--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: From around the corner's edge a grotesque…" description: "\"“From around the corner's edge a grotesque light was trickling out, the first intimations of an ominous sunrise over a dark horizon. I dimly recognized..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/228/thomas-ligotti-2073_around-the-corner_from-around-the-corner-s-edge-a-grotesqu_2012607.jpg" --- # From around the corner's edge a grotesque light was… ![“From around the corner's edge a grotesque light was trickling out, the first intimations of an ominous sunrise over a dark horizon. I dimly recognized this colored light, though not from my waking memory. It grew more intense, now pouring out in weird streams from beyond the solid margin of the…” quote by Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/228/thomas-ligotti-2073_around-the-corner_from-around-the-corner-s-edge-a-grotesqu_2012607.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/228/thomas-ligotti-2073_around-the-corner_from-around-the-corner-s-edge-a-grotesqu_2012607.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/228/thomas-ligotti-2073_around-the-corner_from-around-the-corner-s-edge-a-grotesqu_2012607.jpg) > ““From around the corner's edge a grotesque light was trickling out, the first intimations of an ominous sunrise over a dark horizon. I dimly recognized this colored light, though not from my waking memory. It grew more intense, now pouring out in weird streams from beyond the solid margin of the building. And the more intense it grew, the more clearly I could hear the screaming voice that had called out to me in a dream. I shouted his name, but the swelling colored brightness was a field of fear which kept me from making any move toward it. It was no amalgam of colors comparable to anything in mortal experience. It was as if all natural colors had been mutated into a painfully lush iridescence by some prism fantastically corrupted in its form; it was a rainbow staining the sky after a poison deluge; it was an aurora painting the darkness with a blaze of insanity, a blaze that did not burn vigorously but shimmered with an insect-jeweled frailness. And, in actuality, it was nothing like these color-filled effusions, which are merely a feeble means of partially fixing a reality uncommunicable to those not initiated to it, a necessary resorting to the makeshift gibberish of the mystic isolated by his experience and left without a language to describe it. ("The Dreaming In Nortown")”” [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. A surreal dream of impossible colors symbolizes the struggle to articulate an ineffable, terrifying reality. **In simple terms:** Dream shows indescribable horror beyond ordinary language. Key Takeaway Seek language that captures the ineffable. Themes surrealism terror language perception Mood eerie introspective Type literary philosophical When to use this quote - nightmare analysis - creative writing - therapy - visual arts Key Concepts philosophy psychology art theory Questions to Reflect On - How do we convey experiences beyond words? - What does the color imagery reveal about fear? A Different Perspective Risk of being too abstract for practical insight. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Color](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/color/) [Colour](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/colour/) [Dark](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/dark/) [Darkness](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/darkness/) [Insanity](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/insanity/) [Light](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/light/) [Rainbows](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/rainbows/) ## Related quotes > [“Tapping a little bell, I leaned on the desk and turned to look at a small, traditionally decorated Christmas tree on a table near…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/tapping-a-little-bell-i-leaned-on-the-desk-and-turned-to-look-at-a/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) > [“Desperately. Tally searched her brain for a prayer. Any prayer. Now I lay me down to sleep... No! Not that one. Hail Mary something,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/cherry-adair/desperately-tally-searched-her-brain-for-a-prayer-any-prayer-now-i/) [Cherry Adair](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/cherry-adair/) > [September could see it. She did not know what is was she saw. That is the disadvantage of being a heroine, rather than a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/catherynne-m-valente/september-could-see-it-she-did-not-know-what-is-was-she-saw-that-is/) [Catherynne M. Valente](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/catherynne-m-valente/) > [How many people came and stayed a certain time, Uttered light or dark speech that became part of you Like light behind windblown fog…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-ashbery/how-many-people-came-and-stayed-a-certain-time-uttered-light-or-dark/) [John Ashbery](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-ashbery/) > [I watched the early morning light pass over and through the windows of colored glass, leaving streaks of red and green and yellow on…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-cushman/i-watched-the-early-morning-light-pass-over-and-through-the-windows/) [Karen Cushman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/karen-cushman/) > [I've stopped racing to get to the red light.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kyle-chandler/i-ve-stopped-racing-to-get-to-the-red-light/) [Kyle Chandler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kyle-chandler/) > [We're all trying to get to the same island — whether you swim, fly, surf, or skydive, it doesn't matter. What matters is when…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jerry-seinfeld/we-re-all-trying-to-get-to-the-same-island-whether-you-swim-fly-surf-2/) [Jerry Seinfeld](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jerry-seinfeld/) > [“Christmas always used to get me down. There was something oppressive about all those twinkling colored lights. "Are you happy?" "Do you fit in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/chica-umino/christmas-always-used-to-get-me-down-there-was-something-oppressive/) [Chica Umino](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/chica-umino/) > [We’re all trying to get to the same island, whether you swim, fly, surf, or skydive in, it doesn’t matter. What matters is