The paradox of suspense · The theory of desire and frustration. Effective mysteries and thrillers keep readers smiling and squirming at the same time. As a writer, I hope to create tension. As a psychologist, I am intrigued to know why people want to feel it.
Suspense is a state of mental uncertainty, anxiety, indecision, or doubt. In a dramatic work, suspense is the anticipation of the outcome of a plot or of the solution to an uncertainty, a riddle or a mystery, particularly with regard to a character with whom you feel sympathy. However, suspense is not exclusive to fiction. Suspense elements are used in storytelling to maintain public interest.
Suspense is a state of anxiety or worry. It can be a sense of uncertainty created when a person is presented with a problem or challenge and anxiously waits for the outcome. As such, repeaters may feel suspenseful because, even though they are trapped in the clutches of a story, they are unaware of the outcome. The view of emotional misidentification holds that it is impossible for viewers who know the outcome to feel suspenseful, and the best explanation for public statements to the contrary is that viewers should confuse their real fear and anxiety with what they consider suspense.
But if the suspense requires uncertainty, it should be impossible to feel it during subsequent visits. Since this type of anticipation and suspense seem to feel the same way, the main difference, according to Yanal, must be that the reaction cannot be one of suspense itself without a cognitive state of uncertainty. If the supporter of the entertaining vision of uncertainty gave a similar response to cases such as Psycho, in which one seems to feel more suspense when the outcome is certain, she risks undermining support for her central assertion that repeat suspense is common. In mystery and suspense, the stakes are high enough to make the narrative seem engaging but not intolerable.
This objection is based on the statement that normal people do feel suspenseful when they see Psycho for the second time, but one could simply deny this statement. While Carroll's theory of thought seems to explain how it is possible to feel suspense in response to a familiar narrative, it doesn't provide an explanation for the typical scenario of diminishing suspense. Second, one may feel suspenseful in response to situations in which one cannot easily consent to having a desire. Robert Yanal offers a solution to the paradox by denying the third premise, according to which repeaters feel a real suspense in the face of repeated encounters with well-known narratives.
Tell me that you don't feel that biting grip when you watch this trailer for Ransom or when you read the back cover of a mystery, thriller or suspense book. Readers will feel tense when they are concerned about the safety of a character or their ability to deal with danger. At the same time, the cognitive aspects of suspense, riddles and questions and problem solving must be recognized for creating those anxious, but sometimes strangely pleasant, feelings of anxiety.
Leave Message