Cover: Elements of Surprise: Our Mental Limits and the Satisfactions of Plot, from Harvard University Press

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Elements of Surprise

Our Mental Limits and the Satisfactions of Plot

Vera Tobin

Product Details

HARDCOVER

$39.00 • £33.95 • €35.95

ISBN 9780674980204

Publication Date: 04/16/2018

* Academic Trade

344 pages

5-1/2 x 8-1/4 inches

World

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Related Subjects

Vera Tobin is Assistant Professor in the Department of Cognitive Science at Case Western Reserve University.

Related Links

On two episodes of NPR’s Hidden Brain, listen to Vera Tobin unpack how observing the mechanics of a gripping story reveals important aspects about human cognition: Why We Love Surprises: The Psychology of Plot Twists | Tell Me a Story: What Narratives Reveal about the Mind
Listen to Tobin explain how surprises make a story on BYU Radio’s Thinking Aloud
Listen to Tobin’s conversation with BYU Radio’s Top of Mind about how, cognitively speaking, knowing the spoilers in advance can actually enhance the experience of a new narrative
Listen to Tobin discuss the building blocks of a good narrative surprise on BYU Radio’s Lisa Valentine Clark Show
On ABC Radio National’s The Hub on Books, listen to Tobin explain the cognitive underpinnings behind the guilty pleasure of flipping ahead to “ruin” the ending of a narrative
Read a PopMatters Q&A with Tobin on the unreliable narrators of recently popular “girl” thriller novels, showing versus telling, and the well-made surprise
Listen to Tobin’s conversation with Radio New Zealand’s Jesse Mulligan about how the brain processes plot twists
Listen to Tobin discuss how our brains process surprises—in real life, and in the juiciest genre fiction—on the podcast Smart Bitches, Trashy Books
Read a Managing Editor interview with Tobin

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Awards & Accolades

Shortlist, 2019 Christian Gauss Award, The Phi Beta Kappa Society

A PopMatters Best Book of the Year, 2018

A Times Higher Education Book of the Week, 2018

Honorable Mention, 2017 Thomas J. Wilson Memorial Prize, Harvard University Press

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