While a modicum of consciousness may have had survivalist properties during an immemorial chapter of our evolution โ so one theory goes โ this faculty soon enough became a seditious agent working against us โฆ we need to hamper our consciousness for all we are worth or it will impose upon us a too clear vision of what we do not want to see โฆ Consciousness has forced us into the paradoxical position of striving to be unself-conscious of what we are โ hunks of spoiling flesh on disintegrating bones
Thomas LigottiPersonally, I'm afraid of suffering and afraid of dying. I'm also afraid of witnessing the suffering and death of those who are close to me. And no doubt I project these fears on those around me and those to come, which makes it impossible for me to understand why everyone isn't an antinatalist, just as I have to assume pronatalists can't understand why everyone isn't like them.
Thomas LigottiTo my mind, a well-developed sense of humor is the surest indication of a person's humanity, no matter how black and bitter that humor may be.
Thomas LigottiThis, then, is the ultimate, that is only, consolation: simply that someone shares some of your own feelings and has made of these a work of art which you have the insight, sensitivity, and โ like it or not โ peculiar set of experiences to appreciate. Amazing thing to say, the consolation of horror in art is that it actually intensifies our panic, loudens it on the sounding-board of our horror-hollowed hearts, turns terror up full blast, all the while reaching for that perfect and deafening amplitude at which we may dance to the bizarre music of our own misery.
Thomas Ligotti