Spanish edition of ‘What the Daemon Said’ coming soon: Lo que el diablo me contó

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  • Reading time:4 mins read

What the Daemon Said, my collection of essays and interviews on horror, creativity, and the numinous, is being released in Spanish this April by Dilatando Mentes Editorial. The Spanish edition is titled Lo que el diablo me contó, and it features a striking new design as part of their Línea Paraíso Perdido collection, with cover and interior illustrations by Luis Pérez Ochando, translation by José Ángel de Dios, and careful editorial work by Aine.

Here’s how the publisher describes the book:

Matt Cardin es uno de los críticos y estudiosos más interesantes y provocadores que trabajan en el campo del terror (gracias a sus amplios conocimientos de la filosofía y la religión aplicados al análisis de la ficción de terror); en este volumen se recogen una serie de interesantes ensayos sobre una amplia gama de temas dentro del género:

A lo largo de seis textos, Cardin acerca a la figura de Thomas Ligotti y aborda, entre otros temas, la influencia de H. P. Lovecraft en la obra y el pensamiento del autor, y se adentra en la naturaleza del terror en cuentos tan célebres como «Nethescurial» o «El Bungalow».

Pero también nos encontraremos con estudios sobre Ángeles y demonios, sobre religión y vampiros, sobre la naturaleza del horror cósmico, sobre el Frankenstein de Mary Shelley, sobre las películas de «Muertos vivientes» de George Romero, o sobre la naturaleza del weird.

Matt Cardin is one of the most interesting and provocative critics and scholars working in the field of horror today, thanks to his deep knowledge of philosophy and religion, which he brings to bear on the analysis of horror fiction. This volume brings together a series of compelling essays on a wide range of topics within the genre:

Across six texts, Cardin explores the figure of Thomas Ligotti, addressing, among other topics, the influence of H. P. Lovecraft on Ligotti’s work and thought, and delving into the nature of horror in such celebrated stories as “Nethescurial” and “The Bungalow House.”

But readers will also find studies on angels and demons, religion and vampires, the nature of cosmic horror, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, George Romero’s Living Dead films, and the very essence of the weird.

Preorders are available at the publisher’s website:

Lo que el diablo me contó

For English-language readers who missed the original release, you can find more information about it here.

Writing, Nonduality, and the Lurking Presence Beyond Form

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The Magic Eye

I recently joined Robert, host of the Leafbox podcast, for a wide-ranging conversation on writing, creativity, and spiritual purpose—topics we first explored in the online course that I taught last fall, based on my (currently unpublished) book Writing at the Wellspring.

For those who prefer reading to listening, I’ve created a refined transcript that goes beyond a literal transcription, much like The Power of Myth book differs from its TV counterpart. The revised version enhances clarity, corrects errors, and makes the conversation more engaging as a stand-alone text.

The discussion covers themes like the daemon muse, nonduality, meditation, creative quietude, and the intersection of religion and horror. You’ll find section headings and a deeper exploration in the full post.

Read the full transcript here:

Through the Magic Eye: Writing, Nonduality, and the Lurking Presence Beyond Form

Writing at the Wellspring: An Online Course on Creative and Spiritual Purpose

Recently I finished teaching a five-module course for Weirdosphere, the online learning platform created by the founders and hosts of the Weird Studies podcast. The title was “Writing at the Wellspring,” which, not coincidentally, is also the title of my newly written and not-yet-published book on creativity and spiritual purpose in an age of upheaval. That book, plus my A Course in Demonic Creativity, served as the required texts.

More than 80 students signed up for five weeks of lectures, suggested reflections, writing exercises, and vigorous group discussions. It was a greatly fulfilling experience for me as the teacher, and reaction from the students was likewise intensely positive, with many of them telling me the readings, lectures, and interactions generated a transformative experience for them.

I may end up teaching the course again in the future. You can read a full description of it in my Living Dark newsletter. Here’s the heart of that description:

October 22 to December 1, 2024

MC101: WRITING AT THE WELLSPRING

A Course in Daemonic Creativity

with Dr. Matt Cardin—author, educator

Where does creativity come from? Why do ideas and inspiration feel as if they come from “outside,” from an external source that whispers directly into the mind? What if the key to unlocking both your creative potential and the purpose of your life lies in embracing the darkness of the unknown? What if the path to spiritual awakening is also the path to authentic self-expression as a writer?  

Beginning October 22, Matt Cardin, a two-time guest on Weird Studies and one of the great contemporary exponents of weird fiction, is offering “Writing at the Wellspring,” an online course based on his books A Course in Demonic Creativity and the brand-new, unreleased work Writing at the Wellspring: Creativity, Life Purpose, Nonduality, and the Daemon Muse.

This course goes beyond the typical writing or creativity workshop.

