“In a lovely paper called “Suspense in the Absence of Uncertainty,” Richard Gerrig points out that suspense can be created even if one knows the outcome – the election of George Washington as president, say, or the successful creation of the atomic bomb by the United States in World War II – so long as there is uncertainty about how the obstacles are dealt with. It is this surmounting of obstacles that can pull us in; they’re what give the opportunity of pleasure.”
