Episode 382 - Suspension of disbelief

This week we talk about maintaining suspension of disbelief: the way you have to convince people of the world your story is set in and keep them there. Everything you do is done for that, to convince them your characters make sense and the world works. There's a very mistaken idea that this ONLY applies to fantasy or SciFi. No, it applies to ALL fiction and even non-fiction in the case of stories and jokes from your friends, biographies and autobiographies. You have to maintain a suspension of disbelief in all these things in order to fully enjoy and be a part of the story.

MANY things can knock you out of it or shake it, not just “magic and dragons” or spaceships and aliens. The story could be about a New York homicide investigation and you use incorrect procedure, or your syntax and slang is wrong… Something as simple as that can break you out of your immersion in the story. A notable instance from me was when I was reading the stories of Brigadier Gerard by noted Sherlock Holmes author Arthur Conan Doyle. They're about a Hussar in Napoleon's Imperial army. Doyle hadn't done his research and didn't know that a Brigadier in the French army was a very low rank unlike in the British army, Gerard was also supposed to be a towering, well built brute of a man, when French hussars were small, lightly built young men on light horses. Doyle was so fundamentally ignorant of his subject that suspension of disbelief was a struggle.

We chat about problems with Avatar, Indiana Jones, and also breaking the fourth wall: where you deliberately attack suspension of disbelief and in doing so strengthen it. We offer up some solutions for maintaining suspension of disbelief.

This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to RIDDICK Q LOSS TALES. This is fast paced cool, speedy jazz for the active person, wild and frenetic buzzing trumpets with an awesome rhythm section. It’s all happening here! The club is jumping and the music’s pumping!

Topics and shownotes

Featured comic:
Electricity Is Her Element - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2018/jul/03/featured-comic-electricity-is-her-element/

Special thanks to:
Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
Tantz Aerine - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/
kawaiidaigakusei - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/kawaiidaigakusei/
Pitface - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/PIT_FACE/
Banes - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/banes
Ozoneocean - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean

Featured music:
RIDDICK Q LOSS TALES - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/RIDDICK_Q_LOSS_TALES/, by Moizmad, rated M.