On the concept of horror and the horror of concepts.

September 17, 2009 2:59 PM

Collapse IV, "Concept Horror." The fourth issue of Urbanomic's "journal of philosophical research and development," Collapse, focuses on the relationship between modern philosophy and horror fiction and features essays by and about authors such as Thomas Ligotti, China Miéville and Michael Houellebecq and of course H.P. Lovecraft. Having sold out its print edition, Urbanomic has made the issue available for download as a 200 + page PDF. Some disturbing images (and ideas) within the download.
posted by Bookhouse (24 comments total)

Awesome. Thanks.
posted by eyeballkid at 3:07 PM on September 17

Whoa. Thank you.
posted by brundlefly at 3:17 PM on September 17

Who's awesome? Bookhouse. He is awesome.

There goes my evening...
posted by fleetmouse at 3:19 PM on September 17

I see Jake and Dinos Chapman are in there as well.
posted by Artw at 3:36 PM on September 17

I'll take a look, thank you.
posted by marxchivist at 3:40 PM on September 17

They request that you download it from elsewhere, but I couldn't find it, so I uploaded it to megaupload.
posted by sonic meat machine at 3:49 PM on September 17 [6 favorites]

Oh yes indeedy. That looks like my weekend, right there.
posted by Elsa at 3:49 PM on September 17

They request that you download it from elsewhere, but I couldn't find it, so I uploaded it to megaupload.

You are why the internet works so well.
posted by Pope Guilty at 4:31 PM on September 17 [1 favorite]

Woo! Thank you! and thanks for the alt d/l, smm!

I've already gone pattering and skimming over this a bit (Miéville referring to Bova's "The Lovecraft event" and "the spread of the tentacle" is a quick highlight; also gotta love a text that uses the term "teratology") - but my eyes are seriously rebelling. If anyone ever finds this in digitized (OCR) text format, I'll be monstrously grateful.
posted by taz at 4:48 PM on September 17

As will I.
posted by brundlefly at 5:10 PM on September 17

This is well eldritch. Respect.
posted by turgid dahlia at 5:24 PM on September 17

I just wanna use the phrase "Houellebecq Girl".
posted by Eideteker at 5:24 PM on September 17 [8 favorites]

Fuck yes. Thank you.
posted by everichon at 5:27 PM on September 17

Also, goddam it, Eideteker, that's terrible.
posted by everichon at 5:27 PM on September 17

Is it universe-rending terrible? Cause I was really trying to go Lovecraftian with the whole thing.
posted by Eideteker at 5:43 PM on September 17 [1 favorite]

This Elder God is bananas! B-A-N-A-N-A-S.
posted by stinkycheese at 5:47 PM on September 17 [2 favorites]

Y-O-G-G-O-T-H.
posted by stinkycheese at 5:47 PM on September 17

Haven't read the whole book, but the pieces by China Mieville and James Trafford (the latter relating to Thomas Metzinger's neurological analysis of the self, Being No One,) are both excellent. Metzinger's someone who's work is truly mind-blowing (pun intended). Also a significant influence on Peter Watt's Blindsight, which is my favorite science fiction contact story to date.
posted by AdamCSnider at 6:09 PM on September 17

This looks excellent. Thank you.
posted by never used baby shoes at 6:33 PM on September 17

my eyes are seriously rebelling. If anyone ever finds this in digitized (OCR) text format, I'll be monstrously grateful.

I printed it out myself. Seems worth it.
posted by Bookhouse at 6:50 PM on September 17

wow.
posted by HumanComplex at 8:25 PM on September 17

This looks interesting, thanks!
posted by lmm at 8:42 PM on September 17

I bought this book for the excerpt in it from Ligotti's Conspiracy Against the Human Race, which I found fascinating. The book as a whole was very well put together. I hope they get around to making Collapse V: The Copernican Imperative available online as well...
posted by misteraitch at 1:16 AM on September 18

Wow, this is terrific. Thanks, Bookhouse.

Conspiracy Against The Human Race is a fun read.
posted by Sticherbeast at 9:44 AM on September 18