Philosophy
Today is Stephen King's birthday. In his honor, let's play with a quotation of his.
King distinguishes here between terror, horror, and grossing-out. What is the difference? Can you be terrified without being horrified? If you are sufficiently grossed-out, doesn't it bleed into being terrified by the image? Is this a meaningful distinction? If so, what's how do we account for the difference?
- Grammar Curmudeons
Had a student ask yesterday about grammatical pet peeves. His was "irregardless." My big three are: 1) "Quote" used for "quotation." Quote is a verb. You quote someone. What you write down is not a quote, but a quotation. ...
- Why Do We Enjoy Being Scared?
Today is Edgar Allen Poe's birthday. While there have been gruesome and scary tales going back to the ancients, Macabre or Gothic literature emerged as a genre unto itself with Poe and H.P. Lovecraft's writing in the 19th century. These were works...
- Bullshit Or Not: Cervantes Edition
There's an old sketch film called Amazon Women on the Moon and one of the bits is a parody of the old Leonard Nimoy show, "In Search Of..." called, "Bullshit or Not?" with the tagline "Bullshit or not? You decide." It's a line I like so much that...
- Kong Hits The Theaters Today In 1933
"I'm going to show you the greatest thing your eyes have ever beheld. He was a king and a god in the world he knew, but now he comes to civilization merely a captive - a show to gratify your curiosity." What a spectacular film...beauty and the beast--King...
- "living Popular Scientist" Poll
Who is your choice for living "popular" scientist? Brian Greene...0 Freeman Dyson...3 Lawrence Krauss...0 Neil deGrasse Tyson...2 Stephen Hawking...3 Somewhat surprised. I suppose Hawking would lead...he is quite an icon. I expected Krauss to be at the...
Philosophy
Terror, Horror, Gross-Out, and Stephen King
Today is Stephen King's birthday. In his honor, let's play with a quotation of his.
"I recognize terror as the finest emotion and so I will try to terrorize the reader. But if I find that I cannot terrify, I will try to horrify, and if I find that I cannot horrify, I'll go for the gross-out. I'm not proud."(I must say that it was hard not to leave the first word off of the quotation, after all what would be more appropriate than decapitating Stephen King. The worry would be that someday he might have cause to quote me and then would do the same because, you know, the traditional notion of justice dictates an I for an I.)
King distinguishes here between terror, horror, and grossing-out. What is the difference? Can you be terrified without being horrified? If you are sufficiently grossed-out, doesn't it bleed into being terrified by the image? Is this a meaningful distinction? If so, what's how do we account for the difference?
- Grammar Curmudeons
Had a student ask yesterday about grammatical pet peeves. His was "irregardless." My big three are: 1) "Quote" used for "quotation." Quote is a verb. You quote someone. What you write down is not a quote, but a quotation. ...
- Why Do We Enjoy Being Scared?
Today is Edgar Allen Poe's birthday. While there have been gruesome and scary tales going back to the ancients, Macabre or Gothic literature emerged as a genre unto itself with Poe and H.P. Lovecraft's writing in the 19th century. These were works...
- Bullshit Or Not: Cervantes Edition
There's an old sketch film called Amazon Women on the Moon and one of the bits is a parody of the old Leonard Nimoy show, "In Search Of..." called, "Bullshit or Not?" with the tagline "Bullshit or not? You decide." It's a line I like so much that...
- Kong Hits The Theaters Today In 1933
"I'm going to show you the greatest thing your eyes have ever beheld. He was a king and a god in the world he knew, but now he comes to civilization merely a captive - a show to gratify your curiosity." What a spectacular film...beauty and the beast--King...
- "living Popular Scientist" Poll
Who is your choice for living "popular" scientist? Brian Greene...0 Freeman Dyson...3 Lawrence Krauss...0 Neil deGrasse Tyson...2 Stephen Hawking...3 Somewhat surprised. I suppose Hawking would lead...he is quite an icon. I expected Krauss to be at the...