What do you think?
Rate this book
My Work Is Not Yet Done
When junior manager Frank Dominio is suddenly demoted and then sacked it seems there was more than a grain of truth to his persecution fantasies. But as he prepares to even the score with those responsible for his demise, he unwittingly finds an ally in a dark and malevolent force that grants him supernatural powers. Frank takes his revenge in the most ghastly ways imaginable - but there will be a terrible price to pay once his work is done.
Destined to be a cult classic, this tale of corporate horror and demonic retribution will strike a chord with anyone who has ever been disgruntled at work.
Destined to be a cult classic, this tale of corporate horror and demonic retribution will strike a chord with anyone who has ever been disgruntled at work.
192 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 1, 2002
139 people are currently reading
5387 people want to read
About the author
Thomas Ligotti
195 books3,029 followersThomas Ligotti is a contemporary American horror author and reclusive literary cult figure. His writings, while unique in style, have been noted as major continuations of several literary genres—most prominently Lovecraftian horror—and have overall been described as works of "philosophical horror", often written as philosophical novels with a "darker" undertone which is similar to gothic fiction. The Washington Post called him "the best kept secret in contemporary horror fiction"; another critic declared "It's a skilled writer indeed who can suggest a horror so shocking that one is grateful it was kept offstage."
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 386 reviews
October 7, 2021
Pearls to Swine
There is a peculiar aspect of corporate sociology that never seems to get discussed or analyzed - any lack of ambition for status and promotion by an employee is perceived as a subversive act. I suspect the reason for such a perception is that a lack of ambition connotes an absence of loyalty, or at least respect, for the collective enterprise. The insufficiently motivated are feared for what they might not do as well as for what they might do, namely, the unexpected. Ligotti understands this syndrome.
This aversion to the unambitious means that corporate culture involves a certain kind of perverse trust - that every one of one’s workmates wants the same thing: recognition, advancement and reward. Colleagues perceive this as a common bond. Subordinates derive a kind of comfort from knowing the rules of the game. And one’s superiors can feel relaxed about knowing which motivational buttons to push as required. Ambition, the desire for what others want, is the glue that holds corporate society together. Remove that desire and the corporation disintegrates into something less than a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous, discussing the various things that no one wants.
Lack of ambition, therefore, is a potential corporate disaster. A person without ambition breaks the rules just by existing. It matters not that they contribute effectively to joint efforts, or that they demonstrate competence in their jobs. They are a threat. More than that, they are an aberration, a sort of corporate zombie without an understandable life-force. They can’t be killed by the usual corporate tools because they are not alive. These are the corporate undead.
Oddly, the corporate undead are also afraid. Not of death within the corporation obviously. But of exclusion from it. Their ontological state of static existence within the corporate fold is essential for living outside it. Their worry is one of exposure and expulsion, that their true status as having life only outside their membership in the corporation becomes public. Having such an external life is frowned upon as disloyal. Having one’s only life there is sacrilegious and warrants exile. The corporation does not like being exploited by those whom it is naturally meant to exploit.
Wanting to be left alone might seem a strange motivation to join a corporate group. But what alternative is there. Our world is corporate. It doesn’t run on the principles of competitive economics or socialist directives but according to corporate policies. Making a living means accepting that fact. In the minds of the undead this provokes not just fear but also horror, the anticipatory dread of a world order that despises what one is and will do all it can to crush resistance. There is no salvation from the corporate pressure to conform, to come back to life as its employee, or, the only alternative, to simply cease to exist.
Paranoia is not an inappropriate or unhealthy reaction to such a situation. Zombies like the undead are dangerous because they are in a constant state of angst. That this condition is situational is not visible from inside the belly of the beast, as it were (another reason for insisting on minimum life outside the corporate). For the non-zombie, reality only emerges after the fact: “... looking back from the deathbed of your entire life in the working world, you would be left exclaiming, ‘What was that all about!”
Frank, Ligotti’s protagonist, knows that he is living a nightmare: “... the paradox of always being afraid: while the pangs of apprehension and self-consciousness may allow you to imagine yourself as a being created of finer materials than most, a certain level of such agony necessarily drives you to grovel for the reassurances and approval of swine, or dwarfs if you like, who function as conductors of a fear from which they themselves do not appear to suffer.” Sometimes under the right conditions, however, the nightmare can be made apparent to everyone.
There is a peculiar aspect of corporate sociology that never seems to get discussed or analyzed - any lack of ambition for status and promotion by an employee is perceived as a subversive act. I suspect the reason for such a perception is that a lack of ambition connotes an absence of loyalty, or at least respect, for the collective enterprise. The insufficiently motivated are feared for what they might not do as well as for what they might do, namely, the unexpected. Ligotti understands this syndrome.
This aversion to the unambitious means that corporate culture involves a certain kind of perverse trust - that every one of one’s workmates wants the same thing: recognition, advancement and reward. Colleagues perceive this as a common bond. Subordinates derive a kind of comfort from knowing the rules of the game. And one’s superiors can feel relaxed about knowing which motivational buttons to push as required. Ambition, the desire for what others want, is the glue that holds corporate society together. Remove that desire and the corporation disintegrates into something less than a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous, discussing the various things that no one wants.
Lack of ambition, therefore, is a potential corporate disaster. A person without ambition breaks the rules just by existing. It matters not that they contribute effectively to joint efforts, or that they demonstrate competence in their jobs. They are a threat. More than that, they are an aberration, a sort of corporate zombie without an understandable life-force. They can’t be killed by the usual corporate tools because they are not alive. These are the corporate undead.
Oddly, the corporate undead are also afraid. Not of death within the corporation obviously. But of exclusion from it. Their ontological state of static existence within the corporate fold is essential for living outside it. Their worry is one of exposure and expulsion, that their true status as having life only outside their membership in the corporation becomes public. Having such an external life is frowned upon as disloyal. Having one’s only life there is sacrilegious and warrants exile. The corporation does not like being exploited by those whom it is naturally meant to exploit.
Wanting to be left alone might seem a strange motivation to join a corporate group. But what alternative is there. Our world is corporate. It doesn’t run on the principles of competitive economics or socialist directives but according to corporate policies. Making a living means accepting that fact. In the minds of the undead this provokes not just fear but also horror, the anticipatory dread of a world order that despises what one is and will do all it can to crush resistance. There is no salvation from the corporate pressure to conform, to come back to life as its employee, or, the only alternative, to simply cease to exist.
Paranoia is not an inappropriate or unhealthy reaction to such a situation. Zombies like the undead are dangerous because they are in a constant state of angst. That this condition is situational is not visible from inside the belly of the beast, as it were (another reason for insisting on minimum life outside the corporate). For the non-zombie, reality only emerges after the fact: “... looking back from the deathbed of your entire life in the working world, you would be left exclaiming, ‘What was that all about!”
Frank, Ligotti’s protagonist, knows that he is living a nightmare: “... the paradox of always being afraid: while the pangs of apprehension and self-consciousness may allow you to imagine yourself as a being created of finer materials than most, a certain level of such agony necessarily drives you to grovel for the reassurances and approval of swine, or dwarfs if you like, who function as conductors of a fear from which they themselves do not appear to suffer.” Sometimes under the right conditions, however, the nightmare can be made apparent to everyone.
Read
March 12, 2024
Corporate small-mindedness, corporate politics, corporate backstabbing - the chap above appears to have been on the receiving end of such swinish behavior.
What will he do now? Go postal, get himself a gun and return to his office on a murderous rampage? Or, much more likely, just think about extracting revenge but simply leave the building and move on to his next job.
In My Work Is Not Yet Done, master of horror fiction Thomas Ligotti has Frank Dominio deal with such corporate swinishness by taking matters to the extreme of extreme.
It all started when Frank presented a plan to Richard, his boss, and six other division supervisors under Richard at their weekly meeting. All can see Frank's plan contains innovation and creativity and could, if implemented, work to the great benefit of the corporation.
And the reaction of these corporate types, especially Richard, whose first and foremost priority is making sure he himself receives credit for any positive change in the company? Predictably, rebuttals abound, some subtle and others not subtle, and the meeting moves on to the next item on the agenda.
Equally predictable, after the meeting Richard stops by Frank's cubical and wants a copy of Frank's plan both in synopsis and in detail, to present to the higher-ups. Richard, swine that he is (keeping to Frank's language), gives Frank the usual blather about conditions and qualifications to make sure Frank knows his place as subordinate.
Over the next three days, Frank has the definite feeling he's been sabotaged by each of his six fellow supervisors in attendance at that meeting. At this point the plot both thickens and accelerates.
By my reckoning, My Work Is Not Yet Done counts as a minor masterpiece of corporate fiction. Thomas Ligotti structures his novella in three parts: Part 1 is entirely realistic, in many ways similar to the movie Office Space and the TV series The Office. The second and third parts are signature Thomas Ligotti, that is, horror. Even for seasoned fans of the author, what transpires will shock. It certainly shocked me!
I'll leave the shock (actually, vintage Ligotti, a series of shocks) to each reader and return to Part 1 to note a few highlights -
The Corporate Mindset - Although Frank acknowledges the corporation detests nonconformity and turns men and women into swinish conformists who try their best to equate personal values with corporate values, Frank himself scoffs at and mocks Perry, one of the six supervisors, who cultivates a cool 1950s jazz persona with his talk about the latest jazz CD, his 1950s thick-framed, hip, sporty glasses and his occasional playing jazz on the grand piano out in the company reception area.
Familiar Faces - Anybody who has ever worked in a corporation or large company will instantly recognize the types in Frank's rundown of his fellow department heads, including Mary, with "all the sartorial and cosmetic armor that was possible for one woman to bear," and Barry, a fast-talking, fast-walking blustering buffoon. Much of the novella's charm and appeal resides in the undeniable fact his corporation could be any corporation. And, of course, every corporation, every fucking one of them, makes claim to its own uniqueness and singularity. What a joke; what a pathetic irony.
Playing Games - Again, anybody with a company background will recall all the superficial, silly, manipulative gameplaying constantly afoot. Frank gives us two clear examples: Richard the boss refers to him as 'Domino' instead of his correct name, a common practice of manager-types: degrade people by debasing their names and cutting them off mid-sentence. Secondly, Frank catches Sherry watching him in a hand mirror as he stares at her close-fitting dress rising higher and higher toward her well-sculpted ass. In the land of corporations, sex will constantly be used as a weapon to gain power. Think of all the many employer-employee based cases of sexual harassment that have been filed.
I can't recommend this Thomas Ligotti novella highly enough. Added bonus: along with My Work Is Not Yet Done, there are two more short stories of corporate horror also included in the Virgin Books publication.
