Weird Studies - my definition:
I classify "weird fiction" as not necessarily a genre-in-itself, instead it operates in the interstices of mainstream genres, creating through poetic prose, vivid imagery, hallucinatory experiences, existential angst, dream logic and shocking stories, a powerful effect upon the reader, provoking them to start to see the mundane world with a slant. If you look at the etymology of 'wyrd' it originates as the "power to control destiny" (no doubt in a magical or ritual sense) and morphs to the latter "weird" meaning of "unearthly" or strange. These stories stay with you, taking root deep inside your consciousness, reverberating like the ripples of a deep pond disturbed by a thrown rock and provoke you to rethink what you have always taken for granted. There is a commercial genre called "the new weird" (also an older pulp magazine "weird" usually involving cosmic horror) and some of these books/authors would be slotted into my broad genre classification here (many are not), but in the spirit of actual weirdness I include other books/films that operate under the aesthetic classification described above without being marketed as "new weird." The disturbance to perceived reality also may take place through a decoding/encoding process that challenge and restructure (exposing the myths and inconsistencies) dominant narratives/pathways (also see situationist détournement and derive). Often these weird narratives represent/present a dream logic as being just as important/relevant as our waking logic. The purpose is to expose the cracks in the foundations of controlling narratives, destabilizing them through weird narratives that shake the assured assumptions of its adherents. The concepts of carnivalesque revelry and the dialogic nature of consciousness as theorized by Mikhail Bakhtin are equally important, in that they involve the reversal of a dominant order and/or an exposure of the fantasy of the controlling order, in the process revealing the many perspectives/voices that are silenced/masked. As disturbing as these can be for many, perhaps the most problematic aspect of many weird narratives would be the decentering of humans (as the center of the universe) and explorations/recognitions of non-human perspectives. Importantly, in the context of my own American culture, this also involves narrative & theoretical displacement of our particular hegemonic way of seeing & being as the baseline for thinking about and understanding the world. In film studies there has also been a classification of Mind Fuck films which would be included here. All of these can provide a cathartic release from the anxiety/terror of the really weird situation we are living through and the twisted creatures that are at the helm of planet earth. [Editorial note: my definition was originally written during the 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic]. Under no circumstance is weird meant in a derogatory way. Anyone who does a deep dive into science, especially theories of consciousness and reality, knows that science is seriously weird. I appreciate works that challenge our constructed reality, pushing us to see that there is not just one way. Also it should be understood that what seems weird to some may seem obvious and normal to others. One of the great benefits of learning across time and space/places is that it can, following Bertolt Brecht, "make the familiar strange." Michael Dean Benton (May 2020; revised July 2022)
My aim is multi-pronged: 1) resist the initial impulse toward criticism 2) focus on the characteristics of belief or the vision of creativity 3) treat all people as having a concrete worldview that they have thought through 4) pay attention to patterns/rituals and stay aware of inconsistencies/contradictions 5) keep my critical awareness engaged even when I stay open to different ways of seeing/being 6) seek a wide range of historical and cultural examples/histories.
Bibliography (Books):
Bachelard, Gaston. The Poetics of Space. Trans. Maria Jolas. Beacon Press, 1969. [The concept: "spatial alveoli" in thinking about narratives of haunted places/spaces.]
Brown, Jennifer. Cannibalism in Literature and Film. Palgrave MacMillan, 2012. ["From images of stewed missionaries to Hannibal Lecter's hiss, cannibals have intrigued while evoking horror and repulsion. The label of cannibal has been used throughout history to denigrate a given individual or group. By examining who is labelled cannibal at any given time, we can understand the fears, prejudices, accepted norms and taboos of society at that time. From the cannibal in colonial literature, to the idea of regional Gothic and the hillbilly cannibal, to serial killers, this book examines works by writers and directors including Joseph Conrad, H. Rider Haggard, Thomas Harris, Bret Easton Ellis, Cormac McCarthy, Wes Craven, and Tim Burton. It explores questions of cultural identity and otherness in the modern period, offering an important and original examination of cultural norms and fears with reference to national, economic, linguistic, and sexual identity. Amidst the sharp teeth and horrific appetite of the cannibal, the book examines real fears of over-consumerism and consumption that trouble an ever-growing modern world."]
Carroll, Noel. The Philosophy of Horror: Or, Paradoxes of the Heart. Routledge, 1990. ["Noel Carroll, film scholar and philosopher, offers the first serious look at the aesthetics of horror. In this book he discusses the nature and narrative structures of the genre, dealing with horror as a "transmedia" phenomenon. A fan and serious student of the horror genre, Carroll brings to bear his comprehensive knowledge of obscure and forgotten works, as well as of the horror masterpieces. Working from a philosophical perspective, he tries to account for how people can find pleasure in having their wits scared out of them. What, after all, are those "paradoxes of the heart" that make us want to be horrified?"]
