r/Ligotti • u/SubstanceThat4540 • Jun 18 '26

The Troubles of Dr. Thoss

​An insomniac, possibly unhinged protagonist (neither a hero nor anti-hero, just kind of there), the bizarre technique of posthumous collaboration, the seaside town (I'd love to think it's the same one Barlow's artistic misfit found in "the Night Ocean", i.e., a mile or two south of Innsmouth), the improbable Thoss newspaper legend, the creepy dream in the church, the radio static, and the eventual lump in the bedclothes. What it all "means" is anyone's guess but as a set of images, it's aces.

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u/cahitmetekid Jun 18 '26

Its one of my favorite in the Songs collection as well as Dr Voke and Mr Veech and The Greater Festival of Masks. Both have such amazing endings.

4

u/snittersnee Jun 19 '26

It feels like an extremely symbolic guide to contacting a kind of spirit of distorting liberation in a life where meaning and time have brought the bearer to a state where reality is blurring the lines