- The New Weird emerged from a 2003 online discussion initiated by M. John Harrison, blending horror, science fiction, and fantasy with a focus on horror.
- Weird fiction is a mode related to horror but not fully contained within it, characterized by fear, disgust, wonder, and motifs like tentacles, eldritch horrors, and world-altering artifacts.
- The Weird genre originated from Gothic literature, evolving through Edgar Allan Poe's compressed, dreamlike stories and later influenced by Decadent and Symbolist movements.
- Key early Weird texts include Arthur Machen's 'The Great God Pan' (1890) and Robert Chambers' 'The King in Yellow' (1895), which introduced the concept of a maddening play.
- H.P. Lovecraft is central to the Weird, with his Cthulhu cycle embodying the genre's themes of cosmic horror and racial anxiety, though his racism is deeply intertwined with his fiction.
- Recent revivals include Penguin's Weird Fiction series (2024) and British Library's Tales of the Weird (over 65 volumes since 2018), highlighting both classics and underrepresented authors like women Weirdists.
- The Weird operates through 'intrusions' of the strange and wrong, challenging metaphysical stability, and often moves between terror and wonder, as seen in Lovecraft's 'The Shadow Over Innsmouth'.