Church, David. Post-Horror: Art, Genre, and Cultural Elevation. Edinburgh University Press, 2022. ["Horror’s longstanding reputation as a popular but culturally denigrated genre has been challenged by a new wave of films mixing arthouse minimalism with established genre conventions. Variously dubbed "elevated horror" and "post-horror," films such as The Babadook, It Follows, The Witch, It Comes at Night, Get Out, The Invitation, Hereditary, Midsommar, A Ghost Story, and mother! represent an emerging nexus of taste, politics, and style that has often earned outsized acclaim from critics and populist rejection by wider audiences. Post-Horror is the first full-length study of one of the most important and divisive movements in twenty-first-century horror cinema."]
Cohen, Jeffrey Jerome. "Monster Culture (Seven Theses)." Monster Theory: Reading Culture. ed. Jeffrey Jerome Cohen. University of Minnesota Press, 1996: 3 - 25. ["Monsters are our children.They can be pushed to the farthest margins of geography and discourse, hidden away at the edges of the world and in the forbidden recesses of our mind, but they always return. And when they come back, they bring not just a fuller knowledge of our place in history and the history of knowing our place, but they bear selfknowledge, human knowledge-and a discourse all the more sacred as it arises from the Outside. These monsters ask us how we perceive the world, and how we have misrepresented what we have attempted to place. They ask us to reevaluate our cultural assumptions about race, gender, sexuality, our perception of difference, our tolerance toward its expression. They ask us why we have created them."]
Cowen, Douglas E. Sacred Terror: religion and Horror on the Silver Screen. Baylor University Press, 2016. ["Sacred Terror examines the religious elements lurking in horror films. It answers a simple but profound question: When there are so many other scary things around, why is religion so often used to tell a scary story? In this lucid, provocative book, Douglas Cowan argues that horror films are opportune vehicles for externalizing the fears that lie inside our religious selves: of evil; of the flesh; of sacred places; of a change in the sacred order; of the supernatural gone out of control; of death, dying badly, or not remaining dead; of fanaticism; and of the power--and the powerlessness--of religion."]
Creed, Babara. Return of the Monstrous-Feminine: Feminist New Wave Cinema. Taylor and Francis, 2022. ["This follow-up to the classic text of The Monstrous-Feminine analyses those contemporary films which explore social justice issues such as women’s equality, violence against women, queer relationships, race and the plight of the planet and its multi-species. Examining a new movement – termed by Creed as Feminist New Wave Cinema – The Return of the Monstrous-Feminine explores a significant change that has occurred over the past two decades in the representation of the monstrous-feminine in visual discourse. The Monstrous-Feminine is a figure in revolt on a journey through the dark night of abjection. Taking particular interest in women directors who create the figure of the Monstrous-Feminine, in cinema that foregrounds everyday horrors in addition to classic horror, Creed looks at a range of diverse films including The Babadook, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, Nomadland, Carol, Raw, Revenge, and the television series The Handmaid’s Tale. These films center on different forms of revolt, from inner revolt to social, supernatural and violent revolt, which appear in Feminist New Wave Cinema. These relate in the main to the emergence of a range of social protest movements that have gathered momentum in the new millennium and given voice to new theoretical and critical discourses. These include: third and fourth wave feminism, the #MeToo movement, queer theory, race theory, the critique of anthropocentrism and human animal theory. These theoretical discourses have played a key role in influencing Feminist New Wave Cinema whose films are distinctive, stylish and diverse. This is an essential companion to the original classic text and is ideal for students in Gender and Media, Gender and Horror, Gender and Film and Feminist Film theory courses."]
Curtis, Barry. Dark Places: The Haunted House in Film. Reaktion, 2008. ["Horror films revel in taking viewers into shadowy places where evil resides, whether it is a house, a graveyard or a dark forest. With Dark Places, Barry Curtis leads us deep inside these haunted spaces to explore them – and the monstrous antagonists who dwell there. In this wide-ranging and compelling study, Curtis demonstrates how the claustrophobic interiors of haunted spaces in films connect to the ‘dark places’ of the human psyche. He examines diverse topics such as the special effects – ranging from crude to state-of-the-art – used in movies to evoke supernatural creatures; the structures, projections and architecture of horror movie sets; and ghosts as symbols of loss, amnesia, injustice and vengeance. Dark Places also examines the reconfiguration of the haunted house in film as a motel, an apartment, a road or a spaceship, and how these re-imagined spaces thematically connect to Gothic fictions. Curtis draws his examples from numerous iconic films – including Nosferatu, Psycho, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and The Shining – as well as lesser-known international works. Japanese horror films and their Hollywood remakes – such as Ringu and The Ring, or Juon and The Grudge – come under particular scrutiny, as he explores Japanese cinema’s preoccupation with malevolent forces from the past. Whether you love the splatter of blood or prefer to hide under the couch, Dark Places cuts to the heart of why we are drawn to carnage."]
