Best horror literary criticism books according to redditors
We found 79 Reddit comments discussing the best horror literary criticism books. We ranked the 12 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
We found 79 Reddit comments discussing the best horror literary criticism books. We ranked the 12 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
Hey, Lovecraft/pulp studies scholar here. I wrote a section on Lovecraft's views on miscegenation in my book, as well as American Dread: Alan Moore and the Racism of H. P. Lovecraft, and I'm working on a book examining Lovecraft's prejudices and the effect they had on his fiction. So maybe I can shed some light here.
> I did some research on him, and he turns out to have been a shockingly open racist. I
Well, no. He was a white male born, grown up, and living in the United States during the turn of the century - the period often referred to as "the nadir of race relations." When segregation was legal, the Ku Klux Klan and the Nazi party both came to prominence, and there were horrible examples of racial violence such as the Massie Trial and the Scottsboro Boys Trial. So the fact that Lovecraft was racist, and even openly so, isn't shocking - nor was it terribly uncommon, if you look at contemporary writers like Robert E. Howard, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Lord Dunsany, etc.
That is not to say that everyone was racist during Lovecraft's lifetime - we know so much about his racism in part because of his letters, where he argued the subject (and related matters) with much more liberal friends, such as James F. Morton, an early member of the NAACP and author of a pamphlet on "the curse of race prejudice." But in the context of his times, Lovecraft's prejudices were more or less mainstream - and in part inspired and supported by historical revisionism of slavery and the Civil War, as well as the scientific racialism and ultranationalism and nativism that was prominent during the period. None of that excuses his prejudices, but it does help place them in their proper context. Nor were Lovecraft's beliefs fixed throughout his life; as he traveled, met more people, read more widely, argued with others, he shifted some of his beliefs on race a little - not a lot; he was never not racist or prejudiced by today's standards, but he modified some of his beliefs at least.
And, it needs be said, the racism can be very shocking to contemporary sensibilities. In the 1890s, it was acceptable to name a black cat "Nigger-Man" - and indeed, H. P. Lovecraft as a child of about four had a beloved black cat with that name. He loved the cat so much, that he immortalized it as a mouser in his story "The Rat in the Walls" - name and all. Today, that is considered shockling racist; the N-word just isn't used as casually or non-pejoratively as that today. At the time, it passed without comment. So there is a degree of culture shock when you come into his writings in that respect, and you'd probably experience much the same when you realize Agatha Christie's Ten Little Niggers was released two years after Lovecraft died - so it wasn't just him.
You may be coming to conclusions based on far, far too little information to support them.
Nobody said "EA is interested in ending existence" (though that is an interesting stance to consider from, e.g. a contemporary nihilist perspective). You were told that EA has people dwelling on what suffering ultimately is, and in some inverse creation myth telling epic stories about what a future fight at a cosmic scale might look like.
/u/AncientHistory gonn' give it to ya!
He wrote this. It is the book you don't just want but need in your life right now.
ST Joshi's The Modern Weird Tale might fit the bill, although it seems to only really go up to the mid-90s.
His Unutterable Horror seems a lot more complete, and as far as I can tell Volume 2 delves into the modern day stuff.
It's not exactly a short story, but "The Conspiracy Against the Human Race: A Contrivance of Horror" by Thomas Ligotti kept me up for weeks after I read it, and I still get scared sometimes thinking about it. Maybe I'm just a big baby, I dunno.
Edit: Amazon
My summary: This book is horror writer Thomas Ligotti's first nonfiction book, but don't let that fool you. Ligotti attempts to tackle where horror comes from in the first place, and he does a remarkable job of kindling the imagination.
THINKING HORROR and THINKING HORROR vol. 2 are two great and recent collections of great nonfiction essays and interviews. Highly recommended.
If I can draw upon some of my influences (Thomas Ligotti, David Benatar, Arthur Schopenhauer, etc.), what would make me reconsider is a state of existence that is not malignantly useless, i.e. not characterized by pointless suffering for no discernible goal, with brief moments of pleasure to keep us running on the biological/evolutionary treadmill. I like to imagine that this existential problem encompasses all the "petty" concerns of a typical life (money, status, health, relationships, mortality, etc.).
If we accept the Benatarian asymmetry, then it follows that nonexistence (or at least, the absence of sentience), is an inherently better state than existence, since it contains no suffering and no deprivation of positive experiences that might occur during life. While positive experiences are a good thing, they're bought at the steep price of suffering and deprivation. The "weak" conclusion that follows from this is antinatalism, and the "strong" conclusion is universal suicide advocacy or efilism.
