Berys Gaut, "The Paradox of Horror"

 

1.      STATEMENT OF PARADOX OF HORROR/TRAGEDY

         a.      Some of us enjoy horror fictions

         b.      They typically produce fear and disgust in the audience

         c.      Seems we enjoy the fear/disgust fictions produce in us

         d.      But fear and disgust are “intrinsically unpleasant emotions

         e.      How possible to enjoy intrinsically unpleasant emotions?

2.      Paradox of enjoyment of negative emotions (e.g., fear, disgust, sorrow, anger)

3.      Hume’s version: How can spectators of tragedy enjoy sorrow, terror, and anxiety when such feelings essentially involve feelings of pain?

 

4.      “POSITIVE OUTWEIGHS NEGATIVE” SOLUTION OF NOEL CARROLL (THAT GAUT REJECTS)

5.      We are not enjoying these negative emotions but something else (e.g., curiosity at the story) which outweighs the negative emotions

         a.      The disgust/fear in response to horror fiction are unpleasant–we do not enjoy those emotions

         b.      Rather, we enjoy some other feature of the situation

                  i.      For example, Curiosity we feel about what is going to happen

                           (1)    Will the characters escape the monster, when will they find out it exists, will they be able to destroy it?

                  ii.     Monsters and other things in horror and tragedy fascinate us

         c.      The same thing that produces fear and disgust (weird monsters) also produces fascination and curiosity in their story (which are pleasant)

         d.      “The disgust is part of the price we pay for pleasure at their disclosure”

         e.      The fear and disgust aimed at fiction are muted in comparison to fear and disgust if same events were real life

         f.      This allows pleasure of curiosity to outweigh the displeasure of fear/disgust

6.      Gaut’s objections to Carroll

         a.      Horror fiction is typically too formulaic to engender much curiosity:

                  i.      Most horror films are extremely formulaic in plots and monsters/killers are so stereotypical that not likely the pleasures of curiosity will be high enough to outweigh the (alleged) disagreeable emotions of disgust/fear

                  ii.     This argument would not work for Shakespearean tragedies

         b.      People can come out of horror films disappointed that it was not frightening enough (and might agree plenty to engage their curiosity)

                  i.      So people do seem to be enjoying experiencing negative emotions

 

7.      AN EXPRESSIVIST/CATHARSIS SOLUTION (THAT GAUT ALSO REJECTS)

8.      Expressivist responses claim tragedy/horror allow us to lighten or unburden ourselves of these negative emotions

         a.      Do not enjoy negative emotions horror give us

         b.      We desire to experience horror fiction because

         c.      Horror/fiction allow us to relieve ourselves of these negative emotions and lighten the grip they have on us

         d.      Aristotle’s catharsis (= cleansing or purging)

                  i.      Catharsis is like talking out one’s fears (getting rid of them)

                  ii.     Romeo and Juliet example: “ Romeo commits suicide by drinking the poison that he erroneously thinks Juliet had tasted too. The audience usually finds themselves crying at this particular moment for several reasons. Primarily because losing a loved one is a feeling that all of us share. Watching or reading such a scene triggers the memories of someone we have lost (either by death or by mere separation) and because we are able to relate to it, we suddenly release the emotions that we have been repressing.”

9.      Gaut’s objections to expressivist catharsis

         a.      Scary movies don’t make scared people less fearful

                  i.      Horror films are least attractive if one is in an uneasy or fearful mood

                  ii.     Don’t say: “I’m scared, so I think I’ll go to see a horror film–to get rid of my fear”

         b.      Fear lingers and does not dissipate

                  i.      Films often designed to leave a lingering sense of fear in audience (are scared as walk home and uneasy as go to sleep)

                  ii.     Opposite to idea these films lessen our fear

         c.      If catharthis was reason for enjoyment, people would only enjoy the end of scary movies instead of enjoying move throughout

                  i.      If what was pleasurable was the dissipation of the emotion as a result of experiencing the emotion during the horror fiction, we would only enjoy the end of the movie instead of enjoying the movie throughout as those who like horror do

 

10.    ENJOYMENT THEORY

11.    The enjoyment theory: Horror attracts because people can enjoy being scared and disgusted (negative emotions)

         a.      Gaut accepts a version of this theory             

         b.      Negative emotions themselves can be enjoyed; don’t always feel bad

12.    Enjoyment theory helps explain the horror genre

         a.      Majority of horror works lack any serious artistic worth and aim solely to entertainment

         b.      Horror genre is entertainment

         c.      Aim simply to provide audiences with enjoyable experiences

         d.      It does this by producing fear and disgust in audiences

                  i.      It has become increasingly sophisticated and successful in achieving this effect

         e.      Simplest, most straightforward explanation of all this is that sometimes people enjoy being scared or disgusted