Derry, Charles. Dark Dreams 2.0: A psychological History of the Modern Horror Film from the 1950s to the 21st Century. McFarland, 2009. ["Greatly expanded and updated from the 1977 original, this new edition explores the evolution of the modern horror film, particularly as it reflects anxieties associated with the atomic bomb, the Cold War, 1960s violence, sexual liberation, the Reagan revolution, 9/11 and the Iraq War. It divides modern horror into three varieties (psychological, demonic and apocalyptic) and demonstrates how horror cinema represents the popular expression of everyday fears while revealing the forces that influence American ideological and political values. Directors given a close reading include Alfred Hitchcock, Brian De Palma, David Cronenberg, Guillermo Del Toro, Michael Haneke, Robert Aldrich, Mel Gibson and George A. Romero. Additional material discusses postmodern remakes, horror franchises and Asian millennial horror. This book also contains more than 950 frame grabs and a very extensive filmography."]
Fisher, Mark. The Weird and the Eerie. Repeater Books, 2016. ["What exactly are the ‘weird’ and the ‘eerie’? ... Mark Fisher argues that some of the most haunting and anomalous fiction of the 20th century belongs to these two modes. The ‘weird’ and the ‘eerie’ are closely related but distinct modes, each possessing its own properties. Both have often been associated with Horror, yet this emphasis overlooks the aching fascination that such texts can exercise. The ‘weird’ and the ‘eerie’ both fundamentally concern the outside and the unknown, which are not intrinsically horrifying, even if they are always unsettling. Perhaps a proper understanding of the human condition requires examination of liminal concepts such as the ‘weird’ and the ‘eerie’. These two modes will be analysed with reference to the work of authors such as H.P. Lovecraft, H.G. Wells, M.R. James, Christopher Priest, Joan Lindsay, Nigel Kneale, Daphne du Maurier, Alan Garner and Margaret Atwood and films by Stanley Kubrick, Jonathan Glazer, and Christopher Nolan."]
Foucault, Michel. "Of Other Spaces." (This text, entitled "Des Espace Autres," and published by the French journal Architecture /Mouvement/ Continuité in October, 1984, was the basis of a lecture given by Michel Foucault in March 1967.) [In which Foucault discusses his understanding of heterotopias, "real, physical "counter-sites"—spaces that effectively mirror, invert, or upset the normal cultural and social spaces around them."]
Freud, Sigmund. The Uncanny. (1919) ["One hundred years ago, Sigmund Freud wrote his paper on ‘The Uncanny’ (Das Unheimliche). His theory was rooted in everyday experiences and the aesthetics of popular culture, related to what is frightening, repulsive and distressing. The paper tackles the horrific concepts of inanimate figures coming to life, severed limbs, ghosts, the image of the double figure (doppelgaengers) and lends itself to art, literature and cinema." - source]
Grant, Barry Keith, ed. The Dread of Difference: Gender and the Horror Film. 2nd ed. The University of Texas Press, 2015. ["An undying procession of sons of Dracula and daughters of darkness has animated the horror film genre from the beginning. Indeed, in this pioneering exploration of the cinema of fear, Barry Keith Grant and twenty other film critics posit that horror is always rooted in gender, particularly in anxieties about sexual difference and gender politics. The book opens with the influential theoretical works of Linda Williams, Carol J. Clover, and Barbara Creed. Subsequent essays explore the history of the genre, from classic horror such as King Kong and Bride of Frankenstein to the more recent Fatal Attraction and Bram Stoker's Dracula. Other topics covered include the work of horror auteurs David Cronenberg, Dario Argento, and George Romero; the Aliens trilogy; and the importance of gender in relation to horror marketing and reception. Other contributors include Vera Dika, Thomas Doherty, Lucy Fischer, Christopher Sharrett, Vivian Sobchack, Tony Williams, and Robin Wood. Writing across a full range of critical methods from classic psychoanalysis to feminism and postmodernism, they balance theoretical generalizations with close readings of films and discussions of figures associated with the genre.The Dread of Difference demonstrates that horror is hardly a uniformly masculine discourse. As these essays persuasively show, not only are horror movies about patriarchy and its fear of the feminine, but they also offer feminist critique and pleasure."]
Heller-Nicholas, Alexandra. The Cinema Coven: Witches, Witchcraft and Women's Filmmaking. McFarland, 2024. ["Witches and witchcraft are potent metaphors for feminine power, with a history that predates the advent of cinema. The figure of the witch represents a particularly fraught, contested kind of gendered power, and has long inspired filmmakers to explore themes of race, class, trauma, motherhood, grief, and identity.This book examines the relationship between women, witchcraft, and filmmaking, exploring types of storytelling and the central themes in these movies. Such films span the globe and have starred prominent figures like Madonna, Bette Midler, Björk, and Nicole Kidman, as well as lesser-known women behind the scenes. Some of these filmmakers have premiered their works at major film festivals, while others have produced content for television and video releases. While notable in their diversity, these movies share one crucial thing: they were all created by women in an industry broadly dominated by men."]
