Tomas Ligoti (Thomas Ligotti) je verovatno najbolji živi pisac horora – barem među onima iole poznatim, i sa nekakvim opusom već formiranim i razvijenim, a ne prekjuče začetim.
Oni koji ozbiljnije prate horor svakako su za ovog pisca već čuli: iako nije izvikan, niti se njegovi paperbacks mogu tako često naći u srpskim prodavnicama bestselera i masovno-popularnih knjigolikih produkata, u poslednjih par decenija sebi je već napravio kultni status, pa zato – ko je bar malo čačkao i kopao po novijoj horor literaturi, pre ili kasnije negde je morao da nabasa i na neki pomen njega, a možda čak i čitavu priču.
Do sada je na srpskom objavljena samo jedna njegova priča – ali itekako vredna – svakako jedna od najboljih mu. Izašla je u MONOLITU 9 (zahvaljujući priređivaču Otu Oltvanjiju), a možete je na srpskom pročitati i onlajn, ako kliknete ovde: POSLEDNJA ARLEKINOVA GOZBA. Posvećena je Lavkraftu, i svakako je od svih njegovih najeksplicitnije slična nečemu što bi HPL napisao danas, da je živ. Ili što je mogao napisati Onih Dana, da je poživeo još malo.
I ja sam ga obilato hvalio na internet forumima, a pominjao sam ga i ovde na blogu, sporadično. Međutim, red je da konačno ovaj sjajni pisac dobije i nešto opsežnije i detaljnije predstavljanje, jer ako neki živi pisac horora ima nepodeljeni i 110% Ghoul's Seal of Approval, onda je to Ligoti.
Ako bi trebalo da ukratko opišem ovog pisca nekome ko ga nikada nije čitao, recimo ovako: to je Kafka provučen kroz Tima Bartona u spoju sa Lavkraftom kroz filter Bruna Šulca. Iliti, naglašeno srednjoevropski senzibilitet smešten u grotesknu verziju Amerike – kao Kafkina AMERIKA, ali sa više eksplicitne horor ikonografije...
Kako bih sebi skratio posao oko njegovog predstavljanja, poslužiću se sa nekoliko ready-made odlomaka.
Pre svega, tu je deo iz mog doktorata u kome pišem o Ligotiju, u kome se može nazreti srž Ligotijevih nazora i odnosa prema hororu (i životu). Zatim sledi moj izbor nekih vrlo rečitih Ligotijevih citata, uglavnom iz intervjua, na osnovu kojih možete steći još bolju sliku o ovom unikatnom liku.
Inače, ovo je samo početak, jer u narednim danima ovde na blogu biće predstavljene tri Ligotijeve zbirke, kojom prilikom ću reći još neke konkretnije stvari o njemu i njegovom delu. Do tada, evo:
Neveselu sliku čovekovog mesta u univerzumu, srodnu Lavkraftovoj kosmičkoj stravi, Ligoti razvija do jedne vrste nihilizma čija tri osnovna principa Mat Kardin ovako definiše: "Prvo, besmislenost – ili možda zlonamernost – principa realnosti iza materijalnog univerzuma; drugo, stalnu nestabilnost ovog univerzuma čvrstih formi, oblika i koncepata koji preti da kolabira ili mutira u nešto monstruozno i nepredvidivo; i treće, košmarnost svesne personalne egzistencije u takvom svetu." (Matt Cardin, "Thomas Ligotti's Career of Nightmares", in: Darrell Schweitzer (ed), The Thomas Ligotti Reader, Wildside Press, Holicong, 2003, p. 19.)
Govoreći o "ledenoj sumornosti stvari" u priči "The Bungalow House" sâm Ligoti to ovako izražava: "Želeo sam da verujem da je ovaj umetnik pobegao od snova i demona svekolikog osećanja kako bi istraživao gadne i bedne užitke univerzuma u kome je sve postojeće svedeno na tri ogoljena principa: prvo, da nemaš gde da odeš; drugo, da nemaš šta da uradiš; i treće, da nemaš koga da upoznaš." (Thomas Ligotti, "The Bungalow House" in: Thomas Ligotti, The Nightmare Factory, Carrol & Graf, New York, 1996, p. 523.) Život je, kod ovog pisca, izjednačen sa košmarom: "Život je košmar koji ostavlja ožiljke na tebi kako bi te uverio da je, zapravo, stvaran." (Thomas Ligotti, "The Sect of the Idiot" in: Thomas Ligotti, The Nightmare Factory, ibid, p. 158.)
