![]() ![]() The spread of interest in the works of H.P. When his second collection, Grimscribe appeared in 1991, only the most dedicated aficionados knew of it. Ligotti’s Songs of the Dead Dreamer (1989) his first book, appeared in a print run of 300 copies now all highly prized by collectors. ![]() ![]() Other than the works of Peter Straub and Stephen King, true crime and the unabated re-telling of serial killer tales took up much of the cultural landscape. The often intentionally mysterious and reclusive writer first began to publish his hallucinogenic prose in 1986, during a period particularly unsuited for serious literary horror. The enthusiasm of Ligotti’s devotees is thoroughly understandable. It’s a sign of Ligotti’s cult following that True Detective’s creator found himself accused of plagiarizing the master. In fact, as author Nic Pizzolatto acknowledged in interviews before the series premier of the adaptation of his work, he borrowed his ideas from Ligotti. Some critics may have thought Cohle sprinkled the hit show with observations reminiscent of a sophomore philosophy major smoking a bowl. If the ruminations of Matthew McConaughey’s Rust Cohle on season 1 of True Detective concerning human consciousness being a tragic mistake made you wince, Ligotti’s The Conspiracy Against the Human Race will challenge you. Horror grows at the very heart of our existence, an existence marked by suffering and, with it, the awareness of death. Horror, for Thomas Ligotti, not only resides in the precisely crafted supernatural tales he’s been writing for decades. ![]()
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