  Some explanation is in order for why Yanal and others think it  unquestionable that uncertainty is required for suspense. Often  suspenseful fictions include many surprises, and one can feel  suspense if they think a surprise is up ahead. Picking up on this,  many discussions of suspense, such as Kendall Walton’s, lump together their treatments of suspense and surprise (Walton, 1990: 259–271).  The tendency to think of suspense as intimately related to surprise,  for which uncertainty appears to be required, may be one reason why  many people think suspense requires the same. But this assumption is  mistaken in two ways. 