Jacques Turner ENC3315 Prof. Marinara 30 November 2014

Suspension of Disbelief

Most works of art, whether fictional or nonfictional, printed or visual, serious or

comedic, most works of art rely upon suspension of disbelief. It is defined as “a

willingness to suspend one's critical faculties and believe the unbelievable” or as

“sacrifice of realism and logic for the sake of enjoyment.” These two definitions conflict

on whose burden is it to suspend the disbelief of the audience: is it up to the author to

generate an internally consistent work in which the audience can become immersed, or is

it up to the audience to overlook minor flaws of the work in order to engage more fully

into the work. I am of the opinion that if a work is internally consistent, the audience will

generally and willingly suspend their own disbelief, and therefore it is up to the writer to

make their work believable; in effect, they must persuade the audience to believe in the

world they are trying to create.

Historically, the term was coined in 1817 by the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge,

who observed that if a writer could “infuse a human element and a semblance of truth”

into an otherwise fantastical tale, the reader would reasonably “suspend judgment

concerning the implausibility of the narrative.” At the time, the use of more supernatural

elements in literary works had gone out of style, and Coleridge was asked to explain his

usage of spirits in “The Rape of Lock.” He argued that

”... It was agreed, that my endeavours should be directed to persons and characters supernatural, or at least romantic, yet so as to transfer from our inward nature a human

Jacqueline Aiosa� 11/2/14 4:28 PMComment [1]: Good  definition  and  I  like  the  contrast  of  roles  between  the  audience  and  author  

interest and a semblance of truth sufficient to procure for these shadows of imagination that willing suspension of disbelief for the moment, which constitutes poetic faith. Mr. Wordsworth on the other hand was to propose to himself as his object, to give the charm of novelty to things of every day, and to excite a feeling analogous to the supernatural, by awakening the mind's attention from the lethargy of custom, and directing it to the loveliness and the wonders of the world before us ...”

Coleridge was trying to say that supernatural elements can be quite entertaining,

so long as the audience is open to such developments. He argued that so long as the

audience is able to both identify and engage with these otherwise unbelievable elements,

overall a much more enjoyable story can be told, one that breaks the monotony of

completely believable chains of events. I would argue that this is indeed the case, as

people can reliably enjoy a wide range of events if they were made to suspend their

disbelief in the process.

Many works of art, both fiction and nonfiction, require a suspension of disbelief.

In some cases, an audience may not believe events that are actually based on reality,

which may detract from the work. An example of this is the Artemis character in the

fictional show “Young Justice.” Creator Greg Weisman was asked to explain why

Artemis had blonde hair and blue eyes if she was to be believably half-Vietnamese and

half-Caucasian. Greg responded that Artemis was based on the actual daughter of another

creator involved in the show, Victor Cook, and so to say such a depiction is unrealistic is

to literally say reality is unrealistic. In this scenario, there was nothing the authors could

have done in the work to make their show more congruent with reality, and the audience

still did not suspend their disbelief. It can thus be inferred that the audience was not

properly persuaded of the believability of the show.

Ultimately, suspension of disbelief does rely upon the audience. It is quite

subjective, and there is no one universally believable method of writing. At the end of the

Jacqueline Aiosa� 11/2/14 4:00 PMComment [2]: Using  “so  long  as”  twice  close  by  makes  the  sentences  feel  repetitive.    

day, despite what we know or what we think we know, people may have alternative

methods of thinking and thus disagree. In the above example, the audience member

argued that

It  would  seem  that  if  Artemis  were  to  be  Eurasian,  her  Asian  traits  would  be  more  accented  given  the  fact  that  generally  Asians  have  darker  hair  and  eye  color,  thus  becoming  more  dominant  than  her  European  traits.  Artemis  having  blonde  hair  and  blue  eyes  would  be  implausible  unless  she  was  three-­‐fourths  Caucasian  and  one-­‐fourth  Vietnamese.

This belief seemed reasonable within their understanding of the way the “real world”

worked. Implied within this statement is a belief in true, distinguishable race-based

features as well as the dominance of certain phenotypes that directly corresponded to

these race-based features. In other words, their premise was that race had genetic

significance and a believable show acknowledges that. The audience member simply

could not believe that a “half-Asian” could be blonde if being blonde is a recessive

Caucasian trait. This in turn impacted their enjoyment of the show, as they couldn't help

but notice it, and so they wanted in-universe clarification to better engage within the

work.

Internal consistency is one of the main ways to reliably get an audience to

suspend their disbelief. Internal consistency is the idea that “any rules, events, settings, or

characters that have been established within the fictional work continue to exist and

function as they did previously, unless otherwise indicated. ” Put simply, so long as a

work listens to the rules and events it itself creates, the audience is willing to suspend the

disbelief in the implausibility. An example of this can be found within the Pokemon

Universe. Pokemon are fantastical creatures that are capable of supernatural feats of

strength and endurance. The Pokemon Universe establishes these creatures as being in a

Jacqueline Aiosa� 11/2/14 4:03 PMComment [3]: Good  example  and  the  way  you  explained  and  elaborated  on  the  idea  made  your  argument  very  clear  

Jacqueline Aiosa� 11/2/14 4:05 PMComment [4]: ;  

fundamentally mutualistic symbiotic relationship: they work together and live together in

harmony. This rule drives every plot point within the series and explains otherwise

extreme patterns of behavior. When Team Rocket abuses and misuses Pokemon, this is

seen as negative because it goes against the fundamental laws of the series. When the

hero, a young child (in some instances 10 years old) is asked to combat such abuses, this

is internally consistent with the supernatural aspects of the companions the hero is with:

the creatures will protect the hero because of the mutualistic symbiotic relationship. The

audience thus is allowed to enjoy the work, because things “make sense,” even when the

things that “make sense” are completely counter to what makes sense in the real world. In

the real world, we don't send a single child with a few animals against a terrorist

organization; we send the military. The audience however forgoes demanding such

realistic approaches and instead becomes engaged with the choices that the universe

made, due to proper willingness to suspend disbelief.

