The Conspiracy against the Human Race: A Contrivance of Horror

Ligotti is primarily an author of supernatural horror. In this book of philosophy he reveals his ideas and sources about the necessity of horror that consciousness brings about. That is, horror comes from consciousness, making our awareness not a benefit but a detriment; a conspiracy against us.

In search of this conspiracy, Ligotti finds himself enamored by an obscure pessimistic philosopher, Peter Wessel Zapffe, and spends much of the early portions of this book expanding the ideas Zappfe laid out in "The Last Messiah". Later Ligotti branches out to other philosophers, mystics, and neuroscientists to round out many of the claims that he treats axiomatically in this work.

One of my first criticisms of this work is that consciousness is show more presented as a human exceptionalism, limited to only homo sapiens. Plenty of research continually suggests otherwise. This does little to deter the arguments put forth in this book, as conscious life is deemed a horror, and thus would only expand the horror.

Ligotti advocates for a pessimistic totality, often celebrating philosophers who took their own lives. While many philosophers, mystical systems, and scientists treat such nihilism as a starting point, Ligotti doesn't want to hear it. Pessimism is alpha and omega here, and any attempts to deviate are a heresy.

This leads to perhaps a more robust criticism of this work. While Ligotti certainly understands many of the works he cites, his treatment of any deviation from this full-tilt rocket into the abyss shows an inability to engage with or present counter arguments to anything outside of such dogma. Schopenhauer's Will-to-Live and mystical concepts of ego-death are mocked and simplistically dismissed, yet never engaged with, among others.

In a philosophical work I would be much more critical about such an error, however, Ligotti readily admits that he is not a trained philosopher, and that this is more of his version of Lovecraft's "Supernatural Horror in Literature". The last chapter reveals this method quite well as various literary devices are explained via the concepts presented earlier in the book, with a focus on supernatural horror as a guiding genre. The way Ligotti weaves philosophy into storytelling is a great example of just how highbrow horror can be.

The Conspiracy Against the Human Race also functions well as an overview of pessimistic philosophy and related currents. At times this becomes redundant, but this is due to Ligotti deftly showing the relationship between disparate paradigms and consistently reinforcing the arguments that he starts the book with. Same abysmal destination, many rockets to choose from. The only real choice available in this book is the decision to hang around this planet much longer or catch a ride. show less

This is one of those books that makes me feel dumb. And I mean that in the best way.

Thomas Ligotti is a deep thinker, and he's very good at pulling together disparate strings of thought into one incredibly cohesive whole. His fiction is unlike anyone else I've ever read, and it's something I come back to time and again, because it's just that good.

There's authors out there that I enjoy. There's authors out there I revere. And then, there's a very, very small group of authors out there that I wish I could write like, but know I'll never be able to. Ligotti is pretty much at the top of that list.

In this tour de force essay, Ligotti lays out his argument against humanity continuing, why life is a futile endeavour, and why consciousness is show more both indefinable and a scourge to humanity.

It's bleak as hell, and compelling as hell. I've always enjoyed a bleak point of view, I find it fascinating. I'm a pessimist, and I'm far too cynical for my own good, but Ligotti makes me look like...I don't know, the love child of Tony Robbins and Richard Simmons, maybe?

I listened to the audiobook of this, but halfway through, I ordered a hard copy of it, because I know it's something I'm going to want to come back and study in more depth.

Because I know I didn't pick up even half of what Ligotti is laying down.

Because this is one of those books that makes me feel dumb. show less

I know it’s corny but I felt really seen by this book in a way I don’t by almost any media. It is sheer pessimism, without chaser. It doesn’t shy away from labeling life as “MALIGNANTLY USELESS” and consciousness as a mistake of evolution; our minds as Schopenhauer’s Will’s horrible overextension. Do you know how hard it is to make the optimist believe that the problem is not MY life, but life itself? The pessimists and nihilists are unpopular and powerless, but really, who cares?

The ending is a real horror rhetoric whirlwind in the tradition of the best, Poe and Lovecraft and Ellis, and leaves the reader sickened and secure.

(Also please don’t read this if you are struggling to be one who loves or likes or enjoys life. show more Sorry I know that sounds edgy but it might honestly be dangerous to your safety/wellbeing if you are already in a bad place because it is a really hopeless book. I could see why someone would ask, “Why put this out there?” I guess there is no other reason than selfish authorial intents and maybe, generously, comforting those who wish to see what is at the bottom of the well.) show less

How do you rate a book like this? A brilliant exposition of Ligotti's philosophy and the most credible description of what the uncanny and horror are about. But I reject the ultimate life-view in the end and Ligotti would ridicule me for it. So be it. The difference between the optimist and the pessimist. I couldn't go on living if I embraced his philosophy. It would be illogical. Maybe I am a coward. So be it. Ultimately I embrace my short journey here as a worthwhile endeavor as far as my self is concerned even as I realize it most likely has little or no lasting meaning for this universe.

Finally a book that speaks directly to my heart! As a matter of fact, it's so good that it almost feels like a betrayal writing this review. But I guess the author would understand, even if he wouldn't necessarily agree.

