Weird Mysticism: Philosophical Horror and the Mystical Text

by Brad Baumgartner

Weird Mysticism identifies and evaluates a new category of theoretical inquiry by showing the influence of speculative writing on three intersecting critical categories: horror fiction, apophatic mysticism, and philosophical pessimism. Exploring the work of Thomas Ligotti, Georges Bataille, and E. M. Cioran, Baumgartner argues that these "weird mystics" employ an innovative mode of negative writing that seeks to merge new conceptions of reality. While exploring perennial questions about "the absolute," the Outside, and other philosophical concepts, these authors push the limits of representation, experimenting with literary form, genre-bending, and aphoristic discourse. As their works reveal, the category of weird mysticism both conjoins and obscures the link between traditional mysticism and philosophical horror fiction, with weirdness itself being the central magnet that draws the seemingly disparate realms of horror fiction, philosophy, and mysticism together. Highlighting the theoretical stakes of the horror genre, Baumgartner's study reveals how the mystical potentially recuperates the limits of philosophical thinking, enabling reflection on--and possibly challenging--the limits of human understanding.

Genres: Philosophy, Horror, Nonfiction, Weird Fiction

171 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2021

Reviews

[Philemon - · Rating 3 out of 5]

The most valuable part of this book may be the footnotes. The author has clearly researched his subject well. There are copious references to modern "weird" fiction, Nietzsche, Hermetic and neoplatonic sources, medieval saints, via negativa, apophatic metaphysics, etc, that go beyond his dives into Thomas Ligotti, Georges Bataille, and E. M. Cioran. The references and citations are well-chosen and thought provoking.

Weirdness in the literary and metaphysical senses the author explores is laid out as the simultaneous playing (like a musical chord) of contradictory base elements, such as being and non-being, presence and absence, lucidity and hiddenness. This interesting approach opens an infinity of possible "weird" conjunctions, combinations, and states.

I hope the author revisits the area with further explorations of the weird, its varieties and applications. Though we try not to see it, in many ways and on many levels, the weird is always with us.

[Yuxi Liu · Rating 1 out of 5]

Can't remember why I have it in my hard drive. After wasting 2 hours trying to figure out why I have it, I realized that it was probably my past self trying to attack me for having the audacity to still persist in living.

> There are no meaningful translations for these terms. They are needlessly recursive. They contain no usable intelligence, yet they are structured intelligently; there is no chance they could have arisen by chance.
>
> The only explanation is that something has coded nonsense in a way that poses as a useful message; only after wasting time and effort does the deception becomes apparent. The signal functions to consume the resources of a recipient for zero payoff and reduced fitness. The signal is a virus.
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> Viruses do not arise from kin, symbionts, or other allies.
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> The signal is an attack.
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> Blindsight (Peter Watts)