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Posted By: Briq Dec 27, 2003 - 10:45 am

The question came up just recently, and I haven't got an 'answer' for it myself yet.
So I'm just throwing it in as a subject to chew upon with you all, I hope. (Btw, happy digesting of the christmas-festivities to you all ).

ehm, right...
In work done so far in creating an authentic world, including races with their specific nature, deities, history, social structure, etc. so far you don't see a really NEW (set of) emotion(s) appointed to a race. (As far as I know).

What has been done so far is giving the race a LACK of emotion (Vulcans!) or mix or magnify a specific kind of emotion in such a way it feels like unfamiliar to us.

But what about emotions we really are unfamiliar with so far, emotions we really haven't seen or experienced yet, being humans living on Earth.
What could they be like?

And... would it even be possible to come up with an emotion which is really not in our range?

Any thoughts on this?

Posted By: Bmat Dec 27, 2003 - 11:22 am

Cherryh's Foreigner series has beings with an emotion a bit different from those of humans. It is not exactly what you are talking about, since it is kind of a sense of loyalty to the person in charge. It is a drive for them. She describes it better in the books.

You have an interesting question. Is it even possible for us to come up with an emotion that is not in our experience. I think that if one started by blending two emotions one might be able to do it. I thought first of joy and fear- but people experience that blend on a roller coaster. Maybe lust and amusement.

I would be intrigued to read about an emotion that we cannot experience.

Posted By: Aldan Dec 27, 2003 - 01:56 pm

Actually, the "lust and amusement" could be called "happy happy joy joy," if you've ever heard of that.

Posted By: Bmat Dec 27, 2003 - 03:30 pm

---

Quote:

Actually, the "lust and amusement" could be called "happy happy joy joy,"

---

Ren and Stimpy?

Posted By: Aldan Dec 27, 2003 - 09:22 pm

*Aldan grins hugely*
Bingo!

Posted By: jillstar Dec 27, 2003 - 10:57 pm

I often have a hard enough time trying to describe the feelings of people let alone trying to describe feelings that I can't even fathom.

Your question comes at a good time because I will be dealing with feelings of different creatures in my book soon and I'm hoping to expand out beyond like, lust, happiness, etc.

How can we feel something that we can't feel?

Posted By: Bmat Dec 28, 2003 - 04:16 am

Similarly, can we visualize a color that we can't see? I can't. The closest I can come is to approximate something I have seen.

Posted By: Briq Dec 28, 2003 - 06:37 am

(Hey Aldan, aren't you confusing 'satisfaction' (happy happy) with 'lust'? )

On to the latest two comments:
Well, yeah, think that's exactly where the question comes down to. Are we able to imagine something that is beyond our very own nature/experience.
(btw, I don't think it is necassary to actually feel something we ourselves can not,think it comes more down to imagine such a thing).

As for colors: it is a littlebit easier to imagine a color we can't really see for ourselves because we KNOW that there is such a thing (bees seeing ultra-violet). Same goes for sound. I can kind of imagine what the high tones of bats sound like by going beyond the highest tone I still can hear myself. It still is approximative of course, I agree with you on that Bmat.
And it also helps that technology kind of brought these experiences into our range.

So, going back to emotion, maybe this means we are bound to use those feelings we are actually able to experience and base any 'new' ones on those.
Like Bmat suggested: blend two (or more) emotions. And maybe find another ground for these feelings than we tend to associate them with, or other subjects for these feelings to focus on.

So far I tend to think that's the closest one could get in 'creating' some new emotion: playing about with ones we already know.
But still, is that really the best we can do?

Maybe if one lists the basic, primair emotions and then looks at all the derivative feelings of each of them...
Hmmm. Maybe I'll come back on this later...

*wanders of pondering and muthering to herself*

(Note to self: Must look into those Cherryh's Foreigner books.)

Posted By: jillstar Dec 28, 2003 - 09:42 am

Briq's thoughts have got mine a stewing.

Taking two or more emotions and combining them into a new one may work... especially in science fiction and fantasy. In something like a romance novel, it may not work because we are suppose to know about those feelings.

Also, another way of looking at a new emotion would be to take a seemingly less-important emotion we have and turning it into something far reaching and enormous for the character in the book.

Another would be to take the emotion of a child, something that in its self is hard to understand, and expand it into something greater and deeper for an adult. So often my son will cry because he doesn't understand something or something seemingly easy to understand to us means something else to his mind.

Maybe if we could get into the character's mind and see things they way they do rather than the way we do, it would create some new feelings. I use a guide to ask my characters questions about themselves, in a sense making them tell me what they want to do in the story. Perhaps I could add a question like, how do you feel inside and see where that leads.

js

Posted By: Aldan Dec 28, 2003 - 03:58 pm

Well, briq, perhaps I could've said "joy joy happy happy," but that would have been a misquote. It was in that order, however that I was bringing my oh-so-witty comment.
*Aldan scratches his head and slightly frowns, then shrugs and walks away*

Posted By: Axzazz De`Nyde Apr 10, 2004 - 10:55 pm

Hmm... Off the top of my head, here's a
Design your own emotion worksheet:

Step 1) is the new emotion solitary (like fear of falling off a cliff), involved with another individual (maternal/paternal protector instinct), or societal (mob hysteria)?

Step 2) is it a 'quiet' low-energy emotion (comfort) or a 'loud' high-energy one (rage)?

Step 3) is it ordinary to seek it out and perverse to avoid it (love) or the other way 'round (pain)? Or a mix (fear)?

Step 4) What triggers it?

Step 5) How is it expressed, normally and abnormally?

Step 6) How does society view it? Is it okay for certain people to express it but not others (gender, age, class)? Or for people to express it in certain circumstances but not others?

Step 7) How do others usually react? Does it spread? Do others join in (like at a hate rally)or do they try to negate it (like comforting a scared child)?

Step 8) What societal connotations does it have? (Roses and hearts with love, swastikas with hate, friday the 13th with fear) How is it used in advertising, literature, etc.?

Step 9) Is there some sort of subculture that reveres it? (Like a serenity cult, dionysian lust cult, or goth counterculture)

any other ideas?

Posted By: Queen Ehlana Apr 25, 2004 - 12:56 pm

Well, I've already considered this sort of thing. I'm working this into my outline now, but I'm not sure I want to try too hard to describe it to the reader.