STRANGER THAN FICTION: THOMAS LIGOTTI’S DECEPTIVE REALITIES IN HORROR FICTION

Abstract

 

Thomas Ligotti is nowadays acclaimed as a cult writer in the field of weird fiction, where horror stands as his privileged creative ground. Taking Lovecraft’s Gothic and cosmic darkness to great lengths, his narratives almost always involve the deconstruction of reality as we know it. This reality emerges as a sort of mask that covers the true reality, which is sinister and hostile towards the human being. In Ligotti’s short stories, the reality of the characters is thus destabilized and the truths and beliefs held by those same characters are shattered, giving way to reactions of doubt, chaos, despair and panic. In this way, characters become face to face with a newborn reality, a reality with more sinister and ominous contours. In this universe, governed by horror, the characters experience the uncanny that resides amidst a cosmic darkness inhabited by malevolent creatures, monsters, whose primordial assignment consists of instilling uncertainty among individuals, thus making their beliefs vulnerable and likewise shattering their sense of selves. This terrible encounter changes the nature of the characters and will ultimately result in irreparable consequences. In a relentless fashion, Ligotti invites the concept of the Real, put forward by Jacques Lacan, so as to shake and absorb the Symbolic structures with which the characters are familiarized with, thus plunging them into a reality filled with cosmic darkness, where hell has its cradle.

Keywords: Horror; alternative reality; uncanny; Real/Symbolic; cosmic darkness.