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More on Julia Kristeva's Powers of Horror (1980) plus H.P. Lovecraft's "The Call of Cthulhu" (1928).
What is the object of fear? In our last episode, we outlined Kristeva's view that it's ultimately the disintegration of self. Our purpose in this further episode (featuring Mark, Seth, and Dylan, who couldn't attend last time) was to clarify her account of how self-integrity is accomplished and then to use Lovecraft's unnameable (OK, he's named Cthulhu) and undepictable (well, OK, the story has lots of depictions of him; he's even a plush doll) object of fear as a case study exploring how well Kristeva's notion of abjection captures what we understand fear to amount to.
This first half is nearly all Kristeva. Don't wait for that Cthulhu goodness! Get the full discussion right now via the unbroken, ad-free Citizen Edition. This will also get you Mark's Close Reading on the first pages Kristeva's text. Please support PEL!
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Pixilated Kristeva is by Charles Valsechi. Cthulhu picture is by a friend of the podcast who wishes to remain unnameable.
This was so good. This and the enlightenment episode have been something I’ve been craving for years. If you wanna read more on this lovecraftian horror/sublime stuff. That’s exactly where Nick Land is helpful and fun!
just a head’s up for folks who don’t know nick is a dark enlightenment sith lord….