The Conspiracy against the Human Race: A Contrivance of Horror

Description

In Thomas Ligotti's first nonfiction outing, an examination of the meaning (or meaninglessness) of life through an insightful, unsparing argument that proves the greatest horrors are not the products of our imagination but instead are found in reality. "There is a signature motif discernible in both works of philosophical pessimism and supernatural horror. It may be stated thus: Behind the scenes of life lurks something pernicious that makes a nightmare of our world." His fiction is known to be some of the most terrifying in the genre of supernatural horror, but Thomas Ligotti's first nonfiction book may be even scarier. Drawing on philosophy, literature, neuroscience, and other fields of study, Ligotti takes the penetrating lens of his imagination and turns it on his audience, causing them to grapple with the brutal reality that they are living a meaningless nightmare, and anyone who feels otherwise is simply acting out an optimistic fallacy. At once a guidebook to pessimistic thought and a relentless critique of humanity's employment of self-deception to cope with the pervasive suffering of their existence, The Conspiracy against the Human Race may just convince readers that there is more than a measure of truth in the despairing yet unexpectedly liberating negativity that is widely considered a hallmark of Ligotti's work. About the Author Also by Thomas Ligotti Title Page Copyright Dedication Epigraph Contents Preface Acknowledgments Introduction: Of Pessimism and Paradox The Nightmare of Being Psychogenesis Ante-Mortem Wide-Awake Brainwork Mutation Undoing I Zombification Undoing II Self-Hypnosis Cosmophobia Pessimism I Pessimism II Blundering Analogies Life-Principles Undoing III Repression Suffering I Suffering II Ecocide Hopelessness Debatability Who Goes There? Uncanniness I Uncanniness II Actors Impersonation Nonentities Unpersons Freaks of Salvation Down-Going Futurephilia Buddhanomics Ego-Death Sick to Death Bleakness I Bleakness II Pro-Life Thanatophobia Tragedy The Cult of Grinning Martyrs Institutionalized Disillusionment Pressurized Autopsy on a Puppet: An Anatomy of the Supernatural Atmosphere Theme Characters Uncharacters Supernaturalism Plot Endgame Notes