Have a look at The Conspiracy against the Human Race
Rust was such a great character. The guy who wrote True Detective stole a bunch of shit from this book, some of Rust's dialogue is pulled from it literally word for word. That's probably why season 2 was so shitty. The book is a really good read though.
Sure can. I didn't know anything about academic moral phil - was genuinely convinced that by being moral realist-negative utilitarian-antinatalist vegan I'm automatically higher than breeding, meat eating, nihilist, positive utilitarian pleb. Well, I probably were anyway, but after some hardcore reading I'm now mostly moral skeptic and prioritarian (still a childless herbivore, tho).
There's an uncontroversial 3x3x3 division of ethics: meta-ethics, normative ethics and applied ethics. There are three main normative positions - deontology (or duty-based theories), virtue ethics (by far the smallest, but not least interesting) and consequentialism (which divide into utilitarian school [the sum of consequences matter], egoists [only consequences for the perpetrator matter] and altruists [only consequences for others have moral weight], to make up for another 3). Utilitarianism is the broadest, besides the difference between positive and negative it can also be total and average, preference and hedonistic. For more details, Singer's Point of View of the Universe is a highly recommended reading.
SEP is a great resource (IEP is also cool if you don't understand something on previous encyclopedia; use Wikipedia only when something's lacking there). There are two important paradoxes in so-called population ethics you must know something about Repugnant Conclusion and Non-Identity Problem. Incidentally, I believe antinatalism in general is a sound solution for them.
As for AN itself - Three seminal works by Benatar - Why is it better to never come into existence, BNTHB, Debating Procreation should do the trick. Additional reading may or may not include: Cabrera, Harrison and Tanner, Licon, Larock, Belshaw. For a summary of more continental-oriented pessimism, check The Conspiracy Against The Human Race, as it's still unmatched in scope and has a rich bibliography (True Detective creator supposedly ripped-off some lines from Ligotti).
Not necessarily AN, but truly eye-opening is Becker's Denial of Death. And obviously, before getting into a serious discussion you ought to finish your logic 101 course; know the difference between validity and soundness, what a syllogism and enthymeme are, etc. Oh, and the three dead Greeks (Socrates, Plato, Aristotle) are literally everywhere.
People at /r/askphilosophy are helpful, people on /r/badphilosophy could indirectly suggest what to avoid (with a grain of salt).
Other links that might be of interest:
http://socrethics.com/
https://philpapers.org/surveys/results.pl
You might say there's...mm a conspiracy against the human race? (You may be familiar, but if not: http://www.amazon.com/The-Conspiracy-against-Human-Race/dp/0984480277)
Thinking Horror, Vol. 2 just came out and might be of interest (disclaimer: i have an essay in it). Really enjoyed volume 1 and looking forward to reading the rest of 2. link
For criticism of HPL's works i would highly recommend:
Dissecting Cthulhu
A Subtler Magick: The Writings and Philosophy of H.P. Lovecraft
Lovecraft: Disturbing the Universe
or any volume in the Lovecraft Annual
For Biography on Lovecraft:
H.P. Lovecraft: A Life
...or the expanded version of the above I Am Providence
And Lovecraft's letters (edited and compiled by Joshi) are really the best way to get deep into Lovecraft, although I'll warn you, you really are reading HPL's conversations with his friends, so there is a tremendous amount of biographical detail, but not a terrible amount in the way of talk about his own work. Some of the best:
Letters to James F. Morton
A Means to Freedom: The Letters of H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard
O Fortunate Floridian: H.P. Lovecraft's Letters to R.H. Barlow
> also Lovecraft wouldn't even mention sex, much less kinky stuff
You might be surprised
I enjoyed Ligotti's Conspiracy Against the Human Race. It covers nihilism, philosophical pessimism, and antinatalism pretty well.
If you haven't already read it you might appreciate The Conspiracy Against the Human Race
It won't make you feel any better but I enjoyed it.
I have no idea.
Sure I liked stuff since I was little, but it always felt like an innate curiosity. I always feel like that is more of an answer of 'when' and not an answer of 'why'.
There is definitely no aspect of being scared that really draws me to it. Sure I like it when a movie scares me, but it happens so rarely that I've never looked at that alone as anything necessary for my enjoyment.
I think there might be some obsession of mine with the macabre. I'm pretty obsessed with death and suffering. It just seems weird that people are able to function while things are so non-permanent. I'm not saying I love death and suffering, but there is something about how horror compartmentalizes really terrible things in an accessible way that I think has sparked an initial fascination that has pulled me to the genre.
