Who

Mute Magazine’s “Occultural Studies” columnist, philosopher and occasional noise artist Eugene Thacker. He’s written on science fiction, horror, continental philosophy, politics, culture, science and technology. He wrote an incredible book on the concept of ‘life’.

Here’s how Thomas Ligotti reviewed Eugene’s last book: “Thacker’s discourse on the intersection of horror and philosophy is utterly original and utterly captivating…In the Dust of This Planet is an encyclopedic grimoire instructing us in the varieties of esoteric thought and infernal diversions that exist for the reader’s further investigation, treating us to a delightful stroll down a midway of accursed attractions that alone are worth the ticket of this volume.”

What

A performed lecture on some ideas (see below) that you may be interested in, and which variously concern: pessimism and life, maybe going beyond the moral or metaphysical connotations those concepts usually have…

Why

On a planetary scale and over deep time nothing could be more insignificant than the human. So could we say that reality is un-human? Is this the horizon of thought as it confronts the unthought? How does this relate to Renaissance occult (musical) thinkers of the cosmic who put forward the notion of the “disharmony of the world”? Does this disharmony allow us to rethink the world as unthinkable, and without us?

Kinds of listening involved

Cosmic Pessimism – to hear the disharmony of the world.

Speech Act – to address someone, (and to imagine how they hear you).