Joshi, S.T., ed. Icons of Horror and the Supernatural: An Encyclopedia of Our Worst Nightmares [2 volumes]. Bloomsbury, 2006. ["Horror and the supernatural have fascinated people for centuries, and many of the most central figures appear over and over again. These figures have gained iconic status and continue to hold sway over popular culture and the modern imagination. This book offers extended entries on 24 of the most enduring and significant figures of horror and the supernatural, including The Sea Creature, The Witch, The Alien, The Vampire, The Werewolf, The Sorcerer, The Ghost, The Siren, The Mummy, The Devil, and The Zombie. Each entry is written by a leading authority on the subject and discusses the topic's essential features and lasting influence, from the classical epics of Homer to the novels of Stephen King. Entries cite sources for further reading, and the Encyclopedia closes with a selected, general bibliography. Entries include illustrations, sidebars of interesting information, and excerpts from key texts. Horror and the supernatural have fascinated people for centuries, with many of the most central figures appearing over and over again across time and cultures. These figures have starred in the world's most widely read literary works, most popular films, and most captivating television series. Because of their popularity and influence, they have attained iconic status and a special place in the popular imagination. This book overviews 24 of the most significant icons of horror and the supernatural."]
King, Stephen. Danse Macabre: An Essential Overview of the Horror Genre. Scribner, 2010. ["From the author of dozens of #1 New York Times bestsellers and the creator of many unforgettable movies comes a vivid, intelligent, and nostalgic journey through three decades of horror as experienced through the eyes of the most popular writer in the genre. In 1981, years before he sat down to tackle On Writing, Stephen King decided to address the topic of what makes horror horrifying and what makes terror terrifying. Here, in ten brilliantly written chapters, King delivers one colorful observation after another about the great stories, books, and films that comprise the horror genre—from Frankenstein and Dracula to The Exorcist, The Twilight Zone, and Earth vs. The Flying Saucers."]
Kristeva, Julia. Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection. Trans. Leon S. Roudiez. Columbia University Press, 1982. ["In Powers of Horror, Julia Kristeva offers an extensive and profound consideration of the nature of abjection. Drawing on Freud and Lacan, she analyzes the nature of attitudes toward repulsive subjects and examines the function of these topics in the writings of Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Marcel Proust, James Joyce, and other authors. Kristeva identifies the abject with the eruption of the real and the presence of death. She explores how art and religion each offer ways of purifying the abject, arguing that amid abjection, boundaries between subject and object break down."]
Ligotti, Thomas. The Conspiracy Against the Human Race: A Contrivance of Horror. Hippocampus Press, 2010. ["In Thomas Ligotti's first nonfiction outing, an examination of the meaning (or meaninglessness) of life through an insightful, unsparing argument that proves the greatest horrors are not the products of our imagination but instead are found in reality.
There is a signature motif discernible in both works of philosophical pessimism and supernatural horror. It may be stated thus: Behind the scenes of life lurks something pernicious that makes a nightmare of our world. - Thomas LigottiHis fiction is known to be some of the most terrifying in the genre of supernatural horror, but Thomas Ligotti's first nonfiction book may be even scarier. Drawing on philosophy, literature, neuroscience, and other fields of study, Ligotti takes the penetrating lens of his imagination and turns it on his audience, causing them to grapple with the brutal reality that they are living a meaningless nightmare, and anyone who feels otherwise is simply acting out an optimistic fallacy. At once a guidebook to pessimistic thought and a relentless critique of humanity's employment of self-deception to cope with the pervasive suffering of their existence, The Conspiracy against the Human Race may just convince listeners that there is more than a measure of truth in the despairing yet unexpectedly liberating negativity that is widely considered a hallmark of Ligotti's work." MB - this is often pointed out as an inspiration for Rust Cohle in Season 1 of True Detective]
Lovecraft, H.P. "The Supernatural in Literature." (1927)
Lowenstein, Adam. Horror Film and Otherness. Columbia University Press, 2022. ["What do horror films reveal about social difference in the everyday world? Criticism of the genre often relies on a dichotomy between monstrosity and normality, in which unearthly creatures and deranged killers are metaphors for society’s fear of the “others” that threaten the “normal.” The monstrous other might represent women, Jews, or Blacks, as well as Indigenous, queer, poor, elderly, or disabled people. The horror film’s depiction of such minorities can be sympathetic to their exclusion or complicit in their oppression, but ultimately, these images are understood to stand in for the others that the majority dreads and marginalizes. Adam Lowenstein offers a new account of horror and why it matters for understanding social otherness. He argues that horror films reveal how the category of the other is not fixed. Instead, the genre captures ongoing metamorphoses across “normal” self and “monstrous” other. This “transformative otherness” confronts viewers with the other’s experience—and challenges us to recognize that we are all vulnerable to becoming or being seen as the other. Instead of settling into comforting certainties regarding monstrosity and normality, horror exposes the ongoing struggle to acknowledge self and other as fundamentally intertwined. Horror Film and Otherness features new interpretations of landmark films by directors including Tobe Hooper, George A. Romero, John Carpenter, David Cronenberg, Stephanie Rothman, Jennifer Kent, Marina de Van, and Jordan Peele. Through close analysis of their engagement with different forms of otherness, this book provides new perspectives on horror’s significance for culture, politics, and art."]
