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
Thomas Ligotti, Songs of a Dead Dreamer
Thomas Ligotti, "The Last Feast of Harlequin" in Grimscribe: His Lives and Works
Robert Aickman, English author
H. P. Lovecraft, American author
H. R. Giger, Swiss artist
Jean Giraud a.k.a. Moebius, French comic book artist
Donald Barthelme, American author
Pierre Soulages, French artist
Bruno Schulz, Polish author
Thomas Bernhard, Austrian author
Edgar Allan Poe, American author
J. 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)
Algernon Blackwood, "The Wendigo"
Thomas Ligotti, "The Dark Beauty of Unheard of Horrors" in The Thomas Ligotti Reader: Essays and Explorations
Dogen Zenji, Zen master
Manichaeism
Spencer Brown, The Laws of Form
Ramsey Dukes, Words Made Flesh: Information In Formation
Deleuze, Essays Critical and Clinical
Thomas Ligotti, "Purity," in Teatro Grottesco
James Joyce, Ulysses
Advaita Vedanta
Joshua Ramey, The Hermetic Deleuze: Philosophy and Spiritual Ordeal
Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass
James Hillman, The Dream and the Underworld
P. J. O’Rourke, political satirist

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Sunday Morning | Pastor Tyler Burns | April 27, 2025