I read a lot, and one of the things I love about reading is the opportunity for escape that books offer me. People don't get cut in half. Rabbits don't live in hats and coins aren't magically hiding behind my ear. I know that teenagers seldom run around catching bad guys or saving the world, and dead people usually stay dead, but in a well-written book, I can enjoy the story without thinking too much about these details, and in fact, I want to. I want to imagine that what I'm reading is real and could happen. Who hasn't eagerly awaited their Hogwarts Letter or imagined how they'd fare in the Hunger Games (Who am I kidding- I'd die fast)? I have no false belief that every detail in a book, movie or TV show is absolutely plausible or true. Our ability to believe the unbelievable is called "The Willing Suspension of Disbelief" (coined by Samuel Taylor Coleridge), and signifies a kind of agreement between the author and us the readers that we will suspend our judgement concerning the realism and logic concerning the events of the story for the sake of entertainment. We agree to accept the events of the story as presented and character actions taking place within the fictional universe.
Suspension of Disbelief
Suspension of Disbelief
Suspension of Disbelief
I read a lot, and one of the things I love about reading is the opportunity for escape that books offer me. People don't get cut in half. Rabbits don't live in hats and coins aren't magically hiding behind my ear. I know that teenagers seldom run around catching bad guys or saving the world, and dead people usually stay dead, but in a well-written book, I can enjoy the story without thinking too much about these details, and in fact, I want to. I want to imagine that what I'm reading is real and could happen. Who hasn't eagerly awaited their Hogwarts Letter or imagined how they'd fare in the Hunger Games (Who am I kidding- I'd die fast)? I have no false belief that every detail in a book, movie or TV show is absolutely plausible or true. Our ability to believe the unbelievable is called "The Willing Suspension of Disbelief" (coined by Samuel Taylor Coleridge), and signifies a kind of agreement between the author and us the readers that we will suspend our judgement concerning the realism and logic concerning the events of the story for the sake of entertainment. We agree to accept the events of the story as presented and character actions taking place within the fictional universe.
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