The Bohemian-mind.
Weird fiction is "cosmic horror": the idea that life is incomprehensible to human minds and that the universe is fundamentally alien.
I like this. I love stories that admit to just how clueless we are about the universe / reality we live in. We as a society love to think that we know all there is to know and those things we aren't so sure about simply must have a reasonable, logical explanation that does fit into what we know and understand if only we knew and understood. It's human conceit and arrogance. Believe me, I know about conceit and arrogance.
Life is a strange brew. We truly understand almost nothing. We don't understand life, death, we don't even understand dreams. What they are or why we dream at all. What we have are theories and guesses. Educated perhaps, but how great is even an educated guess made by a fool and a fool we all are if we have the steel to admit it. Mankind. We are such brilliant idiots. I think it is our arrogance that slows down our progress when it comes to true understanding of the reality we live in. Faith is foolish? Perhaps, but then so is science. To say that something is "fact" is truthfully to say that based upon what is known and understood a truth is known. Should greater understanding come then that former, undisputed "fact" becomes nothing in the face of the new and improved "fact". That is until the next leap in understanding comes along.
The Earth is flat, or so the greatest minds thought and those who thought differently were the fools. The world is round = Burn 'em at the stake. It's science baby. A faith in and of itself. The science of faith / the faith of science.
I like that there is so much that we don't know. That we could ever know let alone comprehend. It means that our eternity will be filled with adventure, surprises and always new things to learn and discover. I mean, who doesn't what to live a life like that? I know I do.
Arthur Machen espoused a mystical belief that the humdrum ordinary world hid a more mysterious and strange world beyond. Machen's stories took the line that investigations into mysteries invariably resulted in life-changing transformation and sacrifice as well as expressive of the joy inherent in life, thus conveying a feeling of ecstasy. Machen's strong opposition to a materialistic viewpoint is obvious in many of his works, marking him as part of neo-romanticism.
"That is not dead which can eternal lie,
And with strange aeons even death may die."
- H. P. Lovecraft
"My fundamental interest, I suppose, is signs and proofs of other powers that lie hidden in us all; the extension, in other words, of human faculty. So many of my stories, therefore, deal with extension of consciousness; speculative and imaginative treatment of possibilities outside our normal range of consciousness. ... Also, all that happens in our universe is natural; under Law; but an extension of our so limited normal consciousness can reveal new, extra-ordinary powers etc., and the word "supernatural" seems the best word for treating these in fiction. I believe it possible for our consciousness to change and grow, and that with this change we may become aware of a new universe. A "change" in consciousness, in its type, I mean, is something more than a mere extension of what we already possess and know."
- Algernon Blackwood
Men after my own heart. I believe these things not only in literature and the work I produce but in my world view and what I truly believe to be so.
Check out H.P. Lovecraft, Arthur Machen, Algernon Blackwood, Lord Dunsany, and M. R. James.
How short of the mark I have fallen and how far I have yet to go.
Cool site alert.
I like this. I love stories that admit to just how clueless we are about the universe / reality we live in. We as a society love to think that we know all there is to know and those things we aren't so sure about simply must have a reasonable, logical explanation that does fit into what we know and understand if only we knew and understood. It's human conceit and arrogance. Believe me, I know about conceit and arrogance.
Life is a strange brew. We truly understand almost nothing. We don't understand life, death, we don't even understand dreams. What they are or why we dream at all. What we have are theories and guesses. Educated perhaps, but how great is even an educated guess made by a fool and a fool we all are if we have the steel to admit it. Mankind. We are such brilliant idiots. I think it is our arrogance that slows down our progress when it comes to true understanding of the reality we live in. Faith is foolish? Perhaps, but then so is science. To say that something is "fact" is truthfully to say that based upon what is known and understood a truth is known. Should greater understanding come then that former, undisputed "fact" becomes nothing in the face of the new and improved "fact". That is until the next leap in understanding comes along.
The Earth is flat, or so the greatest minds thought and those who thought differently were the fools. The world is round = Burn 'em at the stake. It's science baby. A faith in and of itself. The science of faith / the faith of science.
I like that there is so much that we don't know. That we could ever know let alone comprehend. It means that our eternity will be filled with adventure, surprises and always new things to learn and discover. I mean, who doesn't what to live a life like that? I know I do.
Arthur Machen espoused a mystical belief that the humdrum ordinary world hid a more mysterious and strange world beyond. Machen's stories took the line that investigations into mysteries invariably resulted in life-changing transformation and sacrifice as well as expressive of the joy inherent in life, thus conveying a feeling of ecstasy. Machen's strong opposition to a materialistic viewpoint is obvious in many of his works, marking him as part of neo-romanticism.
"That is not dead which can eternal lie,
And with strange aeons even death may die."
- H. P. Lovecraft
"My fundamental interest, I suppose, is signs and proofs of other powers that lie hidden in us all; the extension, in other words, of human faculty. So many of my stories, therefore, deal with extension of consciousness; speculative and imaginative treatment of possibilities outside our normal range of consciousness. ... Also, all that happens in our universe is natural; under Law; but an extension of our so limited normal consciousness can reveal new, extra-ordinary powers etc., and the word "supernatural" seems the best word for treating these in fiction. I believe it possible for our consciousness to change and grow, and that with this change we may become aware of a new universe. A "change" in consciousness, in its type, I mean, is something more than a mere extension of what we already possess and know."
- Algernon Blackwood
Men after my own heart. I believe these things not only in literature and the work I produce but in my world view and what I truly believe to be so.
Check out H.P. Lovecraft, Arthur Machen, Algernon Blackwood, Lord Dunsany, and M. R. James.
How short of the mark I have fallen and how far I have yet to go.
Cool site alert.
posted by Mark A Lester at
1:00 PM
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