when…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jerry-seinfeld/we-re-all-trying-to-get-to-the-same-island-whether-you-swim-fly-surf/) [Jerry Seinfeld](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jerry-seinfeld/) > [One song Glory One song Before I go Glory One song to leave behind Find one song One last refrain Glory From the pretty…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rent/one-song-glory-one-song-before-i-go-glory-one-song-to-leave-behind/) [Rent](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rent/) > [“Just as with sound waves, light waves emitted by a moving source show the Doppler effect. What we observe instead of the sound pitch…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henning-genz/just-as-with-sound-waves-light-waves-emitted-by-a-moving-source-show/) [Henning Genz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henning-genz/) > [“Colored lights blink on and off, racing across the green boughs. Their reflections dance across exquisite glass globes and splinter into shards against tinsel…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/vera-nazarian/colored-lights-blink-on-and-off-racing-across-the-green-boughs-their/) [Vera Nazarian](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/vera-nazarian/) > [Suppose you were working at your job one day, and you made a little mistake. Then all of a sudden a red light went…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jacques-plante/suppose-you-were-working-at-your-job-one-day-and-you-made-a-little/) [Jacques Plante](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jacques-plante/) > [That awkward moment when you stop at a red light and look over to someone staring at you..](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/that-awkward-moment-when-you-stop-at-a-red-light-and-look-over-to/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [“Behind my eyelids, I saw him dancing in spirals of coloured light, emerald, blue, and brilliant purple, enfolding him like the wings of an…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alexis-hall/behind-my-eyelids-i-saw-him-dancing-in-spirals-of-coloured-light/) [Alexis Hall](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alexis-hall/) ## More by Thomas Ligotti > [“Subsequently there ensues an epoch of complex, proliferating intrigues and conspiracies among the ranks of double agents, whose agendas become so densely intertwined that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/subsequently-there-ensues-an-epoch-of-complex-proliferating-intrigues/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) > [“The point that in the absence of birth nobody exists who can be deprived of happiness is terribly conspicuous. For optimists, this fact plays…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/the-point-that-in-the-absence-of-birth-nobody-exists-who-can-be/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) > [“The worst fear of the race yes, the world suddenly transformed into a senseless nightmare, horrible dissolution of things. Nothing compares, even oblivion is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/the-worst-fear-of-the-race-yes-the-world-suddenly-transformed-into-a/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) > [“In supernatural horror stories, however, magical thinking is a completely different matter. Those characters contending with what seems to be the work of magic…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/in-supernatural-horror-stories-however-magical-thinking-is-a/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) > [“When you are alone in the wilderness, opinions or beliefs of any kind are dropped as the absurd accoutrements they are. But after being…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/when-you-are-alone-in-the-wilderness-opinions-or-beliefs-of-any-kind/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) > [“There seems to be an inborn drive in all human beings not to live in a steady emotional state, which would suggest that such…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/there-seems-to-be-an-inborn-drive-in-all-human-beings-not-to-live-in/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) > [Nature proceeds by blunders; that is its way. It is also ours. So if we have blundered by regarding consciousness as a blunder, why…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/nature-proceeds-by-blunders-that-is-its-way-it-is-also-ours-so-if-we/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) > [We live in a permanent state of bad faith, a mutual representation of ourselves to one another for the sake of remaining sane and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/we-live-in-a-permanent-state-of-bad-faith-a-mutual-representation-of/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) > [“The darkness of the grotesque is an immortal enigma: in all legends of the dead, in all the tales of creatures of the night,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/the-darkness-of-the-grotesque-is-an-immortal-enigma-in-all-legends-of/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) > [“If truth is what you seek, then the examined life will only take you on a long ride to the limits of solitude and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/if-truth-is-what-you-seek-then-the-examined-life-will-only-take-you/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) > [“The dismembered limbs of dolls and puppets are strewn about everywhere. Posters, signs, billboards, and leaflets of various sorts are scattered around like playing…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/the-dismembered-limbs-of-dolls-and-puppets-are-strewn-about/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) > [“As I drifted along with my bodiless invisibility, I felt myself more and more becoming an empty, floating shape, seeing without being seen and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/as-i-drifted-along-with-my-bodiless-invisibility-i-felt-myself-more/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) > [“The lessons in measurement of cloacal forces. Time as a flow of sewage. The excrement of space, scatology of creation. The voiding of the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/the-lessons-in-measurement-of-cloacal-forces-time-as-a-flow-of-sewage/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) > [And the worst possible thing we could know — worse than knowing of our descent from a mass of microorganisms — is that we…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/and-the-worst-possible-thing-we-could-know-worse-than-knowing-of-our/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) > [“Only catatonics and coma patients can persevere in a dignified withdrawal from life’s rattle and hum. Without a “yes” in our hearts, nothing would…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/only-catatonics-and-coma-patients-can-persevere-in-a-dignified/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) [Explore all 187 Thomas Ligotti quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) ## More Around the corner quotes > [I feel excited about getting older as an actress, too. I think there are some amazing opportunities around the corner and I don't need…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sutton-foster/i-feel-excited-about-getting-older-as-an-actress-too-i-think-there/) [Sutton Foster](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sutton-foster/) > [You'll never see me coming around the corner not smiling... I mean, I enjoy every moment.