Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe

[Dan]

We start the new year off right! We are actually reading two books in one. The first book, Songs of a Dead Dreamer by Thomas Ligotti (1985) contains 11 of his earliest short stories, all from the first half of the 1980s, and a Ramsey Campbell essay introducing this classic collection. Two of the titles in this collection grab me immediately: "Alice's Last Adventure" and "The Heart of Count Dracula, Descendant of Attila, Scourge of God."

I guess the book was considered too short to reprint alone. Because once we finish those first 11 stories along comes the next collection Ligotti published, Grimscribe: His Lives and Works (1991). We get another 13 stories, some published in the late 1980s, others original to the collection.

Oops! I just checked and see we are reading the Omnibus 2015 edition. It's quite a bit different in many respects. Gone is the Ramsey Campbell introductory essay. Replacing it is one by Jeff VanderMeer. We also get a lot more stories. The first collection looks to be substantially beefed up, eight additional stories I think. The second collection looks to contain the same 13 stories. All in all, I count 32 stories in 448 text pages. To keep up then, reading one per day on average is what you will want to do. And these are dense stories!

I think we're in for a real treat. Thomas Ligotti's earliest work, I have read, is arguably his very best. Obtaining a copy should not be a problem. Kindle sells the book for $10. Even though the omnibus is a widely distributed Penguin book, people are holding on to their copies. Therefore, you're unlikely to do better than the $10 Kindle price if you want to get a print copy. There are many being sold at various venues for under $15 (used) and under $20 (new), shipping and tax included.

I personally have only read two Ligotti short stories thus far in my life, both of which appeared in other anthologies. Ligotti does not write novels incidentally, which is fine by me. His short stories are an entire experience in and of themselves. Both the ones I read were very distinctive.

I'm so down for this read. Please post your impressions, being careful to put any spoilers behing tags, to this topic. Seeya New Year's Day!

[Dan]

My paperback copy (Penguin Books edition) arrived yesterday. What an impressive book! It is 448 text pages long and does indeed contain 33 dense Ligotti stories. Vandermeer's Foreward was highly erudite and impressive. He mentions other weird fiction works in that foreward that piqued my interest. I see some future group read nominations coming out of that! I wish the editors had reproduced Ramsey Campbell's original Foreward, rather than just mentioning its existence, but no such luck.

The first section of stories has its own title: "Dreams for Sleepwalkers," and the first story is titled "The Frolic." Originally published in 1982, "The Frolic" was actually the fourth story Ligotti ever published.

[Zina]

Oh good, looks like I at least am reading the right edition! I got it on Kindle. Love the stories. Kept me entertained on my flight(s) from Albany, NY yesterday. I am about 40% into the book. My favorite so far, I think, is Notes on the writing of horror: a story. At first I really liked how he was explaining these different genres and retold the story - and then things got sort of inverted and then I really loved it a lot.
I should have read the Masquerade of a Dead sword when I was 15. Too bad it was not yet written then :) It really does remind me a lot of Poe's stories, and those completely entranced me when I was a kid.

[Dan]

I have read the first three and loved them all. I think I liked the Alice story best so far because it wasn't at all what I was expecting. People compare Ligotti to Lovecraft, but I sure don't see it. There's an emotional maturity in Ligotti's work completely lacking in Lovecraft's. I think Henry James, Theodore Dreisser, and especially Edith Wharton are closer comparisons.

[Dan]

I did some research on Ligotti's work. From 1981-1985, the first five years of publishing stories, he wrote some 39 short stories, 12 in the first four years, 27 in 1985.

Here's my list:
1981
5. “The Chymist” March
“Allan & Adelaide: An Arabesque” April
2. “Les Fleurs” Summer

1982
1. “The Frolic” March
6. “Drink to Me Only with Labyrinthine Eyes” June
“Three Scientists” June (poem)
4. “Dream of a Manikin”

1983
13. “Dr. Voke and Mr. Veech” March
7. “Eye of the Lynx” April
9. “The Christmas Eves of Aunt Elise: A Tale of Possession in Old Grosse Pointe” June

1984
“The Order of Illusion” April
“Transcendant Horror” April

1985
“A Selection of Poe”
“Alice's Last Adventure”
“Ligotti's ‘Selections of Lovecraft’ "
“One Thousand Painful Variations Performed Upon Divers Creatures Undergoing the Treatment of Dr. Moreau, Humanist”
“Professor Nobody's Little Lectures on Supernatural Horror”
“The Agonizing Resurrection of Victor Frankenstein, Citizen of Geneva”
“The Blasphemous Enlightenment of Prof. Francis Wayland Thurston of Boston, Providence, and the Human Race”
“The Ever-Vigilant Guardians of Secluded Estates”
“The Excruciating Final Days of Dr. Henry Jekyll, Englishman”
“The Fabulous Alienation of the Outsider, Being of No Fixed Abode”
“The Greater Festival of Masks”
“The Heart of Count Dracula, Descendant of Attila, Scourge of God”
“The Insufferable Salvation of Lawrence Talbot the Wolfman”
“The Interminable Residence of the Friends of the House of Usher”
“The Intolerable Lesson of the Phantom of the Opera”
“The Premature Death of H. P. Lovecraft, Oldest Man in New England”
“The Transparent Alias of William Wilson, Sportsman and Scoundrel”
“The Troubles of Dr. Thoss”
“The Unbearable Rebirth of the Phantom of the Wax Museum”
“The Worthy Inmate of the Will of the Lady Ligeia”
“Notes on the Writing of Horror: A Story”
“The Eternal Devotion of the Governess to the Residents of Bly”
“The Ever Vigilant Guardians of Secluded and Opulent Estates”
“The Perilous Legacy of Emily St. Aubert, Inheritress of Udolpho”
“The Scream: from 1800 to the Present”
“The Superb Companion of André de V., Anti-Pygmalion”
“The Unnatural Persecution, by a Vampire, of Mr. Jacob J.”

