Eugene Thacker is an American philosopher, poet, and author. He is Professor of Media Studies at

The New School The New School is a private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for progressive thinkers. ...

in New York City. His writing is often associated with the philosophy of

nihilism Nihilism (; ) is a philosophy, or family of views within philosophy, that rejects generally accepted or fundamental aspects of human existence, such as objective truth, knowledge, morality, values, or meaning. The term was popularized by I ...

and

pessimism Pessimism is a negative mental attitude in which an undesirable outcome is anticipated from a given situation. Pessimists tend to focus on the negatives of life in general. A common question asked to test for pessimism is " Is the glass half emp ...

. Thacker's books include ''In the Dust of This Planet'' (part of his Horror of Philosophy trilogy) and ''Infinite Resignation''.

Early life and education

Thacker was born and grew up in the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Thou ...

. He received a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

degree from the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seatt ...

, and a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

and

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

in Comparative Literature from

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was ...

Works

Nihilism, pessimism, and speculative realism

Thacker's work has been associated with philosophical nihilism and

, as well as to contemporary philosophies of

speculative realism Speculative realism is a movement in contemporary Continental-inspired philosophy (also known as post-Continental philosophy) that defines itself loosely in its stance of metaphysical realism against its interpretation of the dominant forms of p ...

and collapsology. His short book ''Cosmic Pessimism'' defines pessimism as "the philosophical form of disenchantment." As Thacker states: "Pessimism is the night-side of thought, a melodrama of the futility of the brain, a poetry written in the graveyard of philosophy." In 2018, Thacker's new book, ''Infinite Resignation'' was published by

Repeater Books Repeater Books is a publishing imprint based in London, founded in 2014 by Tariq Goddard and Mark Fisher, formerly the founders of radical publishers Zero Books, along with Etan Ilfeld, Tamar Shlaim, Alex Niven and Matteo Mandarini. Formation ...

. ''Infinite Resignation'' consists of fragments and

aphorisms An aphorism (from Greek ἀφορισμός: ''aphorismos'', denoting 'delimitation', 'distinction', and 'definition') is a concise, terse, laconic, or memorable expression of a general truth or principle. Aphorisms are often handed down by tr ...

on the nature of pessimism, mixing the personal and philosophical. Thacker engages with writers like

Thomas Bernhard Nicolaas Thomas Bernhard (; 9 February 1931 – 12 February 1989) was an Austrian novelist, playwright and poet who explored death, social injustice, and human misery in controversial literature that was deeply pessimistic about modern civiliza ...

, E.M. Cioran,

Osamu Dazai was a Japanese author. A number of his most popular works, such as ''The Setting Sun'' (''Shayō'') and ''No Longer Human'' (''Ningen Shikkaku''), are considered modern-day classics. His influences include Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Murasaki Shiki ...

Søren Kierkegaard Søren Aabye Kierkegaard ( , , ; 5 May 1813 – 11 November 1855) was a Danish theologian, philosopher, poet, social critic, and religious author who is widely considered to be the first existentialist philosopher. He wrote critical texts on ...

Clarice Lispector Clarice Lispector (born Chaya Pinkhasivna Lispector ( uk, Хая Пінкасівна Ліспектор); December 10, 1920December 9, 1977) was a Ukrainian-born Brazilian novelist and short story writer. Her innovative, idiosyncratic works ex ...

Giacomo Leopardi Count Giacomo Taldegardo Francesco di Sales Saverio Pietro Leopardi (, ; 29 June 1798 – 14 June 1837) was an Italian philosopher, poet, essayist, and philologist. He is considered the greatest Italian poet of the nineteenth century and one of ...

Fernando Pessoa Fernando António Nogueira Pessoa (; 13 June 1888 – 30 November 1935) was a Portuguese poet, writer, literary critic, translator, publisher, and philosopher, described as one of the most significant literary figures of the 20th century and ...

, and

Schopenhauer Arthur Schopenhauer ( , ; 22 February 1788 – 21 September 1860) was a German philosopher. He is best known for his 1818 work ''The World as Will and Representation'' (expanded in 1844), which characterizes the phenomenal world as the pr ...

