Of catharsis buildup

In works of art there are certain things that have to be handled carefully, because they have impact value. Violence, love, sex, justice. They are universal and so those things are attractive and can be easy ways to appeal people. They turn into cliches because of the overuse and so lose said impact value. And it also applies to life, as things overexaggerated lose their impact, like those fucking idiots who use dirty language all the fucking time so this shit loses its violent appeal.

However, those are important things. They are attractive and I think it is because they have a cathartic appeal, and that's the reason they are overused in the first place. But one has to use them in a way that it will impact people properly. So there must be a key moment, when the use of those things are critical. One can scream in songs, but it'll be much more impressive if it's used carefully and unleashed at the right moment, instead of screaming throughout the whole song.

So I've learned that one of the best methods to unleash catharsis is by this contrast. In one simple example, eating is cathartic for the hungry. It's the reason why the main characters go through hell before finding heaven. Punching the villain wouldn't never be cathartic if it wasn't for the hero being the chased one throughout the whole plot. It's a matter of withdrawn, of the complete absence of the needed cathartic element for it to be a proper reward when it's delivered towards the critical moment of the story. And that's why I call it Slingshotting, because you will hold the absence of the desired item to an almost annoying leve, and the wise use of it will make the release a cathartic experience.

And even if it doesn't become a cleansing catharsis, the contrast always make things more interesting, like the friendship that starts as antipathy. In fact, if there's two friends who never were against each other before, it will be the very fight that can have a potential for catharsis, albeit a negative one.

Slingshotting impact doesn't happen in static art, so here I can introduce Marching Pace in the equation, which works in sequential arts like music and movies. It's the exploration of different rhythms and their combination to create change of tempos and speed that can be used to hook attention (it can be used as a form of Captatio Benevolentiae). As an example, one can pay attention to the traffic speed, and how the slow pace remind of solemn happenings like presidential parades and funerals.

The wise usage of Marching Pace is a very important technique to build up a catharsis, as it can create change of rhythms that fit Slingshotting. For instance, sometimes songs have an asymmetric constitution, which makes the chorus or other structured parts to have more impact, and here Firm Grip plays the role of the cathartic element, the symmetric structure, the marching pace in an unruly setting.