I'm interested in his horror but think his worldview is gay. Is there any point reading him? If so what does /lit/ recommend?
>>25125056Poe, Arthur Machen, and Clark Ashton Smith probe into the macabre while more or less maintaining the value of goodness and beauty. Their horror is that of decadence defined against an unspoken order, whereas Ligotti afaik is simply le emptiness.
I just finished reading a couple of his books. Songs for Dead Dreamer/Grimscribe were 7/10. Some of the short stories were standouts, like Spectacles in the Drawer, Dr. Locrian's Asylum and the Last Feast of Harlequin.Conspiracy Against the Human Race was 6/10. I definitely prefer his fiction writing and he should just stick to that. I've already read many of the pessimists he mentions, so the book half the time just comes off like some surface-level tour of philosophical pessimism. Plus his writing gets a little redundant, some of his arguments are very arbitrary and him using his own fiction to end off chapters felt kinda self-indulgent and presumptuous to me, personally.I plan on reading more of his short stories and his poetry at some point. He's pretty good, but if you've already read Schopenhauer/Zapffe/Cioran/Poe/Lovecraft/Kafka, he definitely comes off "been there, done that." I'm sure non-reader tourists from /tv/ who heard about him through True Detective probably suck his balls and taint like he's a one of a kind genius, though.
>>25125115>the Last Feast of Harlequin.This is what I want to read most as I love clowns. >pessimistsI find many of them tiring. I enjoyed Cioran when I was in my teens. I enjoy Lovecraft and Kafka and Poe, though. Does his horror stand out as portraying the horrors of modernity or is it just le nihilism?
>>25125123I've only read the short stories that were published in the 1980s and early '90s, those ones are all le nihilism and le cosmic terrors.
>>25125056I think even if you aren't a pessimist you'll enjoy his work, if anything it will be creepier if you aren't. Laird Barron is less of a pessimist as far as Weird authors go so maybe try him out too.
>>25125056Ligotti is brilliant. He is the king of atmosphere.
>>25125115I’m glad you plan to continue reading because so far you’ve mostly just read his more derivative works. He’s kind of like Lovecraft in that some of his early and middle works are pretty good but carry too much influence from others whereas most of the best come later. Like the story Harlequin gets bandied about but it’s really just a relatively high quality pastiche at the end of the day. His corporate horror is more interesting to me at least. Also make sure to listen to his collabs with Current 93.
Skip Ligotti and read Machen and Smith as >>25125106 says. Start with The Great God Pan, it's the greatest horror story every written.
>>25127021I'll get to it eventually, it's definitely not a priority though. What are his best books/collections?
