Suspension of disbelief
Suspension of disbelief is a willingness of a reader or viewer to suspend his or her critical faculties to the extent of ignoring minor inconsistencies so as to enjoy a work of fiction.
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History
The term 'Suspension of disbelief' was originally coined by the romanticist Samuel Taylor Coleridge in his Biographia Literaria (1817):
- "(...) 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."
It is not uncommon to cite the full phrase "willing suspension of disbelief", but the arguably redundant "willing" is more often omitted, at least on the Web.
Examples in literature
Suspension of disbelief is an essential component of live theatre, where it was certainly recognised 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."
The audience accepts limitations in the story being presented, sacrificing realism (and occasionally logic and believability) for the sake of enjoyment. Tolkien challenges this concept in his essay On Fairy-Stories, choosing instead the paradigm of subcreation.
Examples in modern forms of entertainment
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.
One of the most well known examples of suspension of disbelief is the acceptance that the iconic superhero, Superman, hides his identity from the world by simply donning a pair of glasses and acting in a "mild mannered" fashion, which contrasts with the large and in-charge personality of Superman. Not only is the disguise so thin as to be ridiculous, but the fact that the alter ego of Superman, Clark Kent, writes numerous stories about "The Man of Steel," and that his girlfriend, and later wife, is a constant source of Superman stories as well, which often involves her own rescue from the brink of death, requires a high level of suspension of disbelief to accept that such circumstances could be a reality, where so few people discover Superman's secret identity.
Video games often require suspension of disbelief. Often, realism is compromised even in games set out to be realistic either intentionally to not overcomplicate game mechanics or due to technical limitations. For example, gunshot wounds are rarely disabling or fatal. Some games based on Spider-Man have the comic hero swinging around a city with his webs sticking to nothing but the sky. If the player is spotted in Metal Gear Solid, all of the guards in an area will pursue and attack but they'll seemingly "forget" about ever having discovered the player and return to their original patrol routes after the player stays out of sight for a few seconds. Another frequent occurrence in games is 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 often say the same phrase over and over indefinitely when repeatedly talked to. Another example in video games is the so-called Heads Up Display, which displays information such as the amount of bullets carried by the protagonist. Some games try to minimise the use of a HUD or try to disguise or eliminate the HUD in order to enhance the suspense of disbelief.
There are varying degrees to how much suspension of disbelief someone will accept. Fans of the science fiction series Star Trek accept the premises that starships can travel at warp speed and that aliens such as Vulcans exist, but when a given premise is inconsistent with previously written canon or violates known real-world science (such as the plot device whereby injection with a creature's DNA will turn someone into a similar creature), fans are usually not pleased.
As budgets have risen and special effects have become more and more realistic, audiences have become less inclined to engage in suspension of disbelief. Modern movie-going audiences often say that recent Hollywood blockbusters are superior to movies made several decades ago because modern computer-generated imagery is more impressive than the less sophisticated effects used in the past, rather than accepting that at the time these movies were made such techniques were not available. A similar attitude often applies to color vs. black-and-white films, particularly among younger fans.
Another area of popular entertainment where suspension of disbelief is frequently essential to its enjoyment is professional wrestling. For a fuller discussion of this concept in the wrestling context, see kayfabe.
Related concepts
A related concept is a character's self-awareness. The example of this is where the character addresses the audience directly (breaking the fourth wall) or otherwise engages with a glance or look or does or says something to show that the character realises that he is a character in a work of fiction. This action obviously challenges the audience's suspension of disbelief. This can also manifest itself in the concept of meta-reference, whereby fictional characters (without necessarily addressing the audience) hint of their awareness of being fictional.