. ''The New York Times'' noted "Thacker has thrown a party for all of these eloquent cranks in ''Infinite Resignation'', and he is an excellent host...This book provides a metric ton of misery and a lot of company." One reviewer writes of the book: "''Infinite Resignation'' belongs on the shelf next to the likes of Nietzsche and Schopenhauer...Like all great works of philosophy, this book will force readers to question their long-held beliefs in the way the world works and the way the world ought to work...Thacker's voice is quiet, a desperate whisper into the void that is both haunting and heartbreaking." Thacker's major philosophical work is ''After Life'', published by the University of Chicago Press. In it, Thacker argues that the

ontology In metaphysics, ontology is the philosophy, philosophical study of being, as well as related concepts such as existence, Becoming (philosophy), becoming, and reality. Ontology addresses questions like how entities are grouped into Category ...

of life operates by way of a split between "Life" and "the living," making possible a "metaphysical displacement" in which life is thought via another metaphysical term, such as time, form, or spirit: "Every ontology of life thinks of life in terms of something-other-than-life...that something-other-than-life is most often a metaphysical concept, such as time and temporality, form and causality, or spirit and immanence" Thacker traces this theme in

Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of ...

Dionysius the Areopagite Dionysius the Areopagite (; grc-gre, Διονύσιος ὁ Ἀρεοπαγίτης ''Dionysios ho Areopagitēs'') was an Athenian judge at the Areopagus Court in Athens, who lived in the first century. A convert to Christianity, he is venerat ...

, John Scottus Eriugena,

negative theology Apophatic theology, also known as negative theology, is a form of theological thinking and religious practice which attempts to approach God, the Divine, by negation, to speak only in terms of what may not be said about the perfect goodness t ...

Immanuel Kant Immanuel Kant (, , ; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German philosopher and one of the central Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works in epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, and ...

, and

Georges Bataille Georges Albert Maurice Victor Bataille (; ; 10 September 1897 – 9 July 1962) was a French philosopher and intellectual working in philosophy, literature, sociology, anthropology, and history of art. His writing, which included essays, novels ...

, showing how this three-fold displacement is also alive in philosophy today. ''After Life'' also includes comparisons with

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

, Japanese, and

Chinese philosophy Chinese philosophy originates in the Spring and Autumn period () and Warring States period (), during a period known as the " Hundred Schools of Thought", which was characterized by significant intellectual and cultural develop ...

. Thacker's follow-up essay "Darklife: Negation, Nothingness, and the Will-to-Life in Schopenhauer" discusses the ontology of life in terms of

negation In logic, negation, also called the logical complement, is an operation that takes a proposition P to another proposition "not P", written \neg P, \mathord P or \overline. It is interpreted intuitively as being true when P is false, and false ...

eliminativism Eliminative materialism (also called eliminativism) is a materialist position in the philosophy of mind. It is the idea that majority of the mental states in folk psychology do not exist. Some supporters of eliminativism argue that no coheren ...

, and "the inverse relationship between logic and life." Specifically, Thacker argues that Schopenhauer's philosophy posits a "dark life" in opposition to the "ontology of generosity" of

German Idealist German idealism was a philosophical movement that emerged in Germany in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It developed out of the work of Immanuel Kant in the 1780s and 1790s, and was closely linked both with Romanticism and the revolutionar ...

thinkers such as Hegel and Schelling. Thacker has also written in a similar vein on the role of negation and "nothingness" in the work of mystical philosopher

Meister Eckhart Eckhart von Hochheim ( – ), commonly known as Meister Eckhart, Master Eckhart

Horror and philosophy

Thacker's most widely read book is ''In the Dust of This Planet'', part of his ''Horror of Philosophy'' trilogy. In it, Thacker explores the idea of the "unthinkable world" as represented in the

horror fiction Horror is a genre of fiction which is intended to frighten, scare, or disgust. Horror is often divided into the sub-genres of psychological horror and supernatural horror, which is in the realm of speculative fiction. Literary historian ...