I recommend you check out Thomas Ligotti's The Conspiracy against the Human Race: A Contrivance of Horror. IMHO he is one of the best horror writers alive and he does a pretty good job of dissecting horror, what works, and its appeal.
Lovecraft influence is all over the place tbh, it affecting everything nowadays from gaming to cartoon i mean thing like this existed
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Will_(book)
https://www.amazon.com.br/Conspiracy-Against-Human-Race-Contrivance/dp/0984480277
Thomas Ligotti's The Conspiracy against the Human Race
Anything by Samuel Beckett
6 Characters in Search of an Author by Luigi Pirandello
someone finish reading this? :)
http://www.amazon.com/The-Conspiracy-against-Human-Race/dp/0984480277
https://www.amazon.com.br/Conspiracy-Against-Human-Race-Contrivance/dp/0984480277
Surprised nobody's mentioned the work of Thomas Ligotti yet. While not exclusively centred around Nihilism, many of his writings (especially this) showcase a range of very interesting and informative nihilist themes and subjects.
For your consideration: Sex and the Cthulhu Mythos by B. Derie
https://www.amazon.com/Sex-Cthulhu-Mythos-Bobby-Derie/dp/1614980888
Mostly I gained a deeper appreciation of Heidegger's concept of being-toward-death. But seriously, someone edited a book of essays on Stephen King and philosophy: https://www.amazon.com/Stephen-King-Philosophy-Great-Authors/dp/1442253843
Haven't read it, but I googled a couple of the contributors and they had actual academic credentials in philosophy, so it might be ok.
Thanks for this response. First thing that popped into my head was "it's actually more remarkable that we're ever not sad, considering the futility of existence & inevitability of death". Light and heavy reading on the topic.
This'll be buried, but I strongly recommend these (this's a picture of my Lovecraft collection) for a good combination of his complete fiction (including revisions & ghostwriting) and literary criticism / enthusiasm - his Supernatural Horror in Literature remains AFAIK the most authoritative overview of the genre from modernity to the first half of the 20th century.
The titles pictured are:
Here is the mobile version of your link
Sorry, I didn't mean to frustrate you more. I feel the same way at times: why bother with anything if it's just going to end, if I'm genetically stuck like this then there's no hope, etc. Believe me, you're not the only one who sees the world this way (you may enjoy this book on the subject).
There is no easy answer to this. But as someone else mentioned, college might not be the best place for you at the moment. There's always time to go back later when you're in a better spot, mentally speaking.
And I don't know if this will help, but in some ways I've come to appreciate the occasional bout of depression, because it lets me but through the bullshit and see what's really important in life, to figure out what really matters to me.
Sounds like you're one step away from antinatalism
https://www.amazon.com/Conspiracy-against-Human-Race-Contrivance/dp/0984480277
There's a pretty good book of short body horror stories if you're interested in the genre.
I think you would like this book:
https://www.amazon.com/Conspiracy-against-Human-Race-Contrivance/dp/0984480277
The Conspiracy against the Human Race: A Contrivance of Horror by Thomas Ligotti. If you've seen True Detective, a lot of Rust's character was inspired by this book.
Your comment reminded me of this book, as for your question, I'm sure if you ask 100 people you will get 100 answers.
Here it is:
Ahem.
The guy who wrote True Detective, Nic Pizzalotto, cited Thomas Ligotti as a big influence. Ligotti is a writer of weird fiction and wrote a non-fiction book on anti-natalism called The Conspiracy Against the Human Race.
Thinking Horror is worth checking out!!!
If we're talking like literally, no, not at all. Practically, it's as you say, I'm hesitant condone someone super-gluing sandpaper to a broom handle and raping me with it while I get water-boarded.
If you're interested this is the book I point people to, to get started on the Beautiful Path of Pessimism https://www.amazon.com/Conspiracy-against-Human-Race-Contrivance/dp/0984480277
You may or may not be able to find it online. It's only $8 on Kindle, and gives you a pretty good launching point into the depths of philosophy that people typically avoid talking about.
>Like you don't choose to be human. You just are.
There's a really good book about this if you want to read something that'll blow your hair back.
Conspiracy Against The Human Race by Thomas Ligotti
I'd also recommend "Guns, Germs and Steel" and the follow-up Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond. I believe habitat destruction is the on the list for what killed past societies along with overfishing and (of course) overpopulation.
Spooky stuff.