2019/05/01 by Anna Powell · 1 citation
Social Sciences · Psychology · Arts and Humanities · #Gothic Literature and Media Analysis #Sexuality, Behavior, and Technology #Modern American Literature Studies
paper · doi:10.3366/edinburgh/9781474427777.003.0014
openalex publication_date 2019/05/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
H.P. Lovecraft's paranoid Gothic and the life-affirming philosophy of Gilles Deleuze are, despite polarities, a potent machine for thinking the unthinkable. Lovecraft's modern 'cosmic terror' overturns dominant paradigms of thought by exposing multiplicity and transformation. For Deleuze, Lovecraft's minor fiction thinks 'beyond the matter of any lived or liveable experience' and challenges the sovereignty of selfhood. Lovecraft's 'nature-defying illusions' evoke 'outsideness' via affects that 'go beyond the strength of those who undergo them'. Such images effectively produce pure difference, the ultimately chaotic thing in itself. Lovecraft's things have profound implications for any human 'self' encountering them, exposing the 'limited & fragmentary nature' of human consciousness when faced by 'the outside abyss of unthinkable galaxies & unplumbed dimensions'. If reason fails us, we need another way to reach the unthinkable. This chapter asserts the resonance of Lovecraft's fiction and theory with Deleuze's speculative philosophy of 'becoming' via the transformative powers of the virtual.