April 27, 2019
Thomas Ligotti is as close as I come to a living literary hero. Now that I have learned we share a common loathing, however, I find him more sympathetic but less heroic than before. Yes, Thomas Ligotti and I both loathe meetings, and--unfortunately--Ligotti's visceral loathing of meetings is evident on almost every page of this book.
In 2001, after 23 years, Ligotti retired from his position as an editor with The Gale Group (publisher of research volumes for schools and libaries, best known for InfoTrac.) Then, in 2002, he published My Work is Not Yet Done. Set in the world of corporate management, this book—although it also includes a few forays into cosmic terror—is structured around the primary horror of meetings: those pointless gatherings of perpetual antagonists, where hidden agendas have already been decided, where every weakness will be exploited, each small misstep used to blight a rival's career.
I loathe meetings too. I recently retired from 34 years of teaching, and—although I view my colleagues more charitably than Ligotti's hero views his—I now see even more clearly just how much I loathed those meetings, how the pull of their soul-killing inertia can weigh down—my, anybody's--useful endeavors.
So I sympathize. The trouble is, though, that I look to Ligotti for cosmic—not quotidian—terror. Sure, this book has cosmic terrors in it too, but, filtered through Ligotti's loathing of meetings, even those terrors begin to appear mundane.
It is a different, an heroic terror that I seek, something that howls in the spaces between the stars. I think I'll open my old copy of Grimscribe, read a few favorites again.
March 16, 2025
International Horror Guild Award, Long Form Category winner 'My Work Is Not Yet Done' has three tales of corporate horror. Ligotti writes in a Lovecraftian style applying it to the corporate climate. There is a sense of foreboding and darkness within these tales without the explicit schlock seen in other contemporary works.
It is the first, and main story that really grabbed me - 'My Work Is Not Done' where corporate workplace paranoia is proven correct in reality, and so a victimised, highly OCD, and highly paranoid colleague decides to exact vengeance on those that bullied him. A strong Two Star, 5 out of 12 read
2011
It is the first, and main story that really grabbed me - 'My Work Is Not Done' where corporate workplace paranoia is proven correct in reality, and so a victimised, highly OCD, and highly paranoid colleague decides to exact vengeance on those that bullied him. A strong Two Star, 5 out of 12 read
2011
January 12, 2024
In a world where even the most focused writers feel the pressure to “build a brand” with glamorous photos, clever and flashy social media (and being present on them 24/7), interviews, talks and whatnot, Ligotti's notorious reclusiveness, his absence is distinctly congenial. That he wrote these short stories which perfectly capture the horror of office life and corporate worlds, makes him all the more likable.
[...]because the presence of these living ghosts, these ambulatory spirits, was simply too haunting to be tolerated, provoking a dismal reminder of something that must be ignored at all costs … for these specters were not merely human detritus that the rest of us had left behind, but also citizens of a future that awaits all the empires infesting this earth, not to mention the imminent fall of those fragile homelands of flesh which we each inhabit.
We all know the feeling (at least I hope we all do) ... Surviving the corporate day only thanks to powerful escapist tendencies and daydreams of manifold ways of dramatically slamming your notice into the faces of line managers or even better, of HR managers, seeking the satisfaction lacking in those soulless places in fantasies. Handing in your notice is never satisfying in real life though, it's just the daydreaming which is.
Junior manager Frank Dominio doesn't leave it at daydreaming, he's determined to make his violent dream come true after being wronged by seven of his colleagues in a particularly nasty way. He prepares well to hunt the seven down, but there is something else at work too - a pitch black. And of course he's not the only one who is aware of this thing. This first titular novelette is followed by two shorter stories; “I Have a Special Plan For This World”, set in Murder City, in the headquarters of a company in which all high level managers tend to die or disappear and “The Nightmare Network”, which makes use of the multimedia technique and in various video extracts conveys the feeling also known as corporate dread.
I have read Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe some years ago, and most of those stories worked well for me, I like Ligotti's take on cosmic horror and these three tales backed that first impression. I was recommended this book by a real life friend of mine who was totally smitten back when it was first published and it's easy to see why. Thomas Ligotti - another brilliant author worth further exploring.
[...]because the presence of these living ghosts, these ambulatory spirits, was simply too haunting to be tolerated, provoking a dismal reminder of something that must be ignored at all costs … for these specters were not merely human detritus that the rest of us had left behind, but also citizens of a future that awaits all the empires infesting this earth, not to mention the imminent fall of those fragile homelands of flesh which we each inhabit.
We all know the feeling (at least I hope we all do) ... Surviving the corporate day only thanks to powerful escapist tendencies and daydreams of manifold ways of dramatically slamming your notice into the faces of line managers or even better, of HR managers, seeking the satisfaction lacking in those soulless places in fantasies. Handing in your notice is never satisfying in real life though, it's just the daydreaming which is.
Junior manager Frank Dominio doesn't leave it at daydreaming, he's determined to make his violent dream come true after being wronged by seven of his colleagues in a particularly nasty way. He prepares well to hunt the seven down, but there is something else at work too - a pitch black. And of course he's not the only one who is aware of this thing. This first titular novelette is followed by two shorter stories; “I Have a Special Plan For This World”, set in Murder City, in the headquarters of a company in which all high level managers tend to die or disappear and “The Nightmare Network”, which makes use of the multimedia technique and in various video extracts conveys the feeling also known as corporate dread.
I have read Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe some years ago, and most of those stories worked well for me, I like Ligotti's take on cosmic horror and these three tales backed that first impression. I was recommended this book by a real life friend of mine who was totally smitten back when it was first published and it's easy to see why. Thomas Ligotti - another brilliant author worth further exploring.
April 1, 2011
MY WORK IS NOT YET DONE SUMMARIZED IN PICTOGRAMS
MY WORK IS NOT YET DONE SUMMARIZED IN BORING OLD WORDS
4.0 stars. This is a bleak, bizarre and wonderfully original story that I thought I would have real trouble describing in a way that conveys the “unique feel” of the book. Then, as I was contemplating visual aids for my review, the images above popped into my head and I thought...That's pretty much it!!! Still, I will do my best to explain my weird picture equation.
1. Say Hello to Dilbert
Our “Dilbert”
is Frank Dominio. Frank is a scared, introverted loner who holds a "lower-middle management" position at a huge, nameless “mega corporation.” Frank suffers from OCD and a serious persecution complex and feels loathing and disgust for humanity (who he refers to as swine). This loathing is simply of reflection of Frank's bleak outlook on life in general and his view that anyone who willingly participates in the farce that is LIFE is a swine. As Frank explains on the first page of the story:
Frank sees the world as a greedy, impersonal, implacable place that has no room for the individual or their needs....Quick Side note: If you haven't figured it out yet, let me be very clear that this is NOT A FEEL GOOD BOOK. It is complete absence of light "black hole" dark and can turn a cute, carefree kitten into
Frank sees the company he works for as a microcosm of this worldview and he sum up the purpose of his employer (and by extension the world) as follows:
2. Where Dilbert meets Kafka
Frank's disgust for humanity are personified in 7 people that he works with at the company. They are his 6 fellow managers and their boss, Richard. Frank refers to them collectively as the 7 Dwarfs. Each Monday, Frank meets with the 7 Dwarfs for a department meeting. At the beginning of the story, Frank introduces a radical proposal that he thinks will benefit the company (Frank explains that he is only doing this because occasionally you need to show your worth so people will leave you alone the rest of the time).
To Frank’s dismay, his proposal is viewed with silence and polite deflection by the 7 Dwarfs and he leaves the meeting very upset. [ENTER KAFKA]
Suddenly Frank finds himself in the middle of a “Kafkaesque” conspiracy (or so he thinks). Odd occurrences begin to happen that make Frank look bad and Frank’s boss privately tells him he is willing to submit the proposal to the higher ups but would like “all of the background data” as well. Frank is reluctant and believes that the 7 Dwarfs are conspiring against him. Eventually, Frank thinks his suspicions are confirmed as he is fired from the company (normally, I would say the following is a spoiler, but it is on the back of the book so I figured I was safe.
3. The Devil Made me Do it
Frank immediately decides to massacre the 7 Dwarfs and then kill himself and buys an arsenal to carry out the plan which is set for the next Monday meeting. However, before that can happen “something happens” [ENTER SUPERNATURAL FORCE]
and Frank discovers that guns are no longer necessary for him to take his revenge. Again, I normally would be worried that I am saying too much but all of this is mentioned on the back of the book as well.
4. Turning the Sins Against the Sinner
For those who have seen the movie [ENTER SEVEN]
(and for those who haven’t, you really should). Frank goes about planning to kill his co-workers in the most ghastly ways he can think of…and the boy has quite an imagination. Ghastly and brutal (yet incredibly inventive) imagery shall follow so be prepared.
As much information about the story as I have given above, I don’t think I have described much more than I knew going into the story based on reading the book description. Besides, the real magic of this story is in experiencing Ligotti’s superb prose and his amazingly deft plotting. This is the first Ligotti book I have ever read and I am an instant fan and looking forward to reading more of his stories. Plus, as a HUGE BONUS, the title story I just described is only one of three stories in the book and the other two are excellent as well. I will leave you to discover those on your own.
Finally, I need to give a big shout out to GAVIN who recommended this superb book to me. Gavin, you sir have earned TWO BIG THUMBS UP!!!
MY WORK IS NOT YET DONE SUMMARIZED IN BORING OLD WORDS
4.0 stars. This is a bleak, bizarre and wonderfully original story that I thought I would have real trouble describing in a way that conveys the “unique feel” of the book. Then, as I was contemplating visual aids for my review, the images above popped into my head and I thought...That's pretty much it!!! Still, I will do my best to explain my weird picture equation.
1. Say Hello to Dilbert
Our “Dilbert”
is Frank Dominio. Frank is a scared, introverted loner who holds a "lower-middle management" position at a huge, nameless “mega corporation.” Frank suffers from OCD and a serious persecution complex and feels loathing and disgust for humanity (who he refers to as swine). This loathing is simply of reflection of Frank's bleak outlook on life in general and his view that anyone who willingly participates in the farce that is LIFE is a swine. As Frank explains on the first page of the story:Of Course there is a measure of beast's blood in anyone who aspires to maintain a place in this world, anyone who lacks that ultimate decency to remove themselves from the herd either by violence to themselves or total capitulation to their dread.
Frank sees the world as a greedy, impersonal, implacable place that has no room for the individual or their needs....Quick Side note: If you haven't figured it out yet, let me be very clear that this is NOT A FEEL GOOD BOOK. It is complete absence of light "black hole" dark and can turn a cute, carefree kitten into
Frank sees the company he works for as a microcosm of this worldview and he sum up the purpose of his employer (and by extension the world) as follows:
The company that employed me strived only to serve up the cheapest fare that its customers would tolerate, churn it out as fast as possible and charge as much as they could get away with. If it were possible…the company would sell what all businesses of its kind dream of selling—Nothing. And for this product they would command the ultimate price—Everything.
