Thanks Allan for breaking the ice with such a fascinating point of departure. In deed we shall see... as the curtain really drops down.
In the same book Landscapes of Fear, Yi-Fu Tuan, rhetorically asks: What is Fear? And he goes on to respond to his own question by propounding that, "Fear is a complex feeling of which two strains, alarm and anxiety are clearly distinguishable" (1979, p. 5). And on the book jacket of the same book, he further pointed out that "all of the higher animals exhibit alarm and anxiety -the chief components of fear -but human beings have a greater emotional range than other species and, in addition, the power of imagination". It is the latter -imagination- that he said, it adds immeasurably to the kinds and intensity of fear in the human world" (p. 6).
So from all this I could picture Yi-Fu Tuan, painting fear as a three sided polygon of anxiety, alarm and imagination. For the most part the latter -imagination - seems to manipulate the other two especially among humans, for this often feeds from individuals' past experiences, especially what was seen, heard, felt, smelt, tasted and so on. I refer to the humans because from the outset Tuan (1979) categorically stated that, fear is not specific only to people, but "all higher animals know it as an emotion that signals danger and is necessary for survival" (p. 3).
Of course, there is more to fear, but at this stage I find the way Yi -Fu Tuan tried to capture what I feel is both an interesting but intricate concept is quite phenomenal.
I agree with you Allan, we shall see.......
"We shall see" is one of my stock or standard observations designed to keep the conversation open and running.
ReplyDeleteIshmael, my friend: I'm very interested to read what you're writing about the components of fear as anxiety, alarm and imagination. It's interesting to look at that universal trait through a magnifying lens. Thanks for sending the link to this site.
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