The literature of darkness holds a haunting immediacy for most readers. The life of man, after all, is but a brief interval between one darkness and another, while the world he inhabits is likewise merely an ephemeral fl...The literature of darkness holds a haunting immediacy for most readers. The life of man, after all, is but a brief interval between one darkness and another, while the world he inhabits is likewise merely an ephemeral flicker within a universe enshrouded by perpetual night.