Is Weird Fiction Slanted Towards Western Values?
 

The title says it all. Is modern Weird Fiction largely slanted towards a view of the world informed by modern Western values, that is that it implies a perception of the world as 'inert' material to be mastered by human endeavor, usually technological, the punchline often being that we are too insignificant to carry out this operation.

Cosmicism, the most extreme example of this world-desire, is a horror of thwarted desire: Humanity simply are not up to the task of making the world amenable to Man.

Re: Is Weird Fiction Slanted Towards Western Values?
 

I immediately thought of the mid to late Heidegger's destruction of Western metaphysics upon reading your post, which in turn made me think of Adorno and Horkheimer's critique of instrumental reason. "Thwarted desire" might correspond roughly to that part of the "object" which resists conceptual reduction or subsumption. Instead of a rational totality, there's an aspect of the material or natural world which forever eludes man's own understanding of things. One might think of "cosmicism" in the aforementioned manner.

Sounds pretty "Western" to me.

EDIT:

I usually dislike post-Marxist theory, but I feel rationality was ultimately corrupted by the advent of capitalism insofar as it transformed reason into a tool of efficiency, not a means by which happiness (self-perfection) is achieved, which is the classical definition of reason. Granted, I don't think either understanding (or historical mode?) of rationality brings happiness. Nevertheless, the latter account is beautiful and tragic, while the former is vulgar and worthy of contempt.

Re: Is Weird Fiction Slanted Towards Western Values?
 

Just cosmic horror or modern weird fiction in general?

Re: Is Weird Fiction Slanted Towards Western Values?
 

Are those, really, western values?
Also, what are typically oriental values?

The implied contrast here, with the image of the fatalistic, slothful orient- that's perhaps a bit western...

Re: Is Weird Fiction Slanted Towards Western Values?
 

I did think of Heidegger after I'd made that post. I would separate the 'instrumental' view of the world from the attempt to understand it though in the case of my criticism here the issue is not being unable to understand the world but being able to understand clearly that the world says 'No'.

Yes. If need be I can elaborate on their progressive development in Enlightenment Deism, Positivism, Utilitarianism and to a lesser extent economics.

No one specific answer but I bring them up in contrast because:

A. Non-Dualism has historically had more prominence in Indian and Far Eastern thought.

B. Pantheism and Panentheism have had more influence in Indian, Native American, South American and to a lesser extent Islamic thought.

C. Animism has had more influence in African and South American thought

No... Where again do I imply fatalistic or slothful?

Re: Is Weird Fiction Slanted Towards Western Values?
 

The development of what we might call the weird tale outside of the West might not have happened if not for Eastern writers being exposed to Poe, especially the Japanese Modernists.

So, yes, I believe this is the case.

Re: Is Weird Fiction Slanted Towards Western Values?
 

That's interesting. Ligotti himself, in the introduction to Noctuary, claims part of what makes a story "weird" is its fatalism, or at least the fatalism perceived by the one who encounters that which is weird or unsettling.

I'm assuming your use of the term "slothful" is in response to Evan's claim that the Western worldview is predominately technological. I prefer the term "reflective" over "slothful."

Re: Is Weird Fiction Slanted Towards Western Values?
 

Japanese had their own established tradition of macabre and supernatural storytelling long before they were introduced to Poe.

Re: Is Weird Fiction Slanted Towards Western Values?
 

I don't know if the concept of "mastering" the world comes into it, but scientific materialism is western in the sense that it achieved its highest expression in the west (though materialism is not just a western phenomena- ancient indian philosophers came to similar conclusions). Materialism's westernness seems more the fault of historical exigencies than an innate feature of western culture (or any culture for that matter).
Cosmic horror cannot exist without premodern beliefs in man's cosmic importance, beliefs shared across the globe. Cosmic horror is the conflict between man's ideas of his own importance with the modern, materialist picture of human insignificance. For westerners like Lovecraft and Ligotti, the presence of christianity is implied in their work, in the sense that it is behind the vanquished anthropocentrism. Cosmic horror could work in non-western societies that are anthropocentric- any (ex-)abrahamic can understand the existential horror of Lovecraft and Ligotti. I wonder how ex-muslims respond to cosmic horror- I imagine very similarly to ex-christians and ex-jews.
I know nothing of East Asian religions, however, and I have no idea if they would experience the horrifying incongruousness the (ex-)abrahamic feels.

Re: Is Weird Fiction Slanted Towards Western Values?
 

I don't think any reader turns to weird literature for an affirmation of Western values.
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Besides, classical authors were all over the place: writers as diverse as Machen and Kirk were Christians; Blackwood was a kind of pantheist who believed in some aspects of the occult.
Lovecraft's materialistic view was just one among many.