Response To Gus's "Why are we attracted to horror...?"

I can understand that it is something we don't feel, but I honestly think it is not curiosity but the thrill that returns people to these things. The fear pumps adrenaline through our bodies, despite how scared we are that rush can be addicting, it is why people do dangerous adrenaline filled activities all the time. I think it's that addiction of adrenaline, that high from fear that keep people coming.

Talkin' Walton: Fear and Fiction

No matter what, there is certainly fear felt when something ominous or grotesque happens in fiction, there is a reaction. Walton claims though, that there can be no "real" emotion behind this. That we are telling ourselves it is make-believe and playing along. He claims we can feel quasi-emotions toward them, which are in fact real emotions. This is just a circular issue that the theory can’t get around. I feel real sentiment towards Thor when he appears in the Avengers movie. I feel fear when the zombies come breaking down the door, even if it is quasi-sentiment or not, it is still a real emotional experience. There are some aspects to the theory that make sense in some situations, like that a lot of our emotions come out of some realistic anchor but that does not apply to everything.

Q+A: Walton

Does the pretend theory really work?

Walton’s pretend theory has some merit to it in some situations but not in all. There are plenty of holes. For example, his entire thesis seems to imply that through the entire experience of a narrative piece we must remind ourselves that we are “make believing” and that these thoughts prevail in our thinking. This is not true though. Throughout the entire narrative experience our thoughts become lost within the contents of the book or in the movie or whatever media is being presented. There is not thought process behind it that we actively engage to start the process. It is all very natural to us. We simply know how to become involved in what we read or watch without reassuring ourselves that it is pretend. 

Question of the Week: Walton

Think back to the last time you played make-believe. Compare it to reading a book or enjoying some other narrative art-form. Are they completely the same? What are some similarities? Differences?

The experience is very similar but there is one major difference, the narration. The book, or what have you, guides where the story goes, it creates things independent of us. It takes us where the creator wants us to go, and I feel a lot of times it is a place that is darker than what we would design ourselves. We become attached to characters or things and they are destroyed in the story, something in which we would never do if given the opportunity to. They can also spark emotions we normally wouldn't try to recreate ourselves, like sorrow, fear, etc. There is less control over what we see and it effects us differently.