The Weird and the Eerie - Mark Fisher

Published in 2016 by Repeater Books, London, UK

134 pages

ISBN: 978-1-910924-38-9

Horror is a genre that has been deconstructed in a variety of ways. Once the purview of entertainment enthusiasts and low-budget films, horror has been the subject of increased academic study and inquiry over the past decade or so. I even wrote my undergraduate thesis on the theological underpinnings of various horror monsters, examining how horror literature often serves as a secular reiteration of themes and values that were once in the realm of theology. Yet, most philosophical treatments of horror (including mine at the time) tend to stop at a therapeutic reading, arguing that monsters serve as scapegoats upon which we can project our fears and anxieties. In these readings, monsters either help to maintain the status quo of a society or show us the transgressive limits of society, subtly subverting our categories of identity and difference. 

Yet, within the past decade, authors such as Eugene Thacker and Mark Fisher have questioned these readings of horror literature, arguing that they remain too entrenched in a kind of anthropocentrism. For these thinkers, horror - far from simply reflecting our humanity- instead reveals the limits of the human and even the limit of thought itself. Accordingly, in his final completed work, The Weird and the Eerie, Mark Fisher examines these two titular themes of horror and science fiction, arguing that both radical strangeness and austerity remind us that there is more to the world than ourselves. 

Overview: 

Fisher’s book, true to its title, is broken into two main sections tackling the respective subjects of the weird and the eerie. Taking the reader through a wide range of examples from television, film, music, and literature, Fisher explores how horror and science fiction utilize the qualities of the weird and the eerie to attempt to grapple with concepts outside of human perception. Fisher argues that the weird and the eerie share in their preoccupation of the strange (ie. a fascination with the “outside”), but are unique in the ways they apprehend it. Yet, they both seek to disturb the existing order, decenter the human subject, and reveal the arbitrary nature of the world around us. 

  Weirdness, according to Fisher, is produced by a disturbance, or a sensation of wrongness. Fisher writes, “a weird entity or object is so strange that it makes us feel that it should not exist, or at least it should not exist here” (15). The weird often manifests itself as an excess within this world or a slippage between incommensurable worlds. Fisher finds a litany of examples of the weird through the works of H.P. Lovecraft, H.G. Wells, and David Lynch, which feature an array of liminal doorways, curtains, and portals that blur the distinctions of time and space. Through these examples, Fisher argues that the weird confronts us with a world that is different from what we thought it was, causing us to reframe our categories of selfhood and thought. 

Eeriness, on the other hand, is a bit subtler, but still powerful. The eerie is marked by absence, either the presence of an absence or the absence of a presence. For example, we find abandoned houses or ancient ruins to be eerie, as they lack the humans that made them. We also find disembodied voices and sudden cries to be eerie since they lack a singular source or subject, signaling a distinct presence amidst absence. Fisher likewise takes the reader through a wide range of texts, such as Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar (2014), Margaret Atwood’s Surfacing (1998), Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1970) and The Shining (1980), and - most compellingly - John Lindsay’s haunting 1967 novel Picnic at Hanging Rock. Through these examples, Fisher argues that the eerie confronts us with the uncomfortable notion that we might not be in control of the world around us, but are rather acted upon by unseen forces. This notion of the eerie is not constrained to the supernatural but also manifests in the mundane and quotidian day to day life. Expanding on his work, Capitalist Realism, Fisher argues that capitalism leaves traces of the eerie, as it is conjured out of nothing and exerts its influence over its subjects, bringing our agency into question.

Commendations: 

There are many aspects of this work that are worth praising. First of all, Fisher’s provocative dismissal of Freud’s concept of the unheimlich (“uncanny” or “unhomely) sets this work apart from most other philosophical treatments of horror and science fiction. Fisher’s alternative framework of the weird and the eerie is novel, deeply interesting, and worthy of deeper analysis. Fisher does a commendable job in defining these terms clearly, distinguishing them from one another while also providing plenty of examples from pop culture to illustrate his ideas. While some examples are more convincing than others, one does not have to be familiar with every example to understand what he’s trying to communicate and use it to support his thesis. Fisher deftly navigates the complexities of Marx, Freud, Lacan, Deleuze, and Zizek while grounding his analysis in concrete examples. 

Furthermore, aside from his examples from film and literature, Fisher was gifted in his ability to connect these abstract ideological concepts to the shadows of our material conditions. Best known for his influential work, Capitalist Realism, Fisher continues this work by pondering how we can begin to see ways around the “eroded present” of capitalism, and how we might recognize our lack of agency in such a world. This sense of eeriness is most acutely present in the final chapter, which analyses John Lindsay's, Picnic at Hanging Rock. Fisher’s description of the novel, coupled with his analysis of the eerie enchantment of something beyond that promises a radically different world, sticks out to me as the most salient and memorable example in this work. Just as the mystery of the girls’ disappearance in the novel is left unexplained, we are similarly left in a kind of vanishing or a haunting gap. 

Critiques: 

If there is one aspect of this work that I would critique, it’s that, beyond Fisher’s unique categorization of the weird and the eerie, they aren’t explored much more in-depth outside of providing examples. Some of the chapters feel disconnected, and it reads more like an anthology of loosely connected essays that address the same topic from different angles, rather than a deep philosophical explication of these ideas. The functional definitions that Fisher provides are incredibly useful and worth considering, but it was slightly disappointing that they weren’t explored with much depth. To his credit, however, his wide range of examples, though certainly uneven in places, opens up new avenues of inquiry, and provides a nice reading/watching/listening list for those who are interested in pursuing these concepts further. 

Conclusion: 

Throughout his career, Mark Fisher was an exceptional writer and explorer of the intersections between neoliberal ideology, capitalist economies, avant-garde culture, and the shadowy underside of the invisible forces that act upon us (such as mental illness). Unfortunately for the world, Mark Fisher passed away in January 2017, less than a month after this book was published in the UK. As such, this book has a sense of the eerie itself, standing in for the marked absence of its brilliant author. Fisher had a significant gift in writing about the difficult aspects of life, drawing from his own experiences and struggles, and writing with a tone that highlights the emotional and affective impact of music, film, and literature, placing it on par with theory. The Weird and the Eerie, beyond a short collection of essays on cultural theory, serves as a reminder of how theory, even one focused on decentering the human subject, is still incredibly human. Mark was deeply invested in the social impact of ethereal ideas, hinting that the eerie traces of the unhuman within us might lead us toward an unknown future. Where that might lead? Well, that’s now up to us to decide.