this is a favorite story of mine, so here are some quotes i've chosen...
"Is it supposed to be some type of cactus...it has little teeth... on these big tongue things...you might have better luck passing it off as an animal than a plant, or a sculpture of a plant... it's got a velvety kind of fur and looks like it might crawl away."
this is a medley of connected descriptors for the narrator's "offbeat" sculpture. i love the juxtaposed details with lots of gaps for your imagination to fill in.
"It's strange how you're sometimes forced to assume an unsympathetic view of yourself through borrowed eyes."
i find this to be a profound and susinct truism whenever i read it. being a "weirdo" myself, i can certainly relate.
"I myself had despaired to find that within Clare's dark and promisingly moody borders lay a disappointing dreamland of white picket fences and flower-printed curtains."
i just like that.
"Brotherhood of Paradise offbeat indeed!"
i love that line so much, i've incorporated it into my own personal correspondences. haha, funny and cool.
" 'We're here. I've never shown this to anyone. It's been such a torturous secret, Day. I've wanted to tell you for so long, and show you. No, don't speak. Look. look.' Oh, the thrill of seeing this dark paradise with new eyes. With doubled intensity would I now see my world. My world. She was somewhere near me in the darkness. I waited, seeing her a thousand ways in my mind before actually gazing at the real Day. I looked. 'What's wrong with the stars, the sky?' was all she said. She was trembling."
wow, that's awesome. here we see the first real horrifying event happen before our vicarious eyes. more than subtle details with the large unknown gaps, we get to experience the raw emotions of someone who knows exactly what this is even though it is obscure to us. this technique makes it particularly unsettling. well done, Ligotti!
"The picture itself? An inner refuge, cozily crowding about the periphery of a central window of leaded glass. the interior beams with a honeyed haze, as of light glowing evenly through a patterened tapestry. Beyond the window, too, is a sanctuary of sorts, but not of man or terrestrial nature. Outside is an opulent kingdom of glittering colors and velvety jungle-shapes, a realm of contorted rainbows and twisted auroras. Hyper-radiant hues are calmed by the glass, so that their strange intensity does not threaten the chromatic integrity of the world within. Some stars, coloured from the most spectral part of the spectrum, blossom in the high darkness. The outer world glistens in stellar light and also gleams with a labyrinthine glare inside each twisted form. And upon the window's surface is the watery reflection of a lone figure gazing out at this unearthly paradise."
damn, that was a long one! very poetic and beautiful/loathsome.
"A marvelous arcana is threatened with exposure. The secretness we need for our lives could be lost, and with it would go the keys to a strange kingdom."
a lovely turn of phrase, also poetry to my ears... or eyes. such mystery is conveyed in so few words.
"To Eden with me you will not leave
To live in a cottage of crazy crooked
eaves.
In your own happy home you take care
these nights;
When you let your little cat in, turn
on the lights!
Something scurries behind and finds
a cozy place to stare,
Something sent to you from paradise,
paradisically so rare:
Tongues flowering; they leap out
laughing, lapping. Disappear!"
bizarre and comical. of course, most of us probably prefer it when Ligotti is at his most tenebrous and venemous, but his sudden flights of hideous whimsy are nice too. yes... nice.
Darrick
"Is it supposed to be some type of cactus...it has little teeth... on these big tongue things...you might have better luck passing it off as an animal than a plant, or a sculpture of a plant... it's got a velvety kind of fur and looks like it might crawl away."
this is a medley of connected descriptors for the narrator's "offbeat" sculpture. i love the juxtaposed details with lots of gaps for your imagination to fill in.
"It's strange how you're sometimes forced to assume an unsympathetic view of yourself through borrowed eyes."
i find this to be a profound and susinct truism whenever i read it. being a "weirdo" myself, i can certainly relate.
"I myself had despaired to find that within Clare's dark and promisingly moody borders lay a disappointing dreamland of white picket fences and flower-printed curtains."
i just like that.
"Brotherhood of Paradise offbeat indeed!"
i love that line so much, i've incorporated it into my own personal correspondences. haha, funny and cool.
" 'We're here. I've never shown this to anyone. It's been such a torturous secret, Day. I've wanted to tell you for so long, and show you. No, don't speak. Look. look.' Oh, the thrill of seeing this dark paradise with new eyes. With doubled intensity would I now see my world. My world. She was somewhere near me in the darkness. I waited, seeing her a thousand ways in my mind before actually gazing at the real Day. I looked. 'What's wrong with the stars, the sky?' was all she said. She was trembling."
wow, that's awesome. here we see the first real horrifying event happen before our vicarious eyes. more than subtle details with the large unknown gaps, we get to experience the raw emotions of someone who knows exactly what this is even though it is obscure to us. this technique makes it particularly unsettling. well done, Ligotti!
"The picture itself? An inner refuge, cozily crowding about the periphery of a central window of leaded glass. the interior beams with a honeyed haze, as of light glowing evenly through a patterened tapestry. Beyond the window, too, is a sanctuary of sorts, but not of man or terrestrial nature. Outside is an opulent kingdom of glittering colors and velvety jungle-shapes, a realm of contorted rainbows and twisted auroras. Hyper-radiant hues are calmed by the glass, so that their strange intensity does not threaten the chromatic integrity of the world within. Some stars, coloured from the most spectral part of the spectrum, blossom in the high darkness. The outer world glistens in stellar light and also gleams with a labyrinthine glare inside each twisted form. And upon the window's surface is the watery reflection of a lone figure gazing out at this unearthly paradise."
damn, that was a long one! very poetic and beautiful/loathsome.
"A marvelous arcana is threatened with exposure. The secretness we need for our lives could be lost, and with it would go the keys to a strange kingdom."
a lovely turn of phrase, also poetry to my ears... or eyes. such mystery is conveyed in so few words.
"To Eden with me you will not leave
To live in a cottage of crazy crooked
eaves.
In your own happy home you take care
these nights;
When you let your little cat in, turn
on the lights!
Something scurries behind and finds
a cozy place to stare,
Something sent to you from paradise,
paradisically so rare:
Tongues flowering; they leap out
laughing, lapping. Disappear!"
bizarre and comical. of course, most of us probably prefer it when Ligotti is at his most tenebrous and venemous, but his sudden flights of hideous whimsy are nice too. yes... nice.
Darrick
