The value of shock

The value of shock:

"Shock" is a mercurial word. It's a noun, it's a verb. It's medical jargon, it's farming parlance. It's physical, it's emotional. It's amazingly plastic as a concept, but perhaps the best evocation of "shock" is that of electricity. Growing up in Vermont, I lived around a lot of electrified fences. Just sticks of wood, small pristinely white porcelain buttons, and two thin wires, electric fences are deceptively innocent. Touch one, though, and that deeply visceral thrill runs up your limb with a fluttering agony. It's painful, and it is, at the same time, not. That is the embodiment of shock. We fear it, but we can't exactly say we dislike it. Unless, of course, it is too great; the increment of shock is as important as its existence.