Students will progress through a series of lectures, readings, and discussions to explore the concept and experience of creativity as an inner collaboration with a separate force or intelligence within the psyche—what we can call the unconscious mind, the silent partner, the secret self, or, most evocatively, the muse, the daimon, the daemon, and the genius. The course will delve into the core concept of “living and writing into the dark,” embracing uncertainty and trusting one’s intuition as a pathway to unlock creative destiny. Students will examine ways to understand and navigate the tension between the drive to create and the impulse toward total stillness and inactivity that can accompany spiritual insight. Matt will share nondual perspectives on effortless action or creative quietude as a way to align personal creativity with the creative current that animates the cosmos. Finally, the course will examine the possibility of using writing and other creative work as a “monastic option” that makes a monastery of one’s life and provides purpose and meaning in a time of apocalyptic cultural transformation.
 
Students will receive access to the full text of both of Matt’s books, plus the full text of his short ebook Transmitting Vision: Essays on the Writer’s Path (previously available only to subscribers to his blog/newsletter, The Living Dark), along with additional suggested readings, plus prompts and exercises for sparking the imagination and deepening our understanding of ourselves, our world, and how the reality that gives rise to both can tell us what we’re here to do.

My introduction to ‘Charnel Glamour’ by Mark Samuels

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The final collection of weird supernatural horror stories by the great Mark Samuels is now available from Chiroptera Press. I was honored to be asked by Mark to write the introduction to it. What I didn’t and couldn’t know when I accepted his invitation was that Charnel Glamour would end up being Mark’s last, and would be published posthumously, several months after his sudden and untimely death in December 2023.

With the blessing of both Chiroptera Press and Hippocampus Press (the latter of which will be publishing a paperback edition in 2025), I have shared the full text of my introduction at my Living Dark newsletter. It includes not just my introduction to Mark’s book but my reminiscence of our more than two decades of friendship, standing as my tribute to him:

Forbidden Transmissions: An Introduction to Charnel Glamour

Here are two passages from that intro:

When my instinctive move in reflecting on Mark’s new book is to think back to where his career began, and to remember our early acquaintance, and to consider how this informs my own reading of Charnel Glamour, maybe I’m just trying to explain to myself how twenty years can possibly have passed, and why the memory of Mark’s first book still resonates with me all these years later, and how it is that he writes weird supernatural horror stories that patch directly into my apprehension, amplified by the passage of time, of the strange fact that we live in a world of phantoms in which we ourselves, despite our presumed solidity, may be the very source of spectrality….

[T]he Samuelsian weird fictional cosmos…is a place where I can sense some of the most pointedly personal intimations of metaphysical fear from throughout my lifetime peering through the elements of the various narrative vehicles that Mark has constructed for conveying his vision. Readers of such stories—readers like you and me—find pleasure in this emotion of weird and numinous fear. At the same time, we also recognize that stories like this are about more than just delivering a few literary fictional pleasures. They carry the ring or scent of truth. They feel like revelations, like forbidden transmissions, like windows or doorways to something that is real, but that we are otherwise not allowed to acknowledge or talk about. In short, they feel a lot like the supernaturally potent books-as-carriers that show up in many of the stories themselves.

Three principles of anti-productivity

  • Post category:Creativity
  • Reading time:4 mins read
Living into the Dark

If you, like me, have felt the allure of endless productivity advice wear thin and grow cold over time, why not try something else? Why not experiment with anti-productivity? Here are two preliminary and interlinked suggestions, accompanied by a third item that expands on the accompanying outlook:

1. ON GOALS

Productivity says: “Always visualize your goals. Articulate them clearly. Start with the end in mind. Know where you’re headed.”

Anti-productivity says: “Embrace ignorance at the outset. Have no idea where the hell you’re headed. Let it reveal itself one step at a time. Welcome the darkness of unknowing.”

2. ON METHODS

Productivity says: “Have a clear, organized plan. Break your work down into manageable units. Arrange them in logical order. Proceed in sequence. Establish priorities. Use techniques to manage your energy (Pomodoro, time-blocking, whatever). Stick to a schedule.”

Anti-productivity says: “Abandon any pretense of a chosen plan. Dive in wherever the energy beckons you. Use any technique or no technique, whatever moves you. Let your schedule and sequence be to just show up and see what happens. Follow the Stephen King approach: Just flail away at the goddamn thing.”

3. ON ENDS AND MEANS

The most problematic thing about productivity is that it tends to become an end in its own right, and a suckingly hollow one at that. Its Apollonian allure strokes the ego by promising it the position of CEO in our creative projects. This leads us to exclude the possibility of transcendence in principle, to replace the holy fire of inspiration with an illusion of being in control and choosing our own meanings and destinations. There is nothing actually, intrinsically wrong with articulating goals, having a plan, or using time-and-energy-management techniques. Where these things go wrong is when they promise what they can’t deliver (meaningfulness, fire, inspiration) and substitute themselves as ends instead of means. One of the most direct ways to confront this is to dive deliberately into the sense of being at sea without a bearing, walking a lonely dark road at night with just a dim flashlight for illumination, following the road and the current wherever they take you, and using whatever techniques you have at your disposal simply to keep moving and avoid disaster.

I have sometimes called this anti-productivity approach “living into the dark.” It is, if you want to think of it this way, a strategy for meeting your muse and divining your daimon, for calling on invisible creative help by broadcasting the acknowledgment that the real ends and meanings you serve are beyond you—or at least beyond what you conventionally think of a “you.”