
Why do we find comfort in terrifying stories? - evo_9
https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20200508-why-depressing-dystopia-stories-are-popular-during-covid-19
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AnimalMuppet
"Fairytales don't tell children dragons exist - they already know that.
Fairytales tell children dragons can be killed." \- G. K. Chesterton

The bigger and more terrifying the monster that gets beaten in the story, the
more comforting it is. This is true even if the "monster" is a situation
rather than a being, and even if it is merely "lived through" well, rather
than "beaten".

~~~
hprotagonist
closely related: names have power. Naming a thing gives you a modicum of
psychological control.

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freehunter
My simple answer: because most people (myself included) who find terrifying
stories to be interesting lead otherwise boring and risk-free lives. Some
people like to live vicariously through other people while taking no real risk
of their own.

If you drive a 2006 Honda Civic to work (really safe, good mileage, and it's
completely paid off!), spend all day writing Java code that someone else
scoped, spec'd, and paid for, then drive home to your family and have
spaghetti for dinner (we have spaghetti every Thursday, it's our tradition!),
of course reading a story about the zombie apocalypse is going to appeal to
you. It satisfies a biological need you're not currently fulfilling: to be put
in danger and successfully navigate your way out.

It's the same reason people holler at movies/shows telling the characters not
to go in that dark room, or yell at the NFL game that the quarterback should
have thrown the ball earlier. It's the same reason people play Sim City or The
Sims or Football Manager/OOTP/Motorsport Manager or any other "god games". It
gives you a feeling of risk, reward, and power you're not likely to find in
your real life.

This has been a thing since at least Homer's Odyssey, created in a time where
the average person took on a level of risk we'd never even consider. And this
thrilling tale of dashing heroes sacrificing their lives to get back home to
their boring life only to find out they have to fight and kill even more to
protect their boring home life... it's not a new trope.

~~~
acituan
> find terrifying stories to be interesting lead otherwise boring and risk-
> free lives

Or maybe our lives are not as boring and risk-free as we would like to think
and our collective unconciouses draw us to these stories in order to process
the dangers our egos pefer to avoid.

I mean, even if no external danger existed, there are the perennial
existential dangers of living a meaningless and empty life. Zombies come up a
lot as the symbol of mindless mass action, looking for brains (wisdom?) in
life. I don’t want this to come across as criticism of the lifestyle you
painted but merely as a thought experiment to entertain; when you drive a safe
car everyday between home and work, and write code for purposes that other
people scoped out for you, and you know there are many others doing the same,
maybe there is already a bit of zombie action going on to begin with and that
is why the zombie flick is interesting?

Which is not to say these are the only dangers. I mean right now we are in the
middle of a pandemic, which doesn’t get much more biblical than that. I
believe those terrifying stories has helped us do serious information
processing and in turn created an adaptive evolutionary advantage in preparing
for these eventualities.

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nindalf
I figure it's because we want to feel extremes of emotion briefly, in a
controlled way. No one actually wants to be scared for their life or suffer a
tragedy ... but we enjoy feeling fear and sorrow briefly in a movie or the
theatre. Having our emotions amped up makes us feel alive, I think. Afterwards
we also feel good that we've avoided a similar fate.

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bradknowles
Maybe you do. I sure as fuck don’t.

~~~
hobs
Same, the people obsessed with horrific crime dramas confuses the hell out of
me. That stuff just lives in my head for way too long.

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scandox
Well this is more about Dystopian fiction which is rarely terrifying. I think
bleak visions and grim conditions in fiction are satisfying though. I know
that whenever I read 1984 I find the very grimness of Winston's life gives me
pleasure. The framing of his discussions with O'Brien in the context of
torture also is very satisfying. To people who don't read fiction this sounds
like sadism but that is not the case. There may be a small pleasure in the
simple fact that it is not we ourselves that suffer ("do it to Julia!") but I
think that is marginal. More important is the powerful resistance such a world
presents to the character which gives it an intense reality and that reality
being immersive is the pleasure as it focuses the whole mind on the meaning of
what is shown.

About actual terror and horror Thomas Ligotti makes some interesting points
about this and principally views it as a way of dealing with the actual horror
of life which is all too real.

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ipnon
Freud's theory: Why do we have terrible nightmares if our sleeping mind could
instead be imagining an Elysium of pleasantries and amazement? We spend our
waking hours tormented by our desires, to be healthy, wealthy, beautiful or
wise. We are slaves to our emotions, each day wracked by insatiable lusts.
Only in the fantasy of our dreams can these desires be resolved: our body
decays in the mirror, we find ourselves lost and alone on the streets, we are
naked at the office, our lungs are empty but we cannot gasp for air! Finally,
our soul is free from torment, the conflict has been resolved. Our human
nature is to be ambitious and to rise towards the heavens. The price we pay is
the agony of desire. Enough is never enough. We can only fail totally, or
continue onward, and onward, and onward ...

~~~
improv32
Got a link to read more about this?

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axegon_
Hah, my immediate thought was "no, we don't", then I saw the 15-20 Stephen
King books on my shelf... Well, simple answer is they are enjoyable and they
easily grab and hold your attention.

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1e-9
It probably confers survival benefit. Those who liked to hear dystopian tales
were more likely to survive bad times and reproduce successfully. Thinking
through how someone else handled a tough situation prepares one for similar
situations in the future.

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throwaway_pdp09
We don't. If they genuinely terrified us we wouldn't enjoy them.

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notatechie
because people connect better when they share a tragic experience, I guess.

