Fear—far and close

It may not be spooky season right now, but that did not stop the NeuWrite Nordic crew from exploring the theme of fear.

Big fear, climate change, and the role of science journalism

First, we encountered the more abstract, diffuse kind of fear that comes with anxiety about global climate change—when you know something much bigger than yourself is at stake. The first text we discussed grappled with this kind of big fear in relation to whether science journalism is, or isn't, reporting on climate change in a way that is accurate and effective. NeuWrite Nordic members appreciated the ambition of this text in trying to address many different aspects of this question, and pondered how to use that ambition to perhaps create several smaller and more contained stories. Many felt that more concise and precise messages may be easier to get across effectively, rather than one big one that tries to say too many things. In the latter case, the risk is that each message, even though important in its own right, gets diluted or lost. In addition, we discussed the importance of tone, and knowing which tone to use for a given target audience. For example, if you want to challenge the current status-quo thinking of a particular audience, an adversarial tone may backfire and not be heard at all.

The phenomenology of fear that's too close to home

Second, we experienced the power of vivid descriptions that can make us feel fear in a visceral way—in this case, the tightly-focused fear of a parent's concern for their child behind a closed bedroom door. Rather than typical science communication, this text took a topic of scientific interest—what is the phenomenology of fear?—and created a narrative to immerse us in an exploration of that question. Our readers' reactions suggested that rich sensory depictions of even the most mundane activities function as effective tools for transporting us into the experiences of another person. "Show, don't tell" is a common piece of literary advice that, in implementation, is often easier said than done; this text provided an example, both compelling and disorienting, of how ambiguity in a text can invite the reader to experience the same discomfort as the story's protagonist.

Image: Theerapong khaotong, Vecteezy