft without all the cosmic-tentacle-monster window dressing, I read enough of Teatro Grottesco to realize The Conspiracy Against the Human Race is the equivalent of Lovecraft writing The Necronomicon or Robert W. Chambers scripting a madness-inducing two-act play called The King in Yellow. Teatro Grottesco was wondrous. The Conspiracy Against the Human Race left me in a happy misanthropic swoon (not as contradictory as it sounds), and I've been hooked ever since.


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

The Conspiracy Against the Human Race, "Teatro Grottesco" (the short story), "My Work Is Not Yet Done," I Have a Special Plan for This World," "My Case for Retributive Action."


3) What other writers do you enjoy reading?

H. P. Lovecraft, J. D. Salinger, Ken Kesey, Robert W. Chambers, Chuck Palahniuk, Warren Ellis, Douglas Adams, David Icke, Jack Ketchum, Bret Easton Ellis, the publications of the SubGenius Foundation (religious satire that incorporates a lot of things from Lovecraft, Icke, Philip K. Dick, and others).


4) Do you have any favorite singers or musicians?

Long-time favorites include Joy Division, This Mortal Coil, and The Smiths. Things I have more recently taken a liking to include Burzum, Gorgoroth, Ladytron, The Dresden Dolls.


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

Syd Mead and H. R. Giger, though I've only seen the things they've designed for movies.


6) What are some of your favorite movies?

Natural Born Killers, American Psycho, Laid to Rest, Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), Let the Right One In, The Wizard of Gore (2007 - rare case of remake better than the original), The Men Who Stare at Goats, Deadgirl, Bladerunner.


7) Do you watch television?

Through Netflix and Itunes, yes. I like "Mythbusters," "Fringe," "Metalocalypse," "Venture Bros.," "Warehouse 13," "Lie to Me," and "Bones."


8) What foods do you enjoy eating?

Livermush, Scrapple, just about any kind of sausage, pasta, veggies, Gorgonzola, Stilton, smoked Gouda, apples, watermelon, bananas.


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

Bali-Song-twirling. I got myself a rather nice Benchmade Bali-Song as a 30th birthday present. (I wanted to mark the occasion with something useful, fun, and beautiful.) And when I'm not at work I can't seem to put it down for very long. I have a large accumulation of old World of Darkness role playing game books that I suppose counts as a collection, but I quit buying them many years ago and just never did anything with them after I lost interest.


10) What recreational activities do you enjoy?

Horror movies, sleeping until noon when I can get away with it, drinking, being fussy about my coffee preparation. (I'm halfway to being a coffee snob, fussy about how it's made but quite happy with Folgers grounds.)


11) What makes you laugh?

Humans, dogs, cats, some fish. The ending of The Last Exorcism, many slasher movies, the novel American Psycho.


12) Life?

Don't Panic and Carry a Towel.


13) Death?

I'll get there eventually, but I'm not hurrying.


14) Work?

Earns money so I can stay fed, housed, and entertained.


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

A few.

At my pizza-shop job in college: I once opened a plastic tub of shredded mozzarella cheese to find the contents spattered with blood. Apparently someone had hurt themselves on the cheese-shredding machine earlier that day and didn't realize it soon enough.

At the same place: The walk-in cooler was not within the structure of the building, but wedged against the back door and attached loosely. Apparently a rat had gotten in through the seam between the two, crawled into the freezer, and froze to death. All the food in there was raised on metal racks, within metal or plastic containers, and then coated in plastic wrap (our shop won awards for cleanliness), but the staff still joked that the pizza killed it.

Current job: I work in the collections department of a big national bank. I once had two customers, a mother and daughter, on the phone with me. Mom said I couldn't believe a word the daughter says because she'd suffered a head injury and was delusional. Daughter said I couldn't believe a word her mother said because mom has senile dementia. It was by far my most interesting call, though I've had others that featured all manner of conspiracy theories, dire warnings of radar shields over the national parks, and weekly rants about the banking system in general years before the financial crisis ever occurred.


16) What is your earliest childhood memory?

I had this little chair, basically a bunch of interconnected couch-cushions that were joined at the edges so they could be a little chair or unfold into a little bed. It was corduroy on the chair side. I don't remember what the original interior was, but I recall that my mom re-upholstered the interior with my Return of the Jedi bed sheets. So it was plain on the outside and Star Wars on the inside.


17) What is your fondest childhood memory?

When I was 7, my dad noted my fondness for slasher movies, took me out onto the lawn one day, and showed me a bow saw, and asked if I would like to play with it. I very muchly did. He showed me how to use it without breaking the blade, and said I could use it all I wanted on some fallen tree limbs he'd stacked in one part of the yard. Some might say he was tricking me into cutting firewood, but I say he was indulging my curiosity about scary-looking sharp objects.


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

Mom and Dad. Mom is Queen of All Undeads in my mind. (She often dressed as Elvira when taking me trick-or-treating, is nocturnal, and has a vampire-themed vanity plate.) Dad is the coolest cranky old man ever (see above story).


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

No, just for me. Everyone else is on their own.


20) What else should we know about you?

I used to smoke a lot, but quit. I'm asexual. I mostly work nights except for one or two mandatory dayshifts a week at my office (Fridays and one Saturday a month) and I am a bit cranky/snarky on those mandatory dayshift days.