Thomas Ligotti
Teatro Grottesco

On the wave of the success of the first TV series True Detective by Nick Pizzolatto, there finally seems to be in Italy a certain interest in the enigmatic figure of Thomas Ligotti (1953), a very particular American horror writer far from the typical genre conventions. Il Saggiatore has made available "Teatro Grottesco" (the original title is indeed in Italian), an anthology originally published in 2006 and reprinted in 2008. Ligotti is often likened to H. P. Lovecraft, but beyond some affinities (the solitary one of Providence remains a declared influence), the universe created by the author of "The Songs of a Dead Dreamer" stands out for its own philosophy and aesthetics: in his narratives, we don't find the typical "Lovecraftian" cosmic horror but a sort of pessimistic "vision" in which the universe is considered hostile to man, seen as an aberrant form of life destined for self-destruction. Thomas Ligotti perhaps remains more a theorist of horror than a writer, as evidenced by his work "The Conspiracy Against The Human Race" (2010), which seems will also be translated in Italy.

Ligotti is undeniably eccentric, and it's not surprising that he has intrigued a singular character with varied interests like the leader of the legendary musical group Current 93, David Tibet. Tibet has always been interested in supernatural literature: in particular, he is a great enthusiast of typical English ghost stories and writers like Montague Rhodes James – of whom he published a volume of stories for his publishing house Ghost Story Press -, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, and Arthur Machen (paid homage to in the trilogy "The Inmost Light"). The minstrel of the Current is also an admirer of Robert Aickman, who, in a way, is a precursor to Ligotti.

The interest from Tibet was so strong that he eventually actively collaborated with Ligotti on a book with a CD titled "In A Foreign Town, In A Foreign Land" which was reprinted in 2002. It was a booklet containing 4 stories by Ligotti that were later included in the present "Teatro Grottesco." The collaboration also continued with "I Have A Special Plan For This World" (2000) based on the music of Current 93 and the lyrics of the writer.

The stories in "Teatro Grottesco" are marked by dark atmospheres where the boundaries of reality are blurred and indeterminate. It’s not always easy to navigate the nihilistic and icy universe invoked by Ligotti: one risks getting lost in the maze of a reality transfigured and investigated in its philosophical essence. Moreover, for him, the work of writers like Frank Kafka and Thomas Bernhard and philosophers like Arthur Schopenhauer and Friedrich Nietzsche is very important. This collection also brings back some figures he often uses symbolically, like marionettes: but the horror evoked comes from solitary and dreary places like old abandoned factories and dusty basements. It's the nightmare, in all its nuances and aberrations, that is the true protagonist of "Teatro Grottesco." Stories like The Town Manager, The Red Tower, the aforementioned In a Foreign Town, in a Foreign Land, Teatro Grottesco immerse us in a morbid reality populated by bizarre characters and ghost towns. In the last story, The Shadow, The Darkness, the future work of Ligotti is already mentioned, namely "The Conspiracy Against The Human Race" where nihilistic themes are already foreshadowed amidst an exacerbated pessimism about the fate of humanity.

"Teatro Grottesco" is a volume that all enthusiasts of "weird" literature should absolutely own, together with the previous "The Songs of a Dead Dreamer" (Elara) and "The Macabre Scribe", the latter just published after a long wait by Elara.