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THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST THE HUMAN RACE

Also by Thomas Ligotti

FICTION

Songs of a Dead Dreamer

Grimscribe

Noctuary

The Nightmare Factory

My Work Is Not Yet Done

The Shadow at the Bottom of the World

Teatro Grottesco

POETRY

I Have a Special Plan for This World

This Degenerate Little Town

Death Poems

SCREENPLAYS

Crampton (with Brandon Trenz)

The Frolic (with Brandon Trenz)

The Conspiracy against the Human Race

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A Contrivance of Horror

Thomas Ligotti

Hippocampus Press

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New York

Parts of this work were published, in different form, in the following publications: “Literature Is Entertainment or It Is Nothing: An Interview with Thomas Ligotti” by Neddal Ayad, Fantastic Metropolis (website), October 31, 2004; “Thomas Ligotti on Sweeney Todd,” Horror: Another 100 Best Books, Stephen Jones and Kim Newman, eds. , 2005; Introduction by Thomas Ligotti, The Tenant by Roland Topor, 2006; “‘It’s All a Matter of Personal Pathology’: An Interview with Thomas Ligotti” by Matt Cardin, The Teeming Brain (weblog), 2006.

All excerpts from the works of Peter Wessel Zapffe © Gisle R. Tangenes; used with permission. All excerpts from the writings of H. P. Lovecraft © Robert C. Harrall; used with permission of Lovecraft Properties LLC.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Ligotti, Thomas.

The conspiracy against the human race: a contrivance of horror / Thomas Ligotti. – 1st ed.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-0-9824296-9-3 (hardcover) – ISBN 978-0-9844802-7-2 (pbk. )

1. Horror in literature. 2. Literature–Philosophy. 3.

Pessimism in literature. I. Title.

PN56. H6L55 2010

809’. 9164–dc22

2010008781

Published by Hippocampus Press

P. O. Box 641, New York, NY 10156.

Cover design by Jennifer Gariepy. Cover production by Barbara Briggs Silbert. Hippocampus Press logo designed by Anastasia Damianakos.

First Digital Edition(s) May 2012

1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2

ISBN 978-1-61498-030-8

To the memory of Peter Wessel Zapffe

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my appreciation to Tim Jeski and Scott Wetherby for supplying me with materials essential to the writing of this work; to the members of Thomas Ligotti Online and its administrator, Brian Edward Poe, for participating in a forum of commentary on an early version of The Conspiracy against the Human Race; to Robert Ligotti for being a ready test subject whenever I needed an alert response from a mind akin to my own; and to Jennifer Gariepy for the encouragement and insight she has afforded me over many years. In addition, I would be more than remiss not to acknowledge the counsel and labors of S. T. Joshi, David E. Schultz, and Jonathan Padgett, with special recognition reserved for Nicole Ariana Seary, who granted me the benefit of her talents and experience during the most crucial stages of this book’s composition. Finally, I am indebted, as are all devotees of philosophical pessimism who are not knowledgeable of the Dano-Norwegian language, to Gisle R. Tangenes for his translations of and writings on the works of Peter Wessel Zapffe. The responsibility for the use made of these valued contributions lies entirely with the author.