genre, in philosophies of

and

, and in the philosophies of apophatic ("darkness") mysticism. In the first volume, ''In the Dust of This Planet'', Thacker calls the horror of philosophy "the isolation of those moments in which philosophy reveals its own limitations and constraints, moments in which thinking enigmatically confronts the horizon of its own possibility." Thacker distinguishes the "world-for-us" (the human-centric view of the world), and the "world-in-itself" (the world as it exists objectively), from what he calls the "world-without-us": "the world-without-us lies somewhere in between, in a nebulous zone that is at once impersonal and horrific." In this and the other volumes of the trilogy Thacker writes about a wide range of work: H.P. Lovecraft,

Algernon Blackwood Algernon Henry Blackwood, CBE (14 March 1869 – 10 December 1951) was an English broadcasting narrator, journalist, novelist and short story writer, and among the most prolific ghost story writers in the history of the genre. The literary crit ...

Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wid ...

, ''

Dante's Inferno ''Inferno'' (; Italian for "Hell") is the first part of Italian writer Dante Alighieri's 14th-century epic poem ''Divine Comedy''. It is followed by ''Purgatorio'' and '' Paradiso''. The ''Inferno'' describes Dante's journey through Hell, gui ...

'', ''Les Chants de Maldoror'' by

Comte de Lautréamont Comte de Lautréamont () was the ''nom de plume'' of Isidore Lucien Ducasse (4 April 1846 – 24 November 1870), a French poet born in Uruguay. His only works, '' Les Chants de Maldoror'' and ''Poésies'', had a major influence on modern art ...

, the

Faust Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend based on the historical Johann Georg Faust ( 1480–1540). The erudite Faust is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a pact with the Devil at a crossroa ...

myth, manga artist Junji Ito, contemporary horror authors

Thomas Ligotti Thomas Ligotti (born July 9, 1953) is an American horror writer. His writings are rooted in several literary genres – most prominently weird fiction – and have been described by critics as works of ''philosophical'' horror, often formed into ...

and Caitlín Kiernan, K-horror film, and the philosophy of

Rudolph Otto Rudolph or Rudolf may refer to: People * Rudolph (name), the given name including a list of people with the name Religious figures * Rudolf of Fulda (died 865), 9th century monk, writer and theologian * Rudolf von Habsburg-Lothringen (1788� ...

, Medieval

mysticism Mysticism is popularly known as becoming one with God or the Absolute, but may refer to any kind of ecstasy or altered state of consciousness which is given a religious or spiritual meaning. It may also refer to the attainment of insight in ...

(

Meister Eckhart Eckhart von Hochheim ( – ), commonly known as Meister Eckhart, Master Eckhartdark media, or technologies that mediate between the natural and supernatural, and point to the limit of human perception and knowledge. Similarly, Thacker has written a series of essays on "necrology", defined as the decay or disintegration of the

body politic The body politic is a polity—such as a city, realm, or state—considered metaphorically as a physical body. Historically, the sovereign is typically portrayed as the body's head, and the analogy may also be extended to other anatomical parts ...

. Thacker discusses

plague Plague or The Plague may refer to: Agriculture, fauna, and medicine *Plague (disease), a disease caused by ''Yersinia pestis'' * An epidemic of infectious disease (medical or agricultural) * A pandemic caused by such a disease * A swarm of pes ...

demonic possession Spirit possession is an unusual or altered state of consciousness and associated behaviors purportedly caused by the control of a human body by spirits, ghosts, demons, or gods. The concept of spirit possession exists in many cultures and r ...

, and the living dead, drawing upon the history of medicine, biopolitics, political theology, and the horror genre.

Philosophy, science, and technology

Thacker's earlier works adopt approaches from the philosophies of science and

technology Technology is the application of knowledge to reach practical goals in a specifiable and reproducible way. The word ''technology'' may also mean the product of such an endeavor. The use of technology is widely prevalent in medicine, scien ...

, and examine the relation between science and

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

. Examples are his book ''Biomedia'', and his writings on

bioinformatics Bioinformatics () is an interdisciplinary field that develops methods and software tools for understanding biological data, in particular when the data sets are large and complex. As an interdisciplinary field of science, bioinformatics combi ...

nanotechnology Nanotechnology, also shortened to nanotech, is the use of matter on an atomic, molecular, and supramolecular scale for industrial purposes. The earliest, widespread description of nanotechnology referred to the particular technological goal ...

