A Feeling of Wrongness : Pessimistic Rhetoric on the Fringes of Popular Culture

In __A Feeling of Wrongness__, Joseph Packer and Ethan Stoneman confront the rhetorical challenge inherent in the concept of pessimism by analyzing how it is represented in an eclectic range of texts on the fringes of popular culture, from adult animated cartoons to speculative fiction. Packer and Stoneman explore how narratives such as __True Detective__, __Rick and Morty__, __Final Fantasy VII__, Lovecraftian weird fiction, and the pop ideology of transhumanism are better suited to communicate pessimistic affect to their fans than most carefully argued philosophical treatises and polemics. They show how these popular nondiscursive texts successfully circumvent the typical defenses against pessimism identified by Peter Wessel Zapffe as distraction, isolation, anchoring, and sublimation. They twist genres, upend common tropes, and disturb conventional narrative structures in a way that catches their audience off guard, resulting in belief without cognition, a more rhetorically effective form of pessimism than philosophical pessimism. While philosophers and polemicists argue for pessimism in accord with the inherently optimistic structures of expressive thought or rhetoric, Packer and Stoneman show how popular texts are able to communicate their pessimism in ways that are paradoxically freed from the restrictive tools of optimism. __A Feeling of Wrongness__ thus presents uncharted rhetorical possibilities for narrative, making visible the rhetorical efficacy of alternate ways and means of persuasion.

In A Feeling of Wrongness, Joseph Packer and EthanStoneman confront the rhetorical challenge inherent in the conceptof pessimism by analyzing how it is represented in an eclecticrange of texts on the fringes of popular culture, from adultanimated cartoons to speculative fiction.

Packer and Stoneman explore how narratives such as TrueDetective, Rick and Morty, Final FantasyVII, Lovecraftian weird fiction, and the pop ideology oftranshumanism are better suited to communicate pessimistic affectto their fans than most carefully argued philosophical treatisesand polemics. They show how these popular nondiscursive textssuccessfully circumvent the typical defenses against pessimismidentified by Peter Wessel Zapffe as distraction, isolation,anchoring, and sublimation. They twist genres, upend common tropes,and disturb conventional narrative structures in a way that catchestheir audience off guard, resulting in belief without cognition, amore rhetorically effective form of pessimism than philosophicalpessimism.

While philosophers and polemicists argue for pessimism in accordwith the inherently optimistic structures of expressive thought orrhetoric, Packer and Stoneman show how popular texts are able tocommunicate their pessimism in ways that are paradoxically freedfrom the restrictive tools of optimism. A Feeling ofWrongness thus presents uncharted rhetorical possibilities fornarrative, making visible the rhetorical efficacy of alternate waysand means of persuasion.

COVER front......Page 1 Copyright Page......Page 5 Table of Contents......Page 6 Acknowledgments......Page 8 Introduction......Page 10 Notes......Page 184 Chapter 1: “No, Everything Is Not All Right:" Supernatural Horror as Pessimistic......Page 32 Notes to Chapter 1......Page 186 Chapter 2: “I’m Bad at Parties:” The Philosophical Pessimism of True Detective......Page 58 Notes to Chapter 2......Page 190 Chapter 3: “Wubba Lubba Dub-Dub!” The Tragicomic Pessimism of Rick and Morty......Page 88 Notes to Chapter 3......Page 193 Chapter 4: "Finish Her:" The Interactive Pessimism of Final Fantasy VII......Page 116 Notes to Chapter 4......Page 196 Chapter 5: "All Hope Abandon:" Transhumanism’s Hidden Hellscape......Page 146 Notes to Chapter 5......Page 199 Conclusion: Pessimism Never Won Any Battles?......Page 174 Notes to Conclusion......Page 204 Bibliography......Page 205 Index......Page 220 "Examines case studies of popular culture as pessimistic rhetorical artifacts, and how non-traditional modes of argumentation can work rhetorically to overcome biases against pessimistic messaging" ... Provided by publisher