Benjamin David Steele on William S. Burroughs, Philip K. Dick, and Thomas Ligotti

Benjamin David Steele's intriguing blog once again mentions some interesting thoughts on Thomas Ligotti, this time by evaluating the impressions left on the author by William S. Burroughs in comparison with similar impressions made on Philip K. Dick. Steele delves into a thought provoking analysis concerning the sharply contrasting responses he sees in Ligotti and Dick to Burrough's literary power. The blogger's article almost makes one think of Burrough's surrealist prose as a sort of disease that's produced two very different immune responses in the minds of the speculative fiction writers in question.

While I think Steele's belief that Ligotti has reached a literary and philosophical "dead end" is disagreeable and premature--especially seeing as how Ligotti's The Conspiracy Against the Human Race isn't released yet, nor is it clear what further projects he may pursue after this publication--there is a good deal of careful observations to mentally digest in this brief post. It's even regrettable these points aren't explored further in a more serious form than an informal blog post. With some elaboration, this is the type of analysis that would do well online or in print to help revive the curiously stifled field of weird scholarship the past few years.

Insightful explorations of weird writers like Ligotti in connection with more "mainstream" literary sources (or semi-separated genres like the science fiction realm Philip K. Dick hails from) is also sorely needed. This would provide good grounds for plenty of new scholarship, and perhaps gain weird literature higher respect in academic circles. In the meantime, it appears we'll all have to content ourselves with occasional shards of wisdom pouring through the blogosphere like this post by Steele.

-Grim Blogger