Suspension of disbelief

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Suspension of disbelief is an aesthetic theory intended to characterize people's relationships to art. It was coined by the poet and aesthetic philosopher Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1817. It refers to the willingness of a person to accept as true the premises of a work of fiction, even if they are fantastic or impossible. It also refers to the willingness of the audience to overlook the limitations of a medium, so that these do not interfere with the acceptance of those premises. According to the theory, suspension of disbelief is a quid pro quo: the audience tacitly agrees to provisionally suspend their judgment in exchange for the promise of entertainment.

1 Origin
2 Examples in literature
3 Examples in modern forms of entertainment
4 Actual use in film
5 Criticism of the theory
6 Problems the theory presents
7 See also
8 References
9 External links

[edit] Origin

The characteristically vivid phrase and concept ‘willing suspension of disbelief for the moment’ was coined by the poet, literary critic and philosopher Samuel Taylor Coleridge in his Biographia Literaria, published in 1817, in the context of the creation and reading of poetry. The notion of such an action by an audience was however recognised in Antiquity, as seen particularly in the Roman theoretical concerns of Horace in his Ars Poetica

Chapter XIV describes the preparations with Wordsworth for their revolutionary collaboration Lyrical Ballads (first edition 1798), for which Coleridge had contributed the more romantic, gothic pieces including The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Coleridge recalled:

”... 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 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 ...”

The above is all an example of satirical fiction''

[edit] Examples in literature

Suspension of disbelief is sometimes said to be an essential component of live theatre, where it was recognized by Shakespeare, who refers to it in the Prologue to Henry V:

"[...] make imaginary puissance [...] 'tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings [...] turning th'accomplishment of many years into an hourglass."

However, not all authors believe that suspension of the disbelief characterizes the audience's relationship to their works. Tolkien challenges this concept in his essay "On Fairy-Stories", choosing instead the paradigm of subcreation based on internal consistency of reality.

[edit] Examples in modern forms of entertainment

According to the theory, suspension of disbelief is an essential ingredient in the enjoyment of many B-grade science fiction films and television series such as the early series of Doctor Who, where the audience willingly ignores low-budget "cheesy" props and occasional plot holes, in order to fully engage with the enjoyable story — which may be the more so for those additions to its inherent outrageousness.

Suspension of disbelief is also supposed to be essential for the enjoyment of many movies and TV shows involving complex stunts, special effects, and seemingly "unrealistic" plots, characterizations, etc. The theory professes to explain why action movie fans are willing to accept the idea that the good guy can get away with shooting guns in public places, or never running out of ammunition, or that cars will explode with a well-placed shot to the gas tank.

[edit] Animations and comics

One contemporary example of suspension of disbelief is the audience's acceptance that Superman hides his identity from the world by simply donning a pair of glasses, conservative clothing, and acting in a "mild-mannered" fashion. Not only is the disguise so thin as to be ridiculous, but also in the TV series, Adventures of Superman, this absurdity was carried to an extreme. Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen constantly suspected Clark Kent of being Superman, yet when obvious evidence was right in their faces — such as times when Clark was missing his glasses — they never saw the resemblance. (Noel Neill and Jack Larson, in DVD commentary, said their standard answer when questioned about this was, "We wanted to keep our jobs!")

Strangely, while some audience members took issue with the flimsiness of Superman's disguise, they didn't take issue with the idea of the existence of a superbeing whose only weakness was kryptonite. One defending suspension of disbelief might say that flying, along with the rest of Superman's abilities, is a foundational premise regarding the character, which the audience accepted as part of the deal at the beginning.

Another major example of suspended disbelief was The Flintstones cartoon series. The characters have televisions, cars, telephones, and various appliances that would be powered by electricity in modern society, The show was set in "prehistoric" times and there was no mention of electricity. The "prehistoric" characters were even shown to celebrate Christmas and travel into the future.

Gary Larson discussed the question with regard to his comic strip, The Far Side; he noted that readers wrote him to complain that a male mosquito referred to his "job" sucking blood when it is in fact the females that drain blood, but that the same readers accepted that the mosquitoes (in "fact") live in houses, wear clothes, and speak English.