Martel, J.F. Reclaiming Art in the Age of Artifice. Basic Books, 2025. ["Reclaiming Art in the Age of Artifice is a journey into the uncanny realities revealed to us in the great works of art of the past and present. Received opinion holds that art is culturally-determined and relative. We are told that whether a picture, a movement, a text, or sound qualifies as a “work of art” largely depends on social attitudes and convention. Drawing on examples ranging from Paleolithic cave paintings to modern pop music and building on the ideas of James Joyce, Oscar Wilde, Gilles Deleuze, Carl Jung, and others, JF Martel argues that art is an inborn human phenomenon that precedes the formation of culture and even society. Art is free of politics and ideology. Paradoxically, that is what makes it a force of liberation wherever it breaks through the trance of humdrum existence. Like the act of dreaming, artistic creation is fundamentally mysterious. It is a gift from beyond the field of the human, and it connects us with realities that, although normally unseen, are crucial components of a living world. While holding this to be true of authentic art, the author acknowledges the presence—overwhelming in our media-saturated age—of a false art that seeks not to liberate but to manipulate and control. Against this anti-artistic aesthetic force, which finds some of its most virulent manifestations in modern advertising, propaganda, and pornography, true art represents an effective line of defense. Martel argues that preserving artistic expression in the face of our contemporary hyper-aestheticism is essential to our own survival. Art is more than mere ornament or entertainment; it is a way, one leading to what is most profound in us. Reclaiming Art in the Age of Artifice places art alongside languages and the biosphere as a thing endangered by the onslaught of predatory capitalism, spectacle culture, and myopic technological progress. The book is essential reading for visual artists, musicians, writers, actors, dancers, filmmakers, and poets. It will also interest anyone who has ever been deeply moved by a work of art, and for all who seek a way out of the web of deception and vampiric amusement that the current world order has woven around us."]
McGowan, Todd. The Impossible David Lynch. Columbia University Press, 2007. ["Todd McGowan launches a provocative exploration of weirdness and fantasy in David Lynch's groundbreaking oeuvre. He studies Lynch's talent for blending the bizarre and the normal to emphasize the odd nature of normality itself. Hollywood is often criticized for distorting reality and providing escapist fantasies, but in Lynch's movies, fantasy becomes a means through which the viewer is encouraged to build a revolutionary relationship with the world. Considering the filmmaker's entire career, McGowan examines Lynch's play with fantasy and traces the political, cultural, and existential impact of his unique style. Each chapter discusses the idea of impossibility in one of Lynch's films, including the critically acclaimed Blue Velvet and The Elephant Man; the densely plotted Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive; the cult favorite Eraserhead; and the commercially unsuccessful Dune. McGowan engages with theorists from the "golden age" of film studies (Christian Metz, Laura Mulvey, and Jean-Louis Baudry) and with the thought of Sigmund Freud, Jacques Lacan, and Hegel. By using Lynch's weirdness as a point of departure, McGowan adds a new dimension to the field of auteur studies and reveals Lynch to be the source of a new and radical conception of fantasy."]
Mulvery-Roberts, Marie, ed. The Handbook of the Gothic. New York University Press, 2009. ["From Anne Rice’s best-selling novels to our recurrent interest in vampires and the occult, the Gothic has an unyielding hold on our imagination. But what exactly does "Gothic" mean? How does it differ from "terror" or "horror," and where do its parameters lie? Through a wide range of brief essays written by leading scholars, The Handbook of the Gothic, second edition, provides a virtual encyclopedia of things Gothic. From the Demonic to the Uncanny, the Bronte sisters to Melville, this volume plots the characteristics of Gothic’s vastly different schools and manifestations, offering a comprehensive guide of Gothic writing and culture.Among the many topics and figures discussed are: American Gothic, the Bronte Sisters, Angela Carter, the Demonic, Female Gothic, Ghost Stories, Film, Washington Irving, Henry James, H. P. Lovecraft, Madness, Herman Melville, Monstrosity, Orientalism, Post-Colonial Gothic, Anne Rice, Romanticism, Sado-Masochism, Bram Stoker, the Sublime, the Uncanny, Vampires, and Werewolves.
This revised edition of The Handbook of the Gothic contains over twenty new entries on Gothic writers such as Stephen King and Daphne Du Maurier, new genres such as African-American Gothic, new terms like Gothic Graphic Novel and Comic, and a new preface which situates the handbook within current studies of the Gothic."]
