{∅, {∅}, {∅, {∅}}} : Rage Against the Meat Grinder

Continuing with excerpts from Humor in Horror, after, "In other words, much of Ligotti’s writing is in a way comforting for people who are already disturbed" :

This assertion is supported by real life evidence and provided in the form of an essay published in the very first issue of Vastarien.

The author of the essay is a clinical psychologist working with patients who suffered trauma in their youth. He appears under a moniker of Dr. Raymond Thoss, a name borrowed from one of Ligotti’s characters. Dr. Thoss describes how the affirmation that the world is “fundamentally insane” which he found in Ligotti’s works, helped him deal with his own trauma, dissuaded him from committing suicide, and has continued to help his patients. 

According to Dr. Thoss, an affirmation of such kind is the first step in dealing with trauma, as it confirms the validity of doubts and feelings of a victim and does not dismiss the new, post-trauma worldview of such a person (Thoss 2018). 

Ligotti himself is a deeply troubled person who experienced physical and mental ordeals firsthand. He has been suffering from panic-anxiety disorder since he was 17 years old. He has depression and anhedonia, an illness that prevents from experiencing pleasure (Cardin 2006). He experimented with drugs and alcohol in his teenage years. He experienced chronic stress. The ordeals of the body he went through include Irritable Bowel Syndrome.  His involuntary explorations in physical pain reached their peak in 2012 when he had to undergo a surgery due to the case of diverticulitis (Padgett 2014).

In a way, Ligotti uses these experiences in his stories, as he sublimes his phobias and suffering into art. In Ligotti’s writing, the reader can trace particular themes that are connected with pain and fear. These themes would include, for example, medicaments and doctors (My Case for Retributive Actions) or the ordeals of the body (Severini, The Nycralops Trilogy). It should come as no surprise that such themes are present in his stories, or even comprise the majority of his work. But the question that is important for this dissertation is how humor can find its way into stories that stem from pessimism and both mental and physical suffering. Indeed, more often than not, humor in Ligotti’s stories seems to go unnoticed by most readers, and the reason for this appears to be the general bleakness of the philosophy contained therein. Jon Padgett affirms this when he writes: “Use of humor has always been a feature, often understated by critics, of Thomas Ligotti’s work” (Padgett 2017).

This dissertation will explain how humor is a part of Ligotti’s works and why it does not inhibit the atmosphere of horror, but instead reinforces it and goes in line with Ligotti’s pessimistic worldview. To this end, two stories will be examined with the focus on irony and grotesque. Each story has been selected due to the fact that it represents one of the major themes that Ligotti employs. Cardin distinguishes three of such themes, but for the purpose of this paper two will be mentioned here: “[F]irst, the meaninglessness—or possibly malevolence—of the reality principle behind the material universe; second, the perennial instability of this universe of solid forms, shapes, and concepts as it threatens to collapse as it threatens to mutate into something monstrous and unforeseeable” (Cardin 2003: 19). The first theme connected to irony and appears in “Purity,” whereas the second theme is connected to the grotesque and appears in “The Town Manager.”

I will not entice the reader with more excerpts at this time, but may add commentary if I am able to make some connections.

Is it not a curious idea, that there could be anything funny about the vulnerable predicament all living creatures find themselves in, in having been born?

Think of the contradiction of my own "project" : creating math modules for some future human beings while simultaneously harboring these premonitions about the futility and meaninglessness of all the galaxies of the cosmos ...

The question, "Why Bother?", may actually capture the very spirit of our lethargic indifference.  This "Why Bother?" was taken directly from a suggestion from a member of the old "Why Work Forums" ... I think it was Number Six, but it could have been someone else.  It certainly resonated with me.



Life itself is a natural disaster. Billions of futile life-forms suffering, whilst decaying, over billions of years. It disgusts me.

The size and nature of the universe is completely irrelevant. It's the very nature of EXISTENCE itself that makes everything pointless.