[edit] Video games

Video games are also said to require suspension of disbelief. Often realism is compromised even in games that set out to be realistic, either intentionally to not overly complicate game mechanics or due to technical limitations. Some games based on Spider-Man have the comic hero swinging around a city with his webs sticking to nothing but the sky. Another example is of Solid Snake's performance of near impossible acrobatic stunts in Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes remake as opposed to his more down-to-earth style of combat (due to graphical limitations during the time) in the original Metal Gear Solid. There are other examples of breaking the fourth wall in the Metal Gear series which require a suspension of disbelief, notably in Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake and Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. In particular, the postmodern narrative of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty in the latter part of the game requires a suspension of disbelief in the common occurence of bizarre supernatural phenomena and unconventional plot twists in an otherwise realistic setting.

Other video games feature instant death upon falling into water instead of giving the player a chance to swim out before drowning. Also, in many video games, a character will say the same phrase over and over indefinitely when repeatedly talked to. Some video games begin with a tutorial in which the player is taught how to play. These are often woven into the story, for example a character in the game might say to the player, "Press the triangle button to jump! Walk up to a crystal to save your game!" and so forth. In the fictional context of the game world, such sequences make no sense — the character is being told to push a button which (from his perspective) does not exist, in order to perform normal activities such as jumping and running. According to the proponent of the theory, it is up to the player to reconcile this problem by suspending his or her disbelief.

[edit] Other examples

Another example where suspended disbelief is said to be necessary is kayfabe professional wrestling. The characters (that is, the professional wrestlers) somehow manage to keep their violent exchanges to the confines of the wrestling arena. They do not follow each other home, assault each other between TV episodes, or bring guns to the ring and shoot each other if they are losing a match, etc.

A further example can be found in Star Wars and other films which include a space setting, where sounds caused by spacecraft (e.g. engines, gunfire) can be heard despite the scenes being viewed from within space itself (sound cannot travel in the vacuum of space). Such sound effects are often vital for creating the atmosphere of a scene, such as space battles. (The series Firefly is one of the few shows to actually observe silence in space.)

[edit] Actual use in film

In the 1994 film Ed Wood, the main character, Ed Wood, played by Johnny Depp, uses the term in the dialog. He is on the set of Grave Robbers from Outer Space, which was eventually released as Plan 9 from Outer Space. He is arguing with one of the producers who asks, "How 'bout that the policemen arrive in the daylight, but now it's suddenly night?" to which Ed replies "What do you know? Haven't you ever heard of 'suspension of disbelief'?"

The term is also used in the film Basic Instinct when the character Catherine Tramell, played by Sharon Stone, explains to the detectives while riding to the police station in the back of the police car that she usually applies the application in her fictional stories. Gus Moran, the detective friend of Nick Curran, then responds "suspension of disbelief! I like that!"

The title of the film itself momentarily breaks the suspension of disbelief when it occurs within the film. The moment that the title occurs, it reminds the viewer that they are watching a movie. When the title manifests itself in one form or another, it interrupts for a fraction of a second the suspension of disbelief. The interruption reminds the viewer that he or she is watching a film. That moment is called the "nort." Sometimes the nort occurs in a song. Blue Velvet begins with the a song and the title, Blue Velvet. Frequently a character says the nort in dialogue. When Cutter explains the concept of presige, it establishes the title of The Prestige. Sometimes a visual image creates the nort. When Jim Levenstein's dad catches him sexually interacting with an apple pie, it establishes the title for American Pie. Some movies do not have a nort, e.g., movie series Rocky II,III,IV, V."

Sometimes the nort is seen as written text. For example, we see the words The Darjeeling Limited as the brothers board the train of the same name and begin their spiritual journey. The nort occurs in the first few minutes of the film and forecasts that much of the movie will be centred in and around the train."

Another example of a written nort occurs in the first few minutes when we see the name on the identification card: Michael Clayton. We see this card 2 more times in the movie-each time evoking the nort. It is unusual to have a film title be a person's name. Also there are over 20 norts in the film which occurs every time someone says Michael Clayton's name."

