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In his short story "Mrs. Rinaldi\'s Angel," contemporary horror author Thomas Ligotti contrasts the chaotic monstrosity of dreams with the cold, indifferent, and no less monstrous purity of angels. It is the story of a boy whose vivid dream life is sapping his vital force, and who resorts to esoteric measures to rectify the situation. In this episode, Phil and JF discuss the beauty and horror of dreams, the metaphysical signifiance of angels and demons, and the potential dangers of seeking the peace of absolute "purity" in the wondrous flux of lived experience.

REFERENCES

Thomas Ligotti, "Mrs. Rinaldi\'s Angel" (read by Jon Padgett)

Roger Scruton, The Face of God
\\nThomas Ligotti, Songs of a Dead Dreamer
\\nThomas Ligotti, "The Last Feast of Harlequin" in Grimscribe: His Lives and Works
\\nRobert Aickman, English author
\\nH. P. Lovecraft, American author
\\nH. R. Giger, Swiss artist
\\nJean Giraud a.k.a. Moebius, French comic book artist
\\nDonald Barthelme, American author
\\nPierre Soulages, French artist
\\nBruno Schulz, Polish author
\\nThomas Bernhard, Austrian author
\\nEdgar Allan Poe, American author
\\nJ. F. Martel, "The Beautiful Madness: Primacy of Wonder in the Works of Thomas Ligotti" (Forthcoming in James Curcio (ed.), Masks: Bowie and the Artists of Artifice from Intellect Books)
\\nAlgernon Blackwood, "The Wendigo"
\\nThomas Ligotti, "The Dark Beauty of Unheard of Horrors" in The Thomas Ligotti Reader: Essays and Explorations
\\nDogen Zenji, Zen master
\\nManichaeism
\\nSpencer Brown, The Laws of Form
\\nRamsey Dukes, Words Made Flesh: Information In Formation
\\nDeleuze, Essays Critical and Clinical
\\nThomas Ligotti, "Purity," in Teatro Grottesco
\\nJames Joyce, Ulysses
\\nAdvaita Vedanta
\\nJoshua Ramey, The Hermetic Deleuze: Philosophy and Spiritual Ordeal
\\nLewis Carroll, Alice\'s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass
\\nJames Hillman, The Dream and the Underworld
\\nP. J. O\\u2019Rourke, political satirist