Nelson, Victoria. The Secret Life of Puppets. Harvard University Press, 2003. ["In one of those rare books that allows us to see the world not as we’ve never seen it before, but as we see it daily without knowing, Victoria Nelson illuminates the deep but hidden attraction the supernatural still holds for a secular mainstream culture that forced the transcendental underground and firmly displaced wonder and awe with the forces of reason, materialism, and science."]
Park, Katherine and Lorraine Daston. Wonders and the Order of Nature 1150–1750. Zone Books, 1998. ["Wonders and the Order of Nature is about the ways in which European naturalists from the High Middle Ages through the Enlightenment used wonder and wonders, the passion and its objects, to envision themselves and the natural world. Monsters, gems that shone in the dark, petrifying springs, celestial apparitions — these were the marvels that adorned romances, puzzled philosophers, lured collectors, and frightened the devout. Drawing on the histories of art, science, philosophy, and literature, Lorraine Daston and Katharine Park explore and explain how wonder and wonders fortified princely power, rewove the texture of scientific experience, and shaped the sensibility of intellectuals. This is a history of the passions of inquiry, of how wonder sometimes inflamed, sometimes dampened curiosity about nature’s best-kept secrets. Refracted through the prism of wonders, the order of nature splinters into a spectrum of orders, a tour of possible worlds."]
Poole, W. Scott. Monsters in America: Our Historical Obsession with the Hideous and the Haunting. 2nd Ed. Baylor University Press, 2018. ["Not only do they continue to live in our midst, but, as historian Scott Poole shows, these monsters are an important part of our past--a hideous obsession America cannot seem to escape. Poole’s central argument in Monsters in America is that monster tales intertwine with America’s troubled history of racism, politics, class struggle, and gender inequality. The second edition of Monsters leads readers deeper into America’s tangled past to show how monsters continue to haunt contemporary American ideology. By adding new discussions of the American West, Poole focuses intently on the Native American experience. He reveals how monster stories went west to Sand Creek and Wounded Knee, bringing the preoccupation with monsters into the twentieth century through the American Indian Movement. In his new preface and expanded conclusion, Poole’s tale connects to the present--illustrating the relationship between current social movements and their historical antecedents. This proven textbook also studies the social location of contemporary horror films, exploring, for example, how Get Out emerged from the context of the Black Lives Matter movement. Finally, in the new section "American Carnage," Poole challenges readers to assess what their own monster tales might be and how our sordid past horrors express themselves in our present cultural anxieties."]
Preciado, Paul B. Can the Monster Speak? Trans. Frank Wynne. Fitzcarraldo Editions, 2024. ["To introduce myself, since you are a group of 3,500 psychoanalysts and I feel a little alone on this side of the stage, to take a running jump and hoist myself onto the shoulders of the master of metamorphosis, the greatest analyst of the excesses that hide behind the façade of scientific reason and of the madness commonly referred to as mental health: Franz Kafka. In 1917, Franz Kafka wrote ‘Ein Bericht für eine Akademie’ – ‘A Report to an Academy’. The narrator of the text is an ape who, having learned human language, is appearing before an academy of the greatest scientific authorities to report to them on what human evolution has meant to him. The ape, who claims to be called Red Peter, explains how he was captured during a hunting expedition organized by the firm of Hagenbeck, transported to Europe aboard a steamship, is trained to perform in music halls, and how he later sprang into the community of human beings. Red Peter explains that in order to master human language and be accepted in the European society of his time, he had to forget his life as an ape. And how, in order to endure this oblivion and the violence of human society, he became an alcoholic. But the most interesting thing in Red Peter’s monologue is that Kafka does not present this process of humanization as a story of emancipation or of liberation from animality, but rather as a critique of colonial European humanism and its anthropological taxonomies. Once captured, the ape says he had no choice: if he did not wish to die locked up in a cage, he had to accept the ‘cage’ of human subjectivity. Just as the ape Red Peter addressed himself to scientists, so today I address myself to you, the academicians of psychoanalysis, from my ‘cage’ as a trans man. I, a body branded by medical and juridical discourse as ‘transsexual’, characterized in most of your psychoanalytic diagnoses as the subject of an ‘impossible metamorphosis’, find myself, according to most of your theories, beyond neurosis, on the cusp of – or perhaps even within the bounds of – psychosis, being incapable, according to you, of correctly resolving an Oedipus complex or having succumbed to penis envy. And so, it is from the position assigned to me by you as a mentally ill person that I address you, an ape-human in a new era. I am the monster who speaks to you. The monster you have created with your discourse and your clinical practices. I am the monster who gets up from the analyst’s couch and dares to speak, not as a patient, but as a citizen, as your monstrous equal."]
Documentaries:
The American Nightmare (USA: Adam Simon, 2000) This is available for free on Youtube. How the horror genre changed post 1968.
