In the genre of horror literature, most plots revolve around the protagonists contending with a threat that is trying to kill them. In Thomas Ligotti’s works, however, the threat is not necessarily an external one, but that of existence itself. In his characteristically pessimistic way, Ligotti’s view is that with suffering outweighing the joys of life, one must seriously consider the point of continuing life at all. In this special Halloween ‘After Dark’ episode, we are joined by Titus to explore the depths of ‘malignant uselessness’ after a brief review of the recent re-release of the Frank Herbert classic ‘Dune’.
— Brought to you by —
Titus @hereliesthighs
PART I:

PART II:

Myth of the 20th Century – Episode 227 – The Conspiracy Against the Human Race – After Dark
— References —
- Hunger, Hamsun (1890)
- Call of Cthulhu, Lovecraft (1926)
- Dune, Herbert (1965)
- The Hour of the Wolf, Bergman (1968)
- Dune, Lynch (1984)
- Less Than Zero, Ellis (1985)
- Sect of the Idiot, Ligotti (1988)
- The Last Feast of the Harlequin, Ligotti (1990)
- The Bungalow House, Ligotti (1995)
- Dune, Harrison (2000)
- Teatro Grottesco, Ligotti (2008)
- The Conspiracy Against the Human Race: a Contrivance of Horror, Ligotti (2010)
- Enemy, Velleneuve (2013)
- It Follows, Mitchell (2014)
- The Wailing, Hong-jin (2016)
- Lovecraft – After Dark, Myth of the 20th Century (2020) – https://myth20c.wordpress.com/2020/10/30/lovecraft-after-dark/
- Dune – After Dark, Myth of the 20th Century (2021) – https://myth20c.wordpress.com/2021/04/29/dune-after-dark/
- Dune, Villeneuve (2021)
- PseudoPod 350: The Bungalow House – https://pseudopod.org/2013/09/06/pseudopod-350-the-bungalow-house/
Hell yes, i love titus halloween episodes
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Oh hell yeah, new episode. Need me some spooky racism.
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I was just relistening to the prison system episode so it’s funny Nick brought up the “sodomy gulag system” around 1:46:00 and he made an excellent point about how people keep that stuff out of their mind because if they didn’t then it would have to inform everything else that they do. Nick just gets it.
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My first exposure to Thomas Ligotti was a reading of his poetry as part of a spoken word/”ambient” EP by Current 93, “I Have a Special Plan For This World.” Worth a listen for anybody who hasn’t heard it, it’s only twenty minutes.
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For me, it’s This Degenerate Little Town
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I think the directors cut of Dune (2021) might be better, at least an hour of world building may have been cut. I still think the characters were obviously paranoid about assassins and seemed pretty anxious in the opening 30-40min. Dennis seemed to be limited by a need to get people into the cinema so the sequel isn’t cancelled. Also the minimalist design wasn’t great, should have been more Traditional and or Arabic.
I haven’t had enough time to read the book so the only prior understanding I had before going in was your show on Dune. The film at least portrayed the idea of predestined fate and the passing of information through tradition, myth and subconscious understanding.
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