I'm crossposting this message to alt.horror.cthulhu, alt.books.ghost-fiction, Horrabin Hall, and Chapel Perilous.
My new essay "The Masters' Eyes Shining with Secrets: H.P. Lovecraft and His Influence on Thomas Ligotti" is now available for free reading at the newly resurrected Thomas Ligotti Online (http://www.ligotti.net), in the section titled The Repository. The following URL should take you directly to the essay itself: http://www.ligotti.net/nightmare/kb.php?mode=article&k=15&sid=da3c1663f97d8a80d694ba80a0a6ea4b If the posting interface I'm using here inserts a line break, resulting in an unusable link, then please just copy and paste the entire URL into your browser's address bar, sans any mistakenly inserted spaces. The essay represents my attempt to illuminate the influence that Lovecraft has exerted on Ligotti, not only in a literary sense, but in a deeply personal one. I have also attempted to elucidate not only the deep kinship between the two men, but also the very real and fundamental differences that exist between their respective literary visions and emotional casts. This angle on the topic required that I focus almost as much on Lovecraft as on Ligotti, so perhaps the essay will be of some interest to individuals who don't read or haven't read Ligotti but are interested in Lovecraft. A note on the format: This is the first of several planned essays on Ligotti's primary literary influences. Most will not be as extensive as the present one, which is over 12,000 words long, but all will follow the same basic format, which will include a biographical sketch of the author, followed by an annotated bibliography of primary and secondary works, followed by an analysis of the author's influence upon and/or relationship to Ligotti and his work. I point this out to remove the confusion that readers might otherwise feel if they decide to follow the link I've provided above, and the first thing they're greeted with is not an essay about Lovecraft and Ligotti but a kind of laundry list of information about Lovecraft alone. Speaking of which, please note the following error that presently appears in the text of the essay as I'm writing these words: due to a simple typo, I've indicated that Lovecraft's mother died when he was 21 years old. His actual age, of course, was 31. One of Thomas Ligotti Online's site administrators will be correcting this error shortly, but I wanted to note its existence anyway, because I know that the regulars in the groups where I'm posting this invitation are a fiercely, and even fearsomely, erudite lot, and I don't want to appear like an idiot who can't get his facts straight. Tangentially, if you indeed decide to visit the new TLO, whether to read my essay or just browse around, be advised that you can find several of my recent musical compositions available for streaming listening in the Media section of the site. This is the first time I've shared my music with the world at large, although composing and recording music has been a passion of mine for a great many years. The songs I've completed recently have possessed a Ligottian and Lovecraftian cast, or at least I've felt led to give them Ligottian and Lovecraftian titles, so perhaps they might be of interest to musically-inclined members of this group. And a note specifically to Chapel Perilous: I haven't checked in here and updated myself on the group's activity in many months, but it's nice to look in and see the conversation still up and running, and especially, from my point of view as a Ligotti junkie, to see him and his work being discussed. Upon a quick skim of the recent messages here, I noticed somebody (was it you, Andrew?) mentioning that a recent reread of Lovecraft's "The Music of Erich Zann" revealed it to feel surprisingly like a Ligotti story. This really caught my attention, because in my Lovecraft-Ligotti essay I focus specifically and lengthily upon Ligotti's love for Lovecraft's earlier, more dreamlike stories, most especially "Erich Zann" (which Ligotti praises as the quintessence of the weird tale), as opposed to the work Lovecraft later produced when he moved in the direction of supernatural realism, e.g. "The Call of Cthulhu," "At the Mountains of Madness," et al. I go so far as to speculate that Ligotti may be writing today the very sort of thing that Lovecraft might have produced if he had continued along his earlier path. Anyway, as I said, it's nice to see that Chapel Perilous is still virile and active. Best wishes, Matt Cardin ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> In low income neighborhoods, 84% do not own computers. At Network for Good, help bridge the Digital Divide! http://us.click.yahoo.com/S.QlOD/3MnJAA/Zx0JAA/keeolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Chapel_Perilous/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
