Favorite Selection from IN A FOREIGN TOWN, IN A FOREIGN LAND

Choose your favorite of the four stories from "In a Foreign Town, In a Foreign Land".

I've chosen "When You Hear the Singing, You Will Know It is Time", but not for litterary reasons (in fact, I don't think they really are 4 separate stories): it's just that reading the titles made me hear the voice of David Tibet whispering that phrase ad nauseam as in the CD.

Now stop it, David! I've got to get back to work! (Just talking to the voices in my head, don't worry...)

Re: Favorite Selection from IN A FOREIGN TOWN, IN A FOREIGN

I myself would choose "The Bells will Sound Forever". The story is one of those which are difficult to forget. I really got the sensation that Ligotti had the power to mesmerize me as much as Mrs. Pyk could mesmerize her clients and that after finishing reading I'll keep being a fan of Ligotti, like they stay in that weird hotel of hers...

...forever.

Re: Favorite Selection from IN A FOREIGN TOWN, IN A FOREIGN

I agree with ElHI: I don't think of them as separate stories, just four chapters of a whole. It always struck me as odd that some of these appeared alone in anthologies; it seems to me that some of the effect would be lost. As a result, I'm not going to pick one, though IAFTIAFL is my girlfriend's favorite work by Ligotti.

adam";p="1001 said:

I agree with ElHI: I don't think of them as separate stories, just four chapters of a whole. It always struck me as odd that some of these appeared alone in anthologies; it seems to me that some of the effect would be lost. As a result, I'm not going to pick one. Though IAFTIAFL is my girtlfriend's favorite work by Ligotti.

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I certainly agree that the four stories are parts of a whole. If I had to choose my favorite "chapter," however, I would have to go with "A Soft Voice Whispers Nothing".

Long before I suspected the existence of the town near the northern border, I believed in some way that I was already an inhabitant of that remote and desolate place. Any number of signs might be offered to support this claim, although some of them may have seemed somewhat removed from the issue. Not the least of them appeared during my childhood, those soft, gray years when I was stricken with one sort or another of life-draining infirmity. It was at this early stage of my development that I sealed my deep affinity with the winter season in all its phases and manifestations. Nothing seemed more natural to me than to follow the path of the snow-topped roof and the ice-crowned fence-post, considering that I, too, in my illness, exhibited the marks of an essentially hibernal state of being. Under the plump blankets of my bed I lay freezing and pale, my temples sweating with shiny sickles of fever. Through the frosted panes of my bedroom window, I watched in awful devotion as dull winter days were succeeded by blinding winter nights. I remained ever awake to the possibility, as my young mind conceived it, of an “icy transcendence.”

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Having been a rather sickly child given to bizarre meditations myself, this piece really speaks to me in quite a disturbingly intimate way.

Dr. Locrian";p="1020 said:

adam";p="1001 said:

I agree with ElHI: I don't think of them as separate stories, just four chapters of a whole. It always struck me as odd that some of these appeared alone in anthologies; it seems to me that some of the effect would be lost. As a result, I'm not going to pick one. Though IAFTIAFL is my girtlfriend's favorite work by Ligotti.

Click to expand...

I certainly agree that the four stories are parts of a whole. If I had to choose my favorite "chapter," however, I would have to go with "A Soft Voice Whispers Nothing".

Long before I suspected the existence of the town near the northern border, I believed in some way that I was already an inhabitant of that remote and desolate place. Any number of signs might be offered to support this claim, although some of them may have seemed somewhat removed from the issue. Not the least of them appeared during my childhood, those soft, gray years when I was stricken with one sort or another of life-draining infirmity. It was at this early stage of my development that I sealed my deep affinity with the winter season in all its phases and manifestations. Nothing seemed more natural to me than to follow the path of the snow-topped roof and the ice-crowned fence-post, considering that I, too, in my illness, exhibited the marks of an essentially hibernal state of being. Under the plump blankets of my bed I lay freezing and pale, my temples sweating with shiny sickles of fever. Through the frosted panes of my bedroom window, I watched in awful devotion as dull winter days were succeeded by blinding winter nights. I remained ever awake to the possibility, as my young mind conceived it, of an “icy transcendence.”

Click to expand...

Having been a rather sickly child given to bizarre meditations myself, this piece really speaks to me in quite a disturbingly intimate way.

Click to expand...

I agree. However, I chose somewhat randomly "The Bells Will Sound Forever", for the oddly pleasing horror of... *Tinkle, tinkle.*

I chose "When You Hear..."

and I definitely agree that the four pieces flow together like chapters

Re: Favorite Selection from IN A FOREIGN TOWN, IN A FOREIGN

I've also gone for "The Bells Will Sound Forever", although I too believe this book works better when read as a whole (and it's my favourite Ligotti).

I've always had the most curious sensation when I first read, and whenever I've re-read, IAFTIAFL, that I'm somehow seeing the action play out behind an opaque film or gauze. That sensation hasn't diminished no matter how often I've gone back to it. For me, that is real literary magic.

Re: Favorite Selection from IN A FOREIGN TOWN, IN A FOREIGN

I'll have to go with A Soft Voice Whispers Nothing. This story is beautiful, albeit in TL's usually haunting way. The quotations from Dr. Zirk and the author of the METAPHYSICAL LECTURE (unidentified but known nonetheless) add a voice of clarity to the otherwise dream-like scenario. This quote especially grabs me:

"To make an end of it, little puppet, in your own way. To close the door in one swift motion and not by slow, fretful degrees. If only this doctor could show you the way of such cold deliverance."

My selection of "Dr. Zirk" for my TLO user name was surely no coincidence...

This is also the story the features the repeated phrase "architectural moan". Those are two words I never would have put together myself, but they make sense immediately. Who hasn't experienced an "architectural moan"?

ElHI";p="307 said:

I've chosen "When You Hear the Singing, You Will Know It is Time", but not for litterary reasons (in fact, I don't think they really are 4 separate stories): it's just that reading the titles made me hear the voice of David Tibet whispering that phrase ad nauseam as in the CD.

Now stop it, David! I've got to get back to work! (Just talking to the voices in my head, don't worry...)

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I agree. *Walks into dark room.* Shut up, guys! "In the Court of the Crimson King" was nice the first 100 times!

Re: Favorite Selection from IN A FOREIGN TOWN, IN A FOREIGN

I've just reread IAFTIAFL for the first time since the 1990's. How the world has changed; how I've changed.... These days, I tend to be more and more aware of my own mortality. The clock keeps ticking. And faster every day! I think about things that never crossed my mind 25 years ago. Constantly. Except when I'm blessed with a dreamless sleep.

Now that you're cheered up, IAFTIAFL is one of the best volumes written by Thomas Ligotti. In these stories, Mr. Ligotti tackles some of the inevitable questions that we all face. How? Where? When? Typical middle-aged concerns, as I've come to learn. The theme, however, is not Death, but rather, the Cruelty of Impermanence. A subtle difference, but a difference, nonetheless.

My favorite tale in this book that reads best as a totality is "A Soft Voice Whispers Nothing." Here, the metaphor for the Big Nothing is something as innocent as snow. Quite the opposite of the Nocturnal Product. Both, however, are manifestations of the same vision. Both are equally valid.

I've written a quote from the story onto a 3 x 5 card which is perched against the base of my computer monitor: " 'Amnesia may well be the highest sacrament in the great gray ritual of existence.' "