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Thomas Ligotti (born July 9, 1953) is a contemporary American horror writer. His writing has been predominantly in the genre of weird horror fiction influenced by gothic horror. His influences in the horror genre, according to his own description, include Ambrose Bierce, Arthur Machen, H. P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe, among others.
Ligotti is a sufferer from chronic anxiety as well as the condition known as anhedonia, a reduced or absent ability to experience pleasure of any kind. His Anhedonia has led to various problems including lack of motivation, depression and social anxiety.
Ligotti has written several Mythos stories, as well as poetry, and has also provided some quotes related to his nihilistic, atheistic and socialist beliefs.
True Detective[]
"In 2014, the HBO television series True Detective attracted attention from some of Ligotti's fans because of the striking resemblance between the pessimistic, antinatalist philosophy espoused in the first few episodes by the character of Rust Cohle (played by Matthew McConaughey) and Ligotti's own philosophical pessimism and antinatalism, especially as expressed in The Conspiracy Against the Human Race. After accusations that dialogue from Cohle's character in True Detective were lifted from The Conspiracy Against the Human Race, the series' writer, Nic Pizzolatto, confirmed in The Wall Street Journal that Ligotti, along with several other writers and texts in the weird supernatural horror genre, had indeed influenced him."
-Writer Nic Pizzolatto on Thomas Ligotti and the Weird Secrets of 'True Detective'[1]
Selected Bibliography[]
Short Stories[]
- "The Fabulous Alienation of the Outsider, Being of No Fixed Abode" (1985)
- "The Blasphemous Enlightenment of Prof. Francis Wayland Thurston of Boston, Providence, and the Human Race" (1985)
- "The Premature Death of H. P. Lovecraft, Oldest Man in New England" (1985)
- The Agonizing Resurrection of Victor Frankenstein & Other Gothic Tales (1994)
- "The Sect of the Idiot" (1988)
- "The Last Feast of Harlequin" (1990)
- "The Dark Beauty of Unheard Horrors" (1992)
Collections[]
- Songs of a Dead Dreamer (1986)
- Grimscribe: His Lives and Works (1991)
- Noctuary (1994)
- The Agonizing Resurrection of Victor Frankenstein and Other Gothic Tales (1994)
- The Nightmare Factory (1996)
- In a Foreign Town, in a Foreign Land (1997)
- My Work Is Not Yet Done (2001)
- The Shadow at the Bottom of the World (2005)
- Teatro Grottesco (2006)
- The Spectral Link (2014)
Gaming Material[]
- Horror on the Orient Express (1991, contributor)