As a horror movie, John Carpenter's The Thing seems to have it all: amazing practical effects, body horror, psychological drama, Kurt Russell ... Indeed, there is only one element this movie lacks, and that is anything at all corresponding to the titular villain. There is no thing in The Thing! What we have instead is a process, a pattern, a way for which the term "thing" is as good as any other. (What is a thing anyway?) In this episode, Phil and JF, having decided that Carpenter's film qualifies as a Christmas movie because there is snow (and a dog) in it, explore the metaphysical implications of a cult classic.
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REFERENCES
John Carpenter, The Thing
Weird Studies, Episode 100 on Carpenter Films
Weird Studies, Episode 157 on Videodrome
Ridley Scott, Blade Runner
Ridley Scott Alien
Thomas Aquinas, On Being and Essence
Haecceity
Ernest Fenollosa, The Chinese Written Characters as a Medium for Poetry
Weird Studies, Episode 89 on ‘Mumbo Jumbo’
Weird Studies, Episode 127 on ‘The Impossibility of Automating Ambiguity’
Wikipedia, “Quiddity”
Vilhelm Hammershøi, Danish painter
Jez Conolly, The Thing
Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Representation
Dylan Trigg, The Thing a Phenomenology of Horror
Plato, The Timaeus
Lucretius, “On the Nature of Things”
Clive Barker, The Great and Secret Show
Episode 168: Visions of the Wasteland: On George Miller's 'Mad Max' Films
Episode 167: The Hand of Ithell, with Amy Hale
Episode 166: Make Believe: On the Power of Pretentiousness
Episode 165: Tatters of the King: On Robert Chambers' 'The King in Yellow'
Episode 164: Towards a Weird Materialism: On Expressionism in Cinema
Episode 163: The Source of All Abysses: On the Devil Card in the Tarot
Episode 162: The Incarnation of Meaning: Greenwich Village After the War
Episode 161: Scene of the Crime: On Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell's 'From Hell'
Mid-Hiatus Bonus: On Horror and the Retail Experience
Episode 159: Three Songs, with Meredith Michael
Episode 158: As Above, So Below: On Plato's 'Timaeus'
Episode 157: Long Live the New Flesh: On David Cronenberg's 'Videodrome'
Episode 156: The Only Possible End: On Donna Tartt's 'The Secret History'
Episode 155: Dispatches From the Inside: On Planet Weird's 'The Unbinding'
Episode 154: Into the Night Land, with Erik Davis
Episode 153: Celestial Machine: On the Temperance Card in the Tarot
Summer Bonus #2: Art and AI
Summer Bonus: On Affectation, with a Special Announcement
Episode 152: The Science of Things Spiritual: Live in Lily Dale
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