, biocomputing,

complex adaptive system A complex adaptive system is a system that is '' complex'' in that it is a dynamic network of interactions, but the behavior of the ensemble may not be predictable according to the behavior of the components. It is '' adaptive'' in that the indiv ...

swarm intelligence Swarm intelligence (SI) is the collective behavior of decentralized, self-organized systems, natural or artificial. The concept is employed in work on artificial intelligence. The expression was introduced by Gerardo Beni and Jing Wang in 1989, ...

, and

network theory Network theory is the study of graphs as a representation of either symmetric relations or asymmetric relations between discrete objects. In computer science and network science, network theory is a part of graph theory: a network can be de ...

. Thacker's concept of ''biomedia'' is defined as follows: "Biomedia entail the informatic recontextualization of biological components and processes, for ends that may be medical or nonmedical...and with effects that are as much cultural, social, and political as they are scientific." Thacker clarifies: "biomedia continuously make the dual demand that information materialize itself...biomedia depend upon an understanding of biological as informational but not immaterial." In his book ''The Global Genome: Biotechnology, Politics, and Culture'', Thacker looks to developments in tissue engineering where techno-mechanical apparatuses disappear altogether so that it appears as though technology is the natural body. In Thacker's words, "biotechnology is thus invisible yet immanent." In 2013 Thacker, along with Alexander Galloway and

McKenzie Wark McKenzie Wark (born 1961) is an Australian-born writer and scholar. Wark is known for her writings on media theory, critical theory, new media, and the Situationist International. Her best known works are '' A Hacker Manifesto'' and '' Gamer T ...

, published the co-authored book ''Excommunication: Three Inquiries in Media and Mediation''. In the opening of the book the authors ask "Does everything that exists, exist to be presented and represented, to be mediated and remediated, to be communicated and translated? There are mediative situations in which heresy, exile, or banishment carry the day, not repetition, communion, or integration. There are certain kinds of messages that state 'there will be no more messages'. Hence for every communication there is a correlative excommunication." This approach has been referred to as the "New York School of Media Theory."

Other writings

Thacker's poetry and fiction has appeared in various literary anthologies and magazines. Thacker has produced book arts projects, and an

anti-novel An antinovel is any experimental work of fiction that avoids the familiar conventions of the novel, and instead establishes its own conventions. Origin of the term The term ("anti-roman" in French) was brought into modern literary discourse by ...

titled ''An Ideal for Living'', of which American poet and conceptual writer

Kenneth Goldsmith Kenneth Goldsmith (born 1961) is an American poet and critic. He is the founding editor of UbuWeb and since 2020 is the ongoing artist-in-residence at the Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing (CPCW) at the University of Pennsylvania, where ...

has said: "this an important book...these pages take cues from Burroughs and Gibson, while at the same time presciently pointing to the web-based path writing would take over the next decade." In the 1990s, Thacker, along with

Ronald Sukenick Ronald Sukenick (July 14, 1932 – July 22, 2004) was an American writer and literary theorist. Life Sukenick was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, where his father was a dentist. He graduated from Midwood High School and Cornell University b ...

and

Mark Amerika Mark Amerika (born 1960, Miami, Florida) is an American artist, theorist, novelist and professor of Art and Art History at the University of Colorado. He is a graduate of the Literary Arts program at Brown University Brown University is a pr ...

, established Alt-X Press, for which he edited the anthology of experimental writing ''Hard_Code''. Thacker is a contributor to ''The Japan Times'' Books section, where he has written about the work of Junji Ito,

, Haruo Sato,

Keiji Nishitani was a Japanese university professor, scholar, and Kyoto School philosopher. He was a disciple of Kitarō Nishida. In 1924 Nishitani received his doctorate from Kyoto Imperial University for his dissertation ''"Das Ideale und das Reale bei Sch ...

