The Weird and the Eerie

An interesting read with some analysis of 20th century literature and film with the aim of defining both 'weird' and 'eerie.' Fisher starts with Lovecraft and then jumps from the likes Tim Powers to David Lynch to The Fall, with plenty more in between. His analysis is always interesting and his arguments are accessible enough to not alienate the casual reader. I enjoy picking up a book like this every now and then to keep me thinking, and to provide a lot of ideas for future books/films to enjoy [...]

Fisher's last book may appear as a collection of essays, given chapter titles that speak to the work of a particular author or filmmaker (e.g.: Jonathan Glazer, H.P. Lovecraft, Nigel Kneale). But what we find in The Weird and the Eerie is a remarkably compressed analysis of the titular affects/genres that builds on what came before without sacrificing any nuances of what is before it. Truly fantastic.

"The sensation of the eerie occurs either when there is something present where there should be nothing, or is there nothing present when there should be something." <3

A slim volume that's well worth the read. First and foremost, I think Fisher does succeed in his explanatory efforts to separate his conceptions of the weird and the eerie in meaningful ways that fans of horror and adjacent entertainment will find useful, and I often found myself rethinking and recategorizing some of my favorite works in light of his explorations. At various points I found myself nodding enthusiastically, occasionally disagreeing (sometimes a little vehemently even), not quite f [...]

Rereading this today. It's SO good: original, cerebral, creative, inspiring.

I liked it. Didn't see much of a point other than being a piece of Literary/cultural criticism showing how certain writers, directors etc. portray the Weird and Eerie in different ways. It's not like it's philosophising of theorising the Weird or Eerie in much of a way, if he was doing that it would have been redundant for him to simplify the distinction in the first preface chapter (Weird being the addition of something, Eerie being the lack/removal)

Good stuff! The strongest part of Mark Fisher's earlier book CAPITALIST REALISM was his readings of pop culture, so an entire book of them was bound to be successful. And it largely is, even though I admittedly only have experienced half the works he's talking about here.Still, the slanting theme of the book makes for interesting takes on the eerie elements of writers like Christopher Priest, and weirdness of Tim Powers. If anything, it feels almost too constrained; I could see him sprawling acr [...]

Seems my tastes have tended to run towards the weird and the eerie for the best part of 30 years. I wasn't sure I would enjoy a book that is essentially one long essay dissecting the strangeness of some of the works and artists I enjoy the most.I needn't have worried. While the constant Freud references flew over my head, it was an engaging read by an author I am sorry I didn't switch on to earlier - much as I previously enjoyed his occasional pieces for The Wire.Definitely one for fans of the w [...]

This slim collection of essays tries to address the oddities that don't quite fit in horror, or science fiction, assigning them as Weird, or Eerie, ranging from Lovecraft, to Interstellar. It's a timely publication, with Twin Peaks returned to our tvs.The book itself has the makings of an 'eerie' artefact, with the writer committing suicide just before publication, which led to a slightly odd feeling as one read it . . .

"We could go so far as to say that it is the human condition to be grotesque, since the human animal is the one that does not fit in, the freak of nature who has no place in the natural order and is capable of re-combining nature's products into hideous new forms."

A wise and insightful tome that ranges over an eclectic range of subjects in the pleasantly meandering course of its scant pages: a great work on a challenging topic.

Liked the stuff about aliens, really explained why I was so afraid of Them as a child. Otherwise, too much Freud and not enough Marx.(view spoiler)[What the weird and the eerie have in common is a preoccupation with the strange. The strange — not the horrific. The allure that the weird and the eerie possess is not captured by the idea that we “enjoy what scares us”. It has, rather, to do with a fascination for the outside, for that which lies beyond standard perception, cognition and exper [...]

¿Qué tienen los ingleses que tanto les gusta lo rarito, lo inquietante, lo extraño? Ay, esa es la razón de mi anglofilia, lo reconozco, y no la encuentro en los estadounidenses.Una minicolección de ensayos sobre lo extraño y lo inquietante (que traduzca otro, que estoy de baja) que trata de diferenciar las dos modalidades a golpe de casuística. Suelta ideas muy interesantes que daría para analizar más en profundidad y que desde luego dan qué pensar sobre qué tiene nuestra época sobre [...]

Dobré, ale nemohu se zbavit pocitu, že nejde o sbírku kritik, co někdo cizí slepil a vydal. Asi mi chybí závěr. Něco, co by svedlo nahozené myšlenky opět dohromady.

