Tentacles Longer Than Night: Horror of PhilosophyOur contemporary horror stories are written in a world where there seems little faith, lost hope, and no salvation. All that remains is the fragmentary and occasionally lyrical testimony of the human being struggling to confront its lack of reason for being in the vast cosmos. This is the terrain of the horror genre. Eugene Thacker explores this situation in Tentacles Longer Than Night. Extending the ideas presented in his book In The Dust of This Planet, Thacker considers the relationship between philosophy and the horror genre. But instead of taking fiction as the mere illustration of ideas, Thacker reads horror stories as if they themselves were works of philosophy, driven by a speculative urge to question human knowledge and the human-centric view of the world, ultimately leading to the limit of the human—thought undermining itself, in thought. Tentacles Longer Than Night is the third volume of the "Horror of Philosophy" trilogy, together with the first volume, In The Dust of This Planet, and the second volume, Starry Speculative Corpse. |
Contents
As Above So Below | |
Necrologies | |
Tooth and Claw Flesh and Blood | |
Against Literature Against Life | |
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Common terms and phrases
abstract abyss allegorical analogy anamorphosis anatomical animality of Maldoror anthropocentrism apophatic Bachelard Bataille become bestiary black illumination bliss of metamorphosis body natural body politic concept Canto categorical imperative cephalopod characters circle Comte de Lautréamont Conspiracy corpse creatures cultural Dante dark death decomposition disease divine dream everything exist fantastic fear frozen thought genre horror gothic gothic novel H.P. Lovecraft hair head Hell horror fiction horror film horror genre horror of philosophy human Ibid Immanuel Kant indifference instance Kant Kant's Lautréamont Ligotti literal literary literature living dead logic Maldoror mask medieval metaphysics multiplicity mystical narrative narrator negation Nicholas of Cusa notion object once opening perhaps pessimism political theology puppet question reason relation religion S.T. Joshi scenes seems sense shadow simply sovereign sovereignty spiral spiritual story strange sublime supernatural horror takes things Thomas Ligotti tradition trans uncanny unhuman vitalistic Weird zombie