13.    Examples of people enjoying negative emotions

         a.      Mountaineer and roller coaster rider take pleasure in being scared

                  i.      Does one enjoy the queasiness itself, or just the “novel way of moving through space” or overall thrill of the ride?

         b.      Enjoy anger: Irascible people sometimes seek out situations where they can get angry (and they enjoy this feeling of anger)

         c.      Enjoy sadness

         d.      One can enjoy disgusting stories (disgust movies)

 

14.    Control thesis tries to explain how the enjoyment of negative emotions is possible

15.    Control thesis (Gaut rejects)

         a.      Enjoy negative emotions when in control of the situation that produces the emotion

                  i.      E.g., Mountaineer enjoys daring climbs because she knows she is skillful enough to avoid harm

         b.      With fiction, it is easy to control the emotion

                  i.      As it has no practical consequences for the audience

                  ii.     One easily redirects one’s attention and thoughts

         c.      If lose control because depicted violence and suffering is so graphic that one’s negative emotions becomes too strong, then one will not enjoy the emotion

16.    Gaut’s criticism of control thesis

         a.      False that the enjoyment of these negative emotions linked with one’s ability to control them

         b.      People can control horror emotions and not like them

                  i.      If one person does not enjoy them, it need not be because she can’t adequately control her attention with respect to them

                  ii.     Her reason for not enjoying them is that “when she does direct here attention to the bloody corpse, she does not like what she experiences” (and she is quite capable of directing her attention elsewhere)

         c.      People can be unable to control horror emotions and like them

                  i.      Person who enjoys horror may think that “the height of enjoyable fear is when his gaze is riveted to the gruesome spectacle and can’t take his eyes off the unfolding carnage”

 

17.    GAUT’S EXPLANATION OF HOW IT IS POSSIBLE TO ENJOY A NEGATIVE EMOTION

18.    DEPENDS ON AN ACCOUNT OF NATURE OF NEGATIVE EMOTIONS

19.    Rejects the idea that emotions should be characterized in terms of particular feelings/sensation

         a.      Emotions are not (phenomenologically) characterized by feelings (they do not necessarily feel a certain way)

20.    Emotions may be associated with different sensations in different people

         a.      So disgust or terror might be associated with pleasure in one person and unpleasantness in another

21.    Accepts emotions as cognitive (more intellectual than feeling) and essentially incorporating evaluations

         a.      Examples

                  i.      To fear is evaluate something as threatening

                  ii.     To be angry with someone is to evaluate her actions as wrong

22.    **Negative emotions are negative not because necessarily feel bad but because one disvalues (negatively evaluates) the objects of those emotions

         a.      “The negativity of the emotion can be explained in terms of the object of the emotion being negatively evaluated, rather than the emotion itself being unpleasant”

         b.      Example: Sadness about the death of a dog

                  i.      What is negative is our evaluation of the dog’s death (we make a value judgment that this is bad)

                  ii.     The experience of the emotion itself may not necessarily be negative

 

23.    Gaut nevertheless wants a conceptual, non-contingent connection between negative emotions and negative feelings (unpleasantness)

         a.      Tribe example: If they feel pleasure in response to death of a loved one, we would conclude they must not be experiencing grief (as grief is a negative emotion)

         b.      This shows that it isn’t just a contingent matter that grief (or other negative emotions) are experienced as unpleasant

24.    Negative emotions (because they are negative) are conceptually tied to unpleasant sensations, but only in that they are necessarily TYPICALLY tied with unpleasantness

         a.      This allows for the atypical case of enjoying negative emotions (as with those who like horror or dangerous mountain climbing)

         b.      Negative emotions can be atypically tied to pleasure

25.    So atypical people in atypical situations can enjoy negative emotions, even though there is a conceptual connection between the emotion and unpleasantness (in that typically they go together)

         a.      Atypical cases are only possible against background where people do not enjoy these negative emotions

         b.      This implies that people who enjoy negative emotions (like enjoying being terrified or being disgusted) are unusual, atypical in this respect

 

