R. von Pnaklendorf
Chymist
Don't worry, I intend to get past that hurdle of buying from Aurora Dorada Ediciones, starting with their edition of The Spectral Link.
The Melancholies of Baron von Pnaklendorf
- Thread starter R. von Pnaklendorf
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Mersennus1951
Mystic
Yes, actually, it's a better idea than Noctuary.
Knygathin
Grimscribe
1. No specific source to it. Just a general thought and idea that has developed over the years. Nothing I can prove rationally or with facts. Probably inspired from literature, art, philosophy. Also possibly from my earlier studies of astrology which is a coherent model of several existential levels. And an inner sense of purpose, and of having been there before. A need to resolve things. I don't think we are simply victims, but have our own responsibility. Responsibility to go from simple accusing, to deeper maturing. Overcoming problems, towards greater refinement of Nature which we are active part of. ... But the sense of soul travel may also just be a dream.
2. Here it is about my view that the division of the sense of "I" in ourselves and in others, really doesn't matter. That division is the great Illusion. Our differences are like sticks laid out on a lawn to divide the grass into sections. It is still the same grass on both sides of the sticks. And even if we put little individualized clay models in each section to mark personal territory. It doesn't matter if we die, because the pain of isolated "I" continues. I believe the best relief may come from sharing the sense of isolation, which might spiritually when transcending, break the Illusion of individuality.
R. von Pnaklendorf
Chymist
I’ve started the week on the right foot, with renewed energy and new ideas for future projects in different areas of my life. Today, Monday, it’s skillet lasagna: quick to make but just as delicious. I know because I’ve already eaten it. I hope you all have a great week.
Mersennus1951
Mystic
Thanks! I'm sure it'll turn out great. Enjoy your meal.
R. von Pnaklendorf
Chymist
I wish I could have a beer, but I’m taking antibiotics. I got a horrible abscess near my eye; it already burst, but I still have to continue the treatment. Either way, I’m having a quiet day. I also can’t wait until the end of the month to buy My Work Is Not Yet Done. I was originally going to go for Teatro Grottesco, but this one is pulling me in more.
Mersennus1951
Mystic
Yes, it's the next logical step in the transition toward the Teatro Grottesco. It's a magnificent novel.
R. von Pnaklendorf
Chymist
I was walking to buy my daily Red Bull at the gym near my bungalow, reflecting on something a Colombian priest once said during a sermon. He claimed that at ten o'clock at night—precisely at that hour—we should pray. Why? To shield ourselves from the darkness and the night, which, he believed, exert a direct influence of the Evil One over humankind.
At first, within the logic of that metaphysical view, my mind went to prehistoric humans, forever retreating to shelter as soon as the sun disappeared... until they discovered fire.
Then he became more explicit. He said that the night stirs every kind of impulse in people: revelry, debauchery, crime.
I tried to think about myself and what the night brings out in me. I remembered those long, sleepless nights, and the time after my grandfather died, when I wandered aimlessly through the streets for hours, as though I were dreaming, afraid of nothing. Perhaps it was because I looked more frightening than anything I might have encountered—thin, tall, pale, wrapped in a black coat.
The priest ended his sermon by saying that we must choose not to be children of the night... but children of God.
At first, within the logic of that metaphysical view, my mind went to prehistoric humans, forever retreating to shelter as soon as the sun disappeared... until they discovered fire.
Then he became more explicit. He said that the night stirs every kind of impulse in people: revelry, debauchery, crime.
I tried to think about myself and what the night brings out in me. I remembered those long, sleepless nights, and the time after my grandfather died, when I wandered aimlessly through the streets for hours, as though I were dreaming, afraid of nothing. Perhaps it was because I looked more frightening than anything I might have encountered—thin, tall, pale, wrapped in a black coat.
The priest ended his sermon by saying that we must choose not to be children of the night... but children of God.
R. von Pnaklendorf
Chymist
Setting aside my earlier melancholy—which was really more of a reflection, or perhaps a brief bout of rambling—I wanted to say that I've been feeling a little sad. Sometimes I worry a lot about privacy, though not because I have anything to hide. In fact, I'm not even sure "privacy" is the right word. The truth is, what I feel is probably closer to something Thomas Ligotti has described. I don't really like the internet, and if I had the choice, I'd much rather stick to older ways of communicating, like this forum or exchanging emails. Social media, to me, just feels like a complete mess.
