[Spoilers] Anyone care to discuss Spectral Link stories?

[david]

Quote Originally Posted by Howarth

I hope the second story is better.

I kinda agreed with you on the first story though overall I enjoyed it. I think it was well written and although I don't necessarily agree with Ligotti's philosophy, I still got something out of it. I'd be interested to hear your opinion on the second story.

[Druidic]

Good post, Cynothoglys! I think your observations are right on.

[Coa]

Judging by the comments here it seems that TL went all in with "preaching to the converted" thing and I'm glad he did, its not like there is much else to do after TCATHR, it would be pointless backtracking.

	TCATHR The Conspiracy Against the Human Race

[Nicole Cushing]

My two cents (for what it's worth)...

I'd be curious to know if the order in which they're published in is the same order in which they were written. "Metaphysica Morum", to me, has a herky-jerky quality that reads like something written by someone who's shaking off a bit of rust but at the same time having great fun (and please note, the comment about shaking off the rust isn't a slam against Tom; I think anyone who stopped writing fiction for ten years would need to shake the rust off a little bit; and that Tom's shaking-off-rust is superior to most authors' uninterrupted work).

Anyway, I was giggling throughout, and consider it a highly effective work of black comedy. The letter written by the redneck family members almost made me think that Ligotti was momentarily channeling Edward Lee and I still can't get over the hilarious Motel Hell reference! I confess to being a little unsure how the story might trigger "controversy" (really? after TCATHR? I don't see anything more controversial than what Tom has put forward elsewhere).

"The Small People" strikes me as a piece that's far more elegant and substantial. I found the plot a little predictable (others may disagree), but it's beautifully predictable (if that makes any sense). Or, perhaps better said, it's hideously predictable.

It captures a sort of transition from a point of view where, A.. the unreal seems like an alien incursion into the real, to B. the "real', itself, is brought into question (the closing words: "Who am I? What I am?") and the unreal is seen to be omnipresent and, possibly, omnipotent.

The story is -- in a sense -- Lovecraftian...full of references to things that should never be known, knowledge the world is trying to shut itself off from, a stash of forbidden books (or, in this case, pamphlets) and the gradual, incremental reveal of the true (?) nature of things.

But it's a far better Lovecraftian story than Lovecraft could have ever written (I know, I know that will piss y'all off, but hear me out). It's not mired in the pulpy, globe-trotting action-adventure conventions of HPL's time (which I know is the sugar that makes HPL's medicine go down, but which I find hokey and boring). We don't need to go off to the Pacific or Antarctica to find the dread abominations (in the form of dead, but not-quite-dead cities). We find it in our very own towns and families. We even find it in ourselves.

This, to me, perhaps more than anything sums up exactly how Ligotti surpasses Lovecraft. It's a far more intimate terror, not lurking in the stars or hiding in remote corners of the earth. Rather, the terror exists and always has existed in the experience of your very own consciousness (and mine, too). To paraphrase Eddie Poe, terror is not of Germany (or R'lyeh), it's of soulless, animated meat finally finding out that it's soulless, animated meat.

The high point of this story, for me, is the uncanny depiction of the small people themselves (and, to a lesser extent, the half-small people). Plastic-looking (appearing as though their clothes were painted on), but not plastic feeling (but, rather, soft....later described as possibly being made out of some doughy substance). The description of their construction projects as being something like an elaborate show. The idea of a spectral link that connects us to them, the idea that all is insubstantial ("piddling events...elevated as a matter of course beyond their significance...this flimsy material world, this junkyard of cast-off ectoplasm.")

SWOON!

The prose is more simple than in Teatro Grottesco. There are positives and negatives to this approach. There are fewer sentences that stir a prose-poetry sort of awe of the language itself. But the encounter with the uncanny is very fleshed out. Deliciously fleshed out.

I think "The Small People" ranks among some of Tom's best work (and that the relative simplicity of the prose may render it one of his more accessible stories).

That said, the sense of incursion, dialogue about bigotry, etc. re: the small people has already led one person to mistakenly interpret this as a commentary on immigration. Which, of course, misses the point entirely (almost, comically). I wonder how many other readers/reviewers will similarly misread it.

	TCATHR The Conspiracy Against the Human Race

[dr. locrian]

That was a terrific review, Nicole, and I agree with almost everything you wrote above.

The reason I suspected that "Metaphysica Morum" would be controversial was because I knew some readers would take offense to the vehement restatement of the worldview Ligotti espoused in TCATHR (since those same readers took offense to them before). There's no doubt that the protagonist's final statement is contemptuous of "losers celebrating [their] moment in hell," and there was no way the story wasn't destined (and, perhaps, constructed) to rustle some feathers.

All that stated, I love the story and didn't find the work rusty at all. It is indeed highly unusual for Ligotti, but it's also beautifully and carefully crafted -- while being experimental and ambitious and often downright off-the-wall.

