r/WeirdLit

I've read most of Franz Kafka's major works like The Castle, The Trial, and his Complete Stories, but I wasn't aware of this book till a few months ago and got myself a copy. And I would say that its okay or solid at best, but in my opinion, doesn't really hold up to his later works. Which should be the case as this was technically his first unfinished novel that he wrote.

There are the Franz Kafka weird traits still here like how Amerika is portrayed in a more surreal and somewhat dreamlike architecture as Kafka himself never visited America, but read about the country in books. The statue of liberty instead of holding a torch is holding a sword and New York and Boston are connected to each other by a large bridge. Giving it that distorted style to the writing and descriptions. And I wished that the book focused more on these odd surreal qualities to America as these oddities are few and far between and is more focused on the somewhat humorous adventures of a German immigrant through the states. Which got a little boring and repetitive after a while.

As with most of Kafka's written works, the novel is unfinished and the ending chapters are written in fragments, which was fine as I knew going into it that it wasn't complete. But did wish there was some closure towards the end after not getting much in return towards the second half of the book. A solid book that, if your a Kafka completionist, then it's worth a read, but I don't reccomend it as a first read to the average reader whose never read Kafka.

What are people's thoughts on this one? I really enjoyed it, it was disorienting in the same way some of Kafka's stuff is for me, and surreal in the way Murakami can be. It also plays with the 9-5 office environment in a similar way to Severence in my opinion. Recommend.

Personally, I have had a deep and enlightening experience reading Ligotti for over 20 years now.

Oddly enough - my first encounter with the uncanny voice was a friend playing Current 93's "My Special Plan for this World" after, I'm sure, we were smoking some weed. I can easily recall that this material stood out and had a truly unsettling and "voice from beyond" -- "cruel voice of nature" tone to it (see Jung's concept of Natural Mind)- years later I found out that this was indeed the voice of an established writer - who was in the lineage, and a direct descendant of HP Lovecraft.

I will not question Ligotti's place in the lineage - his writing is second to none, and his work as an author takes the tradition of cosmic horror and puts the final stamp of indifferent cruelty and surrealism upon it.

What I struggle with in Ligotti - despite its fantastic imagination - is the feeling of utter repression and the obviously neglected emotions of the author (when things get this deep and personal I don't think its inappropriate for an Ad Hominem take). This is not the writing of a happy person who was embraced and loved by the humanity of his environment - and his writing reeks way more of this than his predecessors like Machen, Blackwood, MR James, Wakefield etc - and it's missing that rounded and dignified air.

I would never question if Ligotti's writing is "essential", it has its place in terms of a novel extreme style, like Clive Barker etc. - but sometimes I do actually worry with artwork like this, if it is simply "mentally unhealthy".

His writing at times seems to encourage mental illness, or at least pull the reader deeper into this territory of hopelessness without redemption - not to mention his manifesting literal horrors as the subject of his short stories. This might be the exact point of horror stories - but the lack of redemption or the whole-hearted blackness of it - it feels stunted to me, like the writing of a person who refuses to develop out of the Nigredo phase (to continue the Jungian theme), and begin to see the complete picture of life as a glass half full rather than just the emptiness.

I recently got "My Work is not Yet Done" - and to me this is the worst of Ligotti's writing in this way. The office revenge scenario does not help but to give the writing a personal edge, where you can just imagine Ligotti, in real life, stewing at a desk and seething over how much he despises his ignorant, oblivious and lesser co-workers - as if all humans are not capable of conjuring up despair.

It is hard not to parody this kind of stance - I can't help but think of this episode of Bridge Kids: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OM4x5DzfXuQ

What I have the utmost respect for is the unwavering vision of Ligotti, and his totally underground ascendance from lowest to highest culture as a writer (featured in nearly every cult fanzine of the 80s) - and its full exploration of Nigredo ideas - but it does not age out of this phase, and the lack of any acknowledgement of this very repressed attitude from the author, or his fans feels disingenuous.

After "Our Share of Night" i went back to 130 years and read "The King of Yellow"! Inside this edition there's only 4 stories: "The Repairer of Reputations", "The Mask", "In The Court of the Dragon" and "The Yellow Sign".
I read it in english, which is not my native language, so i surely didn't get most of its shades, but what a read!! My favourite were the first two, but every story had its own spirit and had the power of haunting me in a different way!
Studying architecture these stories were rich of details on that topic, giving a lot of space to space.
The ending on the repairer and the ending of the yellow sign were just genius!
Reading* *it on the beach was surely not his vibe, but it did its job!
Should i read the rest of the missing novels?

I was bought this as a birthday gift years ago and until recently had no idea of its rarity. A beautiful book with some lovely illustrations. Does anyone else own this edition?