Says the reader

“I read to be shocked”—“wonderful! Because I want to shock you!” This is the wrong reply, of course; like the gag about the masochist asking the sadist to whip him an the sadist replying—“no!” A better answer would be: “but what you think will shock you, an excess of stimulation (as it might be, sex, violence, the abject) won’t actually. You are not aware of what will really shock you …”