The Weaver Reads reviewed The Weird and the Eerie by Mark Fisher
Goodreads Review of the Weird and the Eerie
5 stars
This is classic, literary Fisher. This little book is an attempt to make sense (and apply) two conceptual categories: the weird and the eerie. He would add that there is a third term that was really developed, more than anything, by Freud: the uncanny. For Fisher, the weird is defined by a sense that two things should not be together. The eerie, on the other hand, is defined by presence and absence: it's the sense that nothing is in a given space when there should be something, or that there is something in a space where there should be nothing.
It is no surprise, given his track record, that most of his applications of these concepts come from science fiction, horror, fantasy, and other conceptually speculative fiction (whether it be literature, film, series, music, and so on). It is the natural development of his writings on hauntology (for more, see …
This is classic, literary Fisher. This little book is an attempt to make sense (and apply) two conceptual categories: the weird and the eerie. He would add that there is a third term that was really developed, more than anything, by Freud: the uncanny. For Fisher, the weird is defined by a sense that two things should not be together. The eerie, on the other hand, is defined by presence and absence: it's the sense that nothing is in a given space when there should be something, or that there is something in a space where there should be nothing.
It is no surprise, given his track record, that most of his applications of these concepts come from science fiction, horror, fantasy, and other conceptually speculative fiction (whether it be literature, film, series, music, and so on). It is the natural development of his writings on hauntology (for more, see Ghosts Of My Life).
The second half of the book, on the eerie, is significantly better than the first half on the weird. The weird is something that may well have been fleshed out to much greater extent. Even H. P. Lovecraft attempted to define the weird in essays nearly one hundred years ago. The weird has also been taken to task by the VanderMeers in The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories. The eerie, on the other hand, seems far less so. When I read about Fisher's writings on it, I couldn't help but think about the internet's obsession with liminal spaces. Writing about the eerie also strikes me as being particularly relevant to Fisher given his unceasing discussions of something that cannot be seen, touched, heard, tasted, or smelled: capitalism. There's something profoundly eerie about capitalism's presence, and something too about the remaining spectres communist paths as well.
This book is well worth the read, and it won't take long at all, especially if you're interested in the Sci-Fi/Horror/Fantasy fiction circuit. Christopher Nolan, Stanley Kubrick, H. P. Lovecraft, H. G. Wells, Margaret Atwood, David Lynch, and more are all featured here.
