By taking on inordinate risk, Oedipus triggers the unexpected, low-probability, high-consequence event: he finds out that he himself is the regicide he seeks. In Sophocles’ Oedipus the King, Oedipus is going too fast trying to solve the riddle of the regicide. At high enough speeds, the hand of God could strike from any direction.īecause risk is inherently dramatic, playwrights have made, in many tragedies, risk the dramatic fulcrum of the action. The more risk you take, the more you expose yourself to loose gravel, fresh tarmac, drivers around you deviating from the line. Risk is inherently dramatic because it exposes you to unexpected, low-probability, high-consequence events. At a hundred miles an hour, a deer leaping out of the woods is less manageable. An unexpected pothole or a blowout at thirty miles an hour is manageable. Around every hairpin turn, you dance on the edge. The reason is that, by weaving through traffic at inordinate speeds, you are taking maximum risk. You will, with Shakespeare’s Brutus, say: “Fates, we will know your pleasures” ( Julius Caesar 3.1.98). If, however, you drive through town at a hundred miles an hour, drama lies in wait around every corner.

If you drive through town at thirty miles an hour, following the rules of the road, little drama results. This can be demonstrated through a familiar example. How to Perform Risk by Saying Words The Dramatic Fulcrum of the Action

The Wrong Man by Jason Dean