What is 'Cosmic Horror'? [Illustrated]

Our Literature videos are back! This time the topic is ‘Cosmic Horror’ (sometimes referred to as ‘Lovecraftian Horror’); a dark, anti-anthropocentric genre replete with existential dread, and terrifying inferences about our place in the universe. Cosmic Horror ruminates on what lies out there in the ‘secret regions of astronomy or time’, and what inhabited ‘ancient and now incalculable twilights’ (as Borges would say); moreover, it concludes that we best not find out…

This video outlines four of what I consider to be the most common features of the genre. It’s quite a long one, hence it took a little while longer to produce, but I hope you find it interesting!

A massive thank you to the talented Walter Brocca, who kindly let me use his haunting illustration of Nyarlathotep to create the thumbnail for this video. He does lots of other pieces of Lovecraft-inspired artwork, so be sure to check out his work on ArtStation:
https://www.artstation.com/wall

As always, this video would also not be possible without a suitably atmospheric backing track by Scott Buckley!
[Music: ‘Beyond These Walls’ by Scott Buckley, www.scottbuckley.com.au]

Here are the shopping links for some of the texts used in the video:

Carl Sagan, The Dragons of Eden
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dragons-Eden...
John W. Campbell Jr., Who Goes There?
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Who-Goes-The...
H.P. Lovecraft, Collected Essays 2: Literary Criticism (containing ‘Supernatural Horror in Literature’)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Collected-Es...
Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Haunting-Hou...
Philip K. Dick, VALIS
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Valis-S-F-MA...
Johannes Kepler, Harmonices Mundi
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Harmonies-Wo...
Alastair Reynolds, Beyond the Aquila Rift
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Beyond-Aquil...
Algernon Blackwood, The Willows
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Algernon-Bla...
Euclid, Elements
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Euclids-Elem...
William Shakespeare, Hamlet
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hamlet-Willi...
H.P. Lovecraft, At the Mountains of Madness
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mountains-Ma...
H.P. Lovecraft, Complete Fiction (including ‘Call of Cthulhu’ and ‘The Shadow over Innsmouth’)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Complete-Fic...
Thomas Huxley (Afterword), The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Life-Letters...
William Blake, Complete Poems
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Complete-Poe...
Clark Ashton Smith, Lost Worlds
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lost-Worlds-...
Spinoza, Ethics
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ethics-Pengu...
Robert Chambers, The King in Yellow
https://www.amazon.co.uk/King-Yellow-...
Robert E Howard, The Black Stone (and ‘The Thing on the Roof’)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Black-Stone-...
Lin Carter, Xothic Cycle Legend
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Xothic-Legen...
Jorge Luis Borges, The Book of Sand (including ‘There are more things’)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Shakespeares...

- Miles