Thomas Ligotti - The strange designs of Master Rignolo 11

 In previous posts I have illustrated my favorite Thomal Ligotti story "The strange designs of Master Rignolo".  You can read, and see, the whole story here: 

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10

But why is this story so fascinating? Let's ask Twitter and Facebook first. We'll search other sources in the next posts:

Antígrafo - @AntigrafoGris - wrote a long and cogent analysis:

TBH I never had an interpretation. I usually don't look for them, and more so in Ligotti, for whom meaninglessness is so relevant. I'm haunted by the characters' relation, conspiratorial, paranoid, despondent and opaque. It's impossible to say anything certain about them.

And even more by the painting's design. The concept of a man-made void in which one can dissolve and "inhabit", waiting, empty of thought and even sight, for the stars to blink out, is perversely alluring to me.

If you forced me to torture out some sense, I could say that R thinks that he has found a way out of existence free of any effort and suffering, but it is in itself a trap. Rignolo exists reality two times betrayed. First, it's painful and, second, it's a mockery of his design.

And the unseen forces that observe and churn beneath it all is the same universe that R tries to cheat with his landscapes. He even states that you can inhabit his paintings unobserved. A solution to the presence in the window that worries N so much, we don't know why.

The bottle at the end it's what N and G wanted before all of this started and their reward for understanding that there's no easy way out, no sense or design possible and particularly for ignoring all of it.

And maybe that's the reason we all are so conspiratorial, paranoid, despondent and opaque, because we know that it's unavoidable, but we have to choose to ignore it to avoid the worst

Serhiy Krykun - made a very good illustration - it also fits my impressions of the story:

Rignolo made me doodle it while on the verge of falling asleep. An illustration to "The Strange Design of Master Rignolo" by Thomas Ligotti.

Nicole Cushing - @NicoleCushing:

"...countless stars stared down like the dead eyes of sculptured faces."

"The Strange Design of Master Rignolo" by Thomas Ligotti in NOCTUARY, magnificently dark.

And then I discovered that I myself had already made some illustrations for the story, based on real photographs of Rotterdam:

It was well into evening and for some time Nolon had been been seated at a small table in a kind of park. This was a long, thin stretch of land - vaguely triangular in shape, like a piece of broken glass - bordered by three streets of varying breadth, varying evenness of surface, and of varying stages of disintegration as each thoroughfare succumbed in its own way and in its own time to the subtle but continuous movements of the slumbering earth below. ... There were other tables here and there, all of them unoccupied, but most of the park was unused ground covered with a plush, fuzzy kind of turf.

" ... I was out in that field, the one behind those empty buildings at the edge of town where everything just slides away and goes off in all directions. And there's a marsh by there, makes the ground a little, I don't know, stringy or something. No trees, though, only a lot of wild grass, reeds, you know where I mean?"

“The face,” he said, leaning back in his chair. “It was right there, about the size of, I don’t know, a window or a picture hanging on a wall, except that it was in the ground and it was a big oval, not rectangular in any way. Just as if someone had partly buried a giant, or better yet, a giant’s mask."

Ian Davey - @unapersson:

Two men visit a landscape artist whose work has an otherworldly life of its own, and they help him reach its source.

Manifold prediction market - icosahedron made of wood

 I bet NO on the Manifold prediction market, that an AI will not be able to handle the prompt:

A regular icosahedron carved out of wood

by 2023-06-01

This is what OpenAI makes of it. It is disappointing:

Thomas Ligotti - The strange designs of Master Rignolo 10

Using OpenAI to illustrate my favorite Thomas Ligotti story, and to make my inner pictures visible for you. And for myself. First I fed the story text directly into the AI. Now I make my own description of what happens in the story. This works better.

This is the final part. You can read, and see, the whole story here:

Part 1  Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10

"Exactly. Now let's just take advantage of the situation and drink our drinks before moving on."

"I'm not sure I want to," said Grissul.

"I'm not sure we have any say in the matter," replied Nolon.

"Yes, but — "

"Shhh. Tonight's our night."

Across the street a shadow fidgeted in the frame of a lighted window. 

An evening breeze moved through the little park, and the green glow of a candleflame flickered upon two silent faces.

Thomas Ligotti - The strange designs of Master Rignolo 9

Using OpenAI to illustrate my favorite Thomas Ligotti story, and to make my inner pictures visible for you. And for myself. First I fed the story text directly into the AI. Now I make my own description of what happens in the story. This works better.

You can read, and see, the whole story here:

Part 1  Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10

"Something like that would have happened sooner or later," Nolon replied.

"He was too much the dreamer, let's be honest. Nothing he said made any sense to speak of, and he was always saying more than he should.

Who knows who heard what."

"I've never heard screaming like that."

"It's over," said Nolon quietly.

"But what could have happened to him?" asked Grissul, gripping the shallow glass before him, apparently without awareness of the move.