Zaharoff
Grimscribe
I am still a die hard email user. Friends and family remind me I am the only one of their contacts who still uses the format.
I participate on very few forums. Too many seem overrun with swinging dicks (ref: Salomon Bros).
R. von Pnaklendorf
Chymist
I fell asleep listening to the Current 93 album with Thomas Ligotti... I just woke up.
I agree with you. For now, this is the only forum I participate in, and I enjoy corresponding by email. In fact, I'm going to update my profile right now to add my email address.
R. von Pnaklendorf
Chymist
After several weeks without writing—or at least without writing horror, since I did write a few Dunsanian stories that my mind tends to dismiss as "naive"—I've finished a story that I'm genuinely happy with.
My plan is to keep writing a lot over the next few days, with the goal of putting together a short story collection. Even if I never end up assembling one, simply having that goal in mind will help me stay productive.
It's a good way to start the week.
My plan is to keep writing a lot over the next few days, with the goal of putting together a short story collection. Even if I never end up assembling one, simply having that goal in mind will help me stay productive.
It's a good way to start the week.
R. von Pnaklendorf
Chymist
I enjoy the quiet of my room... I like the darkness, and I don't mean that in an attempt to sound edgy or mysterious.
In a few hours, my copy of My Work Is Not Yet Done will arrive. I'm eager to read it, and just as eager to write.
I was telling Mersennus that I want to write a screenplay based on a story I wrote when I was 13, with the idea of turning it into a short film. It was one of the first stories I ever wrote, back when I was just discovering Lovecraft. The thing is, I don't know how to write screenplays, though I do know how to write comic book scripts.
So... in much the same way I taught myself to write comic scripts, I'm waiting for the book to arrive so I can see how Thomas Ligotti wrote the screenplay for CRAMPTON. My desire to write the screenplay is mostly about reaching a personal milestone, even if I never end up making the short film.
That said, it's also because the story brings back memories of that period between puberty and adolescence... a time that went from sweet, to bittersweet, and eventually to bitter.
It's been more than ten years already...
In a few hours, my copy of My Work Is Not Yet Done will arrive. I'm eager to read it, and just as eager to write.
I was telling Mersennus that I want to write a screenplay based on a story I wrote when I was 13, with the idea of turning it into a short film. It was one of the first stories I ever wrote, back when I was just discovering Lovecraft. The thing is, I don't know how to write screenplays, though I do know how to write comic book scripts.
So... in much the same way I taught myself to write comic scripts, I'm waiting for the book to arrive so I can see how Thomas Ligotti wrote the screenplay for CRAMPTON. My desire to write the screenplay is mostly about reaching a personal milestone, even if I never end up making the short film.
That said, it's also because the story brings back memories of that period between puberty and adolescence... a time that went from sweet, to bittersweet, and eventually to bitter.
It's been more than ten years already...
Zaharoff
Grimscribe
Study this by Rod Serling. Unlike Ligotti, Serling was an accomplished scriptwriter.
I gather this is for a potential short of your own creation?
Nowadays, in Hollywood at least, unsolicited scripts are either returned (if postage is provided) or trashed.
They are NEVER read. I bounced this off a relative who belongs to the Screenwriters Guild and them concurred.
R. von Pnaklendorf
Chymist
Holy! this is incredible. I really admire Rod Serling, and this will be very useful to me. Thank you so much.
No, I’m not interested in sending the screenplay to a production company or anything like that. My idea is that, if I ever end up filming it, it will be a personal, independent project produced by me.
I’m going to check out the PDF right now. Thanks so much, Zaharoff!
R. von Pnaklendorf
Chymist
As I mentioned in another thread, I really admire Harry O. Morris’s work. I’ve been trying to track down several pieces by him (through photographs, obviously, not physically), and honestly, it even led me to reconsider using Clark Ashton Smith’s Eibon sculpture as my profile picture here on the forum, because I’d like to use something by Morris instead.
For now, I have Count Orlok, but I’m looking for something by Harry O. Morris. Does anyone know of a website or archive where I could find more of his work?
For now, I have Count Orlok, but I’m looking for something by Harry O. Morris. Does anyone know of a website or archive where I could find more of his work?
R. von Pnaklendorf
Chymist
I decided to use this piece by Harry O. Morris as my profile image here on the forum. The subject of the “photo”... resembles something I once was in another era.
