Links

[tarigwaemir]

Lowell House, on the Feast of St. Gregory III

I've had a note in my inbox for the past few days to remind myself to blog about the following links:

Low Self-Esteem? Avoid Crime Novels with Surprise Endings: A study showing (apparently) that people with low self-esteem tend to prefer mystery plots where the culprit turns out to be the person they expected him or her to be. While people with high self-esteem tend to prefer plots that go against their expectations. Of course, I haven't looked at the actual paper itself, so I have no idea about the statistics or even how they determined the difference between low and high self-esteem. Anyway, isn't it an odd topic to study? I wonder what motivated it. Personally, a surprise ending in any genre, especially mystery, tends to elevate my opinion of the author and my enjoyment of the book in general. Does that mean my inner egotist is showing? ^_^ Anyway, for my fellow mystery readers, what do you think?

People With Low Self-Esteem Less Motivated to Break a Negative Mood: In a similar vein as the above. Not sure what I think of the experimental design, but I tend to agree with the conclusion. When I'm depressed, I tend to perpetuate my own depression (or rather the frustration, irritation, helplessness, etc. that caused the depression in the first place). Although for the most part, I dislike staying angry or upset, so I do actively try to monitor and change my mental state, often through writing about it on LJ, as I'm sure you've noticed.

I just found out this morning that Korea won first place in the men's team tournament at this year's World Kendo Championship, after defeating the U.S. in the finals! Japan placed third (along with Taiwan), which marks the first time that Japan has not placed first or second at the WKC. Actually, now that I look at the website, it's the first time that Japan hasn't placed first in the men's team competition, period. What a tremendous upset! (대~한민국! ^_^ Sorry, couldn't resist the little patriotic outburst there...although in fact, it was the U.S. team that defeated Japan.) It's also pretty exciting because not only did we get to see a couple of the U.S. team members compete at the Shoryuhai last spring, but one of the Taiwan women's team goes to BU and has practiced fairly regularly with us over the past three years. (Although of course she's spent this past semester in Taiwan, training for the WKC.)

I really should go do laundry...I'm down to my last two pairs of warm socks. (Why couldn't the unseasonably warm weather last a little longer? ;_;)

Yours &c.

Post-script: Haha, you have to love the way the Korean news is calling it a "crushing defeat" (완패) of the "mostly second-generation Japanese-American team". Why am I not surprised.

Comments

[angrybabble.livejournal.com]

it depends on the surprise ending.

basically, in most contexts (excepting jojo where you just learn to expect that random shit will happen and you'll never ever know what's coming), I really don't like it if a surprise just comes out of nowhere. Especially mysteries! If I can't look back throughout the book and smack myself in the head and go "OH" then I think it's a problem. A mystery where it's too easy to guess the villian is just a crappy mystery, but one in which it is impossible because the reader never got the necessary clues is also a crappy mystery, in my opinion. I like the mysteries where it seems like EVERYONE could have done it, even the protagonist! and so if the murderer is not who you thought it might be, well, it's not so unbelievable that it was the other person. Plus it just keeps you on the edge of your seat. Can I really trust so and so?! Could so and so possibly be lying? But so and so seems so totally good!!! etc. You should also find out, at some point, explanations or justifications for everyone else's suspicious actions and so on. XD

[troisroyaumes]

I agree, I think the surprise ending should still make logical sense...but I do like the whole looking back and going "Ohhh, why didn't I see that before?" reaction. XD And yes, the best mysteries are those where you can suspect everyone--I think the fourth Julian Kestrel mystery The Devil in Music is kind of like that actually. ^_^

[worldserpent.livejournal.com]

I don't think of myself as having particularly high self-esteem, but I love surprises in fiction. If you can tell what's coming in a mystery novel, they're not doing it the right way, really. Basically, if the obvious person is the one whodunit, that seems to go against the point of the mystery novel.

[troisroyaumes]

Yes, I usually have more respect for authors who surprise me. I suppose there are certain genres where I don't mind and maybe even expect a predictable plot, but in mysteries I want the detective to awe me with his deductive skills. ^_^

[issen4.livejournal.com]

Heh. It depends on how well the writing is, actually. If the mystery is well set-up or if the characters are interesting, both types of endings (surprise and confirmation) are great. If the writing's not that great, I'm more inclined to peek at the ending and decide if I should continue reading. I guess I tend to read more mysteries rather than crime novels, which may account for this. But even with crime novels, it's still quite easy to guess who the culprit is--my theory is that it's usually the superfluous person who is there just to be charming and helpful--after subtracting the other superfluous people whom I've deemed innocent. Just a matter of arithmetic?

