Books › In The Dust Of This Planet
In The Dust Of This Planet
170 pages
A cerebral plunge into the abyss, using supernatural horror to confront the terrifying limits of human philosophy.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like staring into the void and realizing the void is staring back through the lens of supernatural horror. It is a steady, cerebral exploration that strips away academic logic-chopping in favor of something much darker and more mystical. The mood is steeped in existential dread, perfectly capturing the anxiety of a world facing planetary disasters and extinction. The prose is probing and analytical, yet deeply attuned to the unsettling aesthetics of heavy metal, occultism, and demonology. It is an intellectual journey that pushes the reader to the very edge of human comprehension. This is a must-read for those who find philosophical depth in horror films, comics, and music, and who are brave enough to confront the unthinkable.
- Mood
- dread-soaked
- unsettling
- cerebral
- apocalyptic
- Tone
- analytical
- existential
- dark
- probing
- Pace
- steady
- Themes
- the limits of human understanding · existential dread · the unthinkable world · supernatural horror as philosophy · planetary extinction
- The writing
- Academic yet accessible, blending rigorous philosophical inquiry with a dark, mystical fascination.
- The arc
- Moves from a grounded sense of planetary anxiety into a deep, unsettling confrontation with the limits of human thought.
- Who it's for
- Readers who love heavy metal, supernatural horror, and existential philosophy, and who want to explore the terrifying boundaries of human comprehension.
Content notes
- existential dread
- discussions of extinction
- discussions of pandemics
- occultism and demonology
About the book
The world is increasingly unthinkable, a world of planetary disasters, emerging pandemics, and the looming threat of extinction. In this book Eugene Thacker suggests that we look to the genre of horror as offering a way of thinking about the unthinkable world. To confront this idea is to confront the limit of our ability to understand the world in which we live – a central motif of the horror genre.
_In the Dust of This Planet_ explores these relationships between philosophy and horror. In Thacker’s hands, philosophy is not academic logic-chopping; instead, it is the thought of the limit of all thought, especially as it dovetails into occultism, demonology, and mysticism. Likewise, Thacker takes horror to mean something beyond the focus on gore and scare tactics, but as the under-appreciated genre of supernatural horror in fiction, film, comics, and music. This relationship between philosophy and horror does not mean the philosophy of horror, if anything, it means the reverse, the horror of philosophy: those moments when philosophical thinking enigmatically confronts the horizon of its own existence. For Thacker, the genre of supernatural horror is the key site in which this paradoxical thought of the unthinkable takes place.
_In The Dust of This Planet_ is the first volume of the "horror of philosophy" trilogy, together with the second volume, _Starry Speculative Corpse_, and the third volume _Tentacles Longer Than Night_.
Description from Open Library.
Books like In The Dust Of This Planet
See why they match
The conspiracy against the human raceThomas LigottiA meticulously argued descent into the terrifying realization that human consciousness is a tragic evolutionary mistake.
Song for the Unraveling of the WorldBrian EvensonA masterclass in the uncanny that quietly and methodically dismantles your grip on reality.
Capitalist RealismMark FisherA sharp, claustrophobic diagnosis of the modern condition that articulates the exact shape of your everyday exhaustion.
Songs of a dead dreamer and GrimscribeThomas LigottiAn atmospheric descent into lurid dreamscapes and decaying cities that exposes the sickening madness of human consciousness.
ViolenceSlavoj ZizekAn incendiary, pop-culture-infused philosophical interrogation of the violence hidden within our everyday systems and language.
Paperbacks from HellGrady HendrixA gleeful, blood-spattered love letter to the gloriously unhinged era of vintage mass-market horror.