What Is the Appeal of Negative Art?

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There's this evolutionary psychi idea that certain art forms are more appealing to us, the symmetrical, or they have a certain a ratio of shapes and so on. Can miller: Some of the greatest art of all time is not pleasant or pleasurable,. And his example is picasos grand granica - one of the greatest paintings of all time. They're not pleasurable to look at ther they evoke other kinds of emotions. In fact, e what got be started would have always been interested. I i fact, we take pleasure from hard work that's difficult to look at. We wetake pleasure from stories that have sad parts, that scare us, that upset us.

We go to movies that make us cry, or scream, or gag. We poke at sores, eat spicy foods, immerse ourselves in hot baths, run marathons. Some of us even seek out pain and humiliation in sexual role-play. Why do we so often seek out physical pain and emotional turmoil? Where do these seemingly perverse appetites come from? In his latest book, The Sweet Spot: The Pleasures of Suffering and the Search for Meaning, Bloom aims to understand how people find meaning in their lives, and, moreover, to explore what he calls, “the sweet spot” — the proper balance between pleasure and suffering. As one of the world’s leading psychologists, drawing on groundbreaking findings from psychology and brain science, Bloom shows how the right kind of suffering sets the stage for enhanced pleasure.