Genre consistency is another crucial way to maintain the audience's willingness to

suspend their disbelief. Genre consistency is the idea that “The fictional universe should

behave like other works in its genre, unless specifically noted otherwise. Any fictional

concepts, characters, or settings borrowed from other works should behave as they do in

those works.” An author is allowed to explain themselves when they wish to take artistic

liberties, even if the concept itself is fictional. For example, the concept of the vampire

spans centuries of literature and media representation. Various traits, strengths, and

weaknesses vary from work to work, but the fundamental idea is an undead person feeds

upon the blood and life force of the living, sustaining themselves eternally and converting

their prey into a vampire. Vampires are weakened and killed when exposed to sunlight

Jacqueline Aiosa� 11/2/14 4:09 PMComment [5]: Authors  are  allowed  to  explain  themselves  

Jacqueline Aiosa� 11/2/14 4:20 PMComment [6]: Undead  people  feed  upon  

and fall into a coma upon sunrise; thus, they are relegated to function primarily at night.

The show “Shiki” deviates slightly from this formula: vampires are indeed born when fed

upon by a vampire, but only when their victim is killed directly from blood loss.

Furthermore, only certain individuals can be reborn as vampires, as the ability to return is

linked to genetic factors. The series goes on to explain that certain genetic factors allow

the resurrection of a vampire not bound by normal weaknesses, known as “Jinrou.”

Audiences recognize that everything to do with vampires is basically fictional, and thus

suspend their disbelief. Furthermore, because the author explains their deviations from

standard lore, the audience further engages with the work as a believable continuation of

the genre.

Nowadays, a lot of works rely solely on the second definition of willingness of

suspension of disbelief in that they want the audience to just go with it. I am of the

opinion that this hurts the work. When it is simply left up to the audience to believe in a

work, the audience may buckle when their willingness to suspend their disbelief is

pushed too far. This allows plot holes that would have otherwise gone unnoticed to

become serious detractions from the work. As all suspense of disbelief is subjective, the

only proper argument of this effect would involve my own subjective experience; in this

case with the recent “Godzilla” movie. The entire movie was essentially a series of easily

avoidable mistakes, lapses in judgment, and useless action, all within the context of a

serious crisis. One such lapse in judgment was the main plan to destroy the MUTO's,

“Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organisms”, with a large nuclear device. Never mind

that they eat radiation. Never mind that halfway through the plan to lure them into a city,

they eat one of the crucial nuclear missiles. The plan is to blow them up and they were

Jacqueline Aiosa� 11/2/14 4:27 PMComment [7]: I  enjoy  that  when  you  state  you  opinion  you  also  follow  it  up  with  well  thought  out  explanations  

intent on sticking to it, right up until they realized it was indeed a bad plan and now they

should not have brought a bomb into the city. But not to worry: Godzilla has spent the

entire movie selflessly tracking down the MUTO's in order to fight them. This is

explained by him being the alpha predator, so of course he needs to surface after fifty

years of just swimming about and presumably hunting fish to stop radioactive insects

from mating and destroying humanity. And of course, once he defeats them, instead of

actually eating his prey (as alpha predators tend to do when they catch their prey, because

that's what those words mean), he just leaves. A victory roar for the camera, some

confetti, and back to the lonely depths with you, Godzilla. It may be that audiences

suspended their disbelief the entire time of the movie; I was not impressed.

At the end of the day, the audience is persuaded to believe in the work. To

suspend their own reasoning and knowledge of how things “should be” is an exchange

done in the hopes of enjoying the work an artist produces. Consequently, it is up to the

artist to provide a proper framework in which this process is as seamless as possible.

There is no objective and proven method in which someone can be convinced of the logic

of a completely different universe; however, it is done time and time again because it is

crucial to the enjoyment of literature, as well as film and other artistic medium. In a way,

the author is attempting to convince the reader to see the world the way they see it, and to

feel the emotions that they feel when thinking about the nature of their work. In doing so,

we all come a little bit closer to understanding each other as people.

Jacqueline Aiosa� 11/2/14 4:28 PMComment [8]: mediums  Jacqueline Aiosa� 11/2/14 4:32 PMComment [9]: Overall  your  paper  was  very  well  written,  there  were  just  a  few  grammatical  errors  and  sentence  rephrasing.  Personally  I  would  have  enjoyed  an  example  from  literature  or  a  piece  of  artwork,  however  your  video  game,  TV  show  and  movie  were  well  written.    Jacqueline Aiosa� 11/2/14 4:30 PMComment [10]: I  liked  your  conclusion  except  for  the  last  sentence.  I  understand  accepting  the  authors  reality  and  feeling  their  emotions  through  their  work  but  the  last  sentence  just  felt  like  it  was  thrown  in  there  and  didn’t  hold  any  explanations  or  supported  your  earlier  conclusions.    

Works Cited

Coleridge, S. T. (2009). Biographia literaria. Auckland, N.Z.: Floating Press.

Parents' Guide | Pokemon.com. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.pokemon.com/us/parents-guide/ Search Ask Greg : Gargoyles : Station Eight. (n.d.). Retrieved from

http://www.s8.org/gargoyles/askgreg/search.php?qid=13138 TvTropes. (n.d.). Main/Consistency - Television Tropes & Idioms. Retrieved October 30, 2014, from

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Consistency?from=Main.InternalConsistency