Why Germans Can Say Things No One Else Can (2) - Notebook of the Night

I just came across the following short text by Thomas Ligotti printed with Ligotti's permission in an interview with Angerhuber and her partner Thomas Wagner. This interview was conducted by Uwe Voehl and was published in Arcana no. 1 (the German magazine of classic and modern speculative fiction). Ligotti is sharing his thoughts on Notebook of the Night: Exzerpte aus "Noctuary" - the German-language audio recording of eleven vignettes from Noctuary performed by both of the above mentioned authors (also in my Angerhuber bibliography).

Why Germans Can Say Things No One Else Can

In relation to Ruinenlust and the German language.

This is what Mark Twain used to think about ...

The Awful German Language

This is what Sylvia Plath used to think about the language:

“What I didn't say was that each time I picked up a German dictionary or a German book, the very sight of those dense, black, barbed-wire letters made my mind shut like a clam.”