"Does intellectual honesty, when taken to its logical conclusion, necessarily lead to ontological despair?" That's not exactly the question the book is after, but rather depicted as one of the core elements of a particular type of horror fiction. And the book isn't about fiction in the general sense. It is about fiction to the extent the studies examining the phenomenon of consciousness are. This is why it is terrifying and confirming at the same time.

Two things I haven't seen coming were serious references to Thomas show more Metzinger's work, and unbelievable dark humor that went beyond entertaining. And I think this is what makes this book lovely: it's all about the style, because it's impossible to be original content-wise when it comes to the most important, yet the simplest question we face, the only original and deepest horror of our existence.

This fine piece of literature deserves its place in every bored person's library, as an indication of the cosmic problem that needs not to be solved, but more like a needlessly prolonged tension that needs to be resolved. show less

Philosophy for sentient puppets: The source of horror resides in consciousness itself.

I've been reading books loosely associated with the group known as Speculative Realists (a group of thinkers who critique 'correlationism', the view that we can never reach what is real beneath our language systems, our means for perception, or our finite manner of being-in-the-world) and came upon this book whose forward is written by Ray Brassier. The alignment between Speculative Realism and Ligotti lies in the realization that humans are sentient puppets who have effloresced out of a mindless material universe and will one day disappear without a trace. As Ray Brassier write in [Nihil Unbound] "...earth will be incinerated by the sun 4 billion show more years hence; all the stars in the universe will stop shining in 100 trillion years; and eventually, one trillion, trillion, trillion years from now, all matter in the cosmos will disintegrate.” Ligotti writes, "There will come a day for each of us—and then for all of us—when the future will be done with. Until then, humanity will acclimate itself to every new horror that comes knocking, as it has done from the very beginning. It will go on and on until it stops. And the horror will go on, as day follows day and generations fall into the future like so many bodies into open graves."

In his book, Ligotti starts by discussing a short essay, "The Last Messiah", written by an obscure Norwegian philosopher, Peter Zapffe whose dissertation, _On the Tragic_ has never been translated into English.

According to Zapffe, we have evolved an excess of consciousness, which makes us aware that we will someday die. Consciously or unconsciously we deploy all sorts of techniques to ignore and mask this uncomfortable fact. At some point though, when these techniques fail, and the soporific effects of the Abrahamic faiths have worn off, when religion, alcohol, drugs, sex and a personal relationship with Jesus no longer mask this painful truth, you come face to face with the realization that you are just a gene copying bio-robot, a puppet of nature who thinks he has control of the strings, a being towards death. You grasp desperately at your only consolation: life after death. However, you've realized that this is just one of the futile techniques used to make life livable. Besides, you've already realized what an eternity of consciousness means. It means eventually doing the same things over and over again an infinite number of times, having the same conversations with the same people an infinite number of times, having sex with everyone who ever lived or ever will live an infinite number of times. It is then you realize your only salvation lies in the extinction of consciousness. You realize that consciousness itself is the real supernatural horror that has intruded unexpectedly into nature. The source of horror lies in human consciousness itself.

If you have followed me thus far, then you have a taste of what is in store for you when you open the covers of this book.

After discussing Zapffe, he goes on to discuss other philosophers of pessimism eventually exploring these themes in relation to other authors in the horror genre.

The book serves as a hermeneutic key, or Rosetta Stone as it were, to unlocking the meaning of Ligotti's own works of horror. If you are interested in these themes or have realized, to paraphrase Ray Brassier, in Nihil Unbound, that nature is indifferent to our existence and oblivious to the `values' and `meanings' which we would drape over it in order to make it more hospitable, pick up a copy.

You can check out philosophy books in the Speculative Realism by searching that tag in my library. show less

Reading this tract about the accident of the human being, an error spat into existence by an indifferent and disconnected nature, is like being on a really bad drug trip. Your mind actively seeks to fight the words on these pages as you read them. Reading this book was so uncomfortable for me that in my sweltering dreams last night I began digging into the side of my neck, perhaps trying to dismantle the human puppet, the intoxicated animate that I am. The gut reaction of most people who hear about the basic premise of this book, or who begin to read it, would be, "Well, if anybody thinks life is so meaningless, why do they bother writing about it, why do they bother living at all?" The answer being that this book can be executed as a show more philosophical exercise, but simply because one knows something doesn't mean he will act on it. Our perverted will to survival, distorted from that of the apes and the wolves into a humanoid pipe dream of inane complexity, insists that our being here has to mean something. The religious get their God prescription, and their way out of this horror is the first that comes to mind. Others may adopt the dictum of Camus that we should create our own meaning in a meaningless world, or the transcendent affirmations of Nietzschean Will to Power. We all have some way to trick ourselves into believing that our existence matters, and the force of our ridiculous ego makes the trick inescapable to all except those with a stomach for suicide. However, who commits suicide to rebel against theorized ontology alone? Perhaps though, the man who glimpses the horror of nothingness is a little better off than he who thinks meaning is inherent and that life is alright. The former has glimpsed the cruel joke and can laugh as the black maw of entropy laughs along with him. show less