- published: 11 Sep 2015
- views: 163272
The Uncanny (Ger. Das Unheimliche - "the opposite of what is familiar") is a Freudian concept of an instance where something can be familiar, yet foreign at the same time, resulting in a feeling of it being uncomfortably strange or uncomfortably familiar. (See Uncanny valley)
Because the uncanny is familiar, yet strange, it often creates cognitive dissonance within the experiencing subject due to the paradoxical nature of being attracted to, yet repulsed by an object at the same time. This cognitive dissonance often leads to an outright rejection of the object, as one would rather reject than rationalize.
The state is first identified by Ernst Jentsch in a 1906 essay, On the Psychology of the Uncanny. Jentsch defines the Uncanny as: being a product of "intellectual uncertainty; so that the uncanny would always, as it were, be something one does not know one’s way about in. The better orientated in his environment a person is, the less readily will he get the impression of something uncanny in regard to the objects and events in it.", and expands upon its use in fiction:
A technology reporter gets a week of exclusive access to the world's first perfect artificial intelligence. When the reporter begins a relationship with the scientist who created it, the A.I. begins to exhibit startling and unnerving emergent behavior.
Keywords: dark
Airports to Amsterdam
There's nothing that we can do now
I'm convinced, oh, that you're right
You're right where you belong
Beside me, to remind me
Did you ever think this far behind me
You would see the world for what it was
And who we really were
Oh, they love us, American boys
Anywhere, say anywhere
As long as I'm with you
Anything, ask anything
We'll watch the world go by
Anywhere, say anywhere
As long as I'm with you
Anything, ask anything
We'll watch the world
Trains to Tokyo, staring out windows
A place we've never been
While soundtracks play in backgrounds
To the stories of our lives
Non-fiction, oh envision
If we never met and what we missed
And never really learned, Pacific Standard Time
Oh, they love those American boys
Anywhere, say anywhere
As long as I'm with you
Anything, ask anything
We'll watch the world go by
Anywhere, say anywhere
As long as I'm with you
Anything, ask anything
We'll watch the world
Anywhere, say anywhere
As long as I'm with you
Anything, ask anything
We'll watch the world go by
Anywhere, say anywhere
As long as I'm with you
Anything, ask anything
We'll watch the world go by
Anywhere, say anywhere
As long as I'm with you
Anything, ask anything
We'll watch the world
Anywhere, say anywhere
As long as I'm with you
Anything, ask anything
We'll watch the world go by
Anywhere, say anywhere
As long as I'm with you
Anything, ask anything