This market strategy would then go on until one day, among the world-wide ruin of derelict factories and warehouses and office buildings, there stood only a single shining, windowless structure with no entrance and no exit. Inside would be—will be—only a dense network of computers calculating profits. Outside will be the tribes of savage vagrants with no comprehension of the nature or purpose of the shining, windowless structure. Perhaps they will worship it as a god. Perhaps they will try and destroy it, their primitive armory proving wholly ineffectual against [it]…
2. Where Dilbert meets Kafka
Frank's disgust for humanity are personified in 7 people that he works with at the company. They are his 6 fellow managers and their boss, Richard. Frank refers to them collectively as the 7 Dwarfs. Each Monday, Frank meets with the 7 Dwarfs for a department meeting. At the beginning of the story, Frank introduces a radical proposal that he thinks will benefit the company (Frank explains that he is only doing this because occasionally you need to show your worth so people will leave you alone the rest of the time).
To Frank’s dismay, his proposal is viewed with silence and polite deflection by the 7 Dwarfs and he leaves the meeting very upset. [ENTER KAFKA]
Suddenly Frank finds himself in the middle of a “Kafkaesque” conspiracy (or so he thinks). Odd occurrences begin to happen that make Frank look bad and Frank’s boss privately tells him he is willing to submit the proposal to the higher ups but would like “all of the background data” as well. Frank is reluctant and believes that the 7 Dwarfs are conspiring against him. Eventually, Frank thinks his suspicions are confirmed as he is fired from the company (normally, I would say the following is a spoiler, but it is on the back of the book so I figured I was safe.
3. The Devil Made me Do it
Frank immediately decides to massacre the 7 Dwarfs and then kill himself and buys an arsenal to carry out the plan which is set for the next Monday meeting. However, before that can happen “something happens” [ENTER SUPERNATURAL FORCE]
and Frank discovers that guns are no longer necessary for him to take his revenge. Again, I normally would be worried that I am saying too much but all of this is mentioned on the back of the book as well.
4. Turning the Sins Against the Sinner
For those who have seen the movie [ENTER SEVEN]
(and for those who haven’t, you really should). Frank goes about planning to kill his co-workers in the most ghastly ways he can think of…and the boy has quite an imagination. Ghastly and brutal (yet incredibly inventive) imagery shall follow so be prepared.
As much information about the story as I have given above, I don’t think I have described much more than I knew going into the story based on reading the book description. Besides, the real magic of this story is in experiencing Ligotti’s superb prose and his amazingly deft plotting. This is the first Ligotti book I have ever read and I am an instant fan and looking forward to reading more of his stories. Plus, as a HUGE BONUS, the title story I just described is only one of three stories in the book and the other two are excellent as well. I will leave you to discover those on your own.
Finally, I need to give a big shout out to GAVIN who recommended this superb book to me. Gavin, you sir have earned TWO BIG THUMBS UP!!!
June 3, 2019
I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to burst out laughing when reading Thomas Ligotti, but I confess that I did on several occasions while reading "My Work is Not Yet Done". Let me explain why.
I discovered Ligotti's work last year, with the "Teatro Grottesco" collection (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...), and I really liked it: his prose is wonderful, and he creates amazingly gritty, cloying and paranoid tales of weird cosmic horror - which I love. "My Work Is Not Yet Done" was next on my list of his works because it is labeled as corporate horror, and after over a decade of working in the insurance industry (not to mention surviving a major merger), I flatter myself that I know a thing or two about the potentially horrifying and maddeningly absurd sides of corporate life.
Frank Dominio (who's family name is always mistaken for "Domino" - metaphor alert!) is a middle management cog in a big company that produces God only knows what, for God only knows what purpose. He suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder, so he tends to isolate himself and often has paranoid thoughts. He is part of a management team of seven people, nicknamed the Seven Dwarves, whom he comes to believe are conspiring to get him fired. When he is forced to resign, he concocts a revenge plan that involves murdering the people he believes responsible for his termination...
It turns out that Frank was actually right about the Seven plotting against him, but not quite in the way he believed. And while he does end up enacting his violent revenge plan, that also goes slightly differently than expected, because of the intervention of a strange, dark force that defies understanding.
What made me laugh about this, you might wonder? Well, for starters, the grandiloquence of Ligotti's prose is delightful, but when used to describe the nitty-gritty, painful parts of corporate work, as someone who has sat on the kind of meetings and committees he describes until I wanted to smash my head against a wall, it is hard for me not to find that he captures the senselessness and absurdity of it all to a tee - in rather magnificent style. He also nails the description of a few key specimens of the corporate fauna. Anyone who has ever worked in an office has known an over-organizer who fucks everyone else's work up by re-organizing everything, that girl who dresses just appropriately enough not to be reported to HR for violating the dress code, the person who never answers their phone or email but always needs answers from you immediately, the gossip who never ever shuts up, the boss who subtly bullies people until they would rather get another job than to keep putting up with the psychological abuse... How tempting to imagine them as agents of an unnatural dark force...
To be honest, imagining dark, Lovecraftian weirdness do away with such people is far from sad, and Frank's punishment for them feels delightfully appropriate. If you've ever gotten up on a Monday morning and thought that you wouldn't be that sad if your office had burnt down over the weekend, this little novella is definitely for you! Deeply unnerving and darkly funny. 4 and a half stars rounded up.
I discovered Ligotti's work last year, with the "Teatro Grottesco" collection (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...), and I really liked it: his prose is wonderful, and he creates amazingly gritty, cloying and paranoid tales of weird cosmic horror - which I love. "My Work Is Not Yet Done" was next on my list of his works because it is labeled as corporate horror, and after over a decade of working in the insurance industry (not to mention surviving a major merger), I flatter myself that I know a thing or two about the potentially horrifying and maddeningly absurd sides of corporate life.
Frank Dominio (who's family name is always mistaken for "Domino" - metaphor alert!) is a middle management cog in a big company that produces God only knows what, for God only knows what purpose. He suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder, so he tends to isolate himself and often has paranoid thoughts. He is part of a management team of seven people, nicknamed the Seven Dwarves, whom he comes to believe are conspiring to get him fired. When he is forced to resign, he concocts a revenge plan that involves murdering the people he believes responsible for his termination...
It turns out that Frank was actually right about the Seven plotting against him, but not quite in the way he believed. And while he does end up enacting his violent revenge plan, that also goes slightly differently than expected, because of the intervention of a strange, dark force that defies understanding.
What made me laugh about this, you might wonder? Well, for starters, the grandiloquence of Ligotti's prose is delightful, but when used to describe the nitty-gritty, painful parts of corporate work, as someone who has sat on the kind of meetings and committees he describes until I wanted to smash my head against a wall, it is hard for me not to find that he captures the senselessness and absurdity of it all to a tee - in rather magnificent style. He also nails the description of a few key specimens of the corporate fauna. Anyone who has ever worked in an office has known an over-organizer who fucks everyone else's work up by re-organizing everything, that girl who dresses just appropriately enough not to be reported to HR for violating the dress code, the person who never answers their phone or email but always needs answers from you immediately, the gossip who never ever shuts up, the boss who subtly bullies people until they would rather get another job than to keep putting up with the psychological abuse... How tempting to imagine them as agents of an unnatural dark force...
To be honest, imagining dark, Lovecraftian weirdness do away with such people is far from sad, and Frank's punishment for them feels delightfully appropriate. If you've ever gotten up on a Monday morning and thought that you wouldn't be that sad if your office had burnt down over the weekend, this little novella is definitely for you! Deeply unnerving and darkly funny. 4 and a half stars rounded up.
May 8, 2024
This is my second Ligotti book (1st non-fiction) and his writing is right up my alley. I'm excited to find more of his works.
October 26, 2014
The company that employed me strived only to serve up the cheapest fare that its customers would tolerate, churn it out as fast as possible, and charge as much as they could get away with. If it were possible to do so, the company would sell what all businesses of its kind dream about selling, creating that which all our efforts were tacitly supposed to achieve: the ultimate product – Nothing. And for this product they would command the ultimate price – Everything.
This is the third collection by Thomas Ligotti that I've read, and it's the most straightforward. The title novella, My Work is Not Yet Done, is a very dark and gruesome story of Frank Dominio - a typical corporate drone caught in a mindless 9 to 5, who is convinced that his seven co-workers are conspiring against him. When Frank is demoted and then removed from his position completely, he is completely convinced that it's their doing that got him sacked - and begins to plan a bloody revenge on all involved. But as he thinks about the situation he found himself in, he sees the destructive, malignant nature of the corporation that he worked in, and the even further destructive nature of the system on which it operates:
This market strategy would go on until one day, among the world-wide ruins of derelict factories and warehouses and office buildings, there stood only a single, shining, windowless structure without entrance or exit. Inside would be -- will be -- only a dense network of computers calculating profits. Outside will be tribes of savage vagrants with no comprehension of the purpose or nature of the shining, windowless structure. Perhaps they will worship it as a god. Perhaps they will try to destroy it, their primitive armory proving wholly ineffectual against the smooth and impervious walls of the structure, upon which not even a scratch can be inflicted.
Commodity fetishism is not a new concept, but Ligotti's dark vision of its consequences is truly excellent. Gradual dehumanizing of workers turning them into easily replaceable links in a corporate chain, which would eventually evolve into a conscious, powerful and malevolent force of its own. In this vision some of the vagrant tribes are said to consider worshiping it as a God, but I think that it is the embodiment of the Devil.
The next two stories expand on the theme of revenge and corporate isolation, with the last story featuring a corporate merger combined with cosmic horror in an episodic, fragmented way through a series of want ads in the ultimate aim of creating a multi-dimensional, semi-organic corporation. However, the title story is the most successful riff against corporate culture and its devastating events on human life, which all people who have ever been subjected to it will recognize and be able to relate to themselves.
This is the third collection by Thomas Ligotti that I've read, and it's the most straightforward. The title novella, My Work is Not Yet Done, is a very dark and gruesome story of Frank Dominio - a typical corporate drone caught in a mindless 9 to 5, who is convinced that his seven co-workers are conspiring against him. When Frank is demoted and then removed from his position completely, he is completely convinced that it's their doing that got him sacked - and begins to plan a bloody revenge on all involved. But as he thinks about the situation he found himself in, he sees the destructive, malignant nature of the corporation that he worked in, and the even further destructive nature of the system on which it operates:
This market strategy would go on until one day, among the world-wide ruins of derelict factories and warehouses and office buildings, there stood only a single, shining, windowless structure without entrance or exit. Inside would be -- will be -- only a dense network of computers calculating profits. Outside will be tribes of savage vagrants with no comprehension of the purpose or nature of the shining, windowless structure. Perhaps they will worship it as a god. Perhaps they will try to destroy it, their primitive armory proving wholly ineffectual against the smooth and impervious walls of the structure, upon which not even a scratch can be inflicted.