, Izumi Kyōka,

Edogawa Rampo , better known by the pen name was a Japanese author and critic who played a major role in the development of Japanese mystery and thriller fiction. Many of his novels involve the detective hero Kogoro Akechi, who in later books was the ...

, and

Zen Zen ( zh, t=禪, p=Chán; ja, text= 禅, translit=zen; ko, text=선, translit=Seon; vi, text=Thiền) is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China during the Tang dynasty, known as the Chan School (''Chánzong'' 禪宗), and ...

death poetry. Thacker wrote a column for London-based ''Mute Magazine'' called "Occultural Studies," writing about such topics as the Surrealist poet

Robert Desnos Robert Desnos (; 4 July 1900 – 8 June 1945) was a French poet who played a key role in the Surrealist movement of his day. Biography Robert Desnos was born in Paris on 4 July 1900, the son of a licensed dealer in game and poultry at the '' ...

's philosophy, the horror writing of

, and the music of And Also The Trees. Thacker has written Forewords to the English editions of the works of E. M. Cioran, published by Arcade Press. He provided the Preface and Annotations to

Clive Barker Clive Barker (born 5 October 1952) is an English novelist, playwright, author, film director, and visual artist who came to prominence in the mid-1980s with a series of short stories, the ''Books of Blood'', which established him as a leading h ...

's 1988 horror novella ''Cabal'', in a special edition published by Fiddleblack Press. Thacker is part of the editorial group of ''Schism'', an underground philosophy and literary press. Thacker has contributed to limited editions books produced by Zagava Press, including his essay on the life and writings of

J.-K. Huysmans Charles-Marie-Georges Huysmans (, ; 5 February 1848 – 12 May 1907) was a French novelist and art critic who published his works as Joris-Karl Huysmans (, variably abbreviated as J. K. or J.-K.). He is most famous for the novel '' À rebour ...

. Thacker has also participated in the series of "black metal theory" symposia and publications.

Other activities

Thacker has also collaborated with artists and musicians. These include the art collective Fakeshop, which presented art & installation at

Ars Electronica Ars Electronica Linz GmbH is an Austrian cultural, educational and scientific institute active in the field of new media art, founded in Linz in 1979. It is based at the Ars Electronica Center (AEC), which houses the Museum of the Future, in th ...

, ACM SIGGRAPH, and the

Whitney Biennial The Whitney Biennial is a biennial exhibition of contemporary American art, typically by young and lesser known artists, on display at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, United States. The event began as an annual exhibition ...

. He has also collaborated with Biotech Hobbyist, and co-authored an art book ''Creative Biotechnology: A User's Manual.'' In 1998 Thacker produced a CD of

noise music Noise music is a genre of music that is characterised by the expressive use of noise within a musical context. This type of music tends to challenge the distinction that is made in conventional musical practices between musical and non-musical ...

released by

Extreme Records Extreme Records is an Australia-based record label. The label was founded by Ulex Xane and initially specialised in underground experimental and industrial cassettes. Roger Richards became involved in 1987 and eventually became the label’s ...

and a split CD with

Merzbow is a Japanese noise project started in 1979 by , best known for a style of harsh, confrontational noise. Since 1980, Akita has released over 400 recordings and has collaborated with various artists. The name Merzbow comes from the German dada ...

/Masami Akita, part of the Extreme Records Merzbow Box Set released in 2000.

Influence

In an interview with the ''Wall Street Journal'', Nic Pizzolatto, creator and writer of ''

True Detective ''True Detective'' is an American anthology crime drama television series created and written by Nic Pizzolatto. The series, broadcast by the premium cable network HBO in the United States, premiered on January 12, 2014. Each season of the ...

'', cites Thacker's ''In the Dust of This Planet'' as an influence on the TV series, particularly the worldview of lead character

Rust Cohle Rustin Spencer "Rust" Cohle is a fictional character portrayed by Matthew McConaughey in the first season of the HBO's anthology television series ''True Detective''. He works as a homicide detective for the Louisiana State Police (LSP) alongs ...

, along with several other books:

Ray Brassier Raymond Brassier (born 1965) is a British philosopher. He is member of the philosophy faculty at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon, known for his work in philosophical realism. He was formerly Research Fellow at the Centre for Resea ...

