But Lovecraft often seems to walk on the knife's edge separating an annihilating Truth (accessible through rational scientific inquiry) and the safety of a recognizable supernatural reality (manageable through superstition and mystical belief).
When considering the “failure of the imagination” which traps people within capitalist realism, the potential in invoking an incoherent – though not necessarily unreal – alternative mode of thought or existence is crucial to breaking out of the bind of capitalist realism. Being able to posit an incoherent alterity is the first step towards being able to move towards a coherent alternate reality. But trying to pull away from the familiar and towards a new paradigm inevitably produces an encounter with Horror.
Even as Aquaman rejects notions of racial purity and as it celebrates the possibilities inherent in hybridity and change, it still falls back on narratives of genetic determinacy and degeneracy. These ideas are inextricably linked to the eugenic epistemology which defines the supremacism the film is trying to critique.
And none of this even begins to touch on the issue, "Nic Cage is a meme." Because once you have been transformed into a hollow vector for self-replicating situational humor, you cease to be able to generate meaning for yourself.
Read: Books: When I Grow up I want to be a Futurist. Badminton, N.The Only Harmless Great Thing. Bolano, B. "Prodigy of Dreams," "Ms. Rinaldi's Angel," "The Tsalal," and "Mad Night of Atonement" in The Nightmare Factory. Ligotti, T."Protestant and Catholics." HPL to Frank Belknap Long, collected in Against Religion: the atheist writings of H. P. Lovecraft. 2010. Articles: "Lovecraft, Witch Cults, and … Continue reading Week in Review 2019: 003
