An irregular hodgepodge of links gathered together … Omnium Gatherum for February 27, 2019
- Detecting Pessimism: Thomas Ligotti and the Weird in an Age of Post-Truth, a Symposium, June 2 2019, 70 Oxford St, Manchester Metropolitan University
“This free symposium centres on the fiction, theory and impact of the acclaimed American horror fiction writer Thomas Ligotti. Ligotti is increasingly seen as one of the key literary horror and weird fiction writers of recent decades whose works present a unique, bleak and controversial portrayal of both human existence and society. This symposium follows the republication by Penguin of Ligotti’s award-winning non-fiction work The Conspiracy Against the Human Race in 2018 and the recent re-release of his first two volumes of short stories, Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe.
Making the most of the expertise at Manchester Metropolitan, the symposium will comprise of two panels with papers delivered by our staff and students on Ligotti and the weird mode, and will include a keynote delivered by weird expert Prof Roger Luckhurst. We will explore the works, philosophy and influence of Ligotti within a diverse range of contexts, from philosophical nihilism and pessimism, weird fiction and horror to his impact on film and television.
An afternoon of thought-provoking and genre-challenging papers will be followed by a wine reception and the launch of the new edition of Conspiracy. The day will culminate with an open floor discussion of a selection of Ligotti-influenced, weird and pessimistic monologues from the first season of True Detective (2014), a screening run in collaboration with Pilot Light TV Festival and Morag Rose (University of Liverpool). Tickets for this will be issued separately and will be available soon.
Do please join us for what promises to be a vibrant day of events that aim to shed light (and an equal measure of darkness) on how the weird engages with contemporary politics and the human condition in an increasingly pessimistic age.”
- Invisible Sun from Monte Cook Games, essentially an entire black cube in PDF now, as well as additional titles out now or coming soon.
“The Invisible Sun roleplaying game is an unprecedented production, filled with massive amounts of content for a unique roleplaying experience. The Invisible Sun PDF contains roughly 80 files, including (and this is not an exhaustive list):
- Four books totaling over 600 pages of game and setting content, fully hyperlinked and bookmarked.
- Roughly 1000 cards laid out in a printer-friendly format.
- The Sooth Deck, a beautiful tarot-like deck that’s instrumental to game play.
- The Path of Suns, used with the Sooth Deck.
- A wide variety of tokens for tracking game info.
- Several poster maps.
- The Guiding Hand, GM’s notebook, in both a printer-friendly and form-fillable format.
- Character tomes (similar in function to character sheets in other RPGs) for all four orders, plus apostates, along with grimoire sheets.
- Five pregenerated characters.
- Loads of in-setting handouts and props.
- A gorgeous art book.
- And the Invisible Sun app is free from the MCG Shop.
Invisible Sun is a game about discovery and secrets. There may be other content awaiting discovery in your PDF.”
