Suspending (Dis)Belief
Part 1: Can you, even temporarily, put aside what you think is true?
TGIF
Writers of fiction, especially writers of fantasy and science fiction, rely on readers’ suspension of disbelief, which is a temporary setting aside of critical thinking and logic while examining something they believe to be untrue. It is being able to view the story outside the lens of accepted reality that enables us to get deeply involved in novel or movie. Stephen King would be still be a janitor or, at best, a teacher without this very important aspect of human ability.
My husband, Joe Gemignani, liked to play with this concept in his photo artistry. He’d insert a lighted lamp in an old, abandoned building or place an object in an absurd place, just to play with people’s minds. He experimented with pushing the boundaries of how much people would accept as possible in his art before saying, “That’s too weird.” Most of the time, however, the response was, “Great capture.” That really made him laugh.
Although we’re all amenable to stretching our belief s…