Commodity fetishism is not a new concept, but Ligotti's dark vision of its consequences is truly excellent. Gradual dehumanizing of workers turning them into easily replaceable links in a corporate chain, which would eventually evolve into a conscious, powerful and malevolent force of its own. In this vision some of the vagrant tribes are said to consider worshiping it as a God, but I think that it is the embodiment of the Devil.
The next two stories expand on the theme of revenge and corporate isolation, with the last story featuring a corporate merger combined with cosmic horror in an episodic, fragmented way through a series of want ads in the ultimate aim of creating a multi-dimensional, semi-organic corporation. However, the title story is the most successful riff against corporate culture and its devastating events on human life, which all people who have ever been subjected to it will recognize and be able to relate to themselves.
November 24, 2018
Prvo što bih naglasio jeste da autor ove nadasve fenomenalne knjige pati od nekoliko psihičkih oboljenja, te da se sav mrak, pesimizam, gorčina i mržnja utkana u njegovu prozu napaja iz izvora ankziosnosti, depresije, anhedonije... ako je stvaranje umetnosti terapija, šta drugo očekivati od Ligotija nego potpuni nihilizam? Može li ikakva svetlost izaći iz uma čoveka koji oseća jedino bol i prazninu? Može samo jedna - sjaj tame.
Više na linku:
https://wp.me/papBi1-1h
Više na linku:
https://wp.me/papBi1-1h
January 2, 2023
My Work Is Not Yet Done
A workplace revenge novella drenched in Ligottian pessimism. Feeling largely ambivalent toward workplace revenge stories in general, I realized early on that this would hold limited appeal. I thought Ligotti would have a unique spin on this subgenre, and he does but it wasn't significant enough to fully win me over in the end. I guess I'd hoped he would either end up in a different place than he does, or that he would have taken a different route to get there.
I Have a Special Plan for This World
In some ways this is just a slighter, less fleshed-out version of the title novella. The thematic structure remains the same but the story is more vague, with more of a focus on the corporation as an evil entity and less on the narrator's relationships with his coworkers. I found it more effective than the novella in generating an atmosphere of dread and unease.
The Nightmare Network
Even slighter yet is this series of interconnected classified ads and expository pieces charting the rise and fall of various dystopian corporations linked through the titular network. I didn't find it to add or subtract from the collection as a whole. It felt kind of like a withered appendage flapping in the fetid breeze of Ligotti’s prose.
Overall I was somewhat disappointed in this collection. Even though Ligotti's world view seems like it would be well-suited to a satirical and horror-infused treatment of the corporate world, I didn't find that to be entirely the case. In fact, his philosophy actually seems to interfere with the storytelling here. In particular with the novella, the pacing and structure felt off-kilter, and the characterization seemed banal and arbitrary, as if these were simply stock characters serving a higher purpose. This being corporate horror, that may well have been intentional but I still think it weakened the narrative.
In what was unlikely to have been a coincidence, the first edition of this book was published the year after Ligotti resigned from his long-time position at a corporate publishing company. I can't help thinking that ultimately this was him blowing off 20+ years of pent-up steam from working as a document manipulator for corporate overlords. If that's the case, I totally get it but I wouldn't count this among his best work. (2.5 rounded up)
A workplace revenge novella drenched in Ligottian pessimism. Feeling largely ambivalent toward workplace revenge stories in general, I realized early on that this would hold limited appeal. I thought Ligotti would have a unique spin on this subgenre, and he does but it wasn't significant enough to fully win me over in the end. I guess I'd hoped he would either end up in a different place than he does, or that he would have taken a different route to get there.
I Have a Special Plan for This World
In some ways this is just a slighter, less fleshed-out version of the title novella. The thematic structure remains the same but the story is more vague, with more of a focus on the corporation as an evil entity and less on the narrator's relationships with his coworkers. I found it more effective than the novella in generating an atmosphere of dread and unease.
The Nightmare Network
Even slighter yet is this series of interconnected classified ads and expository pieces charting the rise and fall of various dystopian corporations linked through the titular network. I didn't find it to add or subtract from the collection as a whole. It felt kind of like a withered appendage flapping in the fetid breeze of Ligotti’s prose.
Overall I was somewhat disappointed in this collection. Even though Ligotti's world view seems like it would be well-suited to a satirical and horror-infused treatment of the corporate world, I didn't find that to be entirely the case. In fact, his philosophy actually seems to interfere with the storytelling here. In particular with the novella, the pacing and structure felt off-kilter, and the characterization seemed banal and arbitrary, as if these were simply stock characters serving a higher purpose. This being corporate horror, that may well have been intentional but I still think it weakened the narrative.
In what was unlikely to have been a coincidence, the first edition of this book was published the year after Ligotti resigned from his long-time position at a corporate publishing company. I can't help thinking that ultimately this was him blowing off 20+ years of pent-up steam from working as a document manipulator for corporate overlords. If that's the case, I totally get it but I wouldn't count this among his best work. (2.5 rounded up)
January 9, 2013
What a bleak, dark tale of corporate culture and the ways in which the bugs of the corporate world go about surviving day-in and day-out. I can't say that I am going to recommend this, but if you have a hankering for dark material, search no further.
I need to read some more of his stuff before I can fully state if I even like this author...to me, that says something.
Nightmares, here I come.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Okay, I've had some time to think about Ligotti, and have come to this conclusion: He is America's Kafka. He takes what would normally be seen as banal (the office work place), and spins a nightmarish vision that we all secretly agree with. To boot, he has no qualms about putting our "thoughts and feelings" into his words in the most grotesque images possible.
Mr. Ligotti, with all due respect, if we ever work in the same place, let this be my two weeks notice.
A perfect read for the state America is in right now, methinks.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED (for those of you that are deeply disturbed...you know who you are)
I need to read some more of his stuff before I can fully state if I even like this author...to me, that says something.
Nightmares, here I come.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Okay, I've had some time to think about Ligotti, and have come to this conclusion: He is America's Kafka. He takes what would normally be seen as banal (the office work place), and spins a nightmarish vision that we all secretly agree with. To boot, he has no qualms about putting our "thoughts and feelings" into his words in the most grotesque images possible.
Mr. Ligotti, with all due respect, if we ever work in the same place, let this be my two weeks notice.
A perfect read for the state America is in right now, methinks.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED (for those of you that are deeply disturbed...you know who you are)
November 19, 2023
Ligotti es muy grande. Con este libro ya he leído la totalidad de su obra narrativa y sólo me falta por leer su ensayo de La conspiración contra la raza humana.
En este libro Ligotti arremete de forma terrorífica y satírica contra el mundo despiadado de la empresa y pos efectos deshumanizadores que tiene sobre los empleados.
«Mi trabajo no esta hecho» es una pequeña novela que da título al texto y en mi opinión de lo mejor que he leído de este maestro. Narra como Frank Dominio, un humilde empleado tiene un plan para mejorar la empresa. Su superior y compañeros desprecian sus planes para después aprovecharse de ellos. Frank empezará a planear una venganza que se convertirá en apoteósica cuando una extraña identidad le posea.
Este cuento es como una mezcla de Lovecraft y Seven dentro de una oficina. Genial.
La segunda historia; "Tengo un plan especial para este mundo" narra como una empresa cambia de calle y empiezan a suceder asesinatos relacionados con una extraña niebla amarilla.
El tercer cuento,"La Red de Pesadillas" me pareció un galimatías dificil de seguir.
Sólo la novela que ocupa la mayor parte del libro es una muestra del inmenso talento de este escritor y solo puedo lamentar que no escriba más porque para mí ya es un clásico a la altura de los grandes: Poe, Lovecraft,King o Barker.
Como propina Valdemar ha incluido como sería un episodio de Expediente X realizado por Ligotti: Crampton. Este guión que fue rechazado en su dia para la serie nos lo muestra. Con unos Mulder y Scully investigando el asesinato de un policia teniendo como a principal sospechoso a un maniquí. La ambientación en un pueblo perdido y extraño llamado Crampton hacen el resto. Hubiese sido un gran capítulo.
Mis respetos señor Ligotti.
En este libro Ligotti arremete de forma terrorífica y satírica contra el mundo despiadado de la empresa y pos efectos deshumanizadores que tiene sobre los empleados.
«Mi trabajo no esta hecho» es una pequeña novela que da título al texto y en mi opinión de lo mejor que he leído de este maestro. Narra como Frank Dominio, un humilde empleado tiene un plan para mejorar la empresa. Su superior y compañeros desprecian sus planes para después aprovecharse de ellos. Frank empezará a planear una venganza que se convertirá en apoteósica cuando una extraña identidad le posea.
Este cuento es como una mezcla de Lovecraft y Seven dentro de una oficina. Genial.
La segunda historia; "Tengo un plan especial para este mundo" narra como una empresa cambia de calle y empiezan a suceder asesinatos relacionados con una extraña niebla amarilla.
El tercer cuento,"La Red de Pesadillas" me pareció un galimatías dificil de seguir.
Sólo la novela que ocupa la mayor parte del libro es una muestra del inmenso talento de este escritor y solo puedo lamentar que no escriba más porque para mí ya es un clásico a la altura de los grandes: Poe, Lovecraft,King o Barker.
Como propina Valdemar ha incluido como sería un episodio de Expediente X realizado por Ligotti: Crampton. Este guión que fue rechazado en su dia para la serie nos lo muestra. Con unos Mulder y Scully investigando el asesinato de un policia teniendo como a principal sospechoso a un maniquí. La ambientación en un pueblo perdido y extraño llamado Crampton hacen el resto. Hubiese sido un gran capítulo.
Mis respetos señor Ligotti.
April 18, 2015
Up until this morning this was in line for the "best thing I've ever read in my life", but since the main narrative MY WORK IS NOT YET DONE kind of ended in a predictable whimper, I'll only say this: MY WORK IS NOT YET DONE: THREE TALES OF CORPORATE HORROR is just one of the best things I've read in 2015. Whoever calls himself a horror fan and hasn't read Thomas Ligotti yet is like a man saying he likes painting despite looking at the same wall of the same museum for years.
The man is a universe unto himself. I've read Ligotti's essays before, they were good but in no way could they measure up to THIS. The psychological accuracy of his first person narration is second to none. He nails the perceptive insight that makes a character feel special, but weak at the same time for understanding and fearing human nature better than his fellow man. His storytelling is unhinged and free from most of the constraints of the genre. Ligotti is a standout writer and MY WORK IS NOT YET DONE was a fantastic reading experience. I tip my hat to him!
