THE NIGHTMARE NETWORK - TLO Welcomes ramonoski

Hello, Nightmare Network. I'm ramonoski. I suppose this welcome thread is automated, but I'll use it as an opportunity introduce myself anyways.

To keep things brief: I discovered Thomas Ligotti by way of Matt Cardin, whom I heard about elsewhere in the internet. His work impressed me a lot, and reading interviews with him pointed me to other fine writers (such as Mark Samuels, who is also superb) and, eventually, to Thomas Ligotti.

But turns out half his stuff is out of print and second-hand copies are very expensive, so my first introduction to the man's work happened to be the first Nightmare Factory comic-book. Perhaps not the best place to start, but it did the job of making me hunger for more. So I settled for the few books I could find, both in trade and digital formats. Thus, so far I've only read "Teatro Grottesco", "Noctuary" and "My Work is Not Yet Done", plus a couple stories I found scattered throughout the internet. Then I ended up reading every interview with the man I could find, then re-reading the books again with newfound insight.

And, that was my discovering Ligotti story, basically. I'm quite impressed with the man's work. While I'm unsure how I feel about his decidedly pessimistic philosophy, I must admit at many points it echoes ideas (or half-formed thoughts) I've had. His stories resonate with me both emotionally and intellectually and, well... there is a Ligotti quote in one of Cardin's books that I think sums it up perfectly:

Quote:

This, then, is the ultimate, that is only, consolation: simply that someone shares some of your own feelings and has made of these a work of art which you have the insight, sensitivity, and—like it or not—peculiar set of experiences to appreciate.

I don't know if I indeed "like it or not", but while I figure it out I'm grateful I discovered Ligotti.

So, that's that. Hello, Nightmare Network; see you around.