"The Bungalow House" Commentary

[Dr. Locrian]

"The Bungalow House": Commentary
from http://www.ligotti.net/tlo/ss-bh.html

Early last September I discovered among the exhibits in a local art gallery a sort of performance piece in the form of an audio tape.


This tale is written as a first person narrative. The nameless protagonist is a librarian in the language and literature department of a public library; the story relates his identification and quest to communicate with an anonymous artist who makes audio tapes on the subject of the very desolate strangeness that the librarian has felt throughout his life.

The reader knows very little about the life of the protagonist, aside from the fact that he is a single and rather solitary librarian, choosing to spend his lunch breaks at a nearby art gallery. The most vivid character in "The Bungalow House," moreover, is the proprietor of this dingy, rundown gallery, Dalha D. (of Dalha D. Fine Arts), who, according to the protagonist, makes "arrangements" of a highly questionable nature in her spare time. Dalha is a loud, tacky, older woman who arranges the display of the artist's dream monologue tapes in the first place, and eventually attempts to make an arrangement for this artist to meet the protagonist.

The narrator becomes obsessed with the strange tapes, in which a "...feeling of being in a trance in the most vile and pathetic surroundings was communicated to me in the most powerful way, by the voice on the tape, which described a silent and secluded world where one existed in a state of abject hypnosis." This communication between librarian and artist is uncanny; he is taken with awe that "...another person shared my love for the icy bleakness of things. "

The narrator's own views on this subject come into focus as he relates, "I wanted to believe that this artist had escaped the dreams and demons of all sentiment in order to explore the foul and crummy delights of a universe where everything had been reduced to three stark principles: first, that there was nowhere for you to go; second, that there was nothing for you to do; and third, that there was no one for you to know." Obviously, the artist's dream tapes, while communicating these "principles" so well, break at least one of them--or do they? The nihilistic principles that have served the protagonist for so long are shaken by what appears to be a true and powerful connection with another living being, and, though he revels in the artist's vision that has helped alleviate the "killing sadness" that he himself has always felt, he is troubled by the fact that the artist seems to be sharing something that could and should be only felt individually.

It is this question that leads the solitary librarian to meet this mysterious artist, and brings him ultimately to an extremely surprising answer, which reveals as much about the true nature of the narrator as it does his sad existence.

In "The Bungalow House," Ligotti toys again with the idea of identity: what separates artists from librarians, both from the "Dalhas" of the world, and finally what separates each individual being from every other being. The author is at the height of a defining nihilism in which he teaches a lesson about the solitary nature of personal obsessions and thereby ultimately resolves his protagonist's philosophical dilemma. "The Bungalow House" is a brilliant and melancholy psychological narrative that explores the depths of an internal monologue while simultaneously telling an engaging story of existential yearning and despair.

--Jonathan Padgett

Ligotti Comments

JP: "The feeling of being in a trance among the most vile and pathetic surroundings was communicated to me in the most powerful way by the voice on the tape, which described a silent and secluded world where one existed in a state of abject hypnosis," I've noticed that many of your protagonists (as in, say, "The Cocoons" as well as BH) strive for this "state of abject hypnosis" in "a silent and secluded" world.

TL: I've experienced this state several times in dreams and don't consider it entirely unpleasant. The initial dream monologue in "The Bungalow House" was pretty much a transcription of one of these dreams and was written before I had any idea of using it as the basis for this story.

JP: … about Dalha, the owner of the dingy gallery who (it seems to the protagonist) makes "arrangements" of a decidedly questionable nature. Dalha is overbearing, a tacky dresser (all emerald green), has had a variety of careers, is extremely rude, insensitive, selfish, arrogant, and pretentious in the extreme. It seems to me that this is a recurring character, especially in the fiction you've written most recently (The Crimson Woman of "Gas Station Carnivals," Miss Glimm of In a Foreign Town, In a Foreign Land, and Miss Angela in your most recent story). Certainly this character personality has had a profound effect on you as a writer. What is it about the Dalha persona that has induced you to include her so prominently in these stories?

TL: To my mind this character is someone very much connected with the everyday world, as least as I see it, and provides an effect of vulgar realism that I think complements the more dreamlike and fantastic aspects of the stories in which they appear.

[albie]

I would love to read this one again. Really conjures up that art installation feel. Although better than the reality, so far. I was once stoned and wandered into an installation that was designed to resemble somekind of space age control room in some space ship. Gave me a slight thrill, although my dope fugue was waning (a long walk from the toilets to the display). On closer inspection the dials and buttons proved to be bottle tops. Something Neil Buchanan would make;the wonky eyed prat.

