Pessimystic, with critical introduction

Abstract

This dissertation is comprised of a novel—Pessimystic—and its critical introduction.

The introduction argues that the act of writing melts divisions between the subjective, phenomena-dictated experience of the ineffable (as in the Gothic) and the ineffability of noumena itself (as in the Weird). It begins by defining the Gothic and the Weird in relation to the writing act, identifying the Gothic tradition’s ongoing, markedly interior focus on writing (its phenomena-oriented focus), and conversely, the literary Weird’s preoccupation with the problem of “writing the unwritable,” or that which exceeds subjective apprehension (noumena and the numinous). It then defines Maurice Blanchot’s philosophy of writing and connects it to the respective subject-object positions of the Gothic and the Weird in the context of writing-about-writing. Finally, it applies Blanchot’s philosophy to works by three defining literary figures and conscious influences on Pessimystic: the Gothic work of Edgar Allan Poe (“Ligeia” [1838]), the Weird writing of H. P. Lovecraft (“The Unnamable” [1925]), and the Gothic-Weird hybridizing of Stephen King (Lisey’s Story [2006]). The introduction concludes with a close reading of Pessimystic that consolidates the established critical framework.

Pessimystic follows a thirty-two-year-old writer, Robert, who inherits his publishing mogul Aunt Sibyl’s heritage manor following her publicly scrutinized downfall and mysterious death. Situated on the outskirts of a fictional New Brunswick town called Hollow Stone (a spooky funhouse mirror to several New England Gothic environs), Aunt Sibyl’s manor slowly reveals to Robert the depraved secrets of its original high society owner, Viscount Naughton. Meanwhile, Robert makes acquaintance with fellow Hollow Stone writers Charlotte and Victor, who introduce him to Blackwood Cave, wherein vaporous beings offer inspirational visions in exchange for minute extractions of writers’ souls. Unfolding into a climax of calamity and horror, the novel sees the undead past stalking the present in duly Gothic fashion.