Comments on: Scary movies and sexy internets http://www.techsploitation.com/2007/08/10/scary-movies-and-sexy-internets/ Technology - Science - Pop Culture - Sex Thu, 05 Jan 2012 02:02:25 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: Chris Vail http://www.techsploitation.com/2007/08/10/scary-movies-and-sexy-internets/comment-page-1/#comment-41233 Chris Vail Sun, 12 Aug 2007 07:25:10 +0000 http://www.techsploitation.com/2007/08/10/scary-movies-and-sexy-internets/#comment-41233 The Grimm "fairy tales/folk tales" appear to be the 19th Century version of horror stories, and the end of an oral tradition that stretched back before capitalism. The point being, that when people told these stories in their original cultural context, they believed the dangers described literally existed, much as today we believe insane serial killers exist. Unfortunately, the Grimm informants were probably bourgeoise women who got the stories from their lower class nannies and cooks when the bourgeoise women were children. That is, by the time the Grimms recorded the stories, they had already been taken from their original context and began to be reinterpreted as "children's stories". Bowdlerization soon followed. On a different tack, I recently read the book _This is your brain on music_ by Daniel J. Levitin. He points out that the enjoyment of music involves the entire brain working together, in particular as a musical performance meets and violates the brain's expectations. There's a parallel with your statement about conflicting feelings of terror and pleasure. The Grimm “fairy tales/folk tales” appear to be the 19th Century version of horror stories, and the end of an oral tradition that stretched back before capitalism. The point being, that when people told these stories in their original cultural context, they believed the dangers described literally existed, much as today we believe insane serial killers exist. Unfortunately, the Grimm informants were probably bourgeoise women who got the stories from their lower class nannies and cooks when the bourgeoise women were children. That is, by the time the Grimms recorded the stories, they had already been taken from their original context and began to be reinterpreted as “children’s stories”. Bowdlerization soon followed.

On a different tack, I recently read the book _This is your brain on music_ by Daniel J. Levitin. He points out that the enjoyment of music involves the entire brain working together, in particular as a musical performance meets and violates the brain’s expectations. There’s a parallel with your statement about conflicting feelings of terror and pleasure.

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