Istovetnu, i još eksplicitniju poruku Ligoti iznosi u intervjuima: "Moj nazor je da je prokleta šteta što se organski život uopšte razvio na ovoj ili bilo kojoj planeti, i da bol koju živa stvorenja nužno trpe sačinjava egzistenciju koja je neprekidni košmar. Ovaj stav je u pozadini skoro svega što sam napisao." (Thomas Ligotti, "Interview with Thomas Ligotti" by Robert Bee)
Taj stav u suštini se poklapa sa onim koji iznosi junak njegove poznije priče "My Work Is Not Yet Done" (2002):
...moja Ultimativna Izjava, koju sada pokušavam da vam iznesem, mada nijedan od vas neće od nje imati koristi. Ljudi ne znaju, i ne mogu da se suoče sa stvarima koje se zbivaju u ovom svetu, sa potajnim košmarima koje milioni trpe svakoga dana... i sa izluđujućim paradoksom, sa košmarnom opscenošću toga da budeš nešto što ne zna šta je a opet veruje da zna, nešto što je zapravo ništa do majušna čestica što sačinjava telo Velike Crne Svinje Koja Se Valja U Velikoj Reci Crnila koja se nama ukazuje u vidu izlazaka sunca i nebodera, kao svi oni čvorovi prošlih dešavanja i rasplitanje tih čvorova u budućnosti, kao rođendani i sahrane, kao sateliti i mobilni telefoni i rakete lansirane u svemir, kao nacije i narodi, kao zakoni prirode i zakoni čovečanstva, kao porodice i prijatelji, kao sve, uključujući tu i ove reči koje ispisujem.
(Thomas Ligotti, "My Work Is Not Yet Done", in: Ligotti, My Work Is Not Yet Done; Three Tales of Corporate Horror, Mythos Books, Poplar Bluff, 2002, p. 153.)
Ligoti ne nalazi utehu u katolicizmu, kao Vilijam Piter Bleti, niti u ljubavi i porodici, kao Stiven King, niti u neobuzdanoj imaginaciji, kao Klajv Barker. Jedinu utehu on vidi u direktnom suočavanju sa košmarnim aspektima egzistencije kao jedinom realnošću iza naoko prijatnih privida. Direktna posledica toga je njegova poetika horor priče, čija je jedina uteha "jednostavno to da neko drugi deli neka od vaših osećanja i da je od njih načinio umetničko delo za koje posedujete uvid, osećajnost i – sviđalo vam se to ili ne – osobeni skup iskustava da biste ga razumeli i cenili. Zapanjujuće je reći, uteha strave u umetnosti je u tome da ona zapravo intenzivira našu paniku, pojačava je na razvodnoj tabli naših užasom-izdubljenih srca, pojačava užas na najglasnije, sve vreme posežući za tom savršenom i zaglušujućom amplitudom na kojoj možemo plesati uz bizarnu muziku naše sopstvene mizerije."
(Thomas Ligotti, "Introduction: The Consolations of Horror", in: Thomas Ligotti, The Nightmare Factory, ibid, p. xxi.)
Toliko iz PhD-a, a sada prelazimo na fakte i citate na engleskom.
Some Ligotti trivia:
Ligotti’s favorite writers include the following: H.P. Lovecraft, Arthur Machen, Edgar Allan Poe, M.R. James, Algernon Blackwood, William S. Burroughs, Vladimir Nabokov, Bruno Schulz, Raymond Chandler, Philip Larkin, Dino Buzzati, Hagiwara Sakutaro, Thomas Bernhard, Jorge Luis Borges, E. M. Cioran, Sadeq Hedeyat, S. I. Witkiewicz, and Roland Topor.
Thomas Ligotti suffers from Anhedonia, Dysphoria, Agoraphobia, Bipolar Depression, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, and a severe anxiety-panic disorder.
When asked to pick what he thinks is his best story, he usually answers “The Shadow at the Bottom of the World”.
Quotes:
“In the historical development of the artistic horror story, there are three major figures. The first is, of course, Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), the father of the modern psychological horror story. The next, chronologically, is H.P. Lovecraft (1890-1937), who brought cosmicism- an awareness of the vastness of the universe and of the insignificance of the human race- to the weird tale. And now there is Thomas Ligotti (b. 1953), who has extended Lovecraft’s cosmicism by suggesting that an inescapable malignancy and nightmare inheres in all existence, manifesting itself in both the individual psyche and the physical cosmos. Interestingly, these three writers have found the short story rather than the novel to be their ideal vehicle for expression. For Ligotti, ‘the short story allows a purer and more intense expression of horror… than do novels.’”
