In a well-known paper, “That’s Interesting!”, Murray Davis (1971) argued that what most makes scholarly work interesting is that it disconfirms some (but not all) of the assumptions held by its audience. More specifically, building on research regarding perception, Davis argued that what is interesting is something that engages readers’ attention, something that stands out for readers “in contrast to the web of routinely taken-for-granted propositions which make up the structure of their everyday life” (1971: 311). Statements that stand out deny old truths that make up a reader’s “assumption ground.” But denying only part of the assumption ground is crucial. If a scholarly article denies all of a reader’s assumption ground, the reader is likely to treat the article as absurd. In contrast, if an article is consistent with all of a reader’s assump- tion ground, he or she is likely to see the argument as obvious, and thus not interesting.