The man is a universe unto himself. I've read Ligotti's essays before, they were good but in no way could they measure up to THIS. The psychological accuracy of his first person narration is second to none. He nails the perceptive insight that makes a character feel special, but weak at the same time for understanding and fearing human nature better than his fellow man. His storytelling is unhinged and free from most of the constraints of the genre. Ligotti is a standout writer and MY WORK IS NOT YET DONE was a fantastic reading experience. I tip my hat to him!
July 3, 2016
Nezadovoljstvo na radnom mestu, odnos nadređenih prema potčinjenima, homo homini lupus - u svom punom sjaju, uz primesu Lavkraftovog neizrecivog užasa koji odnekud vreba, i očigledan uticaj Kafke, sve to se nalazi između korica Ligotijevih priča o tzv."korporativnom užasu" pod nazivom "Nedovršeni posao".
Zbog malo konfuzne, ili prosto meni nedovoljno jasne, poslednje priče, moja konačna ocena: 4*
September 10, 2016
I don't read much horror. I mean, just look at the much-neglected horror shelf at the back of any bookstore, dominated by Anne Rice, Stephen King, Dean Koontz. Nothing much too alluring. But as someone who is very interested in horror cinema, it seems strange to me that outside of the standard Poe and Lovecraft and a few Clive Barker stories, I give the stuff such a wide margin (please suggest). So when I ran across Ligotti, who draws comparison to Bruno Schulz and Thomas Bernhard, Kafka and Burroughs, I knew I had to investigate.
And so this. The title novella, 3/4 of this volume of "corporate horror" opens pretty well as a sort of gothic paranoiac Office Space, switches to something annoyingly obvious, and then, fortunately, to something much less obvious. The weird mystery of which makes the rest of the story move very quickly. The world-view at the center is oppressive and unsettling as could be hoped, and offers memorable moments of hallucinatory insight, but a lot of the action leaves me pretty cold. Particularly when it falls into a sort of theater of the grotesque (appropriating another Ligotti title) that reduces to "hey, what's the craziest, most awful death you can think of?" Enghh, never mind. I guess there are still reasons that I don't read much horror. I was hoping that the literary comparisons indicated a strength of writing and aesthetics to correspond to the best style, ambiance, and dread in good horror cinema, and sometimes they do, but only sometimes.
Still, some of the obsessive, dire analysis of the business universe is quite good, and compellingly written. Here's the very best part, which is admittedly excellent:
The other two stories that follow are much shorter, one an eerie variation on office alienation and solipsism, the other a fragmented documentation, that is only half-way comprehensible but fully bizarre and intriguing (and has a stunning last moment). (A few years later now, thinking back, I'd really like to read that second bonus story again. My recollection of it is that it was totally insane and original.)
Ligotti is unique at least, in the underlying conceptions if not always in execution. I'll probably come back to him at some point, despite rating this merely "okay", which it was.
And so this. The title novella, 3/4 of this volume of "corporate horror" opens pretty well as a sort of gothic paranoiac Office Space, switches to something annoyingly obvious, and then, fortunately, to something much less obvious. The weird mystery of which makes the rest of the story move very quickly. The world-view at the center is oppressive and unsettling as could be hoped, and offers memorable moments of hallucinatory insight, but a lot of the action leaves me pretty cold. Particularly when it falls into a sort of theater of the grotesque (appropriating another Ligotti title) that reduces to "hey, what's the craziest, most awful death you can think of?" Enghh, never mind. I guess there are still reasons that I don't read much horror. I was hoping that the literary comparisons indicated a strength of writing and aesthetics to correspond to the best style, ambiance, and dread in good horror cinema, and sometimes they do, but only sometimes.
Still, some of the obsessive, dire analysis of the business universe is quite good, and compellingly written. Here's the very best part, which is admittedly excellent:
The company that employed me strived only to serve up the cheapest fare that the customer would tolerate, churn it out as fast as possible, and charge as much as they could get away with. If it were possible to do so, the company would sell what all businesses of its kind dream about selling, creating that which all of our efforts were tacitly supposed to achieve: the ultimate product -- Nothing. And for this product they would command the ultimate price -- Everything.
This market strategy would go on until one day, among the world-wide ruins of derelict factories and warehouses and office buildings, there stood only a single, shining, windowless structure without entrance or exit. Inside would be -- will be -- only a dense network of computers calculating profits. Outside will be tribes of savage vagrants with no comprehension of the purpose or nature of the shining, windowless structure. Perhaps they will worship it as a god. Perhaps they will try to destroy it, their primitive armory proving wholly ineffectual against the smooth and impervious walls of the structure, upon which not even a scratch can be inflicted.
The other two stories that follow are much shorter, one an eerie variation on office alienation and solipsism, the other a fragmented documentation, that is only half-way comprehensible but fully bizarre and intriguing (and has a stunning last moment). (A few years later now, thinking back, I'd really like to read that second bonus story again. My recollection of it is that it was totally insane and original.)
Ligotti is unique at least, in the underlying conceptions if not always in execution. I'll probably come back to him at some point, despite rating this merely "okay", which it was.
April 25, 2017
(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)
Regular readers will remember that I recently read the new In the Mountains of Madness by W. Scott Poole, which is not just a biography of horror writer HP Lovecraft but also an examination of the "Lovecraftian" culture that has built up around his work since his death; and that got me interested not only in reading the entire oeuvre of Lovecraft for the first time (a process I'm in the middle of right now), but also checking out some of the contemporary authors who write in Lovecraft's vein, and who are helping to carry and extend the "Cthulhu Mythos" into the 21st century. So for advice with that I turned to an acquaintance of mine, Chicago horror author Richard Thomas; and among the other contemporary writers he encouraged me to sample was Thomas Ligotti, who I had already vaguely heard of as, alternatively, "The best horror writer you've never heard of" and "the horror writer all the other horror writers wished they were."
Several of his fictional works struck my fancy when first looking through his bibliography; but what stuck out much more in my mind when coming across it, and what I ended up taking on first, was actually a nonfiction book he wrote back in 2011 with the intriguing title The Conspiracy Against the Human Race. It's essentially a Philosophy 101 survey of all the various deep thinkers throughout history who have espoused what Ligotti calls a "philosophy of pessimism," which he then examines and weaves together to present a sort of unified narrative story about what all these philosophers had in common, and the 3,000-year-old lesson they've been trying to teach us the whole time. It essentially starts with the idea that no living creatures in the universe were ever meant to have self-sentient consciousness, and that the fact that humans do is actually an aberration and a curse, not some sort of gift from a benevolent god; because with this self-sentient consciousness, we're then compelled to spend our lives searching for a meaning to our existence, but are saddled with the knowledge that there is no meaning to existence, that the universe is quite simply an infinitely large void of constant chaos and random violence, bereft of any human-invented quality like "equality" or "fairness," and that each of our lives are nothing but insignificant specks in the cosmic scale, in which we change not a single thing about the universe in our lifetimes and then are promptly forgotten by the human race a mere generation or two after our deaths.
That's the "conspiracy" of the book's title, the idea that someone is perpetrating a grand cruel joke on humanity at all our expenses; for anyone who looks too closely at this unvarnished truth about the universe, one that we were born with the ability to easily see, ends up going violently insane (or in other words, suicide victims and serial killers are simply the people who see the universe as it really is), which means that to stay sane, productive members of society, we must literally spend our entire lives making up pretty little lies about existence (that there is a cosmic order to it, that there is an inherent sense of justice, that we were purposely born on this planet for a specific reason), and then spend every ounce of our energy brainwashing ourselves into believing these lies, despite the fact that we can quite easily see with our rational minds just how much we're deluding ourselves when we tell ourselves these things. That's essentially the basis behind every horror story ever written, Ligotti argues, the schism between the lies we tell ourselves about an orderly, fair universe and the unending parade of chaos and violence that we glimpse when we stop telling ourselves these lies; and he then spends the length of his book hopping from one famous thinker to another over the course of written history, showing how there have always been select philosophers and authors around, from the ancient Greeks to the Renaissance to the Victorian Age to now, who have used this same basic set of principles as the basis behind every treatise and manifesto they ever wrote.
Yeah, pretty dark and heady stuff, making it no surprise that True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto has admitted in interviews that he based Matthew McConaughey's season 1 antihero Rush Cohle directly on the theories being discussed in this book; and it also goes a long way towards explaining why a genre writer like Ligotti cites as some of his favorite authors such surprising non-horror people as Arthur Schopenhauer, Vladimir Nabokov, and Samuel Beckett. So after this, then, I jumped right into the only book-length fictional piece Ligotti has ever written, 2002's My Work Is Not Yet Done, republished in 2009 for a larger audience by hipster British press Virgin Books (all the rest of his books are short-story collections), which unsurprisingly reads like a fictional version of all the nonfiction theories being banded about in Conspiracy. It's essentially the tale of an intellectual malcontent and mentally imbalanced loner working a faceless middle-management job at a blandly nondescript corporation; when he's railroaded by scheming co-workers into getting unfairly fired, he makes plans to launch into the violent act of retribution you would expect from such a person, but then a sudden dark cloud that envelops the city that night imbues him with a malevolent supernatural spirit that suddenly makes the story go in a much different and weirder direction.
I'll let the rest of this delightfully crackpot story remain a surprise, although I will mention that the scope of the narrative gets a lot bigger and grander than you would expect by the time the story is over, and that it's also obvious in this book why so many people call Ligotti the natural heir to Lovecraft and his obsession for all-powerful creatures who regard humans as little more than gnats to be flicked at in annoyance. What may be the most clever thing of all about about My Work, however, is that it's also an astute examination of the former industrial powerhouses of the American Midwest, and the ignoble corrosion they have faced in the post-Industrial age (Ligotti was born and raised in Detroit, and the unnamed city where My Work takes place feels an awful lot like it, although you could also substitute in such cities as Cleveland, Indianapolis or St. Louis), as well as a gleefully cynical takedown of the misguided attempts to transform these cities in the 21st century into shining creative-class destinations full of coffeehouses, bike paths and loft condos. (In fact, in a way you can see the main theme in My Work manifested as the question, "What if literal demons were behind the urban gentrification movement?")
It's been a darkly exhilarating experience for the last few weeks, being stuck so deep in Ligotti's unrelentingly nihilistic universe, a writer who after thirty years of professional publishing just now seems to be starting to come into his own as a popular public figure. (He's one of only ten living writers on the planet who's been republished by Penguin Classics, a feat which only happened a year and a half ago, at which point the Washington Post called him "the best-kept secret in contemporary horror fiction.") If you yourself are looking for a refreshingly chilling alternative to the played-out "ghosts in the suburbs" trope of Stephen King and other Postmodernist horror authors, I suggest you give Ligotti a whirl yourself.