In Atonement, there is a double nort or a nort within a nort. While atonement is implied from the outset of the film, it is not mentioned until the end when Magie Smith is interviewed as the author of her latest novel called Atonement. It is a double nort because it is both the book title and the name of the film."

We learn from Kurt Russell that Deathproof is the name given to the stuntman's car that defies death. The death proof stunt car is built so that the driver cannot be killed no matter how severe the collision."

In the first 5 minutes of Rabbit Proof Fence, we learn that the rabbit proof fence is the longest fence across Western Australia, running between northern and southern oceans. As the young aboriginal girls try to find their way after being taken from their families they must follow the rabbit proof fence back to their homes. The fence becomes a symbol for their purpose and their freedom."

[edit] Criticism of the theory

As in the examples of Superman's powers and Gary Larson's cartoon and Tom and Jerry's cartoon, it is unclear that suspension of disbelief correctly describes an audience's perception of art. If the theory were to be true, the individual events of suspension would appear to be highly selective. (It would appear that one chooses to suspend disbelief for the ability to fly, but not to suspend it for myopic co-workers.)

Aesthetic philosophers generally reject claims that suspension of disbelief accurately characterizes the relationship between people and "fictions." Kendall Walton notes that, if viewers were to truly suspend disbelief at a horror movie and accept its images as true, they would have a true-to-life set of reactions. For instance, audience members would cry out, "Look behind you!" to an endangered on-screen character or call the police when they witnessed an on-screen murder.^[1]

However, many of these criticisms simply fail to notice that Coleridge's original statement came in a restrictive clause. The formulation "...that willing suspension of disbelief for the moment which constitutes poetic faith," of necessity implies that there are different sorts of suspension of disbelief and specifies that poetic faith is one instance of a larger class. One need not choose to believe that a character in a horror film is a real person in order, for example, to choose to believe that the character is looking at the building seen in the following reverse-shot. More often than not, both beliefs would be equally false.

[edit] Problems the theory presents

The theory would seem to create several other problems.

Self-reference: One problem the theory suggests is apparent in characters' self-awareness — when a character addresses the audience directly or otherwise realizes that he is a character in a work of fiction. This action would seem to challenge the audience's suspension of disbelief, which would according to the theory make the audience unable to enjoy the fiction. But in fact, self-referential moments do sometimes entertain audiences.

Canonical Worlds: Suspension of disbelief can also become problematic for long-running series and franchises with a well-known fictional world, wherein the geography, chronology and dramatis personae (and even natural laws!) are established and remain internally consistent across multiple episodes, and even multiple programs (for instance, in spinoffs). This is really another sense of Suspension of Disbelief, particularly common in Science Fiction and Gaming, where dedicated fans of the franchise immerse themselves in the fictional world to an exceptional degree. The definitive example of this is Star Trek.

When such franchises indulge in crossovers, where characters or events from one series appear, or are even just acknowledged to exist, in another, there is potential for mistakes, leading to inconsistencies in one or both fictional worlds. For instance, a character in one series might have previously referred to characters in another as being fictional, then have to interact with one of those characters in a crossover appearance. The phenomenon is not only seen in TV and film but also in Gaming, where it is known as canon-puncturing.^[2]

Inconsistencies or plot holes that violate the premises, plot-lines or chronology of the established canon can be viewed as breaking the tacit Suspension of Disbelief agreement. For particularly loyal fans, these lapses can be deeply resented.

For instance, in one episode of Step by Step, Cody acknowledges Full House as a fictional TV show. The character of Steve Urkel guest-starred in an episode of Full House as well as an episode of Step by Step. This creates a contradiction, since if Urkel was a real person in the Step by Step world — a world in which Full House was fiction — he wouldn't be able to get into the fictional Full House world.

Problems are also noticeable in Friends where celebrities such as Winona Ryder and Bruce Willis are mentioned by name and later appear playing characters other than themselves. It would seem that the characters in the shows would recognize the celebrities, therefore making suspension of disbelief impossible or at least illogical.

Another circle of fiction was created by Matt Groening when Futurama appeared as a television show on The Simpsons and vice versa. Simpsons characters have also been seen watching South Park, and vice versa.