“The Earth: a densely populated planet, extended in space and time, floating in the galaxy, and ultimately destined toward a protracted demise, in which all life is reduced to archaeological remnants. Before this end, however, everyday life on our planet continues, unabashed by remote and distant possibilities of cosmic annihilation. But what would it be like to experience this particular planet, as though from an alien perspective? How would we affectively respond to such estrangement: with wonder or horror? And how would philosophy benefit from such an exercise? In this paper, I will provisionally think through these thoughts in two ways.
First, I will spend some time considering the parallels between phenomenology and the writing of H.P. Lovecraft. The point of this excursion is to identify how Lovecraft’s creative renewal of the everyday world operates with the same principles as that of phenomenology. Bringing to life the phenomenological method, Lovecraft thus becomes a significant ally in the relation between the everyday and the strange.
Second, I will conclude by considering the idea that the alien planet often invoked in philosophical anecdotes is Earth itself. In turn, this will lead me to consider notions of anonymity, alienness, and estrangement more broadly. My secondary object in this task is to introduce phenomenology as a method for those who are perhaps not overly familiar with it, perhaps in the process (re)discovering the strangeness of phenomenology itself.”
Dr Dylan Trigg is an assosciate tutor at the University of Sussex. More information regarding his interests and publications is available on his website: www.dylantrigg.com
Suggested reading
- Merleau-Ponty, Maurice, “Cezanne’s Doubt”, from Sense and Non-sense [1945], trans. Hubert & Patricia Dreyfus (1964) <http://faculty.uml.edu/rinnis/cezannedoubt.pdf>
- Lovecraft, H.P., “From Beyond”, Dagonbytes.com, first published in The Fantasy Fan (1934) <http://www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary/lovecraft/frombeyond.htm>
Discussion
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