Capture The Shadow At The Bottom Of The World Curated By Thomas Ligotti In PDF

dont read much horror, but Ligotti was recommended as supposedly deeper and more philosophical than average genre fiction, If by philosophy you mean incomprehensible postmodernist nonsense then you might like him, The stories are quite shallow and pointless, full of clichés, and dont really present any unsettling philosophical ideas, Some of them are so ridiculous, nonsensical and overthetop that they could be classified as surrealist humor rather than horror,

There arent really any deeper themes, except maybe this "disappearance of reality", although it seems to be a phrase the author vaguely uses just to describe unconvincing supernatural events.
Such events usually work as tools to keep the story going without bothering much with logical structure or scientific explanations, Ligotti doesnt use them sparingly so you dont have a feeling that the stories are set in the "real" world which is suddenly threatened by some incomprehensible horror but instead you already imagine that the stories are set in some kind of surreal magical world and then you just wait to see what kind of magical monster will appear.
This removes a lot of the shock value, and most of the stories are formulaically aiming for shock by creating spooky atmosphere and then ending with some disturbing revelation, murder, insanity, etc.


Lovecraft wrote a lot of average stories, but he also wrote quite a few great ones, and most of his work contains interesting and original themes.
Ligotti is obviously influenced by him, but he mostly copies his writing style which wasnt really that great and story/setting elements which are by now clichés.
For Ligotti horror stories are not a medium to express any interesting ideas and even when it seems that he is trying to approach some serious topic its not accomplished in any clever or impressive way.
Its a collection of cheap horror stories, I guess that people who read horror fiction for fun can find Ligottis works interesting it is not worse than any average horror movie but if youre expecting anything deeper he is really not worth reading.
Mostly boring, maybe a few readable stories, overall a disappointment, A read that asks readers to fully involve themselves, The prose is dense, very much in the vain of Poe and Lovecraft which many critiques have stated but with modern highlights, such as sharp dialogue and present day, urban settings.
These stories cannot be skimmed, and readers must remove themselves from this world to investigate the deep and peculiar lands of Ligotti, His environments and topics can be described as supernatural, but they are written as though they are as natural as the midnight hour, These stories reveal that nightmares can be of our own design and also of their own,

There are many worthwhile tales in this collection, but the title story and "The Tsalal" resonate loudest with me, Ligotti creates my favourite kind of horror: a vague, alien menace that is omnipotent, incomprehensible, and intrudes on the normal functioning of the world.
This sort of completely overwhelming force establishes a great sense of nihilistic dread,

Still, as good as Ligotti is at creating this force, his characters are mostly vague, shadowy, and not very interesting, Add to that the lack of plot in most of the stories, and you're left with a very effective evil that doesn't have much to do.


Ligotti creates great setpieces, and some of the stories are incredible, I just wish other times he would do something with the horror he creates rather than just have it sit there, brooding,
A fine anthology of Ligotti's works, from his first characteristic masterpiece "Last Feast of the Harlequin" to many of the best works contained in "Teatro Grottesco.
" In most horror stories, the forces of evil or chaos intrude upon a world of goodness and order, and are eventuallyif only temporarilydefeated, Ligotti, however, gives us something much different: a malevolent pantheism in which reality is nothing but a series of masks, people nothing but a series of puppets, while an evershifting miasma of nothingness and foulness writhes and seethes beneath.


These stories don't just give you nightmares: they are nightmares in and of themselves, Highly recommended for those who like their horror bleak, uncompromising and existential, Something of a bestof collection, I think I've read all of these stories before but I would recommend just about any of them, A great selection of Ligotti's stories from his four volumes of published work, Includes a previously unpublished story, 'Purity', A longtime Lovecraft devotee, who has extended the weird tale to the next level via the likes of Borges and Burroughs, Thomas Ligotti is usually published as part of a general anthology of horror writers.
But now Ligotti has pulled together a collection of his favorite fiction, both old and new, representing his best and most characteristic works, Thomas Ligotti's stories are perhaps best described as dark magical realism, Many of his stories center on the distorted perspective of a frequently doomed narrator, The title story, "The Shadow at the Bottom of the World," reimagines a kind of Bradburylike small town that encounters the appearance of a kind of existential darkness, written with a sharp imagery like that of William S.
Burroughs. In story after story in this collection, Ligotti does not merely present his readers with isolated incidents of supernatural horror he challenges them to confront nightmares that are entwined in the very fabric of life itself.


