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Rating: Recently, fortunately I must say, there seems to be a certain interest in Italy for the figure of Thomas Ligotti. Thus, a few years after the publication of I canti di un sognatore morto by Elara, Lo scriba macabro was published by the same publisher and Teatro Grottesco by Il Saggiatore in quick succession. Now Il Saggiatore makes available the long philosophical essay The Conspiracy Against the Human Race, a sort of prophetic-existential bible by Ligotti.
There has been much talk about how the TV series True Detective contributed to giving a certain notoriety to the American writer, but in reality, the influence of his existential “vision” in the economy of “True Detective” was limited to some dialogues that seemed directly lifted from the present “The Conspiracy Against the Human Race”. In any case, as readers, we can be pleased that this prompted Il Saggiatore to also offer this controversial work, which is certainly very cerebral and not easily accessible even compared to his stories.
Thomas Ligotti is a true theorist of supernatural horror storytelling, and his stories rest on solid philosophical foundations: this is evidently confirmed by The Conspiracy Against the Human Race. There has often been talk of how Ligotti is the designated heir of Poe and Lovecraft, a consideration that, in my opinion, is only partly true.
By his own admission, he has many influences, such as not insignificantly, the Austrian writer Thomas Bernhard: but from reading the book in question, it is clear that very important sources of inspiration, to understand his work, are pessimistic philosophers like the German Schopenhauer and the obscure Norwegian Peter Wessell Zapffe (1899-1990). Particularly, the latter proves to be a decisive author in shaping his "vision" of things through his work The Last Messiah. Zapffe practically identifies how humanity has developed, over time, a surplus of consciousness: this condition leads to a series of existential questions from man for which it is not possible to find answers, and this is an inevitable source of unhappiness.
To escape this paradox that would lead, according to the Norwegian philosopher, to madness and the consequent extinction of our species, man has managed to find countermeasures to survive, which he defines in four 'conspirative' strategies to save us called 'isolation', 'anchoring', 'distraction', and 'sublimation'.
I also found the final chapter very interesting, titled Autopsy on a Puppet: An Anatomy of the Supernatural, in which Ligotti highlights how authors like Poe and Lovecraft are still to be considered more modern compared to current horror fiction, often anchored in consolatory schemes where Good and Evil face off: textbook examples in this context is the comparison made between The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty and The Case of Charles Dexter Ward by the Providence recluse.
The Conspiracy Against the Human Race turns out to be, on the whole, a text of absolute interest even if, at times, it is too cerebral and can be read as a real survival manual.
Thomas Ligotti “The Conspiracy Against the Human Race” – ilSaggiatore – 210 pages – Euro 22.00 – 2016
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