New Ligotti Interview in Weird Tales Spring Issue

starrysothoth

starrysothoth

Chymist
This blog post from "Weird Tales" magazine indicates they are publishing an "in-depth interview" with Thomas Ligotti in their next issue, the spring one:

Horrors, insanity, and whats emerged on the other side

Wildside is now leaner and meaner, and Weird Tales has some fantastic stuff lined up for the rest of 2009. The spring issue, coming your way in a few weeks, features stories by acclaimed authors Jeffrey Ford and Paul Tremblay — as well as exclusive, in-depth interviews with horror master Thomas Ligotti and comics genius Richard Corben. Meanwhile, we’ve begun taking submissions for a new line of micro-fiction: One-Minute Weird Tales! And we’re looking forward to an exciting summer/fall convention season — WorldCon in Montreal this August and Dragon*Con in Atlanta this September, for sure, plus more to be announced.
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They just sold one more copy. A new Ligotti interview is always something to look forward to. Thanks for posting the info.
 
I renew'd my subscription to WT last month. The magazine is superb, especially in its strong fiction department, with Ann VanderMeer selecting the finest fiction that WT has ever published. I was extremely depress'd to see H. P. LOVECRAFT'S MAGAZINE OF HORROR die, as its editor, Marvin Kaye, is one of my favourite genre editors. The publisher never seem'd to be solidly behind the magazine, as he is with WT. They are still rather weak in their reviews department, I think, but interviews are usually extremely well-done and in-depth, so this new interview with Tom should be quite a treat. I've not given up hope that, one day, we may even see a new wee tale from Tom is some future issue of WEIRD TALES. That wou'd be the BEST!
 
hopfrog said:
I renew'd my subscription to WT last month. The magazine is superb, especially in its strong fiction department, with Ann VanderMeer selecting the finest fiction that WT has ever published. I was extremely depress'd to see H. P. LOVECRAFT'S MAGAZINE OF HORROR die, as its editor, Marvin Kaye, is one of my favourite genre editors. The publisher never seem'd to be solidly behind the magazine, as he is with WT. They are still rather weak in their reviews department, I think, but interviews are usually extremely well-done and in-depth, so this new interview with Tom should be quite a treat. I've not given up hope that, one day, we may even see a new wee tale from Tom is some future issue of WEIRD TALES. That wou'd be the BEST!
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Wilum, I share your exact feelings about "H.P. Lovecraft's Magazine of Horror." They keep saying it might continue to exist in some online ghostly form, but we will see.

I dream of seeing another Ligotti story in "Weird Tales" or some other venue one day. That seems to be the million dollar question: whether or not Ligotti will write any more fiction in the future after he has completed his philosophy book.
 
Having read Tom's responses to both interviews, it is a rather "in-depth" interview, as was stated above, more so in my opinion than the Black Static interview which is good, for sure. I'm not taking anything away from that interview at all, and I recommend picking up the current issue, #10, with said interview in it as well as the Tennant piece on MWINYD, which is excellent. I hadn't seen a copy of the magazine before recently, but bought a subscription just because I wanted to have another source of print material that I could thumb through when I had the time. I used to get Grue, Weird Tales, and other magazines like Cemetary Dance years ago, which introduced me to many talented writers that would probably have remained under my radar had I not read those dark literary magazines back in the day, so Black Static seems like a good choice based on what I have seen thus far.

At any rate, the WT interview is excellent, and I would think that it will satisfy everyone's jones, if you will, for something from Tom. Having read every printed interview of Tom ever published, and having had the luxury and asking him any question I've ever wanted answered, I think the challenge for any interviewer at this stage of the game is to ask questions that haven't been asked before and that will provoke the types of well-articulated, extraordinarily thoughtful and infinitely compelling answers he's capable of providing. In other words, as great a writer and original a thinker as Tom is, he is an equally great interview subject, and the brilliance of his responses is only limited by the nature of the questions he is asked, but that's just my opinion. He's one of those people that is just that knowledgeable and interesting, so in many ways, the onus is on the individual(s) asking the questions, in my not so humble opinion.

I have said in the past that with all the effort Tom puts into formulating answers to interview questions, that reading them is nearly as compelling as reading his other written works because they are uniquely, well, Ligottian.

What more could one ask for?
Tim
 
Ascrobius said:
I have said in the past that with all the effort Tom puts into formulating answers to interview questions, that reading them is nearly as compelling as reading his other written works because they are uniquely, well, Ligottian.
Tim
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Tim's comment reminded me of an old interview with Vladimir Nabokov, which is as fiendishly brilliant and funny as his novels. The interview was first published in Playboy magazine in 1964, and can be found here: [ame]http://kulichki.com/moshkow/NABOKOW/Inter03.txt[/ame]

Here is a sample:

Have you ever been psychoanalyzed?

VN. Have I been what?

Subjected to psychoanalytical examination.

VN. Why, good God?