Aye, those Bill tapes are probably a lot more interesting than anything Tracy Emin might put together.

The wonky mouthed witch. Ho ho.

I keep meaning to write a story about those Santa's Grottoes that you get in department stores over christmas (Oh, how obssessed I became as a child: designing them, insisting on entering them despite being far too old). I think that would be an ideal Ligotti story, in the same vein as The Bungalow House and Gas Station Carnivals. They are one of those transition points. A corporate doorway into a world that can't decide to be pleasent or frightening. Hence becoming a mixture and something else is spawned.

Right, I need a bath after all that.

[dekadent666]

"The Bungalow House" is one of my top ten favorite TL stories along with "Trick or Treat" and "Nethescurial".

The lesson to be learned from TL's experience with Bugalow Bill is that we have to get as much out of the stark raving mad as possible before we write stories about them. "Bugalow House" is more than fully realized, but imagine if TL had kept that guy's tapes. And insane people are not hard to find if you live in a somewhat urban area.

I interpreted the underlying theme of "BH" to be the inexhaustibility of sadness and pessimism. "The killing sadness" never quite kills, it only goes on and on despite what may happen in life, and pessimistic resignation is actually a facade, since no matter how life negating it may seem, it is in fact a stance and therefore incapable of being actually negative. <STORY SPOILER REMOVED--sorry! -DL>

I can relate to your experience, Albie. As a younger chap two friends and I used to wander around under the confusing and maudlin influence of excessive amounts of coricidin; there being a wealth of abandoned bars and houses in upstate New York, we would often stare into the windows for absurd amounts of time. It gave us the impression someone was looking back at us, that lost arty feel. From an external perspective, I'm sure we didn't look too sharp. Ehhh. Oh well.

[The Silent One]

Quote Originally Posted by dekadent666";p=&quot

"Trick or Treat"

Which one?

[Dr. Locrian]

My guess would be "Conversations in a Dead Language." Sorry for removing part of your post, dekadent666, but I'm certain some of our users haven't read "The Bungalow House" yet (and it's one that will soon be published on TLO). You couldn't have known that, of course. Right: I hereby declare that major story spoilers for "The Bungalow House" are off limits. Just for a very little while. Many many thanks.

	TLO THOMAS LIGOTTI ONLINE

[dekadent666]

Understood Dr. My universe is very Ligottian and I tend to forget not everyone has actually read him. Ehhh.

[Nemonymous]

THE BUNGALOW HOUSE – I’ve just discovered this extremely significant story in the history of Weird Fiction was first published in 1995, the same year as my wife and I moved to our Bungalow House (or known in UK as a Chalet Bungalow). Not relevant perhaps, but interesting to me. What is more relevant, probably, is that the Dalha tapes are reminiscent of the Dharma tapes in LOST. The Narrator arguably has a Lost-type ‘back-story’ co-identical with the artist behind the tapes.
The ‘deformity’ of what is in the Bungalow House has a sterilised mono ‘Purity’ by being ‘told’ between " " by the voice on the tape, as does the familiar theme of the Derelict Factory (and the Bus Shelter).
The story has a precise narration of vague matters.
An Art Installation that is the story itself told by the Narrator disguised as the nemonymous artist. “Why should you care what his name is? Why should I?”
Cf. the lavatory in ‘The Clown Puppet’ etc with the optimum Art Installation lavatory here. The library that seems to have carrels. The icy bleakness of things. Killing sadness. The dismembered doll parts one of which kills Dalha. I cannot pretend to even begin to grapple with everything in this story. It is the archetypal Platonic Form of the Ligotti story. It is as if Ligotti has metamorphosed into the Reader. Or Himself.
“Yet I must observe that the effect, as I now consider it, has been just the opposite. If it was your intent to evoke the icy bleakness of things with your dream monologues then you have totally failed on both an artistic and extra-artistic level. You have failed your art, you have failed yourself, and you have also failed me.”

[Dr. Locrian]

I'm having a resurgence of interest/obsession in specific Ligotti story analyses. I'm sure it's due partially to the 12 year TLO anniversary... tomorrow!

Seems like a million years ago, but apparently the fanatical Ligotti flame in me has been merely smoldering--just waiting to reignite--all this time.

I know I haven't mentioned lately that "The Bungalow House" is my favorite Ligotti story.

	TLO THOMAS LIGOTTI ONLINE

[The New Nonsense]

It's good to see you back, Jon. Do keep the analyses coming. I think Tom's stories are mysterious enough to keep fans and scholars busy with deciphering their hidden meanings for generations to come.

[Ascrobius]

In my opinion, The Bungalow House is a Masterpiece.