By: Ben

Ben — Thu, 03 May 2007 12:44:02 +0000

Guilty on using “weird”
Dully checking the OED the only sense I can see as applicable to Lovecraft is the sense of “odd, strange, unusual” but not the common definition of weird as “supernatural” – unless we redefined this to mean a kind of “super-nature” rather than some force / spirit external to nature. Perhaps I’d also say there is some link to the older sense of fate – concerning the fact that the fate of the universe – let alone the comparatively minor matter of humanity – is sealed in advance – extinction.
Were you suggesting abandoning the term in favour of something more precise? In a piece locked in academic development hell I tried Lovecraft as a traversal to “post-Gothic” ie. the horror of social relations / nature itself and not some extra uncanny effect or manmade haunting.
I’d say Lovecraft’s work is materialist horror, but then I’d see this as pretty singular and not be tempted to turn it into a new category.
Ben

Comments on: You don’t have to be weird…

By: Ben