26.    GAUT SOLUTION TO PARADOX OF HORROR

27.    Version of enjoyment theory

28.    While negative emotions like disgust and fear are typically associated with unpleasant feelings, they atypically can be experience as pleasurable

29.    Negative emotions are not intrinsically (necessarily) unpleasant, though they necessarily are typically so

 

30.    Conclusion p. 327: How Gaut puts it

         a.      Paradox rests on idea negative emotions are intrinsically unpleasant emotions

         b.      Instead of seeing the negativity of emotions as intrinsically unpleasant, their negativity results from fact these emotions incorporate negative evaluations

         c.      But then typically people will find these emotions and objects of emotions unpleasant

                  i.      So not merely continent, non-conceptual matter whether or not people enjoy these emotions or not

                  ii.     For people typically don’t enjoy them

         d.      But this allows room for some individuals on some occasions to enjoy them


Berys Gaut, The Paradox of Horror

1.      *What is the paradox of horror/tragedy? How does Gaut respond to the paradox? Is it a version of the “enjoyment theory” (describe this theory).

2.      Explain and give examples of “negative emotions.” For Gaut, what makes a negative emotion negative? Hint: It is not that it feels bad to have it.

3.      Give an example of making a negative evaluative judgment while this does not involve a an unpleasant feeling.

4.      *Describe some of the other solutions to paradox of horror that Gaut considers (viz., Carroll’s positive outweighs negative solution, the expressivist/catharsis solution. Explain one of Gaut’s objections to each of these theories.

5.      One attempt to explain how people can enjoy negative emotions is the control thesis. Explain this thesis and Gaut’s response to it.

6.      Does Gaut think people who enjoy horror are in the majority or minority? How does his theory require a specific answer to this question?


7.      CUT THE REST

 

8.      WHAT MAKES A NEGATIVE EMOTION NEGATIVE?

9.      One: The experience of it is always unpleasant; It is an “intrinsically unpleasant emotion”

         a.      Gaut rejects this

10.    Two: Object of emotion unpleasant, not the emotion itself (Walton/Neill account of negative emotions)

         a.      Such emotional responses are not intrinsically unpleasant

         b.      Purely a contingent matter whether or not people enjoy the emotions themselves

         c.      Not the emotions themselves that are intrinsically unpleasant, but rather the objects of the emotions which are unpleasant or disvaluable

                  i.      Example of sorrow: What is disagreeable, what we regret, are the things we are sorrowful about (loss of an opportunity, death of a friend), not the feeling/experience of sorrow itself

                  ii.     When we say an emotion is negative/unpleasant/painful, we are saying something about the situation in response to which we experience those emotions

                           (1)    It is the situations rather than the emotions which are distasteful or undesirable

11.    Gaut’s objections to Walton/Neill view

         a.      Not purely a contingent matter that these emotions are felt as unpleasant

         b.      Thinks there must be a conceptual tie between negative emotions and feelings of unpleasantness

                  i.      If a tribe said they felt a certain emotion at death of loved one and it was most enjoyable emotion they had, we’d be justified in denying the emotion was grief

                           (1)    Because grief is a negative emotion and must in some way be tied to unpleasant feelings

12.    Three: Negative emotions are negative not because feel bad but because one disvalues objects of those emotions

         a.      “The negativity of the emotion can be explained in terms of the object of the emotion being negatively evaluated, rather than the emotion itself being unpleasant”


 

13.    Gaut’s solution:

         a.      A version of the “enjoyment theory” that uses an “evaluative theory of emotions”

         b.      Argues that there is nothing paradoxical about enjoying negative emotions

                  i.      Nothing paradoxical about enjoying horror/tragedy

                  ii.     We can enjoy fear and disgust

         c.      These negative emotions are not intrinsically (by their nature) unpleasant

                  i.      They can be experience as pleasant (enjoyed) by some (in atypical cases) and unpleasant by others (typically)

         d.      Negative emotions (because they are negative) are conceptually (necessarily) tied to unpleasant sensations, but only in that they are necessarily typically tied with unpleasantness (can be atypically tied to pleasure)

                  i.      If a tribe described feelings as a result of their loved ones dying as pleasant (enjoyed the feeling) we’d be justified in denying they feeling was grief

                  ii.     Because grief is a negative emotion it must be typically tied with unpleasant sensations and this tribe fails to do that

         e.      This allows for the atypical case of enjoying negative emotions (as with those who like horror or dangerous mountain climbing)

         f.      What makes negative emotions negative

                  i.      Is not that they are experienced (phenomenologically) as unpleasant

                  ii.     But that they include negative evaluations (negative evaluative thoughts)

