pgronk at 2014-03-09 16:18:26:

>>>The element of the wonderful is required in Tragedy... For me, this paragraph is the most interesting one in the chapter. "...the wonderful is required..." Aristotle's words reminded me of those of a key member of Pixar's 'brain trust', Howard Stanton, as Scott quoted in Part 9 his discussion of Andrew Stanton's TED talk.

...I walked out of [viewing the movie Bambi] wide-eyed with wonder. That’s what I think the magic ingredient is, the secret sauce: Can you invoke wonder? Wonder is honest, it’s completely innocent, it can’t be artificially evoked. For me, there’s no greater ability than the gift of another human being giving you that feeling. To hold them still for a brief moment in their day and have them surrender to wonder. When it’s tapped, the affirmation of being alive almost reaches you to a cellular level. And when an artist does that to another artist, it’s like you’re compelled to pass that on. It’s like a dormant command that’s suddenly activated in you like a call to Devils’ Tower, do unto others what’s been done to you. The best stories infuse wonder.

Back in chapter 9 of the Poetics, Aristotle said that dramatic events should be structured with "necessity and probability" to create the desired emotional response (aka: katharsis) of fear and pity. Then he says, "The tragic WONDER will then be greater..." Thus, it seems to me, the Aristotelian construct for a proper emotional response to tragedy is not a 2-fer (fear and pity), but a 3-fer: fear and pity and wonder. Where wonder is the natural and desired consequence of fear and pity. Aristotle thought that the desired 3-fer wouldn't happen if Achilles were shown chasing Hector around Troy on a Greek stage. Given the constraints of stagecraft in his time, it would look ridiculous, utterly fail to convey the appropriate emotional response to the tragedy of Hector's humiliating death --- fear and pity AND wonder. Now days, we are not so constrained. Thanks to the digital magic of movie making, it is possible to stage the chase in a way that leaves the viewer amazed, not amused, pitying Hector instead of laughing at the spectacle. Back to Chapter 24: "... the wonderful is pleasing..." Aristotle makes a similar point in his Rhetoric, where he discusses the emotional impact of fresh, well-honed speech: ..."wonder is a characteristic of things off the beaten track, and the wonderful is pleasant.." (Rhetoric 1404b8-15). Which, of course, is as true today for dialogue in screenwriting as it was in his day for rhetoric and poetry.