Chain Reactions (USA: Alexandre Philliips, 2024: 102 mins) ["Fifty years after Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre shocked the world and forever changed the face of global cinema and popular culture, Chain Reactions charts the film’s profound impact and lasting influence on five great artists through early memories, sensory experiences, and childhood trauma."]
Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror (USA: Xavier Burgin, 2019) Description: "Delving into a century of genre films that by turns utilized, caricatured, exploited, sidelined, and finally embraced them, this is the untold history of black Americans in Hollywood through their connection to the horror genre." Here is a collection of resources that go with the film: Horror Noire syllabus
Nightmares in Red, White, and Blue: The Evolution of Horror (USA: Andrew Monument, 2009) This is available for free on Youtube (click on the link to watch). It is a look at the socio-political context of horror films.
The Pervert's Guide to Cinema (UK/Austria/Netherlands: Sophie Fiennes, 151 mins) ["The Pervert's Guide to Cinema takes the viewer on an exhilarating ride through some of the greatest movies ever made. Serving as presenter and guide is the charismatic Slavoj Zizek, acclaimed philosopher and psychoanalyst. With his engaging and passionate approach to thinking, Zizek delves into the hidden language of cinema, uncovering what movies can tell us about ourselves. Whether he is untangling the famously baffling films of David Lynch, or overturning everything you thought you knew about Hitchcock, Zizek illuminates the screen with his passion, intellect, and unfailing sense of humour. The Pervert's Guide to Cinema cuts its cloth from the very world of the movies it discusses; by shooting at original locations and from replica sets it creates the uncanny illusion that Zizek is speaking from 'within' the films themselves. Together the three parts construct a compelling dialectic of ideas. Described by The Times in London as 'the woman helming this Freudian inquest,' director Sophie Fiennes' collaboration with Slavoj Zizek illustrates the immediacy with which film and television can communicate complex ideas. Says Zizek: 'My big obsession is to make things clear. I can really explain a line of thought if I can somehow illustrate it in a scene from a film. The Pervert's Guide to Cinema is really about what psychoanalysis can tell us about cinema.'"—P Guide Ltd].
Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror (USA: Kier-La Janisse, 2021) Description: "Explores the folk horror phenomenon from its beginnings in a trilogy of films – Witchfinder General, Blood on Satan’s Claw and The Wicker Man – through its proliferation on British television in the 1970s and its culturally specific manifestations in American, Asian, Australian and European horror, to the genre’s revival over the last decade."
Online resources:
366 Weird Movies ["The backbone of this site is the project to create the List of the 366 Best Weird Movies of all time. Why make a list of 366 movies? That’s one for every day of the year, with a spare for leap years. As every day is associated with a Catholic saint, we believe every day should have its own weird movie. Most of the movies selected are both weird and good. Sometimes, if a movie is very weird, it will make the list ahead of a better movie. Sometimes, if a movie is very good, it does not have to be quite as weird. The key determinant is that each movie gives me that I-know-it-when-I-see-it feeling; a film that makes my skin crawl, my jaw drop, or just causes me to mutter to myself, “Now that’s weird….” We are very cautious in certifying a movie as weird—we may consider and review 4 or 5 movies for every one we decide to put on the List. But just because a movie does not make the List on the first ballot doesn’t mean it’s forever out of contention. From time to time, we’ll reconsider and promote movies that we once thought borderline to the exalted ranks of the Weirdest Movies Ever Made."]
Cooperrider, Kensy. "WEIRD: Adventures of an Acronym." Many Minds (July 1, 2020) ["The topic is the acronym WEIRD—maybe you’ve heard it used. It stands for Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic. It’s become a shorthand for the idea that people in WEIRD societies are a bit unusual relative to the rest our species. The term was first introduced 10 years ago. On this episode I talk about its origins and the far-reaching influence it’s had since."]
Fontainelle, Earl. "Methodologies for the study of Magic." The Secret History of Western Esotericism #5 (September 20, 2017) [MB - OK, quick, what comes to your mind when you hear the word magic? I'm really grooving on this podcast. I like the way Earl Fontainelle looks at these subjects from multiple angles. Here in order to start off an exploration of understandings/histories of magic, he breaks down the etymology, histories, and disinformation surrounding the word/concept. Highly recommended for those that practice magic, those that think magic is silly/dangerous, those that have deep religious beliefs (especially of a Manichean nature), those that are rigidly atheist (I would say fundamentalist), and definitely those that are wrapped up in fanatical ideologies (the type where whole groups of beings/cultures are the enemy and need to be wiped out). What is good or bad - how do we decide? what are the consequences of those decisions? The overall series is a treasure for artists/creatives/seekers (and Humanities professors like me :) What comes to your mind when you think of magic - what happens when we actual explore a concept and think about the multiple ways it is framed?]