Regular readers will remember that I recently read the new In the Mountains of Madness by W. Scott Poole, which is not just a biography of horror writer HP Lovecraft but also an examination of the "Lovecraftian" culture that has built up around his work since his death; and that got me interested not only in reading the entire oeuvre of Lovecraft for the first time (a process I'm in the middle of right now), but also checking out some of the contemporary authors who write in Lovecraft's vein, and who are helping to carry and extend the "Cthulhu Mythos" into the 21st century. So for advice with that I turned to an acquaintance of mine, Chicago horror author Richard Thomas; and among the other contemporary writers he encouraged me to sample was Thomas Ligotti, who I had already vaguely heard of as, alternatively, "The best horror writer you've never heard of" and "the horror writer all the other horror writers wished they were."
Several of his fictional works struck my fancy when first looking through his bibliography; but what stuck out much more in my mind when coming across it, and what I ended up taking on first, was actually a nonfiction book he wrote back in 2011 with the intriguing title The Conspiracy Against the Human Race. It's essentially a Philosophy 101 survey of all the various deep thinkers throughout history who have espoused what Ligotti calls a "philosophy of pessimism," which he then examines and weaves together to present a sort of unified narrative story about what all these philosophers had in common, and the 3,000-year-old lesson they've been trying to teach us the whole time. It essentially starts with the idea that no living creatures in the universe were ever meant to have self-sentient consciousness, and that the fact that humans do is actually an aberration and a curse, not some sort of gift from a benevolent god; because with this self-sentient consciousness, we're then compelled to spend our lives searching for a meaning to our existence, but are saddled with the knowledge that there is no meaning to existence, that the universe is quite simply an infinitely large void of constant chaos and random violence, bereft of any human-invented quality like "equality" or "fairness," and that each of our lives are nothing but insignificant specks in the cosmic scale, in which we change not a single thing about the universe in our lifetimes and then are promptly forgotten by the human race a mere generation or two after our deaths.
That's the "conspiracy" of the book's title, the idea that someone is perpetrating a grand cruel joke on humanity at all our expenses; for anyone who looks too closely at this unvarnished truth about the universe, one that we were born with the ability to easily see, ends up going violently insane (or in other words, suicide victims and serial killers are simply the people who see the universe as it really is), which means that to stay sane, productive members of society, we must literally spend our entire lives making up pretty little lies about existence (that there is a cosmic order to it, that there is an inherent sense of justice, that we were purposely born on this planet for a specific reason), and then spend every ounce of our energy brainwashing ourselves into believing these lies, despite the fact that we can quite easily see with our rational minds just how much we're deluding ourselves when we tell ourselves these things. That's essentially the basis behind every horror story ever written, Ligotti argues, the schism between the lies we tell ourselves about an orderly, fair universe and the unending parade of chaos and violence that we glimpse when we stop telling ourselves these lies; and he then spends the length of his book hopping from one famous thinker to another over the course of written history, showing how there have always been select philosophers and authors around, from the ancient Greeks to the Renaissance to the Victorian Age to now, who have used this same basic set of principles as the basis behind every treatise and manifesto they ever wrote.
Yeah, pretty dark and heady stuff, making it no surprise that True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto has admitted in interviews that he based Matthew McConaughey's season 1 antihero Rush Cohle directly on the theories being discussed in this book; and it also goes a long way towards explaining why a genre writer like Ligotti cites as some of his favorite authors such surprising non-horror people as Arthur Schopenhauer, Vladimir Nabokov, and Samuel Beckett. So after this, then, I jumped right into the only book-length fictional piece Ligotti has ever written, 2002's My Work Is Not Yet Done, republished in 2009 for a larger audience by hipster British press Virgin Books (all the rest of his books are short-story collections), which unsurprisingly reads like a fictional version of all the nonfiction theories being banded about in Conspiracy. It's essentially the tale of an intellectual malcontent and mentally imbalanced loner working a faceless middle-management job at a blandly nondescript corporation; when he's railroaded by scheming co-workers into getting unfairly fired, he makes plans to launch into the violent act of retribution you would expect from such a person, but then a sudden dark cloud that envelops the city that night imbues him with a malevolent supernatural spirit that suddenly makes the story go in a much different and weirder direction.
I'll let the rest of this delightfully crackpot story remain a surprise, although I will mention that the scope of the narrative gets a lot bigger and grander than you would expect by the time the story is over, and that it's also obvious in this book why so many people call Ligotti the natural heir to Lovecraft and his obsession for all-powerful creatures who regard humans as little more than gnats to be flicked at in annoyance. What may be the most clever thing of all about about My Work, however, is that it's also an astute examination of the former industrial powerhouses of the American Midwest, and the ignoble corrosion they have faced in the post-Industrial age (Ligotti was born and raised in Detroit, and the unnamed city where My Work takes place feels an awful lot like it, although you could also substitute in such cities as Cleveland, Indianapolis or St. Louis), as well as a gleefully cynical takedown of the misguided attempts to transform these cities in the 21st century into shining creative-class destinations full of coffeehouses, bike paths and loft condos. (In fact, in a way you can see the main theme in My Work manifested as the question, "What if literal demons were behind the urban gentrification movement?")
It's been a darkly exhilarating experience for the last few weeks, being stuck so deep in Ligotti's unrelentingly nihilistic universe, a writer who after thirty years of professional publishing just now seems to be starting to come into his own as a popular public figure. (He's one of only ten living writers on the planet who's been republished by Penguin Classics, a feat which only happened a year and a half ago, at which point the Washington Post called him "the best-kept secret in contemporary horror fiction.") If you yourself are looking for a refreshingly chilling alternative to the played-out "ghosts in the suburbs" trope of Stephen King and other Postmodernist horror authors, I suggest you give Ligotti a whirl yourself.
November 9, 2019
Yes, this is a five-star book...
I've always held that Teatro Grottesco is my favorite collection by Ligotti, and in which he's at his darkest and peakest state of his craft and maturity both as a writer and as a storyteller. And here I'm again, blown away by nightmares and horrors that I savored to the last period.
Yes this stands as my second most favorite collection by Ligotti, and also one of the best works I've read in my meagre timeline as a reader.
The same haunting prose and rendering that I first experienced in "Teatro Grottesco", with fluid and penetrating storytelling that sinks in deep and beyond.
My Work Is Not Yet Done is Ligotti's lengthiest work (can be disputed as whether a novel or novella), and one of the finest pieces of fiction ever written (that I've ever read). I loved his corporate horror stories in Teatro Grottesco, and here he seems to dive into deeper realms that uncannily uses and relfects the very reality of our present world (yes I know the story takes place in the pre-depression time, but still, come on...).
Just watching them gulp mouthful after mouthful of their various liquids sometimes broght fantasies of a gleaming row of urinals to my mind. Perhaps they all wore special undergarments, I once considered, and freely relieved themselves as we spoke about budgets and headcounts, speed to market and outsourcing.
Yes it's a humorous story, but one cannot help but notice the underlying darkness and derangement, which both made me grin and horrified.
But you can't stereotype it based on the cliche of the so-called "revenge" story; it's much deeper and deliciously exceptional...
My nights and weekends were now taken over by a set of constantly recycled scenarios in which Domino had his day. And that day was soaked in bathtubs of blood, a day of judgement overseen by a never-setting sun that burned madly red against a black sky.
I wanted to be calm and menacing. I wanted to be a creature of murder-lust, a monster of all madnesses. I wanted to do things to Richard that would make the sun grow cold with horror.
Can you feel the murderous rage and hatred? I did feel them, in every line, in every empty space where there were no words written...
I can't discuss anything else regarding My Work Is Not Yet Done, it's the best one to watch out for in this book...
I Have a Special Plan For This World is another corporate horror story, atmospheric, soaked with just as good prose and to me a kind of a plot twist...
The Nightmare Network is quite the disturbing view of the world, if not of the corporate world. I take it as an experimental work in Ligotti's part, and he obviously knocked it out of the park. This is one of the most horrifying ones of Ligotti, depecting downright horrific scenes, if not gory, and scenarios; I'm tempted to call it a "science fiction horror story"...
I don't have much materials by Ligotti left to devour, which is sad, but I don't mind that; I've already started revisiting...
I've always held that Teatro Grottesco is my favorite collection by Ligotti, and in which he's at his darkest and peakest state of his craft and maturity both as a writer and as a storyteller. And here I'm again, blown away by nightmares and horrors that I savored to the last period.
Yes this stands as my second most favorite collection by Ligotti, and also one of the best works I've read in my meagre timeline as a reader.
The same haunting prose and rendering that I first experienced in "Teatro Grottesco", with fluid and penetrating storytelling that sinks in deep and beyond.
My Work Is Not Yet Done is Ligotti's lengthiest work (can be disputed as whether a novel or novella), and one of the finest pieces of fiction ever written (that I've ever read). I loved his corporate horror stories in Teatro Grottesco, and here he seems to dive into deeper realms that uncannily uses and relfects the very reality of our present world (yes I know the story takes place in the pre-depression time, but still, come on...).
Just watching them gulp mouthful after mouthful of their various liquids sometimes broght fantasies of a gleaming row of urinals to my mind. Perhaps they all wore special undergarments, I once considered, and freely relieved themselves as we spoke about budgets and headcounts, speed to market and outsourcing.
Yes it's a humorous story, but one cannot help but notice the underlying darkness and derangement, which both made me grin and horrified.
But you can't stereotype it based on the cliche of the so-called "revenge" story; it's much deeper and deliciously exceptional...
My nights and weekends were now taken over by a set of constantly recycled scenarios in which Domino had his day. And that day was soaked in bathtubs of blood, a day of judgement overseen by a never-setting sun that burned madly red against a black sky.
I wanted to be calm and menacing. I wanted to be a creature of murder-lust, a monster of all madnesses. I wanted to do things to Richard that would make the sun grow cold with horror.
Can you feel the murderous rage and hatred? I did feel them, in every line, in every empty space where there were no words written...
I can't discuss anything else regarding My Work Is Not Yet Done, it's the best one to watch out for in this book...
I Have a Special Plan For This World is another corporate horror story, atmospheric, soaked with just as good prose and to me a kind of a plot twist...
The Nightmare Network is quite the disturbing view of the world, if not of the corporate world. I take it as an experimental work in Ligotti's part, and he obviously knocked it out of the park. This is one of the most horrifying ones of Ligotti, depecting downright horrific scenes, if not gory, and scenarios; I'm tempted to call it a "science fiction horror story"...
