Well, the two of you just quoted the exact two bits from DLA, my favorite Ligotti story (well, it and TSotI) that immediately spring to mind whenever I think of that tale.
Both are simply ripe, pregnant with suggestive horrors. I can imagine full well the insane vistas the Doctor wished to evoke with the skylight, and quail at the unthinkable tableau that were enacted with the puppets on their sticks.
Rife with portent, and probably the ideas that won me over to Ligotti for ever and ever.
Thanks for the mid-morning dose of the numinous, Jon & Phil.
-Aether