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/shaquem-griffin/you-ll-never-see-me-coming-around-the-corner-not-smiling-i-mean-i/) [Shaquem Griffin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/shaquem-griffin/) > [Curiosity is the essence of human existence. 'Who are we? Where are we? Where do we come from? Where are we going?'... I don't…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/curiosity-is-the-essence-of-human-existence-who-are-we-where-are-we/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [You'd never think of taking a cab if you had to walk a mile down Chicago's Michigan Avenue. But in a bad city you…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/helmut-jahn/you-d-never-think-of-taking-a-cab-if-you-had-to-walk-a-mile-down/) [Helmut Jahn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/helmut-jahn/) > [With the great people that you work with, it's that they're never giving up and they're never thinking something's finished until they've really, really…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/steven-price/with-the-great-people-that-you-work-with-it-s-that-they-re-never/) [Steven Price](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/steven-price/) > [At some point during almost every romantic comedy, the female lead suddenly trips and falls, stumbling helplessly over something ridiculous like a leaf, and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/chelsea-handler/at-some-point-during-almost-every-romantic-comedy-the-female-lead/) [Chelsea Handler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/chelsea-handler/) > [“A courteous war mage. The world really was coming to an end. And then Pritkin ran back around the corner followed by half a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-chance/a-courteous-war-mage-the-world-really-was-coming-to-an-end-and-then/) [Karen Chance](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/karen-chance/) > [You don't know what's coming for you in life, and you don't know what's around the corner. When you're in a great deal of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/j-h-wyman/you-don-t-know-what-s-coming-for-you-in-life-and-you-don-t-know-what/) [J.H. Wyman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/j-h-wyman/) > [Brooklyn, where I grew up, is a competitive burg - there's always a pretty boy around the corner there, and you gotta look better…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/theophilus-london/brooklyn-where-i-grew-up-is-a-competitive-burg-there-s-always-a/) [Theophilus London](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/theophilus-london/) > [One thing that's certain: around the corner from every ugly thing, there's something really beautiful. If we stop at every bitter interaction; we'll never…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/soledad-o-brien/one-thing-that-s-certain-around-the-corner-from-every-ugly-thing/) [Soledad O'Brien](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/soledad-o-brien/) > [“job 14:1 man who is born of a woman is few of days and full of troubles "If that isn't your experience now it…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-piper/job-14-1-man-who-is-born-of-a-woman-is-few-of-days-and-full-of/) [John Piper](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-piper/) > [Many live in dread of what is coming. Why should we? The unknown puts adventure into life. ... The unexpected around the corner gives…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/e-stanley-jones/many-live-in-dread-of-what-is-coming-why-should-we-the-unknown-puts/) [E. Stanley Jones](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/e-stanley-jones/) > [And as I reinvent myself and I'm constantly curious about everything, I can't wait to see what's around the corner in newfound art and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pam-grier/and-as-i-reinvent-myself-and-i-m-constantly-curious-about-everything/) [Pam Grier](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pam-grier/) > [I know what is around the corner - I just don't know where the corner is.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kevin-keegan/i-know-what-is-around-the-corner-i-just-don-t-know-where-the-corner-is/) [Kevin Keegan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kevin-keegan/) > [I love being the age I am, because if there's enough pain or grief, I have enough experience now to realize that there's joy…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sara-gilbert/i-love-being-the-age-i-am-because-if-there-s-enough-pain-or-grief-i/) [Sara Gilbert](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sara-gilbert/) Browse all 569 Around the corner quotes ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“From around the corner's edge a grotesque light was trickling out, the first intimations of an ominous sunrise over a dark horizon. I dimly recognized this colored light, though not from my waking memory. It grew more intense, now pouring out in weird streams from beyond the solid margin of the building. And the more intense it grew, the more clearly I could hear the screaming voice that had called out to me in a dream. I shouted his name, but the swelling colored brightness was a field of fear which kept me from making any move toward it. It was no amalgam of colors comparable to anything in mortal experience. It was as if all natural colors had been mutated into a painfully lush iridescence by some prism fantastically corrupted in its form; it was a rainbow staining the sky after a poison deluge; it was an aurora painting the darkness with a blaze of insanity, a blaze that did not burn vigorously but shimmered with an insect-jeweled frailness. 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