I don't have much materials by Ligotti left to devour, which is sad, but I don't mind that; I've already started revisiting...
Read
December 17, 2019One of the most sinister terms in the English language in my mind is "corporate culture." The gruesomeness lies in the fact that the dehumanization is covered up by superficial banality. The anxiety comes with the expectation that one is to be satisfied, nay elated, at one's lot in life, even when one's prospects for any kind of real joy or satisfaction become narrower and narrower. Ligotti's characters, well, they do the Ligotti thing and bug out in decaying cities and cavernous fluorescent-lit office interiors, and there is no reason why they shouldn't.
September 29, 2014
Thomas Ligotti is the best "horror" writer at work today, though not many people have heard of him because he chooses to publish with small presses. But to pigeon-hole him as horror is certainly a disservice, as if he and Stephen King could even remotely be grouped together. King has his place and can be scary and entertaining, but Ligotti is entertaining and not only spooky scary but philosophically scary as well. He's in possession of about as bleak a vision as is possible while still retaining a clear head. This is all just to say that Ligotti has looked into the Void, and the Void has infested him, yet he manages to still write about it.
This isn't my favorite work of his, I prefer his denser stories filled with very evocative nightmare scenarios and a more "literary" language, while this book is intentionally cold and calculating in tone (like a corporate document) with a minimal amount of described nightmare scenarios, which adds to the almost unbearable chilling inhuman nature of the narrative.
The one novella and the two stories in this collection are essentially vehicles for Ligotti to vent his absolute abhorrence of corporate life. The eponymous novella is a revenge fantasy involving the systematic murder of seven of the main character's co-workers. The second story involves the takeover of a corporation by a very evil entity. And the third is a little collection of want-ads and corporate statements and advertisements that is more satirical than horrific in nature.
What adds a punch to this collection is knowing that Ligotti worked in a corporation in Detroit for many years, only quitting recently, maybe around the time this book came out. If he had published this book while still working, some serious eyebrows would've been raised.
This isn't my favorite work of his, I prefer his denser stories filled with very evocative nightmare scenarios and a more "literary" language, while this book is intentionally cold and calculating in tone (like a corporate document) with a minimal amount of described nightmare scenarios, which adds to the almost unbearable chilling inhuman nature of the narrative.
The one novella and the two stories in this collection are essentially vehicles for Ligotti to vent his absolute abhorrence of corporate life. The eponymous novella is a revenge fantasy involving the systematic murder of seven of the main character's co-workers. The second story involves the takeover of a corporation by a very evil entity. And the third is a little collection of want-ads and corporate statements and advertisements that is more satirical than horrific in nature.
What adds a punch to this collection is knowing that Ligotti worked in a corporation in Detroit for many years, only quitting recently, maybe around the time this book came out. If he had published this book while still working, some serious eyebrows would've been raised.
September 14, 2017
This is a grim, sad, violent book, which suffers a bit from scattershot plotting that seems to take the story in arbitrary directions, without tying up loose narrative ends.
Still, the rendering of the tale is what helps it overcome structural slips, as no one writes horror fiction like Thomas Ligotti writes horror fiction, especially set in areas of urban, moral, and capitalistic decay.
A pitch black gut punch to optimism and corporate culture.
Still, the rendering of the tale is what helps it overcome structural slips, as no one writes horror fiction like Thomas Ligotti writes horror fiction, especially set in areas of urban, moral, and capitalistic decay.
A pitch black gut punch to optimism and corporate culture.
October 25, 2020
L'obbligo lavorativo, la pressione, le orribili dinamiche aziendali, la macchina produttiva, diventano mefitiche nebbie giallastre, angeli vendicativi, entità paranormali, tutto molto ligottiano ovviamente. Tutto molto cattivo, ovvio. Non il miglior Ligotti forse, ma sicuramente il più concentrato e forse collocato nei "veri" orrori del reale. Che alla fine non sono altro che un vuoto nero e abissale, chiaro.
May 2, 2016
Početak kao iz Američkog psiha, blaziran, poslovni svet, korporaciske ajkule i beznadje... Kulminacija i rasplet kao iz najboljih priča Klajva Barkera... Ko voli, nek čita...
September 27, 2025
Tractatus morbidus.
High-quality prose in a clever, sharp-edged, brutal finger exercise in nihilism.
Working life: futile.
Life: cf above.
Human existence as an ontological obscenity in a meaningless fight of everyone against everyone.
Thinking of "Macbeth":
“What is life
but a tale,
told by an idiot,
full of sound and fury.
Signifying
nothing.”
High-quality prose in a clever, sharp-edged, brutal finger exercise in nihilism.
Working life: futile.
Life: cf above.
Human existence as an ontological obscenity in a meaningless fight of everyone against everyone.
Thinking of "Macbeth":
“What is life
but a tale,
told by an idiot,
full of sound and fury.
Signifying
nothing.”
February 5, 2016
Добар избор теме - хорор унутар актуелног корпоративног хорора. Остало - нихилистичко, мрачно, морбидно (не баш мој избор). Заита подсећа на Лафкрафта по истаживању ужаса унутар нас самих, али безнадежније по закључцима (чини ми се). Ипак, не може му се порећи занатска величина.
October 30, 2021
Altra fatica letteraria di Thomas Ligotti - autore che sembra non sbagliare un colpo - qui troviamo un romanzo breve, che dà il titolo alla raccolta, più altri due racconti: "Ho un progetto speciale per questo mondo" e "La rete dell'incubo". E' proprio il racconto la forma letteraria in cui lo scrittore si trova maggiormente a suo agio, eppure fra i tre il migliore è certamente Il mio lavoro non è ancora finito, segno che non gli mancano le capacità per ordire una trama più complessa e delineare con cura le diverse sfaccettature dei personaggi designati. Il leitmotiv che riecheggia per l'intera antologia è il lavoro aziendale, ci si focalizza sul lato più spietato della realtà lavorativa: alienazione, competitività, gerarchie sociali ecc.
Un'oscurità confortevole caratterizza la sua produzione, confortevole perché si percepisce quanto egli sia a suo agio nel narrare gli orrori più atroci sguazzando in un buio più nero della pece.
Un'oscurità confortevole caratterizza la sua produzione, confortevole perché si percepisce quanto egli sia a suo agio nel narrare gli orrori più atroci sguazzando in un buio più nero della pece.
May 20, 2021
Mefitico e frastornante come sempre.
December 20, 2009
This book did, in all honesty, give, or at least contribute to, nightmares. The sheer viciousness of the evil acts of the protagonist of the main novella might be enough to do that for some people ... but the real nightmare, as always with Ligotti, lies in his dark vision of existence.
My more considered opinion on Thomas Ligotti's place in contemporary culture is to be found elsewhere - http://asithappens.tppr.info/journal/... - but this book adds to the canon.
The book is slim - really it is a novella with two short stories attached, culled from previous journal publication. Ligotti does not do extended narrative in general.
He is not entirely comfortable with plot or characterisation though he is not bad at it either. The main title 'My Work Is Not Yet Done' seems to stretch him to his limits though it cannot be said that he fails in what he wishes to achieve.
As always, we are wary of spoilers so the main guidelines here are that these stories take us into the world of the modern corporation which he has handled elsewhere - see our review at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24... - but that the horror is more obviously cosmic.
These may be counted as tales of both demonic possession and of human evil. The novella in its first section gets closer imaginatively to the mind-set of a person 'going postal' than anything I have read before (although I suspect no killer is quite this self aware).
What Ligotti does is turn creation into a 'great black swine', a blind thrashing animal of destruction, while everything that we do with our consciousness is just a puppet play, theatre: " ... only costumes and masks, the inventory of an ancient and still flourishing theatrical supply company'.
In this world, the obsessive-compulsive personality (as he refers to it) simply wants to tidy things up. Things can only be tidied if everything is destroyed. This stance is truly pathological and not within the normal imaginative range of the vast majority of non-adolescent humanity but he takes 'rage against the machine' and recrafts it.
Ligotti's use of the corporation as the site for his horrors (with the caveats outlined below) is not quite so modern as it appears. Big lumbering corporations are now being displaced by the very different creative chaos of the internet, much as industrial society had long since replaced the castles by the time that castles had become the centre of Gothic writing.
Horror, even Stephen King's small town settings, generally positions itself in what is passing, even when the subject is future apocalypse, and less frequently in what is now or is to come.
It is as if horror writers are anxious about being confused with their brother, dystopian science fiction. They must articulate one of the primal cores of their art - anxiety about change and modernisation. To do that, they have to set the horror where things are being lost and not where they are being created.
However, in his final short tale ['The Nightmare Network':], Ligotti does switch gear with a deliberately confused picture of all human consciousness as struggling brutal competition within one massive oneiric/nightmare corporation spreading outwards - reversing his usual Lovecraftian position that brute cosmic matter, working out its 'swinish' anti-human destiny, is the blackness of evil in order to make its counterpart, collective human consciousness, equally chaotic, cruel and expansionist.
By this point, while he does not state this, his world-view seems to shift from humans as puppets in a black universe to that black universe and the collective of humanity competing to be chaotic evil - doubling the chaos and doubling the horror.
And the role of the person in all this? "I - and you - now understood: We would be pulled back into the flowing blackness only when we had done all the damage we were allowed to do, only when our work is done. The work of you against me ... and me against you."
Mind you, anyone who is not American and who has worked 'with' or for Americans in business and politics will know what he is getting at. American individualism can seem incredibly counter-productive and unnecessarily time-consuming. No wonder American executives rarely get a proper holiday ...
Between the main novella and the 'oneiric' nightmare lies a more familiar style of Ligotti story ['I Have A Special Plan For The World':] bridging the tale of the demonisation of the human and the demonic nature of the human with a sense of the demonic in the world, a demonic that may not be human at all.
The story is worth reading just for the use of the metaphor of haze, a worthy successor to Dickens' use of fog in 'Bleak House'. It is the obfuscation, crass politics and isolation of life in that sort of corporation where things just happen and one knows not why. The blurring of perception and ignorance are made physical in the most remarkable way.
As the story progresses, the haze is linked to the construction of a false (whether theatrical or public relations) reality by corporatism to cover up what actually happens in the world - in this case, 'murders'. This is a very subtle story, if written in that formal style that, derived from Poe and Lovecraft, positions Ligotti within a specific tradition.
Taken as a whole, in this book we have a ruthless competitive individualism (people only combine to effect a conspiracy) operating within seas of ignorance although, by placing detectives and waitresses outside this system, Ligotti uncharacteristically suggests that, though no doubt swine' at their core, 'ordinary people' at least are not directly complicit in this machinery of corporate horror.
