- Softcover
- New

Seller: AHA-BUCH GmbH, Einbeck, GermanyAHA-BUCH GmbH
AbeBooks seller since August 14, 2006
Condition: New
£ 34.01
Quantity: 2 available
Add to basketItem description from seller
nach der Bestellung gedruckt Neuware - Printed after ordering - Someone sits alone in the dark, heart racing, muscles tensed, watching a fictional murder unfold-and then says, with genuine satisfaction: 'That was great.'Why does an organism built to detect and escape danger deliberately seek out representations of the very things that would kill it Why do we pay money, allocate evenings, and invent ever more immersive technologies just to feel afraid under controlled conditions Why We Want to Be Afraid is a rigorous, wide-ranging investigation of that paradox. Drawing on Aristotle's original question about the pleasure of tragic suffering, Burke's and Kant's theories of the sublime, Freud's uncanny, Kristeva's abject, contemporary neuroscience of threat detection, and the evolving forms of horror from the Gothic novel through slashers, found footage, true crime, creepypasta, video games, and virtual reality, Calder Ash maps the strange territory of 'safe terror.'The book argues that the pleasure of horror lives in a narrow, carefully maintained gap:I am afraid.I know I am safe.I enjoy being afraid.In that dual awareness-threat signals firing while the mind simultaneously registers the frame of fiction, play, or elective exposure-fear is relocated from survival emergency to structured experience. We do not seek isolated terror. We seek the full arc of anticipation, escalation, confrontation, and the distinctive pleasure of surviving it.From the predictive brain's exploitation of ambiguous cues, to the retained control that makes approach possible, to the cosmic indifference that removes the human safety net, Ash shows how horror functions as a technology for temporarily abandoning the assumption that reality is safe, intelligible, predictable, and under our control-and then returning. The return is essential. The residual unease is part of the point.Clear-eyed, philosophically grounded, and written with the momentum of the best cultural criticism, Why We Want to Be Afraid is essential reading for anyone who has ever loved a horror film, a ghost story, a scary game, or the peculiar satisfaction of walking out of the dark knowing the monster stayed behind.…
Seller Inventory # 9798237003451
- Title
- Why We Want To Be Afraid
- Author
- Calder Ash
- Publisher
- NBM House
- Publication year
- 2026
- Condition
- Neu
- Binding
- Taschenbuch
- Language
- English
- ISBN 13
- 9798237003451
- Item weight
- 237 grams
- Dimensions
- 216x140x10 mm
Someone sits alone in the dark, heart racing, muscles tensed, watching a fictional murder unfold-and then says, with genuine satisfaction: "That was great."
Why does an organism built to detect and escape danger deliberately seek out representations of the very things that would kill it? Why do we pay money, allocate evenings, and invent ever more immersive technologies just to feel afraid under controlled conditions?
Why We Want to Be Afraid is a rigorous, wide-ranging investigation of that paradox. Drawing on Aristotle's original question about the pleasure of tragic suffering, Burke's and Kant's theories of the sublime, Freud's uncanny, Kristeva's abject, contemporary neuroscience of threat detection, and the evolving forms of horror from the Gothic novel through slashers, found footage, true crime, creepypasta, video games, and virtual reality, Calder Ash maps the strange territory of "safe terror."
The book argues that the pleasure of horror lives in a narrow, carefully maintained gap:
I am afraid.
I know I am safe.
I enjoy being afraid.
In that dual awareness-threat signals firing while the mind simultaneously registers the frame of fiction, play, or elective exposure-fear is relocated from survival emergency to structured experience. We do not seek isolated terror. We seek the full arc of anticipation, escalation, confrontation, and the distinctive pleasure of surviving it.
From the predictive brain's exploitation of ambiguous cues, to the retained control that makes approach possible, to the cosmic indifference that removes the human safety net, Ash shows how horror functions as a technology for temporarily abandoning the assumption that reality is safe, intelligible, predictable, and under our control-and then returning. The return is essential. The residual unease is part of the point.
Clear-eyed, philosophically grounded, and written with the momentum of the best cultural criticism, Why We Want to Be Afraid is essential reading for anyone who has ever loved a horror film, a ghost story, a scary game, or the peculiar satisfaction of walking out of the dark knowing the monster stayed behind.
"Synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Shipping rates from Germany to U.S.A.
| Item | 7 to 10 business days | 5 to 7 business days |
|---|---|---|
| First item | £ 29.57 | £ 38.02 |
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Das Unternehmen AHA-BUCH GmbH: Seit der Gründung von AHA-BUCH im Juli 2005 ist unser Hauptziel, zufriedenen Kunden so schnell und so preisgünstig wie möglich ihren Bücherwunsch zu erfüllen. Unsere Firma beschäftigt 16 Mitarbeiter, die nur ein Ziel kennen: den Kunden und seine Wünsche! Auf über 3700 m2 Fläche haben wir über 100.000 Bücher, Modernes Antiquariat und Spiele auf Lager.
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AHA-BUCH GmbH
Garlebsen 48
Einbeck, Germany 37574
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AHA-BUCH GmbH
represented by the managing director Christel Glass
Garlebsen 48
37574 Einbeck
Deutschland
Telefon: 055639996039
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E-Mail: abebooks@aha-buch.de
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