TLO Member Interview: rhysaurus

TLO Member Interview: rhysaurus
Conducted by Phillip Stecco

Rhys Hughes has been writing professionally for twenty years. His books include Worming the Harpy and Mister Gum. Mr. Hughes resides in Swansea in the United Kingdom.


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

People kept talking about him. The name ‘Ligotti’ cropped up in conversation again and again. In the end I had to seek him out. That was back in 1995. I walked into a bookshop and bought Grimscribe. It was waiting for me on a table the moment I entered the door. The really weird thing is that when I went back the following day, all the copies were gone and the bookshop staff denied that they had ever stocked the book.


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

‘Favourite’ isn’t a word I’d use in conjunction with some of the most disturbing visions ever committed to paper. Let me tell you right now that Ligotti is a menace to the world. Like Philip K. Dick was. Or Emil Cioran. A menace and a genius. He stands for everything I oppose, or want to oppose, and my biggest fear is that he’s right and that I’m wrong. His books are genuinely dangerous. I want nothing to do with his philosophy, but his philosophy can’t be denied. It goes to the heart of what is perhaps the most crucial question facing mankind, namely the possibility that HORROR is integrated into life itself, that the universe itself is a terrible thing. Ligotti doesn’t mess with superficial props like every other horror writer. He’s the real thing. But I wish he wasn’t.


3) What other writers do you enjoy reading?

Italo Calvino, Jorge Luís Borges, Stanislaw Lem. Those are my favourites. Calvino especially. But there are many others I enjoy... Boris Vian, Raymond Queneau, Georges Perec, Milorad Pavic, Brian Aldiss, Ray Bradbury, Jack Vance, Flann O’Brien, Felipe Alfau, Josef Nesvadba, Michael Moorcock, William Burroughs, John Sladek, James Branch Cabell, J.G. Ballard, Donald Barthelme, Brion Gysin, Alvaro Mutis, John Barth, Thomas Pynchon, Philip José Farmer, Samuel Delany... Too many to list really!


4) Have you developed a "philosophy" of weird fiction?

Yes. The demonstration that the so-called absurd can be deadly serious and profound, that in fact the ‘absurd’ is the real and the ‘realistic’ is false. That a denial of the absurd is a denial of life and intelligence.

5) You have written hundreds of works of fiction. What may we expect to see published in the coming year or two?

My novel Twisthorn Bellow is due out next March. That will be followed by a story collection called The Phantom Festival. After that might be a collection entitled Salty Kiss Island and another collection called Mirrors in the Deluge and another called Ditto and Likewise. And a novel called The Pilgrim’s Regress and maybe another novel called The Abnormalities of Stringent Strange and maybe another novel called Unevensong. And another called Wuthering Depths. And another called Djinn Septic. And a book called Tallest Stories that is neither a collection nor a novel but something between the two. Lots of stuff, anyway!


6) Do you have any favorite singers or musicians?

Without music I’m sure I would go insane. Music is the most important artform of all, in my view. I like upbeat rhythms and cool melodies, a combination often found in Brazilian music. I’m a ‘Worldbeat’ fan. Natacha Atlas, Transglobal Underground, Ojos de Brujo, Thievery Corporation, Dissidenten, all that kind of stuff.


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

My favourite artist is Adele Whittle, but you won’t find any of her work anywhere. Not yet, anyway. I also like M.C. Escher, Remedios Varo and Max Ernst. And Nicholas Roerich, whose work I checked out after reading references to him in Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness.


8) What are some of your favorite movies?

I’m not a big film buff. But I like the films of Julio Medem, Werner Herzog and Nicolas Roeg. Japanese cinema is also remarkable.


9) Do you watch television?

There’s a British comedy show called Peep Show that is one of my favourites ever. I’m also a big fan of The Mighty Boosh. These days I watch very little television.


10) What foods do you enjoy eating?

I’ve been a vegetarian since I was 14, so I favour those cuisines that have the most interesting range of vegetarian foods, in other words Indian, Italian and Lebanese. I’m addicted to chillies, chocolate and coffee.


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

I used to be an avid collector of all sorts of things. Now I’ve gone to the other extreme and I’m getting rid of as many of my possessions as possible. I want to lighten my life. I don’t even own copies of my own books.


12) What recreational activities do you enjoy?

Travel. That’s my main reason for living. But also making music and painting, neither of which I’m any good at. Reading, obviously. Running, cycling, hiking, hill walking, tennis... I’m not especially good at any of them, but I’m not bad. I used to play a lot of chess, but I don’t do that now.


13) What makes you laugh?

I’m a sucker for a really good one-liner.


14) Life?

Yes, please! I love it. I’m not ready to leave it behind yet.


15) Death?

Death is the end of our identity, but not necessarily the end of everything. For instance, before we were born we were ‘dead’, but we’re here now. So it seems plausible that the same thing can happen after we die the next time. It won’t be ‘us’ next time, though. Maybe individual identity isn’t such an important thing anyway?


16) Work?

Real work, you mean, rather than writing stories? I hate that kind of work. I do it when I have to, but I’d rather be poor and do what I want than be a slave to the system. If I have to work for the system I usually end up contemplating some form of sabotage. Edward Abbey is one of my heroes and The Monkey Wrench Gang is my bible in that respect. I’d better not say more on this topic...


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

Only that I once worked for a shipping company and accidentally sent a cargo to Dhaka in Bangladesh instead of Dakar in Senegal. That was my most costly mistake ever. Note that I didn’t put the word ‘mistake’ in inverted commas. I’m being careful.


18) What is your earliest childhood memory?

Stealing food from my father’s plate and cramming it into my mouth and being sick. I was two and a half years old...


19) What is your fondest childhood memory?

I had a childhood sweetheart. When I was seven she dragged me off into a broom cupboard. What followed was very tame stuff but I didn’t think so at the time!


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

This is going to sound pompous and stupid, but it was me, still is me and probably always will be me. I’m a self-influence. Sorry!


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

If I ever became a famous writer I want the anniversary of my death every year to be celebrated with as much disruption in the workplace as people can get away with. I hope that my name will serve as some sort of symbol for slackers, saboteurs, monkey wrenchers around the world. That’s my ultimate plan!


22) What else should we know about you?

I’m half a Buddhist, half a Taoist and half an atheist. And it’s important to me that those fractions don’t add up!