Re. Mark Fisher: The Weird And The Eerie

[Gnosticangel]

I just came across this review of a book on the Weird by music critic Mark Fisher. The focus seems as much on 20th century music and film as on print. I've not yet read the book myself but the review seems interesting.

Here's a quote:

"A weird object or entity is so strange that it makes us think that it should not exist. But by the very fact that it does exist means that it is us who are wrong, and that all of the personal rules we have previously used to make sense of the world are mistaken.

"On the other hand, says Fisher, we tend to find the eerie in landscapes, which have been partially emptied of the human. We don’t find the eerie in enclosed, everyday spaces. We find it in forests and ruins. The eerie is often tied up with an idea of agency. Who - or what - caused these ruins, uttered the strange howl? The eerie concerns the most fundamental philosophical questions: why is there something here when there should be nothing. Or vice versa. The eerie can also signal a stark disengagement with how a person views the world but it doesn’t produce a shock like the weird does, instead it produces a sense of serenity. The eerie is in fact actually an escape from the mundane and the mundane forces of reality."

The Quietus | Features | Tome On The Range | Mark Fisher On Kubrick, Tarkovsky & Nolan: An Extract From The Weird And The Eerie