[Speaking Mute]

Quote Originally Posted by Evans

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.

Setting aside all the difficulties in defining both "West" and "Western values" and sticking with your specific framing of a problem, I'm still going to say no.

Restricting Weird Horror to Lovecraft and Ligotti, the typical character featured in either author's fiction is usually wholly indifferent to social status, professional achievement, personal happiness, and even self-preservation. The only aspiration that ever seems to be thwarted in Lovecraft and Ligotti is the basic, everyday grasp of reality, and however we slice or define the West, I think it's fair to say that the West only ever sees the basic, everyday grasp of reality as an aspiration for a pitiable minority of mental invalids. I think this is one of the most subversive aspects of Lovecraft and Ligotti and one of the few themes they genuinely share in common.

Before moving on to Weird Fiction in general, I don't think Cosmicism played the role in Lovecraft's fiction that he himself thought it did. Indeed, I'd go even further and say Lovecraft failed to incorporate cosmic indifference in his fiction; aside from the insentient Color Out of Space, all of his creatures show interest in humans one way or another - even the Idiot God sent emissaries to us wee little humans. Nor do I follow Joshi in thinking Cosmicism separates Weird from mainstream horror since a very large number of prominent authors popularly classified as Weird reject the view outright. But this tangent leads me back to why I'd say "no" in general - there's just too many different authors with different beliefs and backgrounds to pin Weird Horror to any particular set of cultural values. This isn't saying that aren't tropes that distinguish Weird Horror as a specific sub-genre - just that the tropes in and of themselves don't commit authors to a particular worldview, and have appealed to readers and authors all over the world.