The Existential, Unanswered, Alluring Confusion of Cosmic Horror
Cosmic horror is a combination of supernatural horror, psychological horror, and sci-fi. As you stir them into a pot of a spacious, magical amalgamation, you get the unique, world-bending, mind-turning storytelling of cosmic horror.
The simplest way to describe cosmic horror is… the fear of the unknown. There's something strange lurking in the distance, doing stuff to us, and the more we investigate to try and find what is happening or what this certain otherworldly entity's motives are, the worse it gets. But it also includes the fear that humanity is utterly meaningless and insignificant to the universe, and that the universe either has no meaning or purpose, or at least one that we can’t comprehend.
The father of cosmic horror is, of course, H.P. Lovecraft an amazing author with a troubling reception. Fully, rightly so. Lovecraft challenged the anthropocentric beliefs of most religions. Not just in fiction, these were beliefs he held in real life as well.
If you believe in structured religion, some blanks might already be filled in for you. But if you're an agnostic like me, you'll find a lot of scary, fascinating, lingering existential unanswered questions linked to his storytelling. How were we created? What happens after we die? Are we meaningless? Are we a cog in a machine, with our only purpose to reproduce? What else is out there?
People are adventurous creatures by nature, and cosmic horror shows that in a detailed and confusing way, showing that sometimes you don't need to answer the questions yourself.
As well as Lovecraft being racist as fuck!
The simplest way to describe cosmic horror is… the fear of the unknown. There's something strange lurking in the distance, doing stuff to us, and the more we investigate to try and find what is happening or what this certain otherworldly entity's motives are, the worse it gets. But it also includes the fear that humanity is utterly meaningless and insignificant to the universe, and that the universe either has no meaning or purpose, or at least one that we can’t comprehend.
The father of cosmic horror is, of course, H.P. Lovecraft an amazing author with a troubling reception. Fully, rightly so. Lovecraft challenged the anthropocentric beliefs of most religions. Not just in fiction, these were beliefs he held in real life as well.
If you believe in structured religion, some blanks might already be filled in for you. But if you're an agnostic like me, you'll find a lot of scary, fascinating, lingering existential unanswered questions linked to his storytelling. How were we created? What happens after we die? Are we meaningless? Are we a cog in a machine, with our only purpose to reproduce? What else is out there?
People are adventurous creatures by nature, and cosmic horror shows that in a detailed and confusing way, showing that sometimes you don't need to answer the questions yourself.
As well as Lovecraft being racist as fuck!
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