Weird Mysticism

Download or read book Weird Mysticism written by Brad Baumgartner and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2020-11-17 with total page 171 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Weird Mysticism identifies and evaluates a new category of theoretical inquiry by showing the influence of speculative writing on three intersecting critical categories: horror fiction, apophatic mysticism, and philosophical pessimism. Exploring the work of Thomas Ligotti, Georges Bataille, and E. M. Cioran, Baumgartner argues that these “weird mystics” employ an innovative mode of negative writing that seeks to merge new conceptions of reality. While exploring perennial questions about “the absolute,” the Outside, and other philosophical concepts, these authors push the limits of representation, experimenting with literary form, genre-bending, and aphoristic discourse. As their works reveal, the category of weird mysticism both conjoins and obscures the link between traditional mysticism and philosophical horror fiction, with weirdness itself being the central magnet that draws the seemingly disparate realms of horror fiction, philosophy, and mysticism together. Highlighting the theoretical stakes of the horror genre, Baumgartner’s study reveals how the mystical potentially recuperates the limits of philosophical thinking, enabling reflection on—and possibly challenging—the limits of human understanding.

Download or read book The Book of Probes written by Marshall McLuhan and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 582 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "'The Book of Probes' is a collection of Marshall McLuhan's finest words culled from his books, his more than 200 speeches, his classes at the University of Toronto ... and from nearly 700 shorter writings he published between 1945 and 1980"--Jacket.

Download or read book High Weirdness written by Erik Davis and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2019-11-05 with total page 562 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An exploration of the emergence of a new psychedelic spirituality in the work of Philip K. Dick, Terence McKenna, and Robert Anton Wilson. A study of the spiritual provocations to be found in the work of Philip K. Dick, Terence McKenna, and Robert Anton Wilson, High Weirdness charts the emergence of a new psychedelic spirituality that arose from the American counterculture of the 1970s. These three authors changed the way millions of readers thought, dreamed, and experienced reality—but how did their writings reflect, as well as shape, the seismic cultural shifts taking place in America? In High Weirdness, Erik Davis—America's leading scholar of high strangeness—examines the published and unpublished writings of these vital, iconoclastic thinkers, as well as their own life-changing mystical experiences. Davis explores the complex lattice of the strange that flowed through America's West Coast at a time of radical technological, political, and social upheaval to present a new theory of the weird as a viable mode for a renewed engagement with reality.

Download or read book Blessed Are the Weird written by Jacob Nordby and published by . This book was released on 2016-09-26 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a book for everyone who wants to lead a deep, true, and passionate life and leave the world better for having passed this way.

Download or read book TechGnosis written by Erik Davis and published by North Atlantic Books. This book was released on 2015-03-17 with total page 457 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: TechGnosis is a cult classic of media studies that straddles the line between academic discourse and popular culture; it appeals to both those secular and spiritual, to fans of cyberpunk and hacker literature and culture as much as new-thought adherents and spiritual seekers How does our fascination with technology intersect with the religious imagination? In TechGnosis—a cult classic now updated and reissued with a new afterword—Erik Davis argues that while the realms of the digital and the spiritual may seem worlds apart, esoteric and religious impulses have in fact always permeated (and sometimes inspired) technological communication. Davis uncovers startling connections between such seemingly disparate topics as electricity and alchemy; online roleplaying games and religious and occult practices; virtual reality and gnostic mythology; programming languages and Kabbalah. The final chapters address the apocalyptic dreams that haunt technology, providing vital historical context as well as new ways to think about a future defined by the mutant intermingling of mind and machine, nightmare and fantasy.

Download or read book Weird Tales written by E. T. A. Hoffmann and published by DigiCat. This book was released on 2022-05-17 with total page 556 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hoffman's "Weird Tales" is a brilliant collection of his best works, including the world-known stories like "Mademoiselle De Scuderi," "The Nutcracker and The Mouse King," and also one of the first horror stories in the romantic literature "The Sandman." Hoffman's protagonists are romantic and brave representatives of the epoch. He writes about artists, musicians, poets, and also noble people of trade. His characters live in the era when men fight on duels and women faint to stress their fragility. The range of his characters is stunning. It includes the lady detective Mademoiselle De Scuderi, a mysterious Sandman who steals the eyes of those who don't want to go to bed, and an opera singer Signor Formica. Each of the presented stories has a unique character and belongs to the most valuable pieces of the world's literature that never cease to be topical, intriguing, captivating, and inspiring. _x000D_ _x000D_ _x000D_ _x000D_

Download or read book Weird Tales (Vol. 1&2) written by E. T. A. Hoffmann and published by e-artnow. This book was released on 2021-08-21 with total page 563 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hoffman's "Weird Tales" is a brilliant collection of his best works, including the world-known stories like "Mademoiselle De Scuderi," "The Nutcracker and The Mouse King," and also one of the first horror stories in the romantic literature "The Sandman." Hoffman's protagonists are romantic and brave representatives of the epoch. He writes about artists, musicians, poets, and also noble people of trade. His characters live in the era when men fight on duels and women faint to stress their fragility. The range of his characters is stunning. It includes the lady detective Mademoiselle De Scuderi, a mysterious Sandman who steals the eyes of those who don't want to go to bed, and an opera singer Signor Formica. Each of the presented stories has a unique character and belongs to the most valuable pieces of the world's literature that never cease to be topical, intriguing, captivating, and inspiring. _x000D_ _x000D_ _x000D_ _x000D_