QUOTES:

"The best new American writer of weird fiction to appear in years" The Washington Post

"Ligotti is wonderfully original he has a new vision of a dark and special kind, a vision that no one had before him.
" Interzone

"Aficianados of the macabre consider Ligotti one of the finest writers in the field" The Sunday Times

"Thomas Ligotti is an absolute master of supernatural horror and weird fiction, and a true original.
He pursues his unique vision with admirable honesty and rigorousness and conveys it in prose as powerfully evocative as any writer in the field.
I'd say he might just be a genius, " Ramsey Campbell "Britain's most respected living horror writer," according to the Oxford Companion toEnglish Literature Anyone interested in horror lit, or more exactly Weird lit, should read everything by this contemporary master.
A unique blending of Lovecraft and Borges, King and Barker, with a dash of Huysmans, Bleak, unsettling, as infectious as a halfremembered nightmare, I have to say I was overjoyed when the creator of the popularand critically acclaimedTV show True Detective cited as an influence various masters of the weird tale, such as Thomas Ligotti.
That brought these writers a well deserved exposure to a mass audience,

I suggest this book for those who might want to read Ligotti's fiction, This book is a "best of" kind of book, Most of the stories here appeared previously in other anthologies,

These are well written stories of metaphysical horror, Behind appearances lie a disturbing reality,

The contents:
Foreword by Douglas Anderson
Introduction: Horror Stories: A Nightmare Scenario by Thomas Ligotti

The Last Feast of Harlequin
Dr.
Voke and Mr. Veech
Alice's Last Adventure
Vastarien
Dr, Locrian's Asylum
The Mystics of Muelenburg
The Spectacles in the Drawer
The Strange Design of Master Rignolo
The Shadow at the Bottom of the World
Nethescurial
The Cocoons
The Tsalal
The Bungalow House
Teatro Grotessco
The Red Tower
Purity


The Shadow at the Bottom of the World is a collection of short stories that absolutely reek of bleakness and sheer horror, but not horror in the same sense of the more mainstream type of horror novels.
Ligotti connects all of his stories with an overaching theme of evil that "may show itself anywhere precisely because it is everywhere and is as stunningly set off by a foil of sunshine and flowers as it is by darkness and dead leaves.
"This is probably one of the darkest collections of horror I've ever encountered, but the stories contained within this book are truly excellent, These aren't the kind of horror stories you're going to find on supermarket shelves, though, but more of a thinking person's horror, I think you have to read them to understand, because I think each reader is going to find something that resonates on an individual level.
The other overall statement that I want to make about this book is that it is clear that while Ligotti is an excellent writer, there are shades of influence in her from writers like HP Lovecraft and others, that allow the darkness to take you in its grip right away.
Very well done, and highly recommended, although mainstream horror readers may not like it because there are no gory parts or whatever it is that a lot of modern horror fiction readers are looking for.


In the list of what I would consider excellent stories:
"the last feast of harlequin,"
"dr, locrian's asylum"
"vastarien"
"the spectacles in the drawer"
"the shadow at the bottom of the world,"
"nethescurial"
"the bungalow house"

The others are good, too, but these were my favorites.


Very highly recommended if you read Lovecraft,you will appreciate this one very much, Brilliant stuff. The selection in The Shadow at the Bottom of the World may be a little uneven in terms of quality but is still an excellent sampling of the motifs, themes, and styles of Ligotti's work.
My favorites Content wise, I'd have to say "The Cocoons" and "Dr, Locrian's Asylum" the form award goes to "Teatro Grottesco" and the two stories that really made my jaw drop are "The Red Tower" and "The Tsalal".
Its a shame that getting a hold of a copy will cost you a kidney, but I'm tempted to argue that it would be worth it.
Ligotti is one of the downright strangest writers I've encountered, but at his best, he legitimately is one of the alltime greats of literary horror.
His prose has a hypnotic quality that cannot be compared to anyone else I'm aware of, Plot is minimal but used to good effect at times, while an atmosphere of gloomy dread reigns supreme, and a dark undercurrent of pessimism flows beneath decaying cityscapes and dustchoked towns.
At times his writing degenerates into gibberish, but even his "failed experiments" such as "Dr, Voke and Mr. Veech" and "The Red Tower" in this volume are unique,

This book is a sort of "sampler platter" of Ligotti's work, containing a few rather "meh" stories, but most of them fall in the goodtooutstanding range.
Indeed, the highquality stories more than make up for the rather dull likes of "The Mystics of Muelenburg" and "The Shadow at the Bottom of the World".
The magnificent "Last Feast of Harlequin", the terrifying "Nethescurial", and the enigmatically ultradisturbing "Purity" are simply among the best horror stories ever written, "The Spectacles in the Drawer" and "The Cocoons" are perhaps the most "conventional" tales, yet both grow creepier and more fascinating in the mind the more I think about them.
Finally we have the allbutunclassifiable "Vastarien", "The Bungalow House", and my personal favorite, "Dr, Locrian's Asylum", the reading of which is like being put into a trance and sent to some bizarre alternate dimension,

Weird fiction that is truly weird, and, though not very accessible to the average popfiction reader, will still be being talked about when deathworshiping clownmaggots devour all trends.