-Douglas A. Anderson, from the Foreword to the Thomas Ligotti collection The Shadow at the Bottom of the World
“If all the world’s a stage, as that bard guy and practically everyone else has said, then its playbook overflows with Grand Guignol and grotesquerie. Nor should we overlook that its actors- us, that is- must at some point all star in scenes of ravaging mayhem and boundless nightmare. And everyone dies in the end. Had we not all been born on the very boards of this dreadful playhouse, one can only wonder what idiot would choose to join the company of the doomed.”
-Thomas Ligotti
Thomas Ligotti on Lovecraft:
“Lovecraft was the first writer of this sort that I read, and in addition to being an artist whose works harmonized so well with my literary tastes, he was also the first author with whom I strongly identified. This may sound bizarre or pathetic, but H.P. Lovecraft has been, bar none other, the most intense and real personal presence in my life. Lovecraft was a dark guru who confirmed to me all my most awful suspicions about the universe.”
Thomas Ligotti on his muse:
“Sickness of the body and the mind.”
Thomas Ligotti on puppets:
“However, I still find puppets to be uncanny things. For me, the puppet emblemizes the entrapment and manipulation of human beings by forces beyond our control. Obviously, there are a lot of things that people are aware they cannot control in their lives. As the Firesign Theatre brilliantly said, "Your brain is not the boss." In my world, this is an everyday experience because I've been long besieged by abnormal psychological states that cause me to be constantly aware that I have no control over who I am and how I'll act. Most people don't feel this way, or they don't notice the controlling forces because they're very subtle. Having any kind of control over your actions or feelings is everybody's illusion. No one can make themselves what they are. It's a totally absurd notion, because if you could make yourself what you are you'd first have to be a certain way and be able to choose what that way would be. But then you'd also have to be able to choose to choose what way you would be, and on into infinity. There are always determining powers, and those make us what the way we are whether or not we realize it. I realize that there are philosophers who have reconciled determinism with free will on paper, and that everyone feels as if they're in control of themselves and take responsibility for their actions. But how many of us can say that we're always, or even often, in control of our thoughts? And if you're not in control of your thoughts, than what are you in control of?”
Thomas Ligotti on why he can never be a professional writer:
“I realized a long time ago that I could never be a professional writer for the simple reason that I'm not interested in the same things that people who buy the majority of the books in this world are interested in. Like Lovecraft, I'm not interested in people and their relationships. That alone counts me out as a professional writer. I also have a bad attitude toward the world. I think that life is a curse and so on. People reading a book on a beach or in an airplane don't want to hear stuff like that. They just want to relax and be told a diverting story from a third-person omniscient viewpoint, giving them the sense that they have a movie playing in their mind. I don't blame them in the least.”
Thomas Ligotti on the future of horror fiction:
“Except as a form of popular entertainment, I don't think that horror fiction ever had a future. In my view, it has been only pure accident that joined the tastes and temperament of someone like Poe or Lovecraft to a talent sufficient to express these tastes and this temperament, which, as Lovecraft pointed out many times, are the province of very few individuals. Let's say it once and for all: Poe and Lovecraft - not to mention a Bruno Schulz or a Frank Kafka - were what the world at large would consider extremely disturbed individuals. And most people who are that disturbed are not able to create works of fiction. These and other names I could mention are people who are just on the cusp of total psychological derangement. Sometimes they cross over and fall into the province of "outsider artists." That's where the future development of horror fiction lies - in the next person who is almost too emotionally and psychologically damaged to live in the world but not too damaged to produce fiction. It's a delicate balance . . . and the determining factors are not predominantly literary.”
Thomas Ligotti on William S. Burroughs:
“Definitely febrile. Even more than Poe or Lovecraft, Burroughs is the one whose writing provides that measure of fever, nightmare, and the grotesque by which all other American writers who aspire to representing these qualities in their work should be judged. Even in his last novel, The Western Lands, he writes of the smell of rotting metal. That’s sick genius if there ever was such a thing. Now, this whole business about febrility and sickness and negativism might raise the question in some people’s minds: if that’s the sort of thing you like, then why don’t you just read case histories of psychos and psychotics, suicide notes, and books like "A History of My Nervous Illness?" As I mentioned earlier, it’s principally a matter of style, of entertainment, and of expression. I know that a lot of people are very interested in real life misery. The evening news is testimony to that. I don’t care for the evening news.”
Thomas Ligotti on the difference between cats and people:
“It's always a sad occasion when a cat dies.”
Thomas Ligotti on having a sense of humor:
“To my mind, a well-developed sense of humor is the surest indication of a person's humanity, no matter how black and bitter that humor may be. If you think of the real bastards in world history as well as those with whom you are personally acquainted, they are people who invariably have no sense of humor. And they will often regard your sense of humor as "inappropriate." Humor is the mark of their enemy.”
