THE DEEP ONES: "Señor Ligotti" by Bernardo Esquinca

"Señor Ligotti" by Bernardo Esquinca.

Discussion begins March 27, 2024.

First English publication The Valancourt Book of World Horror Stories: Volume One (2020).



BIBLIOGRAPHY

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1459430

SELECTED PRINT VERSIONS

The Secret Life of Insects and Other Stories

ONLINE VERSIONS

No online versions found to date.

ONLINE AUDIO VERSIONS

No online audio versions found to date.

MISCELLANY

https://www.valancourtbooks.com/thesecretlifeofinsects.html
https://mexiconewsdaily.com/culture/mexican-weird-fiction-meet-author-bernardo-e...
https://tinyurl.com/5n8938pn

I enjoyed this tale, from the classic gothic trope of the hidden door in the back of the fireplace that leads to secret passageways and on to the satanic nature of Señor Ligotti himself. The moment when the protagonist starts discovering what's (not) behind the doors of the other apartments is kind of alarming. I'm always up for retro-tech like the answering machine, too. Nice touch. This reminded me of some of the better stories that appeared in Twilight Zone Magazine back in its early-to-mid 80's heyday. The creepy, frustrating feel of not being able to shake loose of Ligotti specifically reminded me of George R.R. Martin's troubling "Remembering Melody", which was first published in TZ, although the storylines are quite different.

I have Esquinca's The Secret Life of Insects and Other Stories and definitely recommend it.

The apartment building reminded me a little of the one in Dario Argento's film Inferno. The notion of somebody the protagonist can't get loose from is one I've found unsettling since first being read Mr Messy over half a century ago. It's not supposed to be sinister there of course - the suited and bowler-hatted Mr Neat and Mr Tidy are, in essence, self-appointed life coaches who stop Mr Messy being messy. But even so, I strongly disliked them!

>3 housefulofpaper:

And now that you mention them, Mr. Neat and Mr. Tidy have put me in mind of of Peter Straub's "Mr. Clubb and Mr. Cuff", a bone chilling pair that the protagonist just can't shake loose from. What an uncomfortable subgenre!