In the Dust of This Planet by Eugene Thacker

I’m sorry to say that this is a book without a single dogeared quote or comment from me.

Which is unexpected, given the author’s opening explanation in his preface. First, the stage on which the action will be set:

The world is increasingly unthinkable -- a world of planetary disasters, emerging pandemics, tectonic shifts, strange weather, oil-drenched seascapes, and the furtive, always-looming threat of extinction. In spite of our daily concerns, wants, and desires, it is increasingly difficult to comprehend the world in which we live and of which we are a part. To confront this idea is to confront the absolute limit to our ability to adequately understand the world at all -- an idea that has been a central motif of the horror genre for some time.

And then, the authorial intent of what will be presented there:

The aim of this book is to explore the relationship between philosophy and horror, through this motif of the “unthinkable world.” More specifically, we will explore the relation between philosophy as it overlaps with a number of adjacent fields (demonology, occultism, and mysticism), and the genre of supernatural horror, as it is manifest in fiction, film, comics, music, and other media.

How great does that sound? But then, the academic philosopher shows up, with all his constructionist terminology that obscures more than it elucidates.

However, this relationship between philosophy and horror should not be taken to mean “the philosophy of horror,” in which horror as a literary or film genre is presented as a rigorous formal system. If anything, it means the reverse, the horror of philosophy: the isolation of those moments in which philosophy reveals its own limitations and constraints, moments in which thinking enigmatically confronts the horizon of its own possibility -- the thought of the unthinkable that philosophy cannot pronounce but via a non-philosophical language. The genre of supernatural horror is a privileged site in which this paradoxical thought of the unthinkable takes place. What an earlier era would have described through the language of darkness mysticism or negative theology, our contemporary era thinks in terms of supernatural horror.

Huh? I wish I could say that I enjoyed the relatively short text that followed. Despite the numerous references to Lovecraftian stories and films, there was just too much to the academic present for me to truly understand what was going on.

+ + +

This post first appeared on Eric Lanke's blog, an association executive and author. You can follow him on Twitter @ericlanke or contact him at eric.lanke@gmail.com.