R. von Pnaklendorf
Chymist
No, no. Obviously Harry O. Morris does not have that kind of stuff. I know there is a portfolio of his work that was distributed by Centipede Press. What I mean is whether there are any digital scans of his works beyond the ones Dr. Bantham has uploaded here, which would be wonderful.
R. von Pnaklendorf
Chymist
I'm a little scared.
Some good things happened today, related to my interests and hobbies. But beyond that, we all know there are things that are fleeting and things that are truly consequential. Even the most consequential things are fleeting when measured against eternity.
I've been reflecting on something that has been on my mind for days now—something that affects me on a religious, philosophical, and moral level. Thanks to what has been reported in the press, I can honestly say that this fear is entirely rational.
I'm deeply afraid of mainstream social media, especially platforms like Twitter and those owned by META. Right now, Twitter is the only one I use, and it's where I met my closest contacts and friends, the very people with whom I'm trying to build my career as an author. It's where I move, where my work exists.
So I think about Thomas Ligotti. I think about certain personal experiences in my own life. I think about the state of the world today, and I tell myself, "Delete your Twitter account."
Then I look at myself and answer, "I can't. I need it. Otherwise I'll never be able to promote my stories. I want readers."
The truth is, social media genuinely terrifies me.
One of the reasons has to do with one of the most widely discussed topics of recent months. My colleague Yuke, from the Spanish-speaking horror collective that I lead, translated one of my stories—a story in which I tried to portray that reality and that fear, what I believe, and what I know, to be reality. It will soon be published in the space that was generously offered to me at Prose.
There are many supernatural elements in the story, but those are just the dressing.
The truth—the honest truth—is that I'm very afraid of certain people. Not occultists or anything like that. I'm afraid of powerful people, of those involved in AI data mining, although that's actually the lesser of my fears.
My greatest fear centers on a person whose name frightens me so much that I don't even dare write it here. His initials are "J.E." He supposedly took his own life in his cell at a maximum-security prison.
One of the reasons why the work of Thomas Ligotti and authors like him has resonated so deeply with me is that I feel they approach horror from the most realistic perspective possible: the true monsters are human beings.
We inhabit a dark forest that we call the universe—empty, indifferent—a place where we are nothing more than a pale blue dot. And yet we've had to invent monsters to describe someone who could just as easily be a schoolteacher, a janitor, a nurse... the person you would least expect.
I just needed to get this off my chest.
Some good things happened today, related to my interests and hobbies. But beyond that, we all know there are things that are fleeting and things that are truly consequential. Even the most consequential things are fleeting when measured against eternity.
I've been reflecting on something that has been on my mind for days now—something that affects me on a religious, philosophical, and moral level. Thanks to what has been reported in the press, I can honestly say that this fear is entirely rational.
I'm deeply afraid of mainstream social media, especially platforms like Twitter and those owned by META. Right now, Twitter is the only one I use, and it's where I met my closest contacts and friends, the very people with whom I'm trying to build my career as an author. It's where I move, where my work exists.
So I think about Thomas Ligotti. I think about certain personal experiences in my own life. I think about the state of the world today, and I tell myself, "Delete your Twitter account."
Then I look at myself and answer, "I can't. I need it. Otherwise I'll never be able to promote my stories. I want readers."
The truth is, social media genuinely terrifies me.
One of the reasons has to do with one of the most widely discussed topics of recent months. My colleague Yuke, from the Spanish-speaking horror collective that I lead, translated one of my stories—a story in which I tried to portray that reality and that fear, what I believe, and what I know, to be reality. It will soon be published in the space that was generously offered to me at Prose.
There are many supernatural elements in the story, but those are just the dressing.
The truth—the honest truth—is that I'm very afraid of certain people. Not occultists or anything like that. I'm afraid of powerful people, of those involved in AI data mining, although that's actually the lesser of my fears.
My greatest fear centers on a person whose name frightens me so much that I don't even dare write it here. His initials are "J.E." He supposedly took his own life in his cell at a maximum-security prison.
One of the reasons why the work of Thomas Ligotti and authors like him has resonated so deeply with me is that I feel they approach horror from the most realistic perspective possible: the true monsters are human beings.
We inhabit a dark forest that we call the universe—empty, indifferent—a place where we are nothing more than a pale blue dot. And yet we've had to invent monsters to describe someone who could just as easily be a schoolteacher, a janitor, a nurse... the person you would least expect.
I just needed to get this off my chest.