“Whether a work of horror evokes cosmic fear is, in fact, the identifying mark of the genre for Lovecraft […] Cosmic fear for Lovecraft is an exhilarating mixture of fear, moral revulsion, and wonder…The capacity for this sensation of fear, which Lovecraft believes is coeval with religious feeling, is instinctual. Humans, it appears, are born with a kind of fear of the unknown which verges on awe. Thus, the attraction of supernatural horror is that it provokes a sense of awe which confirms a deep-seated human conviction about the world, viz., that it contains vast unknown forces.”
— Noel Carroll, The Philosophy of Horror
