Encountering Weird Objects: Lovecraft, LARP, and Speculative Philosophy - Introduction: Philosophy, Play, Props

Oct 6, 2026

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This chapter introduction examines how twenty-first-century speculative and materialist philosophy urges humans to think about the liveliness of objects, challenging correlationism and constructivist assumptions about reality. It focuses on object-oriented ontology and vital materialism, asking how encounters with “weird reality” might disrupt Western anthropocentrism. Game-playing is proposed as a practical route through ritualized play, especially in live-action roleplaying (LARP), where immersive embodied performance transforms space and narrative through game rules.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages35

Reading Time54 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction: Philosophy, Play, Props

Speculative and materialist turns

Object-oriented ontology and vital materialism

Game-playing and LARP as encounter with weird reality

Chapter Title: Encountering Weird Objects: Lovecraft, LARP, and Speculative Philosophy Chapter Author(s): Chloé Germaine Buckley Book Title: Diseases of the Head Book Subtitle: Essays on the Horrors of Speculative Philosophy Book Editor(s): Matt Rosen Published by: Punctum Books. (2020) Stable URL: [https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv19cwdpb.13](https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv19cwdpb.13) JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [support@jstor.org](support@jstor.org). Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at [https://about.jstor.org/terms](https://about.jstor.org/terms) This book is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) . To view a copy of this license, visit [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) . Punctum Books is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Diseases of the Head This content downloaded from [94.175.61.140](94.175.61.140) on Mon, 26 Sep 2022 15:34:43 UTC All use subject to [https://about.jstor.org/terms](https://about.jstor.org/terms) 10 Encountering Weird Objects: Lovecraft, LARP, and Speculative Philosophy Chloé Germaine Buckley1 Introduction: Philosophy, Play, Props The speculative and materialist turns of twenty-first century philosophy ask humans to “think about the liveliness of objects.”2 Numerous theorists attempt to overcome what speculative realists call the “correlationist” gap, which abjures the possibility of accessing the “noumenal” realm, and what new materialists frame as idealist and constructivist assumptions, which ignore the importance of bodies, matter, and other nonhuman “actants” in favour of language, discourse, and culture.3 Of the of- 1 I am grateful to Paul Wake and Jonathan Newell for comments on this material. 2 Steven Shaviro,“The Universe of Things,” Theory & Event 14, no. 3 (2011): 3. 3 For summaries of these critiques see: Levi Bryant, Nick Srnicek, and Graham Harman,“Towards a Speculative Philosophy,” in The Speculative Turn: Continental Materialism and Realism, eds. Levi Bryant, Nick Srnicek, and Graham Harman (Melbourne: [re.press](re.press), 2011), 1–18. See also Diana Coole and Samantha Frost,“Introducing the New Materialisms,” in New 361 This content downloaded from [94.175.61.140](94.175.61.140) on Mon, 26 Sep 2022 15:34:43 UTC All use subject to [https://about.jstor.org/terms](https://about.jstor.org/terms) DISEASES OF THE HEAD ferings across speculative realism and new materialism, those of interest in this chapter include Graham Harman’s object oriented ontology and Jane Bennett’s vital materialism.4 The latter theorist expounds an approach to things that provides a useful mid-point between object-oriented and relational ontologies, both of which offer valid routes beyond correlationism and constructivism. With their very different conceptions of objects, Harman and Bennett negotiate what Steven Shaviro identifies as the “paradoxes of nonhuman actants, of vital matter, and of object independence.”5 Such written speculation on the nature of reality and nonhuman things is well and good but how to make contact with objects such that both the anthropocentrism of Western philosophy and the every-day or common-sense realism it engenders might be disrupted? How to forge an encounter with the “weird reality”Harman suggests lies beyond the gap endemic in Western philosophy?6 How can humans be jolted out of the hubris that Bennett suggests frames matter as instrumental and results in “earth-destroying consumption?”7 This chapter

FAQs

What philosophical problem does the chapter introduction address?

It examines the “correlationist” gap in speculative realism and the assumptions criticized by new materialists, arguing for attention to bodies, matter, and nonhuman actants.

Which two theorists does the introduction foreground regarding objects?

It focuses on Graham Harman’s object-oriented ontology and Jane Bennett’s vital materialism, contrasting their approaches while linking them to debates about nonhuman actants and object independence.

Why does the chapter argue that game-playing, especially LARP, matters for encountering objects?

It contends that gameplay can enact a temporary abolition of the ordinary world through ritualized demarcation of space, enabling an immersive, embodied encounter that disrupts everyday common-sense realism.

Oct 6, 2026

Upload by dhado