---. "We’re Together In Dreams: Dreaming and Western Esotericism." The Secret History of Western Esotericism #7 (October 4, 2017) ["In approaching the western esoteric traditions, we are confronted by visions, magic, esoteric interpretations, and fantastical otherworldly journeys. Luckily, everyone on earth has experience with all of these strange phenomena, because everyone dreams. In this episode we formulate some preliminary musings on the importance of dreams for western esotericism, and discuss some of the theories about dreams and their significance that we find in the earliest texts of the western tradition. Ranging from lying gods in the Homeric corpus to dæmonic hypnagogic possession in the late antique Platonist writer Iamblichus, this episode sets the stage for things to come."]Singh, Manvir. "The Shaman, The Witch, and the Folktale." Many Minds (July 15, 2020) ["Today’s episode is a conversation with Dr. Manvir Singh. Manvir recently finished his PhD in Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University, and will soon begin a postdoctoral fellowship at the Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse. Manvir studies human culture. In particular, he focuses on certain cultural practices and products that spring up over and over again across the world’s societies—often in strikingly similar form. To explain these similarities, Manvir appeals to the human mind. He argues that our universal mental machinery plays a powerful role in molding our cultural traditions and products. We start by diving deep into the topic of shamanism. We talk about why humans around the world have long put their trust in shamans—and why they still do today. We discuss why it is that, to secure that trust, shamans everywhere enter trance states, deny themselves worldly comforts, and undergo harrowing initiation rituals. We then move beyond shamanism. We talk about why we believe in witches and why we like stories about orphans and other sympathetic characters. We consider why people the world over know a lullaby when they hear one. Part of what I admire about Manvir’s work is his balanced interest in both universal cultural patterns and fine-grained particulars. He’s interested in the forest, definitely, but also in the trees. And, trust me, there are a lot of fascinating trees here."]
Storm, Jason Josephson. "On the Myth of Disenchantment." The Secret History of Western Esotericism (February 15, 2023) ["In a brilliant and wide-ranging exploration of the history of very up-to-date, very relevant ideas, we discuss the idea of ‘disenchantment’ with Jason Josephson Storm. This idea (perhaps best known from the iconic work of Max Weber, but actually not really what Weber said and not really just from Weber anyway) is that in the old days people believed in magic and spirits, but nowadays we are ‘disenchanted’, i.e. beyond all that (fill in the blank with ‘superstitious, ‘unscientific’, ‘woo-woo’, etc.) nonsense. One of the questions Storm asks is, ‘Who are “we”, exactly?’ The implicit colonialist mindsets latent within these constructions of enchantment and disenchantment begin to percolate up into plain view. Another question he asks is, ‘Given that there is a “we” in question, is it really true that we are beyond all that nonsense?’ It turns out, no, it isn’t, or not for a sizeable majority of “us” at any rate. A fascinating interview which we highly recommend, and which has a lot to tell the field of western esotericism studies about what it is that we are doing, exactly."]
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"I tend to see fiction and films in the same way that Amos Vogel, Andre Bazin or Alain Robbe-Grillet did: The closer cinema tries to get to an ‘accurate’ portrayal of reality, the further away cinema gets from realizing its potential. Film is artifice. Everything is a signifier and a ‘prop,’ and ‘everything’ includes the narrative and the human characters. But because cinema’s narratives and human characters often resemble ours and ourselves, the viewer instinctually wants to ‘relate’ to them. Why? A common criticism you’ll read is ”the narrative is implausible/unbelievable/unrealistic,” but why is this a valid criticism? Another common criticism is “the characters are unlikeable/unrelatable.” So what? You’re not experiencing reality, you’re watching a film. Again, why is that a valid criticism? Anyway, LFP seems to understand -and portray- Vogel’s or Bazin’s notion of filmmaking in that it both objectifies and is about objectification." - Henri de Corinth"Sirat, a film by the Spanish film director Oliver Laxe, opens in the monumental setting of a rave in the Sahara, where a father and son are searching for a missing daughter. As the two make their way from party to party, news of a brewing World War-style conflict animates the background. (In Islamic scripture, “sirat” refers to a bridge that connects Paradise and Hell, and one gets a dose of each here.) Neither road film nor parable, Laxe’s film unfolds through encounters, sound, and landscape, denying narrative certainty and sitting instead with loss, belief, and endurance. As a work of art, Sirat becomes its own cosmology, loosening the grip of the rational world. Refusing the traditional arc of story, it is at once mystical and political, intimate and cosmic – offering a new vocabulary of being. Sirat gives permission for softness and strangeness. It makes me feel less existentially alone." — Sumayya Vally
"Monstrosity, for me, is always positive. It's about debunking all the normative ways of society and social life. (1)" - Julia Decournau, director of Raw; Titane (2021) [quoted in Creed]
"This is the mystery we thrust ourselves into: A single neuron is not conscious of its existence. A network of billions of unconscious single neurons is. These monads living in a world without perception become a being that perceives, thinks, and acts. Consciousness lies not in neurons, but in a sophisticated pattern of connectivity (125)." - Dr. Arnkatla Minervudottr-Chan in Nayler, Ray. The Mountain in the Sea. Picador, 2022.
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