Ligotti appears to hate any claim to organisation whatsoever and sees it as lying cover for underlying soul-destroying chaos (yep, he has definitely had a job in a real Western capitalist corporation!). His contempt for the expansionary and acquisitive plans of the various corporations and executives in his stories are manifest in this volume.
Although written at the height of global happy-clappy capitalist Friedmanism in 2002, their release more widely by Random House in 2009 might well express a new mood after the credit crunch has created a growing sense of a capitalist system out of control and run by incompetent buffoons.
Let us return to the third story to get a feel for this. A 'Memo from the CEO' states: "As the forces operating in today's marketplace become more shadowy and incomprehensible we must recommit ourselves every second of our day to a ceaseless striving for that elusive dream which we all share and which none of us can remember, if it ever existed in the first place." Yes, well, that pretty well fits corporate life for many people.
The last two pages of the last story pull together these themes in a transition from horror to science fiction, a flip from a Lovecraftian resistance to the modern and to a dark observation of where we are heading ... I won't spoil it.
My more considered opinion on Thomas Ligotti's place in contemporary culture is to be found elsewhere - http://asithappens.tppr.info/journal/... - but this book adds to the canon.
The book is slim - really it is a novella with two short stories attached, culled from previous journal publication. Ligotti does not do extended narrative in general.
He is not entirely comfortable with plot or characterisation though he is not bad at it either. The main title 'My Work Is Not Yet Done' seems to stretch him to his limits though it cannot be said that he fails in what he wishes to achieve.
As always, we are wary of spoilers so the main guidelines here are that these stories take us into the world of the modern corporation which he has handled elsewhere - see our review at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24... - but that the horror is more obviously cosmic.
These may be counted as tales of both demonic possession and of human evil. The novella in its first section gets closer imaginatively to the mind-set of a person 'going postal' than anything I have read before (although I suspect no killer is quite this self aware).
What Ligotti does is turn creation into a 'great black swine', a blind thrashing animal of destruction, while everything that we do with our consciousness is just a puppet play, theatre: " ... only costumes and masks, the inventory of an ancient and still flourishing theatrical supply company'.
In this world, the obsessive-compulsive personality (as he refers to it) simply wants to tidy things up. Things can only be tidied if everything is destroyed. This stance is truly pathological and not within the normal imaginative range of the vast majority of non-adolescent humanity but he takes 'rage against the machine' and recrafts it.
Ligotti's use of the corporation as the site for his horrors (with the caveats outlined below) is not quite so modern as it appears. Big lumbering corporations are now being displaced by the very different creative chaos of the internet, much as industrial society had long since replaced the castles by the time that castles had become the centre of Gothic writing.
Horror, even Stephen King's small town settings, generally positions itself in what is passing, even when the subject is future apocalypse, and less frequently in what is now or is to come.
It is as if horror writers are anxious about being confused with their brother, dystopian science fiction. They must articulate one of the primal cores of their art - anxiety about change and modernisation. To do that, they have to set the horror where things are being lost and not where they are being created.
However, in his final short tale ['The Nightmare Network':], Ligotti does switch gear with a deliberately confused picture of all human consciousness as struggling brutal competition within one massive oneiric/nightmare corporation spreading outwards - reversing his usual Lovecraftian position that brute cosmic matter, working out its 'swinish' anti-human destiny, is the blackness of evil in order to make its counterpart, collective human consciousness, equally chaotic, cruel and expansionist.
By this point, while he does not state this, his world-view seems to shift from humans as puppets in a black universe to that black universe and the collective of humanity competing to be chaotic evil - doubling the chaos and doubling the horror.
And the role of the person in all this? "I - and you - now understood: We would be pulled back into the flowing blackness only when we had done all the damage we were allowed to do, only when our work is done. The work of you against me ... and me against you."
Mind you, anyone who is not American and who has worked 'with' or for Americans in business and politics will know what he is getting at. American individualism can seem incredibly counter-productive and unnecessarily time-consuming. No wonder American executives rarely get a proper holiday ...
Between the main novella and the 'oneiric' nightmare lies a more familiar style of Ligotti story ['I Have A Special Plan For The World':] bridging the tale of the demonisation of the human and the demonic nature of the human with a sense of the demonic in the world, a demonic that may not be human at all.
The story is worth reading just for the use of the metaphor of haze, a worthy successor to Dickens' use of fog in 'Bleak House'. It is the obfuscation, crass politics and isolation of life in that sort of corporation where things just happen and one knows not why. The blurring of perception and ignorance are made physical in the most remarkable way.
As the story progresses, the haze is linked to the construction of a false (whether theatrical or public relations) reality by corporatism to cover up what actually happens in the world - in this case, 'murders'. This is a very subtle story, if written in that formal style that, derived from Poe and Lovecraft, positions Ligotti within a specific tradition.
Taken as a whole, in this book we have a ruthless competitive individualism (people only combine to effect a conspiracy) operating within seas of ignorance although, by placing detectives and waitresses outside this system, Ligotti uncharacteristically suggests that, though no doubt swine' at their core, 'ordinary people' at least are not directly complicit in this machinery of corporate horror.
Ligotti appears to hate any claim to organisation whatsoever and sees it as lying cover for underlying soul-destroying chaos (yep, he has definitely had a job in a real Western capitalist corporation!). His contempt for the expansionary and acquisitive plans of the various corporations and executives in his stories are manifest in this volume.
Although written at the height of global happy-clappy capitalist Friedmanism in 2002, their release more widely by Random House in 2009 might well express a new mood after the credit crunch has created a growing sense of a capitalist system out of control and run by incompetent buffoons.
Let us return to the third story to get a feel for this. A 'Memo from the CEO' states: "As the forces operating in today's marketplace become more shadowy and incomprehensible we must recommit ourselves every second of our day to a ceaseless striving for that elusive dream which we all share and which none of us can remember, if it ever existed in the first place." Yes, well, that pretty well fits corporate life for many people.
The last two pages of the last story pull together these themes in a transition from horror to science fiction, a flip from a Lovecraftian resistance to the modern and to a dark observation of where we are heading ... I won't spoil it.
April 9, 2022
Am aflat că Thomas Ligotti e responsabil de dialogurile și viziunea sumbră a personajului Rust Cohle din primul sezon al serialului True Detective (da, aparent creatorul serialului, Nic Pizzolatto a „omis” să îi dea credit lui Ligotti după ce i-a furat cuvintele). Nu asta e cartea despre care vorbesc, ci „The Conspiracy Against the Human Race”, pe care o s-o caut și o s-o citesc, pentru că cică îi dă clasă și lui Cioran pe-acolo).
Anyway, revenind la oile noastre. „My Work is Not Yet Done” e o colecție de trei povestiri care fac parte din sub-genul „corporate horror” (nu știam că există așa ceva, dar cât trăiești înveți, ce să zic?).
Prima povestire, care ocupă vreo 3/4 din numărul de pagini mi s-a părut cea mai bună. E despre un angajat al unei corporații care e trădat de echipa lui și dat afară din motive dubioase, dar care jură să se răzbune, și face exact asta, ajutat de un fel de forță supranaturală malefică. E foarte inventivă, Ligotti o face la foc mic și toată treaba escaladează încetul cu încetul până când devine o luptă între zei. 4/5
A doua mi s-a părut mai slăbuță, și mai high-concept, mai abstractă, tot din perspectiva unui angajat al unei corporații care și-a mutat sediul într-un oraș în care rata uciderilor a până la cer. 3/5
Ultima nu mi-a prea plăcut, e formată dintr-o serie de vignete care descriu o corporație care, în încercarea de a-și păstra status-quo-ul pe piață, încearcă să facă o combinație cu o entitate malefică. 2/5
Scriitura lui Ligotti e cu cel puțin o treaptă peste cea a scriitorilor horror din mainstream (S. King & co.), are un fel poetic de a-și expune ideile și mai și filozofează pe lângă. Mi-a plăcut.
Anyway, revenind la oile noastre. „My Work is Not Yet Done” e o colecție de trei povestiri care fac parte din sub-genul „corporate horror” (nu știam că există așa ceva, dar cât trăiești înveți, ce să zic?).
Prima povestire, care ocupă vreo 3/4 din numărul de pagini mi s-a părut cea mai bună. E despre un angajat al unei corporații care e trădat de echipa lui și dat afară din motive dubioase, dar care jură să se răzbune, și face exact asta, ajutat de un fel de forță supranaturală malefică. E foarte inventivă, Ligotti o face la foc mic și toată treaba escaladează încetul cu încetul până când devine o luptă între zei. 4/5
A doua mi s-a părut mai slăbuță, și mai high-concept, mai abstractă, tot din perspectiva unui angajat al unei corporații care și-a mutat sediul într-un oraș în care rata uciderilor a până la cer. 3/5
Ultima nu mi-a prea plăcut, e formată dintr-o serie de vignete care descriu o corporație care, în încercarea de a-și păstra status-quo-ul pe piață, încearcă să facă o combinație cu o entitate malefică. 2/5
Scriitura lui Ligotti e cu cel puțin o treaptă peste cea a scriitorilor horror din mainstream (S. King & co.), are un fel poetic de a-și expune ideile și mai și filozofează pe lângă. Mi-a plăcut.
October 29, 2021
Seconda immersione nei meandri oscuri ed offuscati della mente di uno degli scrittori più visionari ed immaginifici, degli ultimi decenni. Ma, attenzione, questa creatività immaginifica non è fine a se stessa, soprattutto in questa raccolta di tre racconti. Il primo, che da il titolo al volume, molto lungo ed altri due per contro molto corti. In tutti e tre vi è un'ambientazione comune, quella delle aziende impiegatizie, negli antri asettici, illuminati da luci al neon, Ligotti ci racconta di come l'alienazione da lavoro in serie, della non empatia e soprattutto sul successo sempre, subito e tutto per sè, fanno sì che la concorrenza per un posto di prestigio, sia spietata.
Come già nel precedente Teatro grottesco, anche in questo vi ho trovato una scrittura molto densa e soffocante, come una coltre nebbiosa d'autunno, che tutto copre e non fa vedere la luce all'orizzonte. Metafora del lavoro soffocante contemporaneo?
Il mio lavoro non è ancora finito - ****
Ho un progetto speciale per questo mondo - ****
La rete dell'incubo - ****1/2
Come già nel precedente Teatro grottesco, anche in questo vi ho trovato una scrittura molto densa e soffocante, come una coltre nebbiosa d'autunno, che tutto copre e non fa vedere la luce all'orizzonte. Metafora del lavoro soffocante contemporaneo?
Il mio lavoro non è ancora finito - ****
Ho un progetto speciale per questo mondo - ****
La rete dell'incubo - ****1/2
Displaying 1 - 30 of 386 reviews