In order to see how it is done. Some critics have felt that your barbed comments about the fashionability of Freudianism, as practiced by American analysts, suggest a contempt based upon familiarity.

VN. Bookish familiarity only. The ordeal itself is much too silly and disgusting to be contemplated even as a joke. Freudism and all it has tainted with its grotesque implications
and methods appears to me to be one of the vilest deceits practiced by people on themselves and on others. I reject it utterly, along with a few other medieval items still adored by the ignorant, the conventional, or the very sick.

Or here is another gem, in which Nabokov mimics the various ways American readers mangle his surname:

VN. I find it very amusing when a friendly, polite person says to me--probably just in order to be friendly and polite-- "Mr. Naborkov," or "Mr. Nabahkov," or "Mr. Nabkov" or "Mr. Nabohkov," depending on his linguistic abilities, "I have a little daughter who is a regular Lolita."
 
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As you probably know already, Nabokov's interviews and sundry other items are collected in the aptly-named Strong Opinions. I love this sort of thing. Larkin's acidic interviews are also priceless (see Required Writing and Further Requirements). For sheer unadulterated misanthropy and arrogance, nobody can beat Naipaul. Conversations with V. S. Naipaul is marvelous. Paul Theroux's Sir Vidia's Shadow was meant to show Naipaul in a bad light, but I can't be the only reader who found all that nastiness to be entertaining and even a little bit inspiring. Ambrose Bierce, Thomas Bernhard, Auberon Waugh, Oscar Wilde, Christopher Hitchens, Florence King. Who am I leaving out? Ligotti in his interviews often rises to the occasion in a similar fashion. No doubt this post reveals me to be poorly socialized and politically retrograde. In my own life, I seldom have the courage to let fly with the invective, but I sure do enjoy it vicariously.
 
Trivia: Nabokov and Larkin are the only writers to ever demand payment for appearing in the Paris Review interview series. One can imagine Nabokov doing it just to placate his ego or whatever, whereas Larkin made much of the fact that, since the interview would be conducted by mail, it would actually require real work for which he ought to receive compensation. I aspire to the title of World's Most Miserable Miser, but Larkin set the bar pretty high.
 
The new Ligotti interview was enough to get me to subscribe to Weird Tales, and as a bonus, they are (were?) giving away two free issues of the now-defunct H.P. Lovecraft's Magazine of Horror. I have received and read the last Winter issue of WT, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I am halfway through one of the HPLMH, and I'm finding it quite good as well.

So much to read, so little time. hopfrog's Sesqua Valley and Other Haunts is also in on my nightstand - good stuff, Wilum!
 
I am a subscriber to this wonderful publication just renewed my subscription but do not believe I will get this issue but the latest and I missed this one on news stands :( I'll have to track a copy down.
 
otaku said:
I am a subscriber to this wonderful publication just renewed my subscription but do not believe I will get this issue but the latest and I missed this one on news stands :( I'll have to track a copy down.
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I don't think you have to worry – I subscribed a couple of months ago, and I haven't received this issue yet. And they started my subscription with the last issue that had come out, November/December 2008.

The WT website still has this issue listed "Coming in June" and the availability status is "Not for sale" even though we are a couple of weeks into July... Waiting anxiously!
 
I love WEIRD TALES but my experience as a subscriber has not been happy. I liked it better when the magazine had local distribution. Still, the magazine has so improved over the years that I shall continue to support it.
 
hopfrog said:
I love WEIRD TALES but my experience as a subscriber has not been happy. I liked it better when the magazine had local distribution. Still, the magazine has so improved over the years that I shall continue to support it.
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I had to let my subscription to Weird Tales lapse because of my lack of funds for fringe benefits. I'll have to lift a copy of the upcoming issue from the newsboy working out front of the Daily Planet Building the next time I'm in Metropolis.
 
Story goes that the issue will be appearing quite shortly. I only hope that I have been a faithful conduit for the wonders contained within.
 
yes the quality of the magazine is very good at this point I only wish that the distribution was better for instance they are no longer carried in my neck of the woods
 
One can only hope that this new issue comes out soon. I don't know if anyone still carries it in my tiny corner of the planet.
 
Sam said:
OK, gotta ask... Has anyone received the Spring issue of Weird Tales yet? It looks like it is available for purchase on the website, but my mailbox knows not its corrupting caress. Have I been forsaken, or am I just an impatient twit?
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I haven't received it either. I subscribed back in June and they did send me the previous issue. Every day when I go downstairs to my mailbox, I think today's the day! but then it isn't. Since it's now available for purchase on the website, I'd guess that we subscribers should be receiving our copies shortly.
 
Yes, this is quite a delay, unfortunately. I have tried to get my hands on this issue from a local Barnes & Noble and a speculative fiction comic/book dealer near me, both of which normally carry the magazine. Neither have this issue yet. The book dealer told me he hasn't heard anything from them either regarding upcoming shipments.

Seems this will end up being a fall read for many of us, which isn't altogether a bad thing.
 
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