Thomas Ligotti and True Detective

It wasn't difficult to notice that the HBO TV show True Detective was influenced by philosophical horror author Thomas Ligotti, and recently the Lovecraft ezine ran some articles on the possibility of plagiarism. The show is cool/important enough that even Gawker is now throwing together some links and copy—and claiming that Ligotti is a professor at Wayne State University!!!—and the result is being widely linked to. Many writer types are outraged on his behalf, and others don't see the plagiarism at all.



I have only two things to say on the subject:

1. If Ligotti is silent on the subject, it may well simply be because he already received a payout, small or large, in exchange for his silence. The fans are in business for themselves here.

2. Ligotti has a new book, Spectral Link, which is comprised of two stories, and is very good. The publisher still has an expensive limited edition available, and various bookstores have a trade edition. Both the NOOK and Kindle editions are $2.99 today, and it is a little embarrassing that the fans so eager to be upset are not taking the publicity opportunity to talk about this new book...a new book about which Ligotti has also been silent, perhaps because of issue #1 above.