This provokes character Louis Holland to fight with his sister and mother over a grandmother's inheritance, and to meet a Harvard seismologist, a weapons company and anti-abortion activists, among other urban American characters.
They all have thought-provoking characters who rivet us.
Their appeal lies not only in the comic and unsettling combination of human and animal traits, but also in the way they provoke other characters to reveal themselves through their reactions to them.
The drama that develops inside these stories emerges from revelations of deep-seeded beliefs or of long-kept secrets that challenge and even provoke other characters to react strongly.
While hardly provoking sympathy, their characters' seemingly unapologetic lack of internal moral conflict makes for an interesting contrast with Yekel and Sarah.
In "Red Dragon" and "The Silence of the Lambs," Mr. Harris exploited Lecter's archcriminal brand of Operation Head Start, with the character provoking and stimulating particularly damaged serial killers to do their work.
Each player in the real or imagined plots -- the seekers of secrets and the keepers of secrets -- inevitably performs to character, provoking what Professor Goldberg explains is the requisite confrontation that conspiracism demands.
As his wife, Martha, Morton excels at provoking the George character at every possible opportunity.
"When I was a child, comics were relegated to stores that were clearly meant for adult men," says Bennett. "All the same, I was introduced to the characters through cartoons and feature films, and love of those characters provoked me into finding alternate routes to access comics.
But towards the middle of the game, you can loot people's desks in front of them and even shoot one major character without provoking reactions.
And while Morrissey has in the past attracted accusations of "flirting with right-wing imagery", could the exploits of Sir Terry's fictional characters provoke a similar reaction?
