I agree. I think there are moments in a few his books that have made me almost cry, too. I feel like a lot of his work are documentings of suffering, of modern (western) life(s) in paeticular, all the more painful cos a lot of it is mundane and hyper real. I don't really disagree with #[4] 's 'depressing' at all really. (There's also a lot going on which im failing to articulate lol and humour and absurdity in his work). But yeah, I find it hard not to be impressed with the articulation of this 'reality' and vision of further decline (life is suffering and conditions are only going to get worse lol ) in all its banality, laid bare. Just acknowledfinf and detailing it is an act of ...um bravery, I think I'll say that, really. Babbling again. It's somewhat easy to say 'life is suffering' But then to lay bare all the tedious, banal boring, everyday details and internal lives of that. Is quite something and fairly liberating to read in a way. Woke up babbling and incoherent, I don't really know what I'm getting at here lolol. Press send even tho I'm sure there's a lot more to it and I'm getting it wrong lolol
Discussion
“I wanted to rub the human race in its own vomit, and force it to look in the mirror.” to quote Ballard lol. Life isn't all looking at your vonitybfave in the mirror, but there is a certain 'realism' to that situation too lol
There's definitely an aspect to his work which is depressing but I think he's simply chronicling the era in which he lives and certain types of individuals who inhabit it, as opposed to Ligotti who's pessimism is truly cosmic in scope. @RedTower's point probably stands though - I think we're splitting hairs here.
Yeah. I feel Ligotti is coming from Lovecraft, and houellebecq more from Celine maybe. (Houellebecq's essay on Lovecraft is also worth a read. I wonder if he's read ligotti?).
I suppose I was just defending reading something 'depressing'. But I'm p sure we might all be on the same page lol especially with red tower's name and pfp.
