The Weird and the Eerie

So sad that the day I received this book the author took his own life. Mark Fisher was the best of writers. He wrote beautifully, of course, but the act of writing is secondary to his observation of the world, the ability to see the world aslant, to make of the the ordinary something extraordinary. I think that someone like Mark Fisher who had experienced itensely what the world calls 'depression' for the usual reason of needing to classify, make safe, box off our most intense and utterly lonely apprehensions, would have inevitably be drawn to the weird and eerie. It's a great book.

Fisher doing what he did best - Applying critical theory to books. films, & music in an approachable & enjoyable manner. His gift shines through in the way he can make even the poorest works sound interesting. He almost makes me want to watch Under the Skin again, even though it's probably the worst film I've seen in a decade. Almost, but not quite. Where this book falls down is in a lack of depth (it is little more than an extended essay) - I came away with a good grasp of how to distinguish the weird & the eerie, but little understanding of why I should bother. Okay, it's nice to be able to pigeonhole genres, or whatever, but surely there must be more to it than that? It feels like there is a lot more he could have said. This is particularly noticeable as some of his other writings have a lot more critical traction.

If you’re weird and eerie, you should read this book

Like everything else Mark Fisher wrote, this book is thought provoking and mind bending. His perspective will seriously challenge how you see things. Which is a good thing. This book needs to be read.

Mark fishers writing continues to amaze and haunt modernity long after his passing

Mark Fisher examines two distinct sub-genres that are usually lumped in with Horror. Both are characterised by a preoccupation with the strange, but not the horrific. They are both “to do with a fascination for the outside, for that which lies beyond standard perception, cognition and experience. This...usually involves a certain apprehension, perhaps even dread.” The weird encompasses writers like HP Lovecraft and HG Wells, director David Lynch, and post-punk UK rock group The Fall. Fisher defines “weird” as involving “a sensation of wrongness: a weird entity or object so strange that it makes us feel that it should not exist, or at least it should not exist here. Yet if the entity or object is here, then the categories which we have up until now used to make sense of the world cannot be valid. The weird thing is not wrong, after all: it is our conceptions that must be inadequate.” The eerie includes writers MR James and Margaret Atwood, director Stanley Kubrick, and musician Brian Eno. According to Fisher, the eerie is “a failure of absence (e.g. the cry of a bird that invites speculation—is it really a bird? Is it possessed?) or by a failure of presence (e.g. ruins or abandoned structures, again inviting speculation—Who built them? What happened to them?). Both cases are an issue of agency: is there an agency, or what is its nature? I’ve long thought that Lovecraft, for one, doesn’t fit into the “classic horror” category that the BISAC and Amazon categories place him in, and Fisher provides a convincing argument for the weird and the eerie to gain the recognition they deserve. I’ve dropped one star as, in places, the arguments become a little abstruse for me. However, it is a much more accessible book than some others in the field, and I highly recommend it.

Mark Fisher is/was/will long be loved, missed and appreciated as a first genius of the 21st century. This is every bit as good as I expected it to be. If you have any interest in the state of the world, you must read Fisher's 'Capitalist Realism' - the best book on its subject and in its class.

Beware shrinkage issue weirdness. This is a much smaller print/size from the first published paperback version-maybe below 10 pt? and this miniaturisation is both difficult to read (in the gloom) and basically a rip off -it saves money for publishers-that's it. Can Amazon please indicate the printed quality and size . Best to buy from an actual bookstore so you see what you get.

Li esse livro há muitos anos, numa versão digital, e ele acabou sendo fundamental pra moldar minha visão de mundo e sobre a arte. A partir dele conheci vários conceitos, ideias e autores, alguns em relação aos quais eu tinha um pouco de resistência, e que vieram a influenciar enormemente minha vida acadêmica e meus posicionamentos políticos. E tudo começou com esse livrinho. Muito feliz por finalmente ter adquirido uma cópia física.

This is a short but thought-provoking book that explores the concepts of the weird and the eerie in literature, film, music and art. Fisher makes a distinction between the two terms. In simple terms, the weird concerns things that should not be there, while the eerie concerns things that are missing or unexplained. The writing is clear and accessible, although some familiarity with the works being discussed will certainly help. I found myself making a list of films and books to check out as I progressed through the chapters. One thing I appreciated was the range of examples. Fisher moves comfortably between horror fiction, science fiction, television, music and philosophy without becoming overly academic. At around 150 pages, it is a relatively quick read, but there is plenty to think about and revisit afterwards. Overall, this is an engaging and insightful book that offers a useful framework for thinking about strange and unsettling works of art. It deserves a place on the shelf of anyone interested in horror, science fiction or cultural criticism.

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Thank you.

I thought this book was incredible. I am a fan of books, movies and music so this really satisfied my interests. Many of the examples he used I was familiar with but many I wasn’t. However, of the familiar things, I was given a bit more to chew on with how I think about and consider them. Our western culture really promotes that we need to resolve or feel resolved about things especially if they are to be considered acceptable on scale. But this book feels like part of its treatise is to encourage an appreciation and the value of perhaps never quite being resolved, at least in our minds, and to appreciate the sensation that is the essence of the weird and the eerie. Highly recommend!