The Conspiracy against the Human Race: A Contrivance of Horror Paperback – 2 Oct. 2018

Thomas Ligotti has been hailed as a successor to H.P. Lovecraft, though not from any similarity of style or theme. The comparison comes from an intuition that Ligotti has a unique, interior sense of the horrific, the weird and the uncanny that brings to mind the unsettling originality of Lovecraft. He seems to be plugged into the same power conduit.Ligotti has laid bare the nature of his interior vision in his non-fiction work "The Conspiracy Against the Human Race". It is bleak, pitiless, pessimistic and nihilistic. In a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock, Ligotti crushes everything. Satan himself could stand in the infernal flames, swearing it was better to rule in Hell than serve in Heaven, and one minute later he would be roadkill under the wheels of Ligotti's merciless prose. Reading "The Conspiracy Against the Human Race" is like sitting next to Ligotti while he operates the control bars of a tank in the car park of a large mall. There is an unequal contest between sardonic rhetoric and universal verity that howls like metal being torn apart. It is wild fun.I had a sense of what to expect from "Conspiracy" because I had read and re-read Ligotti's essay "Thinking Horror" in "Collapse IV" (an astonishing compilation of essays straddling the boundaries of horror fiction and philosophy - it can be found online). I think I needed this graded inoculation of spleen to prepare myself mentally for the nihilistic overdose that "Conspiracy" represents. If a cosmic hypostasis of Pain had an internal dialogue, a keen intelligence, and access to the finest vocabulary, then this is what it would write. "Conspiracy" is Munch's Scream given literary form.The fundamental dichotomy examined by this book is the split (which Ligotti characterises as absolute) between optimists ("being alive is all right") and pessimists ("being alive is not all right"). The argument that Ligotti sustains throughout the book is that being alive is not all right. The conspiracy of the book's title comes from humanity's collective optimism, a mass delusion in which the majority of the human race disguises the essentially horrific character of conscious existence, and likewise suppresses the extremes of pessimism by isolation or treatment.Ligotti's approach is almost entirely literary, and his emphasis on a relatively obscure literature of profound philosophical pessimism and horror is somewhat surprising. One does not require a broad circle of friends to encounter instances of severe depression, often part-way through a programme of self-medication using whatever comes to hand. These are people for whom the universal exit is only too obvious, and they don't require philosophy to show them the way. Numerous first-hand accounts of severe depression are available, and while depressed philosophers have as much right to be heard as depressed taxi-drivers, the philosophical tendency to take a personal predisposition and turn it into a universal truth is something to inspire caution among the unwashed.The central part of the book deconstructs the notion of the self, the idea that there is an atom of being within our protoplasm that constitutes our essential and enduring identity. I think Ligotti may be working against this notion harder than he needs to. The idea that the mind is a product of a collective of parts coming together in a semi-coordinated and chaotic way to create the illusion of a coherent self is approaching orthodoxy, and essentially similar presentations can be found in sources as different as the philosopher Daniel Dennett, the neuroscientist David Eagleman, and the cognitive scientist Marvin Minsky.I think Ligotti is correct to suggest that consciousness has evolved in parallel with internal mechanisms to protect us from the terror of the situation - we are not good at passing on our genes while whimpering in a corner. We can maintain an illusion that everything is ticketyboo until disease, drugs, senescence or trauma erode the dykes that hold back raw perception.The final part of the book is an examination of the literature of Horror, and bears some resemblance to Lovecraft's classic Supernatural Horror in Literature. It is engaging and perceptive. The literature of Horror is perhaps a symptom of a weakening social orthodoxy. It is the leakage of night into day, as the transition from mythology to rationality leaves us exposed and weaponless in the face of our fears. Once upon a time crucifixes worked autonomously; then they had to be believed in; now they don't work at all. There are cracks in our world, and we don't know how to repair them. A limited exposure to Horror inoculates us in small doses.My overall impression of the book is of a mismatch between the power of the rhetoric, which often overflows into full-blown polemic, and the scholarly convention of presenting an argument through an orderly review of ideas taken from a canonical literature. Ligotti gives the appearance of playing the Glass Bead Game, but he plays with sticks of dynamite instead of glass beads. There are places, about two-thirds of the way through, where I thought the argument was sinking under the weight of polemic, and in many ways the shorter "Thinking Horror" essay does the job just as effectively. At the same time, I rarely failed to be entertained by Ligotti's spirited use of language, and he draws on a wide range of fascinating sources, almost all of which I had never heard of, and most of which I will research when time permits.There is a sense in which Ligotti undermines his own argument. With characteristic insight he states that every negation requires an affirmation; you can't blow up the world without first finding the energy to rise out of the sofa. This book is a huge affirmation. There is a bubbling sense of the absurd that spills over into his writing, and it is often blackly comic and irresistably entertaining. I don't care that the universe is a giant meat-grinder, that my sense of self is an illusion, or that I'm only one heartbeat away from death ... I can sit on a huge tracked vehicle with Mr. Ligotti as he reverses over things. They are only ideas ... they experience no pain.It is easy to forget that while we experience Horror, we can transform it into Fun. As a species we can take the most appalling experiences and piss ourselves laughing about them. The comic impulse deconstructs every kind of institution with as much ferocity as pessimistic philosophy, and instead of gloom, we end up with Father Ted, or Community, or Jewish humour. Because we appear to manufacture Fun out of situations that are profoundly unfunny, it may look like we are using it to whitewash reality. I am not convinced this is so. There are two masks to every situation, tragedy, and comedy. Fun seems every bit as irreducible as Horror. Even the Great Old Ones are unmanned and mocked and stitched-up in fur fabric; it is only a matter of time before Cthulhu appears on the Simpsons. Much as I admire and respect the power of Ligotti's vision, I still retain an overwhelming allegience to Fun.

