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Literary critic: When a reader feels an emotion that is focused on the events and characters in a work of fiction, the reader is somewhat psychologically detached from that emotion. Lacking the immediacy of emotions about events in the reader's own life, emotions evoked by fiction are enjoyed as pure sensations independent of 1_. Consequently, the reader can find pleasure even in sadness when it is focused on the events and characters in fictional works, because the work's beauty consists partly in its ability to evoke such 2_.
_1_
_2_
beauty
psychological detachment
typically unpleasant emotions
fictional events
real events
| Text from Passage | Analysis |
| "When a reader feels an emotion that is focused on the events and characters in a work of fiction, the reader is somewhat psychologically detached from that emotion." |
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| "Lacking the immediacy of emotions about events in the reader's own life" |
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| "emotions evoked by fiction are enjoyed as pure sensations independent of 1" |
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| "the reader can find pleasure even in sadness when it is focused on the events and characters in fictional works" |
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| "the work's beauty consists partly in its ability to evoke such 2" |
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These blanks work together to complete the critic's argument about how psychological detachment allows readers to appreciate fiction.
For Blank 1:
The passage contrasts fictional emotions with real-life emotions
It emphasizes that fictional emotions lack the "immediacy" of real-life emotions
So fictional emotions are likely enjoyed independent of "real events" or their real-world consequences
For Blank 2:
The passage specifically mentions finding "pleasure even in sadness"
Sadness is normally unpleasant, but becomes enjoyable in fiction
So the beauty likely consists in evoking "typically unpleasant emotions"
"beauty"
"psychological detachment"
"typically unpleasant emotions"
"fictional events"
"real events"