's ''Nihil Unbound'',

's '' The Conspiracy Against the Human Race'', Jim Crawford's ''Confessions of an Antinatalist'', and David Benatar's '' Better Never to Have Been''. In September 2014 the

WNYC WNYC is the trademark and a set of call letters shared by WNYC (AM) and WNYC-FM, a pair of nonprofit, noncommercial, public radio stations located in New York City. WNYC is owned by New York Public Radio (NYPR), a nonprofit organization that ...

Radiolab ''Radiolab'' is a radio program produced by WNYC, a public radio station in New York City, and broadcast on public radio stations in the United States. The show is nationally syndicated and is available as a podcast. Live shows were first off ...

ran a show entitled "In the Dust of This Planet." The program traced the appropriation of Thacker's book of the same name in contemporary art, fashion, music video, and popular culture. Both Thacker's book and the Radiolab podcast were covered by

Glenn Beck Glenn Lee Beck (born February 10, 1964) is an American conservative political commentator, radio host, entrepreneur, and television producer. He is the CEO, founder, and owner of Mercury Radio Arts, the parent company of his television and ra ...

on TheBlazeTV. Thacker has commented on 'nihilism memes' in an interview: "Is it any accident that at a time when we have become acutely aware of the challenges concerning global climate change, we have also created this bubble of social media? I find social media and media culture generally to be a vapid, desperate, self-aggrandizing circus of species-specific solipsism — ironically, the stupidity of our species might be its only legacy." Thacker and his book ''In the Dust of This Planet'' are referenced by YouTube channel

Wisecrack Wit is a form of intelligent humour, the ability to say or write things that are clever and usually funny. Someone witty is a person who is skilled at making clever and funny remarks. Forms of wit include the quip, repartee, and wisecrack. Form ...

. Comic book author

Warren Ellis Warren Girard Ellis (born 16 February 1968) is a British comic book writer, novelist, and screenwriter. He is best known as the co-creator of several original comics series, including ''Transmetropolitan'' (1997–2002), ''Global Frequency'' ( ...

cites as an influence the nihilist philosophies of Thacker and Peter Sjöstedt-H for his 2017 series ''Karnak: The Flaw in All Things'', a re-imagining of the original Marvel ''Inhumans'' character

Karnak The Karnak Temple Complex, commonly known as Karnak (, which was originally derived from ar, خورنق ''Khurnaq'' "fortified village"), comprises a vast mix of decayed temples, pylons, chapels, and other buildings near Luxor, Egypt. Constru ...

. The writing of Thacker and Thomas Ligotti is cited as an influence on the 2021 album ''The Nightmare of Being'' by the Gothenburg melodic death metal band

At The Gates At the Gates is a Swedish death metal band from Gothenburg, formed in 1990. The band was a major progenitor of Gothenburg-style melodic death metal alongside In Flames and Dark Tranquillity. Prior to their first disbandment in 1996, At the Gat ...

; Thacker also provided lyrics for the song "Cosmic Pessimism".

Bibliography

*''Hard Code: Narrating the Network Society''. Edited by Eugene Thacker. Alt-X Press, 2002. . *''Biomedia''. University of Minnesota Press, 2004. . *''Creative Biotechnology: A User's Manual'', co-authored with

Natalie Jeremijenko Natalie Jeremijenko (born 1966) is an artist and engineer whose background includes studies in biochemistry, physics, neuroscience and precision engineering. She is an active member of the net.art movement, and her work primarily explores ...

and

Heath Bunting Heath Bunting (born 1966) is a British contemporary artist. Based in Bristol, he is a co-founder of the website ''irational.org'', and was one of the early practitioners in the 1990s of Net.art. Bunting's work is based on creating open and demo ...

. Locus+, 2004. . *''The Global Genome: Biotechnology, Politics, and Culture''. MIT Press, 2005. . *''The Exploit: A Theory of Networks'', co-authored with

Alexander R. Galloway Alexander R. Galloway (born 1974) is an author and professor in the Department of Media, Culture, and Communication at New York University. He has a bachelor's degree in Modern Culture and Media from Brown University and earned a Ph.D. in Literat ...