A very easy read and a delightful helping of the most dour of philosophical pessimism (aka realism!) The carefully crafted cutting prose was an absolute pleasure to devour. Each page was just oozing with a misanthropic dry wit that often left me smiling and occasionally prompted laughing out loud - not something I have done much of recently! Polished it off in three sittings and it will no doubt be one of the rare books that I will keep to read again in the future. Left me in no doubt that if some intelligence is behind the emergence of humankind and the rest of life on earth then that creative force is truly malevolent, sadistic and wicked.

Upon reading this book, little knowledge I had of Thomas Ligotti and the pessimistic bent philosophy. Although I have always favoured more pessimistic philosophies within my life, the book helped me to understand the psychological horrors which lay in our consciousness, as well as pointing out the turpitude of humanities purpose.Thomas Ligotti previously known as an author for writing more supernatural horror stories, taking the mantle after people like Edgar Allan Poe and H.P Lovecraft.In the case of 'The Conspiracy Against the Human Race', Ligotti has changed the genre, using more of a commentary esque style, whist using writings and interviews from philosophers and authors such as Schopenhauer, Zapffe, U.G Krishnamurti, Tolstoy and many more. It's not only a great insight into the views of Ligotti but it's also an interesting breakdown of the aforementioned philosophers and authors.This title is not an easy read, it will get your mind on it's back foot, constantly having to reanalyse sentences which Ligotti has cleverly literalized. Also, some of the pessimistic views are unsettling, striking on a nerve of reality and making you rethink not only the behaviour of your own consciousness, but that of others too.This book has whetted my appetite, making me interested in many different authors, I've begun burning a hole in my wallet, buying more books which are either mentioned in this title or are connected in one way or another to Ligotti's views.It's a griping read and one that I would highly recommend to others, but if your into feel good philosophies I would stay clear, as it will probably shatter everything you may have ever believed in. But with any form of thinking, it's about being opened minded to even things that might not necessarily make you feel comfortable.

A great standalone read that also serves as a springbook into deeper philosophical readings such as Schopenhauer and others.The book is fairly easy to understand, for people who are not familiar with philosophical works. It's also not a dry read, quite the opposite. It plays out much like having a conversation with the author, one of where he of course is the one talking.Most people aren't comfortable talking about the things that are written here, but it is by no means edgy. The arguments are logical and hard to outright deny. There's no happy note at the end, no last minute redeeming optimism. Anyone who might've been a fan of the tv show True Detective will find a lot of similarities to the character Rust in the show. I thank that show for bringing Thomas Ligotti and this book to my attention.

Llegó antes de lo previsto y sin ningún daño.

I’m not sure what to make of this unusual book. Sometimes laugh out loud funny, sometimes terrifying. A bit like my girlfriend.The author strikes me as someone with a *very* dry sense of humour. But he’s also capable of metaphorically ripping apart the scar tissue of subconscious wounds apparently arising from the avoidance of facing up to the nihilistic true nature of existence. You sort of need to be in the right mood for that.So, if you’re feeling a little emotionally fragile then maybe give it a miss for now, otherwise prepare to have the doors blown off your ‘happy place’.The last third of the book appears to be mostly an academic study of how the thoughts and conclusions reached in the first two thirds can be - or have been - applied to the art of horror story writing. That’s not really my thing so I just skimmed it.'The Last Messiah' essay by Peter Wessel Zapffe is referenced heavily throughout and you could cut to the chase by just reading that.Overall: Grim but thought provoking. Best ‘enjoyed’ in small doses. Or drunk.Tip: The dictionary function in a Kindle device (long-press the word in question) came in very handy for me with this book as the author appears to be somewhat of a logophile (which, ironically, is a word I had to look up).The perfect book not to give someone for Christmas.

The author does an excellent job extracting the theoretical perspective of several philosophers of a particular bent, existentialist to pessimist to nihilist. The premise of the book is that the development of consciousness in humans, a useful survival tool in our prehistoric past, has had unintended consequences, leading to universal suffering for all of humanity. In a nutshell, we know we're going to die. If you don't have a cynical view of life, at least some of the time, if life is wonderful to you, then I suggest you don't read this book. It just might prick your balloon with a pin!

This book is not for everyone. If you don’t want to have your soul shook with existential dread then it is better to leave the thought of buying it.However if you are ready to go all in to the darkness to have a glimpse at the real truth... You’re welcome

If you've ever wanted to know why people fear, where fear steams from, how it works and what it is across the spectrum of human experience, while also getting an education into pros and cons of pessimism, ideologies such as nihilism, anti-natalism and more areas that dwell in the shadows of our minds, then this is the book for you. It opens your eyes to how the meaninglessness of the universe and the meaning we ascribe it, from the vantage point of humanity, relates to crafting true horror and pathways to living a confident life. 10/10.