"I don’t particularly care for fantasy per se. What I actually cherish is something far more rare: the elevated prose poetry, mythopoeic subcreation, and thematic richness that only the best fantasy achieves, and that echoes in important particulars the myths and fables of old. This realization eliminates, at a stroke, virtually everything written under the banner of fantasy today."
posted by never used baby shoes on Feb 16, 2011 - 203 comments

The Disenchanted Naturalist's Guide to Reality (see also)
posted by anotherpanacea on Feb 9, 2010 - 31 comments

Pro-Anorexia Group presence ballooning on Facebook. [more inside]
posted by Potomac Avenue on Nov 25, 2008 - 161 comments

Time to play The Game. A Flash Monday tour of the absurd.
posted by Happy Dave on Nov 10, 2008 - 19 comments

The Wire is dissent; it argues that our systems are no longer viable for the greater good of the most, that America is no longer operating as a utilitarian and democratic experiment. An already-quite-good discussion about The Wire, originating in Mark Bowden's Atlantic article ('The Angriest Man in Television') and continuing through Mark Bowden's post on the show's nihilistic bleakness gets even more interesting on Matt Yglesias's blog, where the creator of the show stops by to give his opinion on what it's all supposed to mean.
posted by gerryblog on Jan 3, 2008 - 76 comments

"Bloggers are nihilists because they are 'good for nothing'. They post into Nirvana and have turned their futility into a productive force." "Blogging, the nihilist impulse," based on a lecture by Geert Lovink.
posted by the_bone on Jan 10, 2007 - 66 comments

Crispin Sartwell is a cryptic and sensational man. The Chair of Humanities and Sciences at the Maryland Institute College of Art, he has translated the Tao Te Ching, published philosophy papers and books, maintained pages on hip hop, founded the American Nihilist Party (and gave a speech to young Democrats urging them to reconsider their votes for John Kerry), taught courses on conjuring and illusion, etc. etc. See also his essay on the pagan cult of mathematics and his thought experiment on music.
posted by painquale on Mar 26, 2005 - 17 comments

Cheer Down With Cioran, The Big Daddy Of Miserable Bastards: Grab some instant cynical nihilism from the E.M.Cioran Random Generator! Is it any wonder the late, great aphorist is so unpopular in academe? Meanwhile, in Spike Magazine, Stephen Mitchelmore is the latest in a long series of critics to try and spread the old master's noble rot.
posted by MiguelCardoso on Mar 9, 2002 - 12 comments