[Justin Isis]

The idea that there is a separation between the human mind and the cosmos is a Western idea. Cosmic horror is sort of like a panic attack experienced by a teenage boy who feels alienated - “Monotheist God isn’t real...The universe is blind and indifferent."

So in that sense cosmic horror can only exist in a post-Enlightenment or scientific context…which was appropriate when Lovecraft was writing, but is fairly played out at this point.

As for materialism, Ligottian thanatic desire is still thwarted desire (at least while the speaker or narrator is still speaking and therefore still conscious) and still materialist, since it assumes that death consists of a cessation of consciousness - or if it doesn’t, it would be construed as (even more) horrific. "I can't die!" would not be an exclamation of joy in a Ligotti story.