Commentary on The Sect Of The Idiot
Thomas Ligotti’s The Sect of the Idiot begins with a man who arrives in a strange town, with “infinite stillness on foggy mornings, miracles of silence on indolent afternoons, and the strangely flickering tableau of never ending nights.” (201) However, his peaceful solitude is interrupted by the visit of a strange man knocking on the door, who seemingly disappeared as fast as he appeared. Later that same night, he is haunted by a strange dream, in which he, in a disembodied state, observes a strange ritual of communication in which strange hooded figures stand around an altar, and speak in cryptic clicking noises. Throughout the course of the dream, there appeared from the robes “delicate appendages that appeared to be withered, wilted claws bearing numerous talons that tapered off into drooping tentacles… all of these stingy digits seemed to be working together with lively and unceasing agitation.” (204). Even after waking up, the narrator recalls that “it seemed that I had carried b