12/2 - Freud

Freud writes with a masterful degree of specificity. However much he deals with vague abstractions, he never fails at communicating meaning. He uses many previously-described techniques in his essay: references and quotes to establish breadth of knowledge and intellectual achievement, hypotactic sentences to keep one idea flowing into the next, and periodic style in order to maintain authority.

Freud moves “The Uncanny” from a long, long discussion of etymology and translation to ways the uncanny appears in different forms of expression. It is a shame that Freud predates work on robotics, because the notion of the uncanny, (most famously in the phrase, “the uncanny valley”) has become even more pertinent in this century.

My interest was caught when he talked about the uncanny in fiction, towards the end of the piece. “... it is a much more fertile province than the uncanny in real life, for it contains the whole of the latter and something more besides, something that cannot be found in real life.” His use of the word “something,” a very vague word in this context, implies an essence, a challenge to verbalize, and this captures the reader’s interest at the beginning of a new idea in his essay. He goes on to talk about the “realm of phantasy,” (“realm,” a phantastical word that goes along with “kingdom” and “magic”) and how fiction is not “submitted to reality-testing.” (Note the scientific note just here, later in the same sentence in which “realm” appeared)

Then follows a sentence with a surprising qualifer at the beginning, and then a parallel form that is an earmark of high style. “The somewhat paradoxical result is that in the first place a great deal that is not uncanny in fiction would be so if it happened in real life; and in the second place that there are many more means of creating uncanny effects in fiction than there are in real life.” “Somewhat” seems out of place, except when seen in the light of the following, “paradoxical.” Freud is constantly reaffirming how smart he is, so for something to be paradoxical would put him in the position of being confused. “Somewhat paradoxical” gives the impression that while it is paradoxical, he can still understand.

The parallel structure of that sentence, “first place/second place,” “uncanny/fiction” and “real life” being surrounded by different constructions that substantially alter the meaning while keeping the wording order intact, these strategies make him sound clever as well as smart.