Mark Fisher’s presence as a cultural critic is sorely missed and since his passing, his absence feels most weird and eerie in itself. His blog k-punk.abstractdynamics remains the essential map for navigating late capitalist badlands, while The Weird And The Eerie is a slim volume that nonetheless contains some essential writing. The book charts terrain taking in The Fall, Under The Skin and longtime kpunk obsession The Shining to define these curious outposts as “something where there should [...]

Lo más interesante: los capítulos sobre The Door in the Wall y Picnic at Hanging Rock. Hace mucho que no leía sobre Mark E. Smith y me tocó leer ese capítulo el día que murió (lo cual llevó a este post).

If the job of an essay is to get the grey matter moving, then Fisher has succeeded in this focused collections of essays. By treating popular culture in a scholarly way the concepts of the weird and the eerie are examined in a challenging and inviting way.

Lucid work on two atmospheres on contemporary culture. Insightful and significant.

ricordo che qualche anno fa mi imbattei in un quesito curioso (non ricordo la fonte, magari fu solo la mia testa): come mai esistono “situazioni diverse da come dovrebbero essere” che ci fanno ridere e “situazioni diverse da come dovrebbero essere” che invece ci spaventano? gli esempi che ricordo tuttora erano, rispettivamente, una persona che cade scivolando sul ghiaccio e il sole che sorge a ovest: la persona dovrebbe stare in piedi, quindi se cade esce da questo stato standard e entra [...]

Many good reviews have been written already. See the LA Review of Books, for example. I'll just comment on the elements of this book that stood out during my first reading of it. Mark Fisher distinguishes the weird from the eerie on a principle of incongruity : something present that shouldn't be (is the weird) while something absent that shouldn't be (is the eerie). As far as I know, this is the first conceptualisation of the eerie in literary criticism. Fellow readers of weird fiction will enj [...]

4.75 stars. Absolute dynamite. Fisher takes his point of departure from Freud's musings of the unheimlich and proceeds to explore the two unique territories of the weird and the eerie. Despite a slightly inpenetrable introduction, Fisher's text gathers immediate traction once he sets to applying the weird/eerie in context - deftly employing a diverse range of literary, art, music and television/film references to press home his argument. The bibliography itself makes for an adventure in itself. [...]

I found this book while browsing, and got interested by its premise. I then realised that the author was a recently deceased lecturer at my university, of whom I'd heard much about on social media in the wake of his death. I’m very glad to have found his work now, as it really is an intriguing outlook on modern culture. This particular book is a wonderful exercise in what exactly makes something “weird” or “eerie.” He draws the majority of his examples from literature, film, and music. [...]

A series of interconnected short essays rather than a single longer essay, this is an illuminating and intelligent look at the characteristics of weird and eerie literature, film, and even music. Fisher makes clear the distinction between weird and eerie before setting out to map some of the key authors and artists to have produced work in the field. From Lovecraft to Stephen King, David Lynch to The Fall, this is always erudite and intriguing. Short but essential.

Essentially a definition of the terms "weird" and "eerie" and a look at how they differ from each other and from words that might be assumed to be exact synonyms, like "strange", and then a walk-through of some books, films and music that exemplify the two terms. A paean to the arrestingly or disquietingly unusual. Fisher's writing is well-observed and clear, and his enthusiasms infectious. The book is narrow in scope, but I have no problem with that. It made me wish for more books like it.

tim powers, philip k. dick, christopher priest, lovercraft, hg wells, alan garner, m.r. james, eno, joan lindsay, tarkovsky, nolan, kubrick--most of the artists analysed here by fisher.what is that curtain doing beside your computer screen? don't you find it weird that the screen is slightly turning grayish blue? is that your hand or a leopard?

un gran bel saggio su ció che è strano e cosa sia misterioso passando per Nolan, Kubrick, De Maurier, Glazer, Lovecraft, Wells i The Fall e altri, Fisher purtroppo non c'è più perché si è suicidato ma ha lasciato cose grandi come questa.

A jolly good trot through some cool stuff. I'm not sure Fisher quite succeeds in delineating the 2 categories he wants to work with, but it doesn't matter. Anyone who correctly identifies the final Quatermass series as underrated is fine by me.

Very nice essay, nothing groundbreaking but a good start for mapping Fisher’s aesthetics. Opened some interesting doors for me in terms of future reading.

Interesting. I preferred the weird parts, but most of the discussion focused on the eerie.