Jerry-ATX

Frisson: (noun) a sudden strong feeling or emotion that can sometimes generate a somatic marker or physically experienced signature.

There’s a saying “good art makes you feel something” that I’ve always understood to be in reference to emotions. As someone who generally dwells in the analytical portion of my brain rather than the emotional this is not anything I’ve put much thought into. I generally focus on what a piece of art is making me think as opposed to how it makes me feel. There are instances though where I’ve experienced work that manages to reach one step further and transform whatever underlying emotions are there into physical sensation. Chills. Tingles. Goosebumps. Frisson.

A lot of the information about frisson I read as I investigated this topic centered on music. At first that didn’t resonate for me given I’ve never experienced the sensation from a song but rather almost exclusively from TV and film. As I went back and rewatched my favorite examples, though, it became more clear just how much of a role the music in each scene likely played in priming my nervous system for the sensations to come.

A frisson inducing example where the music is IN YOUR FACE and obviously a key component of the emotional impact comes from a true master of getting IN YOUR FACE–Aaron Sorkin. Season 2 of The West Wing ends with the episode Two Cathedrals and features the memorable scene of President Jed Bartlet cursing out his God (in Latin, natch) inside the actual, empty National Cathedral. The episode’s conclusion is soundtracked by the Dire Straits' Brothers in Arms which plays over an extended montage of the president and his team gathering for the press conference where he’ll discuss the MS he’s hidden and whether or not he will run for re-election.

While the music is a fantastic backdrop and what people generally mention first, the real art in the sequence for me are the tiny character beats that can be easy to miss. Whether it’s Charlie taking off his rain coat when the president refuses his own, the complete weariness in CJ’s voice as she announces Bartlet’s arrival, or Leo’s whispered “watch this” when he recognizes the spark in Jed’s eyes, Sorkin gives us a handful of quiet moments to savor alongside the bombast of the score. Some people may argue the bigness of the music shouldn’t risk drowning out the actors' performances, but for me the true art is found in allowing the two to coexist as seamlessly as they do here. The episode ends as Jed puts his hands in his pockets and it’s time for the goosebumps.

A far different score that contributes to a consistent frisson experience for me can be found in the 1997 film adaptation of Carl Sagan’s novel Contact. Unlike Sorkin’s Dire Straits, the music in my favorite scene here starts at a level that is barely perceptible. Jodie Foster’s Dr. Ellie Arroway returns home following the tragic destruction of the launch vehicle and finds a video call setup attached to a satellite uplink. On the other end of the line is the mysterious Mr. Haddon played by John Hurt who is floating in zero-g on Mir. As Haddon slowly reveals the existence of a second launch vehicle the score gradually pushes its way to equal footing with the actors until it reaches a gentle crescendo and he asks “Wanna take a ride?” Commence the chills.

My ultimate frisson experience which delivers on every rewatch just as strongly as it did during the first comes from my all-time favorite character moment from any show. Season 3 of the Battlestar Galactia reboot ends with the two part episode Crossroads which I believe is primarily remembered for the shocking reveal of four unknown cylons among the colonists. This finale is very much taken from the Sorkin playbook as it closes with a montage set to a hard-rocking rendition of Bob Dylan’s All Along the Watchtower.

The audience has heard teases of the song diagetically throughout the two parts so we’ve been prepared for the needle to finally drop. We meet the cylons, all hell breaks loose as the fleet goes to battle stations, and the vipers launch as the music is cranked to eleven. Lee Adama, having reclaimed a viper seat after the drama of defending the ever-slippery Baltar, launches and soon starts playing cat and mouse with a mysterious DRADIS contact. The soundtrack drops to zero as Lee finally spots his quarry and is shocked to recognize a tentative smile. “Hi Lee.” Starbuck has somehow returned from the dead. “It’s going to be OK. I’ve been to Earth. I know where it is and I’m going to take the us there.” Here come the tingles!

Another way in which Crossroads is similar to Two Cathedrals is how each episode is delivering narrative climaxes after we’ve had the characters and actors in our lives for dozens of hours across multiple years. As hard as I’ve always crushed on Katee Sakhoff as Kara Thrace she’d have a great chance of delivering frisson for me reciting the dictionary. It is this long-term relationship with characters that I’m concluding ultimately creates the best opportunities for frisson and this theory is at least partially supported by the sole instance where I’ve experienced the sensation from a book.

I say partially because the book is the last in a 5-book series I wrote myself so there are obviously potential confounding factors at play. The penultimate scene is a heartfelt farewell between two characters who have fought side-by-side for years and whose relationship has been fraught with complications. It takes place in a gorgeous milieu about which I have numerous, joyful sense memories. I’ll never be able to know for certain whether it’s the words on the page or the emotions regarding my own years-long journey producing them which always creates those chills, but I’m happy to have delivered the sensation to myself and can dream that perhaps there’s a reader or two out there enjoying the same.