I don't think any other writer alive has Ligotti's talent for getting under the skin of the reader via "dream occasions" in his stories. "Metaphysica Morum" moves in and out of such modes, and "The Small People" is one, self-contained dream-tale, with its own peculiar dream-logic and dream-history.

"Metaphysica Morum" is horrific, chilling, hilarious, and altogether a powerhouse of creativity... just superb writing. The story shook me and kept me shaken up for hours afterward. For me, the "herky-jerky quality" that Nicole mentioned was intentional on Ligotti's part. The story--upon several readings--has a disorienting effect on at least this reader, and it's fascinating how the dream-reality complete with Dealer and detailed instructions for the dreamer bleeds into the "real world" of the tale until there is no real difference between the dream occasion and the real ones. And I love the dichotomy between the disturbingly hilarious letter from the protagonist's cousin and the protagonist's own "Suicide Declaration."

Of extra special note are the singularly Ligottian phrases/words present in "Metaphysica Morum": "chain of galaxies showroom"; "an all-new context"; "metaphysical mutant(s)"; "dream occasions"; the use of "fix you/me up" not to mention the nefarious "Dealer"; various riffs on "demoralized" and "demoralization." The repetition of these words and phrases is used to hypnotic effect in the story, and that repetition worked on my mind, my emotions and my nerves to spectacular effect.

I must take issue with Howarth's negative review of the story (posted last week), though he is of course welcome to his opinion. I believe, however, that he misread it, at least in part. Case in point: he criticized Ligotti's use of Kant's "moral philosophy" (i.e., in the title itself), but I know for a fact that Ligotti has no use for Kant’s moral thought, and that the title, "Metaphysica Morum," is meant to be more than a little ironic. As for claiming that Ligotti is not philosophically "sophisticated..." Well, I'll just respond that I disagree and just leave it at that.

"The Small People" is amazing -- utterly riveting and moving. It made me cry. With this one, Ligotti wrote the very story I've wanted to tell all my life (not for the first time): the feeling that everything in my life is unreal and shabby -- little more than a cheap community theatre set. That thought has always haunted me, particularly in my childhood. And, further, the feeling that my parents were intrinsically to blame or at least part of the grand charade has been in my head ever since I was a kid listening to the murmuring of my parents in post-bedtime conversation and imagining them as giant preying mantis things hovering above my prone body, experimenting on me for unknown reasons. "The Small People" explores the idea of this kind of conspiracy, but with an epic twist that involves and implicates everyone and everything on the planet.

I've got more--much more--to write about "The Small People," but I've blown a lot of time already, and it's time to get back to work!

	TCATHR The Conspiracy Against the Human Race

[Vitriolum]

I devoured the two new Ligotti stories over the weekend and have wanted to contribute to this thread, but Dr. Locrian has so excellently expressed my thoughts and sentiments in his wonderful post.

I am an internet lurker, rather than contributor, but I thought I'd quickly share some of my reactions.

The family letter reminded me of Lovecraftcraft and his use of darkly humorous redneck dialogue in The Dunwhich Horror and The Shadow Over Innsmouth. I believe this inspiration goes back to M.J. James? I think its the perfect medium to inject some horrible and subversive idea to catch the reader off guard. I also thought of Lovecraft's story Beyond the Wall of Sleep with its own backwoods mutant.

Ligotti's theme of the Outsider vs. the Insider continues with these stories and are found it many of his previous ones, the greatest, I believe, and my own personal favorite Ligotti story, being The Last Feast of Harlequin.

The Small People also has a similar ending to my second favorite Ligotti story, that is, Vastarian. Both end with the protagonist in a mental institute with his grasp on reality being questioned. It also leaves us with the sense that the protagonist is correct in his assessment of humanity as hideously little puppets. This reminds me of the conclusion to Mad Night of Atonement. In this sense, I see Ligotti as our guide and initiator into the grotesque secret that the world conspires to hush up.

As great as Ligotti is at writing from the perspective of the deranged adult loner, he is also a master at writing from the perspective of a child and the family environment. The Small People continues this, as also reflected in The Library of Byzantium, Ms. Rinaldi's Angel, and in his brilliant story Purity. I wonder how much of his reading of Bruno Schultz inspired him with these childhood wonderment stories.

These two stories show two sides of Ligotti's works (and plenty more exist). They are the sense of childhood wonderment at the uncanny phantasy of the world, and the other is the adult disillusionment at the rottenness of this "glamorous" allure.

I truly hope Ligotti continues writing stories because he has so much to deliver to this weary world, and in all selfishness, my existence comes so alive whenever I read his writings.

[MandyBrigwell]

Any thoughts on the cover artwork of The Spectral Link? It's interesting, but I can't figure out what it is or how it's linked to the stories.

