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In search of the sublime (and numinous, and eldritch)
I've been watching my brain start to slide into Revisions Mode as I near the end of Deadwater--my plan is to give myself a couple of weeks if I possibly can,* then print it out and read it all together as a book, making notes, before I swing into revising.
*I know months is often recommended, but ADHD. Sorry.
Anyway, I'd really like to play up moments of the sublime, numinous, and eldritch as much as I can, and thus I seek recommendations from you as to prose, fiction or nonfiction, that evokes those feelings in you. (Music and art recs also appreciated, but it's not my primary focus as I'm trying to feed words into my brain for this.)
Sublime, in the general Romantic (not little-r romantic) sense that's embodied in Kaspar David Friedrich's landscapes (7-min video on Friedrich here, article on the sublime in philosophy here), the sense of awe, respect, immanence and maybe even terror at perceiving things greater than yourself (which is why I think the eldritch is part of this). I tend to get it from contemplating deep time, deep space, and the nature writing of Robert MacFarlane, among others.
I also get it from that breed of manga and anime that slowly explores small mysteries, like Mushishi, Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou and Aqua and Aria (the ones set on a Mars that's terraformed to look like Venice).
The numinous (Wikipedia link) is closely related to the sublime, but for me it seems a little closer to the religious or sacred in that the sense of awe is related to other beings or intelligences, instead of just all things greater than oneself, if that makes sense. The "Piper at the Gates of Dawn," chapter in The Wind in the Willows, Mushishi, Mononoke (the stylized anime, not Princess Mononoke, although PM has its moments of that near the end with the forest spirit). Many parts of the Moomintroll books also have this.
Eldritch is of course on the awe-ful (in the old sense of the term) side of the sublime, and I'm looking for subtle eldritch, not the full-on ZOMG THE SOUL-CRUSHING TERROR, THE TENTACLEs, THE TENTACLES!!! that you get in full-on Lovecraftian pastiche, more the gnawing sense of creep you get when something is not right. While I appreciate T. Kingfisher's The Twisted Ones and the like, I'm looking for stuff that's more like the bits near the beginning, where the MC is just starting to feel things are off, and not the middle and end when the MC is smack in the middle of Weirdland.
Anyway, throwing that out there and seeing what y'all can come up with. Now it's back to the word mines to see how much of this story I can produce today. Woo!
*I know months is often recommended, but ADHD. Sorry.
Anyway, I'd really like to play up moments of the sublime, numinous, and eldritch as much as I can, and thus I seek recommendations from you as to prose, fiction or nonfiction, that evokes those feelings in you. (Music and art recs also appreciated, but it's not my primary focus as I'm trying to feed words into my brain for this.)
Sublime, in the general Romantic (not little-r romantic) sense that's embodied in Kaspar David Friedrich's landscapes (7-min video on Friedrich here, article on the sublime in philosophy here), the sense of awe, respect, immanence and maybe even terror at perceiving things greater than yourself (which is why I think the eldritch is part of this). I tend to get it from contemplating deep time, deep space, and the nature writing of Robert MacFarlane, among others.
I also get it from that breed of manga and anime that slowly explores small mysteries, like Mushishi, Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou and Aqua and Aria (the ones set on a Mars that's terraformed to look like Venice).
The numinous (Wikipedia link) is closely related to the sublime, but for me it seems a little closer to the religious or sacred in that the sense of awe is related to other beings or intelligences, instead of just all things greater than oneself, if that makes sense. The "Piper at the Gates of Dawn," chapter in The Wind in the Willows, Mushishi, Mononoke (the stylized anime, not Princess Mononoke, although PM has its moments of that near the end with the forest spirit). Many parts of the Moomintroll books also have this.
Eldritch is of course on the awe-ful (in the old sense of the term) side of the sublime, and I'm looking for subtle eldritch, not the full-on ZOMG THE SOUL-CRUSHING TERROR, THE TENTACLEs, THE TENTACLES!!! that you get in full-on Lovecraftian pastiche, more the gnawing sense of creep you get when something is not right. While I appreciate T. Kingfisher's The Twisted Ones and the like, I'm looking for stuff that's more like the bits near the beginning, where the MC is just starting to feel things are off, and not the middle and end when the MC is smack in the middle of Weirdland.
Anyway, throwing that out there and seeing what y'all can come up with. Now it's back to the word mines to see how much of this story I can produce today. Woo!
Manga - Anime
If you want a dark eldritch version, very dark then https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Girl_From_the_Other_Side:_Si%C3%BAil,_a_R%C3%BAn
this one
Ancient Magus Bride, anime or manga also work for me in the romantic sublime sense.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ancient_Magus%27_Bride
Re: Manga - Anime
Re: Manga - Anime
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Charles de Lint also often hits that spot for me, though it's been ages since I reread a bunch his stuff and thus can't easily rec specifics.
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Lord Dunsany's fantasy stories might fit this as well.
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Welp, that taps out all my titles that fill that niche for me ...
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Eldritch: The parts of House of Leaves that are actually about the Navidson House, the movie The Endless, the parts of True Detective season 2 where Rust sees birds spiraling in the sky, the movie Annihilation, especially the part right after they enter the Shimmer.
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Not sure if this meets your standard of eldritch, but for a creeping unease and Things Not Right, Gormenghast for sure, and Fuentes' Terra Nostra. Been decades since I read either of them so I might not find them as nightmarish now, but my first reading of them creeped me so thoroughly that I don't want to try a reread.
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