"Only he could know that for certain," answered Nolon, who mirrored Grissul's move and seemingly with the same absence of conscious intent.

"And why did he scream that way, why did he say it was all a trick, a mockery of his dreams, that 'filthy thing in the earth'?

Why did he scream not to be 'buried forever in that strange, horrible mask'?"

"Maybe he became confused," said Nolon. Nervously, he began pouring from the thin bottle into each of their glasses.

"And then he cried out for someone to kill him. But that's not what he wanted at all, just the opposite. He was afraid to you-know-what. So why would he — "

"Do I really have to explain it all, Mr Grissul?"

"I suppose not," Grissul said very softly, looking ashamed. "He was trying to get away, to get away with something."

"That's right," said Nolon just as softly, looking around. "Because he wanted to escape from here without having to you-know-what. How would that look?"

"Set an example."

Thomas Ligotti - The strange designs of Master Rignolo 8

Using OpenAI to illustrate my favorite Thomas Ligotti story, and to make my inner pictures visible for you. And for myself. First I fed the story text directly into the AI. Now I make my own description of what happens in the story. This works better.

You can read, and see, the whole story here:

Part 1  Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10

After their adventure, Nolon and Grissul returned to the same table in that place they had met earlier that evening. 

But where they had left a bare table-top behind them, not considering the candleflame within its unshapely green bubble, there were at the moment two shallow glasses set out, along with a tall, if somewhat thin bottle placed between them.

They looked at the bottle, the glasses, and each other methodically, as if they did not want to rush into anything.

"Is there still, you know, someone in the window across the street?" Grissul asked.

"Do you think I should look?" Nolon asked back.

Grissul stared at the table, allowing moments to accumulate, then said, "I don't care, Mr Nolon, I have to say that what happened tonight was very unpleasant."

Thomas Ligotti - The strange designs of Master Rignolo 7

Using OpenAI to illustrate my favorite Thomas Ligotti story, and to make my inner pictures visible for you. And for myself. First I fed the story text directly into the AI. Now I make my own description of what happens in the story. This works better.

You can read, and see, the whole story here:

Part 1  Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10

Into a scene which makes no sound, three figures arrive.

Their silhouettes move with distinct, cautious steps across an open field, progressing slowly, almost without noticeable motion.

Around them, crisscrossing shafts of tall grasses are entirely motionless, their pointed tips sharply outlined in the moonlight.

Above them, the moon is round and bright; but its brightness is of a dull sort, like the flat whiteness that appears in the spaces of complex designs embellishing the page of a book.

The three figures, one of which is much shorter than the other two, have stopped and are standing completely still before a particularly dense clump of oddly shaped stalks.

Now one of the taller figures has raised his arm and is pointing toward this clump of stalks, while the shorter figure has taken a step in the direction indicated. 

The two tall figures are standing together as the short one has all but disappeared into the dark, dense overgrowth. Only a single shoe, its toe angled groundward, remains visible. 

Then nothing at all.

The two remaining figures continue to stand in their places, making no gestures, their hands in the pockets of their long overcoats. 

They are staring into the blackness where the other one has disappeared. Around them, crisscrossing shafts of tall grasses; above them, the moon is round and bright.

Now the two figures have turned themselves away from the place where the other one disappeared. They are each slightly bent over and are holding their hands over their ears, as though to deafen themselves to something they could not bear. Then, slowly, almost without noticeable motion, they move out of the scene.

The field is empty once again. And now everything awakes with movement and sound.

Thomas Ligotti - The strange designs of Master Rignolo 6

Using OpenAI to illustrate my favorite Thomas Ligotti story, and to make my inner pictures visible for you. And for myself. First I fed the story text directly into the AI. Now I make my own description of what happens in the story. This works better.

You can read, and see, the whole story here:

Part 1  Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10

"Mr Nolon, I recognized the place that that room is supposed to be."

"I'm sure you did."

"And I'm also sure I know whose face it was that I saw tonight in that field."

"I think we should be going."

"What are you saying?" demanded Rignolo.

Nolon gestured toward a large clock high upon the wall and asked if that was the time.

"Always," replied Rignolo, "since I've never yet seen its hands move."

"Well, then, thank you for everything," said Nolon.

"We have to be leaving,' added Grissul.

"Just one moment," Rignolo shouted as they were making their way out. "I know where you're going now. Someone, I won't say who, told me what you found in that field. 

I've done it, haven't I? You can tell me all about it. No, it's not necessary. I've put myself into the scene at last. The abyss with a decor, the ultimate flight!

In short - survival in the very maw of oblivion. Oh, perhaps there's still some work to be done. But I've made a good start, haven't I? I've got my foot in the door, my face looking in the window. Little by little, then... forever. True?

No, don't say anything. Show me where it is, I need to go there. I have a right to go."

Having no idea what sort of behavior a refusal might inspire in the maniacal Rignolo, not to mention possible reprisals from unknown parts, Nolon and Grissul respected the artist's request.