In the collection we are reading we have all of Ligotti's stories from the first three years with one exception: "Allan & Adelaide: An Arabesque”. That story has been printed once and only once, in a magazine called Fantasy Macabre 2. Curious, I tracked down a copy and read it. The story is not terrible, but it is well below the standard of his other work. I can see why Ligotti hasn't published it again.

The story is about twins, Alan and Adelaide, performing an exorcism in their house's basement to rid themselves of two spirits that were annoying them. It worked for a while, but then hauntings of a more serious and different nature return to the house. The story sort of breaks down at this point. It's mentioned that the twins could use the same exorcism rite to rid themselves of these new evil spirits, called deacons for some reason, but they decide not to, and the evil spirits ultimately get the best of the protagonists. That's my interpretation of what's going on. The writing style does not make the situation perfectly clear, at least not to me.

I wrote a summary of the story to try to keep it all straight. I'll put it in spoiler tags in case someone plans to read it for themself: (view spoiler)[

Alan and statuesque Adelaide perform an exorcism in the basement to rid the house of two spirits, Adelaide reading the rite. At first it was a success, and they could resume their singing without interference.

New beasts come in making an even greater din than the former tenants. Adelaide seems to be aware and is not that upset. Allan suggests another exorcism. Adelaide goes to sleep and Allan stands guard, but as the night proceeds Allan relaxes and goes to sleep at Adelaide’s feet.

Adelaide goes into town to do the shopping and recommends more sensitive Allan stay at home, which he agrees to. One time, after Adelaide had come back from the store and they were both asleep, noises from Adelaide’s room woke Allan. Allan has dreams that disturb him, one in particular about a woman complaining that Adelaide "took them all," whatever that means. Adelaide suggests Allan just ignore these dreams.

Allan has one particular dream of being tied to a throne and seeing deacons go by. The deacons stopped to ask Allan a series of questions about his gods. Allan admits his gods are learned in tongues and sorcery.

Questioning continues, but not from deacons, but another source from behind the curtain, called the Horror-Maker. The questions stop being about gods and become about Adelaide. Allan wakes up full of dread for being in Adelaide’s bed.

He then seeks Adelaide throughout the house, but cannot find her. When he finally does, she is dying. They decide to share their soul.
(hide spoiler)]. Again, I don't really know what to make of that early Ligotti story.

[Dan]

I haven't given up on this collection by any means. I realize I'm in the hands of a master storyteller, perhaps one of the best writing fiction today, and I really feel I owe it to the stories to do them justice when I read them by understanding them. I reread "Dream of a Manikin” again this evening, and I think I'm going to have to throw in the towel for now on figuring this one out.

What we have is a dramatic monologue. It's a poetic form Robert Browning perfected during England's Victorian period. As a result of appreciating Browning's work I have always very much loved this literary form (the dramatic monologue). Placing the monologue in stanzas of metered lines is flowery and adds nothing of interest, Ligotti seems to (by omission) be arguing. I agree with him. The appeal of the story is in the voice of the speaker and the unique and highly interesting situation he recounts.

In this story, Ligotti's protagonist is writing a letter (how Ligotti naturally makes the story a monologue) as a psychiatrist sharing professional observations of a case he's working while foisting clearly undesired attempts at intimacy upon a colleague of the opposite gender. The psychiatrist's patient dreams nightmares that she's a manikin, and perhaps in all actuality she actually is. But then, the story devolves into a philosophic discussion of solopsism. What is the difference between a manikin, a corpse, and a living person, and what do those differences really mean? Who is the manikin and who the person? I just get really confused with this story.

The next story, "The Chymist," is another dramatic monologue in prose. The speaker/protagonist is a man of refinement, intelligence, and class, who has engaged a prostitute for the evening and is trying to have a conversation with her. As in the previous story, we have another mismatch of intellects leading to such radically different perspectives on the world that meaningful communication between the two is all but impossible. We're only able to hear the protagonist's attempts at communication, a rule of dramatic monologues. The suspense comes from wondering why the protagonist hired the prostitute. What is he really after? It can't possibly be for the normal reasons. Can it? What a twist on the eternal "will he get the girl" question!

[Zina]

I have been awfully slow, life demanding too much attention, so I am only 50% through. Somehow, Dr. Voke and Mr. Veech etched itself in my brain the most. The intense mostly black-and-white visuals, the sheer craziness of ALL of it, the screaming dummy rotating its bleeding eyes in the crazy empty apartment on top of some mad staircase - I just can't get over it.