. University of Minnesota Press, 2007. . *''After Life''. University of Chicago Press, 2010. . *''In the Dust of This Planet'' (Horror of Philosophy Vol. 1). Zero Books, 2011. . *''Leper Creativity: The Cyclonopedia Symposium'', co-edited with Ed Keller and Nicola Masciandaro. Punctum Books, 2012. . *''Excommunication: Three Inquiries in Media and Mediation'', co-authored with

and

. University of Chicago Press, 2013. . *''Dark Nights of the Universe'', co-authored with Daniel Colucciello Barber, Nicola Masciandaro, Alexander R. Galloway and François Laruelle. AMEPublications, 2013. . *''And They Were Two in One and One in Two'', co-edited with Nicola Masciandaro. Schism Press, 2014. . *''Starry Speculative Corpse'' (Horror of Philosophy Vol. 2). Zero Books, 2015. . *''Tentacles Longer Than Night'' (Horror of Philosophy Vol. 3). Zero Books, 2015. . *''Cosmic Pessimism'', with drawings by Keith Tilford. Univocal Publishing, 2015. . *''Infinite Resignation''. Repeater Books, 2018. . *''An Ideal for Living: An Anti-Novel'' (20th Anniversary Edition). Schism Press, 2020. . *

Arthur Schopenhauer Arthur Schopenhauer ( , ; 22 February 1788 – 21 September 1860) was a German philosopher. He is best known for his 1818 work ''The World as Will and Representation'' (expanded in 1844), which characterizes the phenomenal world as the prod ...

, ''On The Suffering Of The World''. Edited with an Introduction by Eugene Thacker. Repeater Books, 2020. . *''The Repeater Book of the Occult'', co-edited with Tariq Goddard. Repeater Books, 2021. . *''Songs for Sad Poets'', Siavash Amini & Eugene Thacker, Hallow Ground Records, 2022

References

External links

*
The New School: Eugene Thacker

Radiolab - In the Dust of This Planet
Radiolab interview with Eugene Thacker,

Simon Critchley Simon Critchley (born 27 February 1960) is an English philosopher and the Hans Jonas Professor of Philosophy at the New School for Social Research in New York, USA. Challenging the ancient tradition that philosophy begins in wonder, Critchle ...

Jad Abumrad Jad Nicholas Abumrad ( ar, جاد نيكولاس أبومراد; born April 18, 1973) is an American radio host, composer, and producer. He is the founder and former host of the syndicated public radio program ''Radiolab'' with Latif Nasser and ...

, and others, WNYC (September 8, 2014)
Horror of Philosophy: Three Volumes
Interviewed by Carla Nappi on New Books Network (2015)
''New Yorker'' feature
(9–16 July 2018)
VICE interview
with Zachary Siegel (8 August 2018)
The Quietus interview
with Michael J. Brooks (October 28, 2018)
Creative Independent interview
with

Meredith Graves Meredith Graves (born September 5, 1987) is an American musician. They fronted the punk rock band Perfect Pussy. In addition to making their own music, they run independent music label Honor Press and serve as director of music for the crowdfun ...

(November 8, 2018)
O32c Magazine interview
with Daniel Beatty Garcia (July 2019)
The Patron Saints of Pessimism - A Writer's Pantheon
excerpt from ''Infinite Resignation'' @ LitHub (2018)
Infinite Resignation - a playlist
December 9, 2018
"Pessimism, Futility, and Extinction"
Theory, Culture & Society interview with Thomas Dekeyser (17 March 2020).
"On Suffering"
interview with Brad Evans, Los Angeles Review of Books (February 1, 2021).
"How Algernon Blackwood Turned Nature Into Sublime Horror"
LitHub (2021). {{DEFAULTSORT:Thacker, Eugene Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 21st-century American essayists 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American philosophers 21st-century American poets American literary critics Aphorists Mass media theorists Philosophers of nihilism Philosophers of pessimism Rutgers University alumni The New School faculty University of Washington alumni