                           (1)    Their objects are judged to be disvaluable

                                    (a)    Unfortunate that person died

                  iii.    But such thoughts need not feel negative or be accompanied by unpleasant feelings

 

14.    Gaut revision of Walton/Neill view

15.    When people enjoy negative emotions not because regard objects of emotions as unpleasant (even though the enjoy the emotions), but because they regard the objects of the emotions as undesirable (and believing something is undesirable is not itself to find it unpleasant)

 

16.    Gaut’s view: Uses evaluative theory of emotions

17.    Rejects Hume’s view that emotions like sorrow, terror essentially involve feelings of pain.

18.    Negative emotions are negative, not in respect to the unpleasantness of feelings, nor unpleasantness of objects (of the emotions), but because the incorporate/involve negative evaluative thoughts

 

19.    Rejects the traditional view of emotions as (phenomenologically) characterized by feelings (they feel a certain way)

         a.      One reason is that emotions may be associated with different sensations in different people

20.    Accepts dominant modern view of emotions

         a.      Cognitive

         b.      Essentially incorporating evaluations

                  i.      To fear is evaluate something as threatening

                  ii.     To be angry with someone is to evaluate her actions as wrong

 

21.    Individuate emotions by evaluations

22.    Different positive and negative emotions are a diff in the evaluative thoughts; evaluations incorporated into former positive and evaluations part of later are negative

         a.      No phenomenal character to a thought

23.    What makes negative emotion negative, not painfulness of either emotional response or of the object

24.    Rather it is that the objects to which these emotions directed are brought under negative evaluative concepts: the dangerous, wrongful, shameful

25.    Because we can disvalue something w/o finding it unpleasant, it is possible fo find both negative emotional responses and their objects pleasant

26.    Evaluative theory of emotions shows nothing paradoxical about enjoying negative emotions

27.    All that is requires is that one disvalue the objects of these emotions.

 

28.    Negative emotions are negative not because feel bad but because one disvalues objects of those emotions

         a.      “The negativity of the emotion can be explained in terms of the object of the emotion being negatively evaluated, rather than the emotion itself being unpleasant”

 

29.    Objection to Gaut: This solution makes it contingent (not necessary) that we generally experience negative emotions as unpleasant.

         a.      Fails to provide a conceptual connection between these (negative) emotions and unpleasant experience

         b.      Gaut seems to think there should be such a connection

 

30.    Conceptual connection between judging something good and having a motivating reason to pursue it (Modest internalism necessarily typically there is this connection, but not necessary always–moral pervert who wants to do x just because it is bad)

31.    Conceptual connection between desire (motivating reason) and pleasure

         a.      Necessary typically if someone desires something, idea of achieving it givers here pleasure

32.    Together; a conceptual connection between evaluation and pleasure; necessary typically if someone values a state of affairs, she will feel pleasure at idea of achieving it.

 

33.    For negative emotions, view of emotions as evaluative entails informed agents will typically exp object of their emotions and the emotions themselves as unpleasant

 

34.    So not stuck with problem that the tribal people who feel sorry find the emotion pleasant, for the emotion concerned is not typically unpleasant for them and therefore is not sorrow.

 

35.    So atypical people in atypical situations can enjoy negative emotions, even though there is a conceptual connection between the emotion and unpleasantness (in that typically they go together).

36.    This allows the mtn climber to enjoy her fear

37.    And aficionados of horror to enjoy their fear and disgust

         a.      Helped by fact they know film is fiction and neither they are the actors depicted are in real danger

38.    Atypical cases are only possible against background where people do not enjoy these negative emotions

39.    Background of typical unpleasant responses is necessary for these emotions to be negative.

 

40.    Conclusion p. 327

41.    Paradox rests on idea negative emotions are intrinsically unpleasant emotions

42.    Instead of seeing the negativity of emotions as intrinsically unpleasant, their negativity results from fact these emotions incorporate negative evaluations

43.    But then typically people will find these emotions and objects of emotions unpleasant

         a.      So not merely continent, non-conceptual matter whether or not people enjoy these emotions or not

                  i.      For people typically don’t enjoy them

         b.      But this allows room for some individuals on some occasions to enjoy them



Cuts

44.    If claim an object is unpleasant, one is saying that it is the sort of thing that causes unpleasant experiences in people

                  i.      So if the objects are unpleasant, then so likely is the emotional reaction to them.