“Conversations in a Dead Language” by Thomas Ligotti
(Noctuary; The Nightmare Factory; October Dreams ed. Richard Chizmar [a.k.a. Halloween Horrors from Barnes and Noble]; Halloween ed. Paula Guran)
Ligotti’s main character is a mailman who lives alone, visits his invalid mother and takes her to church every Sunday. He also enjoys Halloween. But his enjoyment isn’t just about the candy or the costumes, no, he likes the children. His own childhood fears predispose him to think about the children. But there may be a cost for those thoughts or, more to the point, for acting on his thoughts.
I take it back. Some of it, anyway. In another thread I mentioned this is one of my least favorite stories by Ligotti, which is still true, but it’s a better story than I remembered, just not a real Ligotti story. This story feels closer to what most horror writers write than to what Ligotti writes. Some of the hallmarks are there: A creepy main character and a narrative voice you’re not sure you can trust. But Ligotti’s usual surreality, or non-reality, or call it Ligotti-reality which impinges on the work-a-day world, or at least impinges on the minds of his characters, isn’t fully in effect in this story. There is another reality beyond the main character’s perspective, and he comes in contact with it, but it’s not beyond what other writers could imagine in the way that, say, “The Frolic” or “Les Fleurs” or “Teattro Grotesco” or “Nethescurial” or “The Glamour” or “The Shadow at the Bottom of the World” or “The Last Feast of Harlequin” seem uniquely, distinctly Ligottian.
And maybe that makes this story a good point of entry into Ligotti’s work. I think what makes this story effective stems from maintaining a certain tone, a tone that starts in that first paragraph quoted above. Ligotti keeps a tight focus on the mailman’s point of view, what he’s feeling and thinking, without telling too much. But little phrases and phrasings like “Knifey-wifey” keep us wondering about him, about his motivations, about what he will do and what will happen next.
Other works by Thomas Ligotti: Grimscribe (which includes “The Glamour,” “Nethescurial” and “The Shadow at the Bottom of the World”; those last two can also be found in The Shadow at the Bottom of the World); My Work is Not Yet Done (more overtly physically violent than anything else I’ve read by Ligotti); “The Frolic,” “Les Fleurs,” and “Notes on the Writing of Horror: A Story” (all in Songs of a Dead Dreamer; The Nightmare Factory; “Notes…” is also in American Gothic Tales ed. Joyce Carol Oates and American Fantastic Tales [vol. 2] ed. Peter Straub); “Teattro Grotesco” (The Nightmare Factory; The Shadow at the Bottom of the World; Teattro Grotesco)
Weird (though not necessarily all horror):
The Motion Demon by Stefan Grabinski
The Nightcharmer and Other Stories by Claude Seignolle;
War of the Newts by Karel Copek
As Mark has pointed out in other threads, earlier this month Jeff and Ann Vandermeer’s anthology The Weird was published in the U.K. They had posted the table of contents at their website and I realized I’d read a selection of their selection, some of which have been mentioned throughout this thread. This is the list of what I’ve read, and I’d recommend searching out any or all:
F. Marion Crawford, “The Screaming Skull,” 1908
Algernon Blackwood, “The Willows,” 1907
Saki, “Sredni Vashtar,” 1910
M.R. James, “Casting the Runes,” 1911
Hanns Heinz Ewers, “The Spider,” 1915 (translation, Germany)
Franz Kafka, “In the Penal Colony,” 1919 (translation, German/Czech)
H.P. Lovecraft, “The Dunwich Horror,” 1929
Jean Ray, “The Shadowy Street,” 1931 (translation, Belgium)
Fritz Leiber, “Smoke Ghost,” 1941
Ray Bradbury, “The Crowd,” 1943
Jorge Luis Borges, “The Aleph,” 1945 (translation, Argentina)
Shirley Jackson, “The Summer People,” 1950
Robert Bloch, “The Hungry House,” 1951
Jerome Bixby, “It’s a Good Life,” 1953
Julio Cortazar, “Axolotl,” 1956 (new translation by Gio Clairval, Argentina)
Charles Beaumont, “The Howling Man,” 1959
Claude Seignolle, “The Ghoulbird,” 1967 (new translation by Gio Clairval, France) [previously titled in English, “The Nightcharmer” – rbm]
Daphne Du Maurier, “Don’t Look Now,” 1971
Robert Aickman, “The Hospice,” 1975
George R.R. Martin, “Sandkings,” 1979
Bob Leman, “Window,” 1980
Michael Shea, “The Autopsy,” 1980
Octavia Butler, “Bloodchild,” 1984
Poppy Z Brite, “His Mouth Will Taste of Wormwood,” 1990
Karen Joy Fowler, “The Dark,” 1991
Kathe Koja, “Angels in Love,” 1991
Stephen King, “The Man in the Black Suit,” 1994
Kelly Link, “The Specialist’s Hat,” 1998
Caitlin R. Kiernan, “A Redress for Andromeda,” 2000
Mark Samuels, “The White Hands,” 2003
Randy M.
