Notes from the Crawl Room

by A.M. Moskovitz

A Compendium of Philosophical Horrors employs the lens and methods of horror writing to critique the excesses and absurdities of philosophy. Each story reveals disastrous and de-humanising effects of philosophies that are separated from real, lived experience (e.g. the absurdity of arguing over a sentence in Kant while the world burns around us). From a Kafkaesque exploration of administrative absurdities to the horrors of discursive violence, white supremacy and the living spectres of patriarchy, Adam Ferner doesn't shy away from addressing the complex aspects of our lives. In addition to offering often humourous critiques of philosophy, these works are also, somewhat ironically, pieces of philosophy themselves. Each story seeks to move a subject area forward offering the reader the capacity to think through ideas in a weirder and more open way than traditional philosophy usually allows.

An antidote to philosophy that seeks to close down and shut off the imaginative potential of human thought, A Compendium of Philosophical Horrors revels in the unsettling and creative potential of stories for revealing what thinking philosophically might really mean.

Genres: Horror, Fiction

185 pages, Paperback

Published December 2, 2021

Reviews

[Amelia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Have you ever started a book and immediately go, "Wait, what in the heck am I reading?" And then you figure it out, and then you pause and ask yourself once more, "Wait, what in the heck am I reading?" That's this book, but in the best way possible. The narrative is a collection of short story prose pushing philosophical concepts to the extreme, "published" by an academic with an introduction explaining basic concepts, the history of this text, and its creation by a "colleague". In the back is further readings, an explanation of these stories, as well as references. So you'd imagine my pleasant confusion when I realized I was actually reading a non-fiction academic text, then when I realized, no, I was reading fiction, then again when I realized I was reading non-fiction, then again when I realized I was reading fiction. For real, this time.

And there's no better introduction to this book. Already, what you think you know is being pushed to its limits on categorization based on content and what we consider to be non/fiction. Each story gets weirder and weirder, with most being one-offs, with others tying together through concepts and characters. By pushing these philosophical concepts to the edge, Moskovitz offers us a creative lens to critique and imagine philosophy through narrative while being constructed as philosophical thought themselves.

An incredible book, worth so many reads--especially for me, a non-philosophy student.

[Claire Bracegirdle · Rating 4 out of 5]

the encouragement all PhD students need