“Before there occurred anything of a truly prodigious nature, the season had manifestly erupted with some feverish intent, This, at least, was how it appeared to us, whether we happened to live in town or somewhere outside its limits, ”

Thomas Ligotti places his shortstory, The Shadow at the Bottom of the World, under the heading The Voice of Our Name, most appropriate since, as in the above opening lines, the tale is told by a narrator speaking in firstperson plural, that is, as “we” and “us” and “our.
” It is this title story I will make the focus of my review,

Personally, I'm put on my guard when anybody takes on the role of spokesperson for an organization or crowd, Call me a skeptic, but I sense some element of personal dignity is forfeited when an individual assumes the identity of a group,

I'm also alerted to something strange afoot when the narrator tells us “the season had manifestly erupted with some feverish intent” and immediately talks about a dark, abysmal presence in crisis or that something “perhaps had been secretly invoked by small shadowy voices calling out in the midst of our dreams.
” He also speaks of a bitter scent in the air, the "hysteric brilliance” of trees and the “intemperate display” of flowers, shrubs and plants.


If this isn't enough, the narrator alludes to the in the night sky growing delirious and taking on "the tints of an earthly inflammation.
” And, finally, there's that scarecrow in an open field, a field refusing to turn cold when the season turned from autumn into early winter.


Ah, that scarecrow, In addition to the lurid description of the natural world appearing to have gone on some weird acid trip, the tale's narrator expresses concern over a scarecrow seemingly caught between opposing forces its head slumps as if in “a grotesque slumber” yet its arms extend as if in an “incredible gesture toward flight,” its head nods as if trapped in a bad dream as its overalls flap and flannel shirt flutters as if in a strong wind.
But, gulp, there is no wind all else in field and trees remains completely still,

Does all this bizarreness creep out the men and women who witness what has happened to their otherwise reliable, predictable world You bet it does.
But there's a glimmer of comprehension in the person of a Mr, Marble whose been making his own detailed observations, studying signs and uttering prophecies,

Sidebar: Some Thomas Ligotti irony on display here in his calling this man Mr, Marble, as in those common expressions “losing one's marbles” and “scrambled marbles” since attributes of a tribal shaman frequently include crazy wisdom along with a deep connection to the Earth and an ability to journey to realms beyond the purely physical, qualities, as we come to learn, possessed in abundance by strange Mr.
Marble.

Such an incredible tale probing the human psyche, the dynamics of groupthink and the very nature of reality, Here are several clips from what could be a Shadow at the Bottom highlight reel

One The narrator reports many individuals were nudged from their beds, called as witnesses to what he terms “an obscene spectacle.
” The scarecrow appears to be a living creature “appears” and “seems” are terms the narrator uses repeatedly, as if they're all being tricked into seeing what they see.
Beholding the scarecrow, some claim it “actually raised its arms and its empty face to the sky, as though declaring itself to the heavens” while others saw “its legs kick wildly, like those of a man who is hanged.
” Of course, what's so freaky about scarecrows is how similar they are to humans, adding a special sting to the night's “obscene spectacle, ”

Two The following day, they all revisit the field and the scarecrow, In his account, the narrator uses terms like pilgrim, augur, idol, avatar, revelation, congregation, terms closely associated with religion, The narrator reflects, “Our congregation was lost in fidgeting bemusement, ” However, there is an exception: Mr, Marble “whose eyes were gleaming with perceptions he could not offer us in any words we would understand, ” Their inability to understand is predictable after all, their worldview is probably a combination homespun pragmatism and fundamentalist Christianity, Anything outside their limited sphere of belief and comprehension would be far too removed from even the first step in appreciating and understanding what someone like Mr.
Marble had to offer.

Three Standing in that field, the narrator recounts there wasn't sufficient sunlight to “burn off the misty dreams of the past night.
” He also observes “radiant leaves possessed some inner source of illumination or stood in contrast to

some deeper shadow which they served to mask” and the group's impeded efforts to come to terms with their fears.
Also, how “odd droning noises that filled the air could not be blamed on the legions of local cicadas but indeed rose up from under the ground.
” Oh, how all of what's spoken here relates to tribal ritual and shamanism dreams, shadows, masks and, of course, that continuous cicadalike droning noise we can liken to a didgeridoo, sacred instrument of the Australian Aboriginal peoples.


Four When the farmer who owns the field tries to tear the scarecrow apart, he and everyone else are in for a shock: after the straw and rag clothes are discarded, rather than two crosswise planks as to be expected, there was something “black and twisted in the form of a man, something that seemed to come up from the earth.
” The narrator describes the gruesome particulars and concludes with “All of this was supported by a thick, dark stalk which rose from the earth and reached into the effigy like a hand into a puppet.
” Ligotti fans will be brought to attention by this last statement puppets controlled by a malignant outside presence serving as a major theme for the author.


And what happens when they try to hack away and destroy that stalk rising from the earth And what happens thereafter I've only highlighted the opening scenes For Thomas Ligotti to tell.


The Shadow at the Bottom of the World prompts us to ask a number of philosophic questions, Will this community's worldview be shattered when nature appears to violate its own rules Is anybody truly open to messages that might be contained in their dreams What's with Mr.
Marble and what will he do under these seemingly horrific circumstances Are these people connected or disconnected to the Earth Do these freakish happenings threaten a traditional Christian view of God What, if anything, is nature herself trying to communicate to these men and woman Might there be a kind of Zoroastrian dualism at play here

The questions continue.
Have a read yourself. I'm confident you'll come up with some humdingers on your own,


American author Thomas Ligotti, born,