[Druidic]

Vitriolum, you say you were an internet Lurker; I’m very glad you stepped over the Threshold, my Lurker! We need more fresh ‘voices’ and your post was indeed welcomed! Hopefully, there will be more…

[ramonoski]

At last I can visit and partake in this thread.

My initial impression on TSL is that it is a neat, elegant, succinct and eloquent summation of Ligotti's ouvre to date (up to and including TCATHR and the "closing statements" from the Death Poems reprint), but instead of staying there and being just a logical conclusion, it somehow manages to take that step forward into new territory.

Might write a proper review later. In the meantime there's a couple things I'd like to comment after reading this thread.

Nicole Cushing mentions that the plot of "The Small People" is predictable, and then Vitriolum mentions exactly what was in my head after reading the story: the ending, as far as plot is concerned, is very similar to that of "Vastarien", which is perhaps where the predictability aspect comes from. There is quite a bit of intertextuality within Ligotti's own body of work, I think. But even when Ligotti manages to write five stories about similar things (say, art communities and intestinal distress and the delusion of the Self), one could hardly say he just went and wrote the same story five times.

In my case, I think I realized where the story was going the moment the narrator mentions he's now able to distinguish between small people, half-small people, and "real" people. And yet I felt this knot in my stomach, dreading it was actually going there. Much like Dr. Locrian, I felt the story hit quite close to home. At the time I didn't understand these feelings of alienation and being an outsider, of being "at odds with the status quo of one's world", but when I was a kid, and later a teenager, I often wondered if perhaps I'd been adopted because I always felt like I didn't belong to my family. (Later I realized this sentiment wasn't exclusive to my family, that I felt like an outsider no matter where I was or who accompanied me, and knowing this paradoxically made it much easier for me to deal with it all.) And years later here's Thomas Ligotti somehow putting into words all those feelings in the form of two superbly written short stories. It is a bit overwhelming.

	TCATHR The Conspiracy Against the Human Race

[gveranon]

"Nevertheless, I must admit that I still felt at some level a totally idiotic need to exhaust every speck of interest left to me in being alive."

"I don't want to be right. I want to be dead."

Both statements are made by the first-person narrator of "Metaphysica Morum." The first statement expresses my own feeling at this time, and this makes "Metaphysica Morum" hard to take, because the story as a whole is relentlessly in pursuit of the second, not just for the protagonist but for the human race. Still, I enjoyed this story very much, and I feel that I could read Ligotti in this mode forever. If he writes a hundred more stories like this (which, of course, he won't), I will read them all.

In one of the new interviews in Born to Fear, Pal Flakk asks Ligotti if he has any words of wisdom for aspiring writers. Ligotti answers, in part, "Just a few words and just for horror writers. In addition to writing imaginatively on dark subjects, include a good dose of what keeps you alive in this world, whatever it might be -- certain characters, certain places, certain ideas. . . . [P]ossibly, just possibly, without my loving descriptions of decayed and forlorn places, not to mention the oddball characters that readers seem to identify with in some way, nobody would read my stories a second time."

What he said there is probably a key to why I liked "Metaphysica Morum" so much. It's a kind of story I like to read. Oddly, "Metaphysica Morum" reminds me in some ways of My Work Is Not Yet Done. I say oddly, because MWINYD was never one of my favorite Ligotti stories, and Ligotti himself says, in another of the new interviews (with Daniel Ableev), that he was "not himself" when he wrote that story, because it was more conventional and realistic than his usual sort of story (he was hoping it might be made into a commercial horror movie). I don't think "Metaphysica Morum" could be made into a commercial horror movie (!), but it reminds me of what I found to be the most entertaining aspect of MWINYD: the misfit protagonist in the crummy real-world making dry and scathing remarks about this and that as he moves toward his end.

I was dumbfounded by the letter from the narrator's "kin folks." It is so farcical, so over-the-top ridiculous. It seems to me that Ligotti fully embraced the risk of blowing up his fiction just because he felt like going off on that particular riff. There's something almost metafictional about it, as if he is saying, "Okay, in order to flesh out this notion of the character being a mutant, here is this bit from the 'swamplands.' It's just a stupid story, folks." In the Ableev interview, Ligotti talks at length about what he calls "a triviality, a frivolousness, a real smallness in my character" -- that he can't take anything seriously for long. Yeah, I think he demonstrated that, right in the middle of "Metaphysica Morum"!

Those are just by-the-way observations. What makes MM a major Ligotti story is, I think, the notion of "metaphysical mutants," and the role he depicts them as playing in human history. In the 2003 interview with Thomas Wagner, Ligotti says "That's where the future development of horror fiction lies -- in the next person who is almost too emotionally and psychologically damaged to live in the world but not too damaged to produce fiction." In MM, Ligotti extends this notion beyond horror fiction writers to individuals (perhaps a growing number if the mutation spreads) who are prophets and exemplars of the human (non-)future.

"Now it has fallen to demoralized mutants to enunciate their closed-off future."