[troisroyaumes]

Hm, come to think of it, I haven't read that many crime novels exactly either. But I really do like mysteries that surprise me, which actually happens fairly often if the writer is very good. ^_^ I think their whole experimental setup is a bit simplistic--as you said, there really are a lot more factors involved in reading taste, after all--but I suppose that's kind of inevitable in psychology.

[harumi.livejournal.com]

Congratulations Korea!

I'm a bit disappointed actually, as I've seen all the participants of the American team last year (Ann Arbor held America's NKC) up close when I volunteered as scorekeeper, and so I have a personal investment in them. That had been hard; we had to be told where the players hit, because everything just went so fast. The strongest player was part Hong-Kong/Japanese though, so not all of them are necessarily full-blooded Japanese. I would have loved Taiwan to be in a higher place too (as I'm Taiwanese XD). My jealousy at my other club mates who went to Taiwan was too much...graaaah!!! I wanted to seeee. DX

[troisroyaumes]

Oh neat, seeing the U.S. NKC must have been fun! Yes, I noticed that the taisho's last name was Yang. ^_^ Actually, I think it's a pretty obvious attempt to once again emphasize the Korean-Japanese rivalry on the part of the Korean media. (The overall tone has been, "Hurrah we won!--but it would have been better if we had won by beating the Japanese in the finals.")

A girl I know opened up an album on the facebook labeled "Going to see the WKC in Taiwan" but she hasn't put up any photos of the actual tournament yet. But the thread on the Kendo World forums has links to some Youtube clips; it all looks pretty exciting!

[harumi.livejournal.com]

Oh man, Yang.

He was crazy as all hell at the NKC. He is this huge ass player, and several times during the various shiai there'd be a loud noise where everybody would turn to look as he slams his opponent down...to the ground. And then fell over him.

No points obviously, but that's gotta be intimidating if you're the recipient.

didn't read the article, but i agree

[sub-divided.livejournal.com]

I gotta admit that I really enjoy being proven right. I don't read as many mysteries as I used to -- I read predictable manga instead! and blog obvious critical analyses so I can feel smart! -- and when I did, I didn't read specifically for validation. But I did get some personal satisfaction from it.

On the other hand, I also need to feel that I'm being challenged. The mystery can't be too easy, or what would be the point? Occasionally I've felt bad about feeling good about something "easy", because I recognize the small-mindedness. What I'm looking for is a middle ground, not so predictable that "getting it" is meaningless, not so obscure that I can't assert dominance over the text in some way.

By the way, this isn't completely true. ^^; Validation is just one factor, there are others like how smart, well-written, eyeopening, insightful, GOOD a book is. I enjoy stories written by authors who are much smarter than I am, because they're better and more interesting, and also I feel like if I let go of my ego I can expand my horizons a bit (oh dear, it's coming back to me again. maybe this is just another kind of validation?).

In conclusion I think it really depends on WHY your self-esteem is low. Is it low in some areas (like personal appearance) but high in others (intellectual endeavor)? What's more important, having your beliefs reaffirmed (Christianity, sometimes) or the feeling that you've expanded them (New Age, sometimes)? Is having good taste important to you?

Ahhhhh look at the time! *back to paper*

Re: didn't read the article, but i agree

[troisroyaumes]

Oh definitely, there's so much more involved in enjoying a mystery than just the confirmation factor, so I really want to see the stories they used for this study. I did think the whole setup was a bit too simplistic, but then again, I suppose it's inevitable in these sorts of psychology experiments. I also wished that they could define a bit more clearly what they meant by "low" and "high" self-esteem.

[tryogeru.livejournal.com]

I don't really read mystery novels, but goodness do I like forensic crime books and tv shows and stuff. I don't know if that counts as "proving right" or "surprise", because technically you're using evidence to prove that the suspect did it, but especially on shows like CSI and Law and Order, they like to bring in a twisted ending which I enjoy, but then again on shows like Supernatural I luv being on the same wavelength as the writers and being able to predict the show. Then again, Supernatural doesn't have the most award winning plots anyway.
I think it depends on the story.
I also flip to the end sometimes to see if it's worth reading. If it turns out to be surprising, I'll read it, if it ends like I thought, I sometimes just leave it for something else. Goodness knows I don't have enough time in the world to read all the books I want to read.

[troisroyaumes]

I don't really watch the forensic crime shows, but at least for movies I really love unexpected plot twists. Although I don't think I've actually watched a crime-solving movie before either.

I flip to the end for some mysteries too, but then the pleasure becomes more about trying to predict how the detective will solve the crime. ^_^