Favorite "Notebook of the Night" Vignette
 

This is a complete list of all of the micro-narratives in the third and final section of the 1995 collection Noctuary. Which is your favorite? Please comment if you will.

Re: Favorite "Notebook of the Night" Vignette
 

This was a difficult choice to make, but in the end I went with "The Spectral Estate"; a succint "essay" on a haunted house.

"Notebook of the Night" is a wonderfully inventive concept. Each vignette is a concentrated glimpse into different aspects of horror, as only T.L. can do.

Best,
Richard Gavin

Re: Favorite "Notebook of the Night" Vignette
 

I voted for "Invocation to the void" because it took me a long time to remove the mantra "no more blood!" from my head...
Months, actually.

Re: Favorite "Notebook of the Night" Vignette
 

The "Notebook of the Night" section of Noctuary contains some of Ligotti's most interesting and enjoyable work. These dark fables echo many of the themes in TL's longer stories: the unfaithfulness of reality, misbegotten conceptions, and the meaning of puppets to name a few. Some of these subjects are also to be found in their most skeletonized form in "I Have a Special Plan For This World". Matt Cardin in his essay "Thomas Ligotti's Career of Nightmares" said of "The Notebook of the Night": "which in the opinion of this author represents some of Ligotti's most powerful work." I agree. S.T. Joshi, in his essay "Thomas Ligotti: The Escape from Life", had a lesser opinion. While he praised Ligotti's writing skill, he thought the prose poems "must present some unified or coherent narrative if they are to have any effect" and he thought them "too fragmentary to leave a lasting impression." From my own personal experience, I have to disagree. These shorter works left a considerable impression on me, both in content and in form. While it is true that a series of poems integrated into a larger thematic whole can be very effective, I think it is a mistake to dismiss these works to be of lesser value. These tales are quite haunting and memorable. I hope it is a form that Ligotti will explore more in the future.

I chose "New Faces in the City" as my favorite. I don't particularly care for the title, but I love the theme. TL shows us a glimspe of the Imposter City. Its destination is never intended, but many inadvertently find their way there. Upon arrival, you are confronted with an importuning, if hidden, truth, like an unseen beggar calling from the shadows of some back alley. At first glance it appears to be a city not unlike any other city. Everything is as it should be, but on closer inspection, or due simply to a prolonged duration in its midst, its mask begins to slip. It begins to manifest itself as something altogether different and the lies begin to show through the cracks. "Some of these structures are mere facades propped up by a void. Others falsify their interiors with crude scenes painted where windows should be." Is it a flawed attempt at reality? A city trying to be normal but failing ineptly. A dying delusion perhaps caused by a lifetime of debilitating unreconcilable contradictions? A mocking prank? You begin to apprehend that the backdrop to your consciousness is like so much bad stage scenery. A context that doesn't know how to comport itself "scraps of debris hop about with no wind to guide them." As you walk through the city you hear the sound of something or someone following you. When you finally see what it is, you dismiss it as a harmless sham. You are right and wrong, for this stalker is really a messenger, and although mute, has quite a story to tell if you were only ready to listen. You see what it is, but don't recognize who and what they are. It may take moments or it may take years, but It is only when you realize who was following you and why, and when you come to appreciate the meaning of their insignificance and the ramifications of their existence - that is when you will be struck with horror.

I voted autumnal because something about the dead being raised from their sleep, weary but unable to resist the call and longing only for that final cold winter that never ends. longing only for that uninterupted sleep strikes a cord in me. I've always felt that I would like to sleep eternally and that waking up is an unwelcome responsibility.

Re: Favorite "Notebook of the Night" Vignette
 

My feelings exactly.
If there is one page of writing I would like to take with me to the grave, it is this prose poem. It might come in handy in resigning myself to my new predicament. In fact, I've already memorized it for that purpose, reciting it to myself on my daily walks out into the dying landscape. It amazes me how strongly possessing the poem in this way amplifies its atmosphere. Perhaps it was really meant to work as a sort of incantation.

Re: Favorite "Notebook of the Night" Vignette
 

'The Physic' is astonishing (and I know another TLO member rates it highly), but I had to add my vote to the emerging consensus for 'Autumnal'. a moment of perfect stillness and clarity in Ligotti's most restless and confusing book.

Re: Favorite "Notebook of the Night" Vignette
 

PROPOSITION: Do a reading of one or more of your favourite 'Notebook of the Night' vignettes/prose-poems and post it here. Eventually we could collect all of (the best of) them into an audiobook. I think it would be a nice tribute to The Emperor of Nonexistence, whose work means so much to so many of us. Especially those of us who are utterly revolted by the deluded life affirmations of The Great Black Swine ("you" don't even know what "you" are).

Re: Favorite "Notebook of the Night" Vignette
 

Re: Favorite "Notebook of the Night" Vignette
 

Thank you. I know my reading is not perfect, but just doing it enhanced my appreciation of this remarkable prose poem, which is what I'd like to consider it as (due to the powerful sonorous effect), rather than a "vignette", though I might be wrong here. A strict definition of the prose poem states that it is "a continuous sequence of sentences without line breaks."

My reading already has a faint drone-like soundtrack to it, didn't you notice?

If other TLO'ers contribute readings of their own, then I'd be interested in doing a cut-up of it all. It could be featured as a bonus track in the audio-book.


Other entries in the 'Notebook of the Night' that I'm particularly fond of are (referring to the new Subterranean edition):

The Career of Nightmares
Suicide by Imagination
The Master's Eyes Shining with Secrets
Ten Steps to Thin Mountain