(Noctuary; The Nightmare Factory; October Dreams ed. Richard Chizmar [a.k.a. Halloween Horrors from Barnes and Noble]; Halloween ed. Paula Guran)
After changing out of his uniform, he went downstairs to search the kitchen drawers, rattling his way through cutlery and cooking utensils. Finally he found what he wanted. A carving knife, a holiday knife, the traditional blade he’d used over the years. Knifey-wifey. (first paragraph)
Ligotti’s main character is a mailman who lives alone, visits his invalid mother and takes her to church every Sunday. He also enjoys Halloween. But his enjoyment isn’t just about the candy or the costumes, no, he likes the children. His own childhood fears predispose him to think about the children. But there may be a cost for those thoughts or, more to the point, for acting on his thoughts.
I take it back. Some of it, anyway. In another thread I mentioned this is one of my least favorite stories by Ligotti, which is still true, but it’s a better story than I remembered, just not a real Ligotti story. This story feels closer to what most horror writers write than to what Ligotti writes. Some of the hallmarks are there: A creepy main character and a narrative voice you’re not sure you can trust. But Ligotti’s usual surreality, or non-reality, or call it Ligotti-reality which impinges on the work-a-day world, or at least impinges on the minds of his characters, isn’t fully in effect in this story. There is another reality beyond the main character’s perspective, and he comes in contact with it, but it’s not beyond what other writers could imagine in the way that, say, “The Frolic” or “Les Fleurs” or “Teattro Grotesco” or “Nethescurial” or “The Glamour” or “The Shadow at the Bottom of the World” or “The Last Feast of Harlequin” seem uniquely, distinctly Ligottian.
And maybe that makes this story a good point of entry into Ligotti’s work. I think what makes this story effective stems from maintaining a certain tone, a tone that starts in that first paragraph quoted above. Ligotti keeps a tight focus on the mailman’s point of view, what he’s feeling and thinking, without telling too much. But little phrases and phrasings like “Knifey-wifey” keep us wondering about him, about his motivations, about what he will do and what will happen next.
Other works by Thomas Ligotti: Grimscribe (which includes “The Glamour,” “Nethescurial” and “The Shadow at the Bottom of the World”; those last two can also be found in The Shadow at the Bottom of the World); My Work is Not Yet Done (more overtly physically violent than anything else I’ve read by Ligotti); “The Frolic,” “Les Fleurs,” and “Notes on the Writing of Horror: A Story” (all in Songs of a Dead Dreamer; The Nightmare Factory; “Notes…” is also in American Gothic Tales ed. Joyce Carol Oates and American Fantastic Tales [vol. 2] ed. Peter Straub); “Teattro Grotesco” (The Nightmare Factory; The Shadow at the Bottom of the World; Teattro Grotesco)
Weird (though not necessarily all horror):
The Motion Demon by Stefan Grabinski
The Nightcharmer and Other Stories by Claude Seignolle;
War of the Newts by Karel Copek
As Mark has pointed out in other threads, earlier this month Jeff and Ann Vandermeer’s anthology The Weird was published in the U.K. They had posted the table of contents at their website and I realized I’d read a selection of their selection, some of which have been mentioned throughout this thread. This is the list of what I’ve read, and I’d recommend searching out any or all:
F. Marion Crawford, “The Screaming Skull,” 1908
Algernon Blackwood, “The Willows,” 1907
Saki, “Sredni Vashtar,” 1910
M.R. James, “Casting the Runes,” 1911
Hanns Heinz Ewers, “The Spider,” 1915 (translation, Germany)
Franz Kafka, “In the Penal Colony,” 1919 (translation, German/Czech)
H.P. Lovecraft, “The Dunwich Horror,” 1929
Jean Ray, “The Shadowy Street,” 1931 (translation, Belgium)
Fritz Leiber, “Smoke Ghost,” 1941
Ray Bradbury, “The Crowd,” 1943
Jorge Luis Borges, “The Aleph,” 1945 (translation, Argentina)
Shirley Jackson, “The Summer People,” 1950
Robert Bloch, “The Hungry House,” 1951
Jerome Bixby, “It’s a Good Life,” 1953
Julio Cortazar, “Axolotl,” 1956 (new translation by Gio Clairval, Argentina)
Charles Beaumont, “The Howling Man,” 1959
Claude Seignolle, “The Ghoulbird,” 1967 (new translation by Gio Clairval, France) [previously titled in English, “The Nightcharmer” – rbm]
Daphne Du Maurier, “Don’t Look Now,” 1971
Robert Aickman, “The Hospice,” 1975
George R.R. Martin, “Sandkings,” 1979
Bob Leman, “Window,” 1980
Michael Shea, “The Autopsy,” 1980
Octavia Butler, “Bloodchild,” 1984
Poppy Z Brite, “His Mouth Will Taste of Wormwood,” 1990
Karen Joy Fowler, “The Dark,” 1991
Kathe Koja, “Angels in Love,” 1991
Stephen King, “The Man in the Black Suit,” 1994
Kelly Link, “The Specialist’s Hat,” 1998
Caitlin R. Kiernan, “A Redress for Andromeda,” 2000
Mark Samuels, “The White Hands,” 2003
Randy M.
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