Thomas Ligotti: Difference between revisions

=== Tropes evident in Thomas Ligotti's works include: ===

* [[And I Must Scream]]

* [[Author Tract]]: ''The Conspiracy Against The Human Race'', a book-length non-fiction treatise on philosophical pessimism. It is guaranteed to crush every hopeful bone in your body.

* [[Bittersweet Ending]]: In Ligotti's entire oeuvre, only ''two'' stories can be said to have anything close to a positive conclusion, those being {{spoiler|"The Order of Illusion" and "My Work Is Not Yet Done".}} Just to give you an idea of ''how'' bitter even Ligotti's "happy" endings are, {{spoiler|the protagonist of the former becomes a cult leader, while the [[Designated Hero|"hero"]] of the latter ''kills himself'' after basically destroying his former employer.}}

* [[Darkness Equals Death]]: Played with in various ways.

* [[Deadpan Snarker]] / [[The Snark Knight]]: Most of Ligotti's more detailed protagonists are this, resulting in some [[Black Comedy|surprisingly]] [[Kafka Komedy|funny]] [[Gallows Humor|moments]]. The man himself is also a fine specimen of the latter.

* [[Downer Ending]]

* [[Eldritch Abomination]]

* [[Keep Circulating the Tapes]]: The seminal ''Songs of a Dead Dreamer'' has been reprinted once, but neither edition is currently available through retail. A few copies are available online at [[Shockingly Expensive Bill|exorbitant prices]].

* [[Lost Episode]]: Several stories published through small-press magazines have never been collected or reprinted.

* [[Mind Screw]]: Par for the course, though some stories ("The Greater Festival of Masks", "Notes on the Writing of Horror", "The Nightmare Network") are more perplexing than others.

* [[New Weird]]: Considered to be one of the [[Trope Maker|Trope Makers]].

* [[Perspective Flip]]: Most of the vignettes in ''The Agonizing Resurrection of Victor Frankenstein and Other Gothic Tales''.

* [[Purple Prose]]: Many of his more abstract vignettes fall into this category, albeit rarely to the degree of [[Edgar Allan Poe|his chief]] [[HP Lovecraft|inspirations]].

* [[Scary Scarecrows]]: "The Shadow at the Bottom of the World".

* [[The Stars Are Going Out]]: Played with.