Paul J. Ennis on Bleak Theory.

My belief that truth comes first and everything else later will be bracketed. I replace this with a less demanding constraint: truth comes when you know why you believe what you believe. Oftentimes I quite simply believe things because they are austere and minimal and I have a soft spot for that kind of thing. When I allow myself to think in line with these bleak tones an unusual desire is generated: to out bleak black, to be bleaker than black. This desire comes from I know not where. It seemingly has no reason.

I tend to interpret bleak as interminable absurdity, like Jarndyce v. Jarndyce.