“Professor Nobody’s Little Lectures on Supernatural Horror” (1985)

Let’s call this rut a groove and go with it, as we used to say at the old college paper. This very short story by Thomas Ligotti is similar to his “Notes on the Writing of Horror,” published the same year. They’re meta. Both “Notes” and “Little Lectures” feel like exercises involving writer’s block, perhaps. He is stuck on a story and, stymied perhaps for the moment, begins to think aloud about what he is doing. Instead of telling a story, he is turning over how things about horror fit together, speaking from a distance and somewhat ironically, about his chosen genre. “Notes” packed some narrative around the musings, while this one feels more abstracted and fragmented—like notes for lectures. The piece is short but it’s also dense, a quality that can be something of a hindrance reading Ligotti. He hits a lot of high points in all his stories I’ve read, but he is often difficult. Still, I like his mindfulness here and yes these are interesting thoughts, with sections labeled “The Eyes That Never Blink,” “On Morbidity,” and “Pessimism and Supernatural Horror” (multiple “lectures”). It’s interesting to a certain extent but also feels fragmentary and incomplete—even considered with “Notes.” Both pieces specifically notice how surprisingly hard it is to define horror and how it works. They can only nibble at the edges. That seems to be the point here. It spins off into philosophic realms on the uses of the supernatural in horror tales, which I have to admit had little interest for me beyond knowing such an inquiry exists. I’m less interested in knowing about horror and much more interested in the slippery business of feeling horror. Is it anti-intellectual to be into the pure sensations of things? Ligotti makes me feel a little that way. He may be too cerebral for me. I really want to call “Little Lectures” an essay, but I know it plainly has fictional elements—voice and point of view are aesthetic decisions. It’s playful. It’s interesting. It’s even fun. But it has little intent to scare or unsettle us at all and doesn’t really illuminate that much about horror either, with too many rational thoughts and ideas. It’s just a goof and a lark.

Thomas Ligotti, Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe
Listen to story online.