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A review by adorableautist
The Weird and the Eerie by Mark Fisher
dark
reflective
medium-paced
3.5
Mark Fisher is difficult to pin down as a writer. He is best known as a political philosopher, or perhaps some appreciate him more for his ontological musings. But for me, Fisher is first and foremost a hipster blogger. To be clear, I don't mean to be dismissive of Fisher with that label, I only mean that he is consistently at his best when he is pontificating on the complex minutia of some niche piece of media.
Of his published works, 'Ghosts of My Life' is probably the strongest example of his impassioned, even panicked, musings on some cultural fixture only vaguely acknowledged outside of specific subcultures. It would be easy, then, to reduce 'The Weird and The Eerie' to a continuation of Fisher's meandering essay style from 'Ghosts of My Life' or his blog 'K-Punk'. In many ways that reduction might be accurate, but 'The Weird and The Eerie' is unique in its stylistic and philosophical marriage to Freud's essay on 'The Uncanny'. Where 'Ghosts of My Life' was self indulgent enough to thoroughly explore all the parameters of Fisher's fixations, 'The Weird and The Eerie' is altogether more restrained. It focuses resolutely on its titular subject matter, often at the expense of any other political or ontological analysis.
Where Fisher's 'Capitalist Realism' was about the political supplanting the psychological, and 'Ghosts of My Life' was about the ontological supplanting the political, then 'The Weird and The Eerie' returns its attention to the psychological with a singular focus that feels distinctly out of character. Unfortunately, this is to its detriment. While the book isn't without insights, many of the essays feel dispassionate, a truly fatal blow for an author who's greatest strength is his almost disproportionate passion for what he writes about. His definitions of the titular 'weird' and 'eerie' are compelling and will likely stick with me, but this is likely the one Fisher book I will never return to.
Of his published works, 'Ghosts of My Life' is probably the strongest example of his impassioned, even panicked, musings on some cultural fixture only vaguely acknowledged outside of specific subcultures. It would be easy, then, to reduce 'The Weird and The Eerie' to a continuation of Fisher's meandering essay style from 'Ghosts of My Life' or his blog 'K-Punk'. In many ways that reduction might be accurate, but 'The Weird and The Eerie' is unique in its stylistic and philosophical marriage to Freud's essay on 'The Uncanny'. Where 'Ghosts of My Life' was self indulgent enough to thoroughly explore all the parameters of Fisher's fixations, 'The Weird and The Eerie' is altogether more restrained. It focuses resolutely on its titular subject matter, often at the expense of any other political or ontological analysis.
Where Fisher's 'Capitalist Realism' was about the political supplanting the psychological, and 'Ghosts of My Life' was about the ontological supplanting the political, then 'The Weird and The Eerie' returns its attention to the psychological with a singular focus that feels distinctly out of character. Unfortunately, this is to its detriment. While the book isn't without insights, many of the essays feel dispassionate, a truly fatal blow for an author who's greatest strength is his almost disproportionate passion for what he writes about. His definitions of the titular 'weird' and 'eerie' are compelling and will likely stick with me, but this is likely the one Fisher book I will never return to.