A Writer's Notebook, Day Seven-Hundred-And-Sixty-Four

Suspension of disbelief, as a concept, has always been intriguing to me.  It is something I recall thinking about when I was first exposed to it during English classes in middle school, and I remember, as well, thinking about it in the context of a great many of the films I saw at that age.  In particular, I recall thinking that certain fantastical films, particularly some set in historical eras but with science fiction concepts, were designed, it seemed to me, around a sort of suspension of belief in the real world, in a far grander kind of gesture where the reality was so removed, it required more than dismissing details, but instead accepting alteration of reality in wholesale fashion.  This was not work that moved to an entire other world or posed a fantastical overlay that hid beneath ordinary reality, and was not traditional alternate history, either, but instead seemed to be using elements of our world in a way similar to the way a writer of traditional fantasy might incorporate homages to Tolkien, or just reflect aspects of that particular source because it has loomed so large over the fantasy genre.  Not all of this was good work.  For example, I recall the disastrous Will Smith, Kevin Kline film, Wild Wild West, loosely based upon the television program.  It is terrible, but the imagination of using elements of the real past within a work which is also clearly about a world very different, as demonstrated through the scientific inventions of the film, and one that seems only to share certain aspects of that culture in common, or at least it struck me that way.  I suspect it may well be that I was attempting to make sense of the muddle the film presented, as it is not at all cogent or well executed, as well as being rather uncomfortable and offensive in ways that should have been obvious at the time(though I am saying that now, so...).

What matters, whether it is a result of watching bad films and attempting to get something out of them, or is a genuine response to other media I may no longer even recall directly, is more in terms of that exploration of the concept of a reader's relationship to the text, of what is stretched in terms of plausibility.  Their are aspects of life we do not expect reflected in a book, the most obvious example being bathroom scenes.  Many novels do not have the main character ever use a lavatory, and it is not noticed or considered, is often preferable for all involved.  This is, of course, a small sort of distortion, is not a thing a reader will notice as absent, but consider the impact on the realism of a work by introducing elements other writers have ignored, the concept of "realism", of grittiness, all these things that are themselves conventions built around a relationship to how far a reader is expected to stretch their recognition of the work as existing in the world, of reflecting existence in a literal fashion.  I tend to find that approach, in terms of my own work, rather flat, but it is aiming in a direction, I believe, that is quite interesting to me, but which also is at odds with the content, in some ways.

In order to discuss this direction, I think it worth talking a moment about a hobby of mine since childhood, magic and mentalism.  At times, I have actually been involved in these entertainments on a professional level, and I have a good friend who is still a performer in New York City who I met while running the backstage for his show over a decade ago.  The thing is that magic is, as should be clear after thinking for a moment, largely about belief.  A performers goal is to present a thing that cannot be, a thing that violates belief, but at the same time it must be presented in a way that has to be believed.  It is, at a certain point, denying the audience the option of suspending disbelief, at least if it is done well and is presented competently.  The performer I mentioned above, Sam Eaton, is a mentalist, and he is open to state that his presentation of ESP and the like are all illusions, using traditional magical techniques, yet he still has people come up to him after any performance wanting him to use his abilities for them, or hoping to learn the secrets of gaining such power themselves.  Illusions must be convincing, or they are not illusions, and so it is necessary that they exist in a place that keeps those experiencing them from denying them on their face.  I do not mean that it is impossible for a thing to be deduced, or to understand that it is fakery, but that it must be presented in a way that, at the moment of the experience, it creates the sensation of a thing happening that could never have been.  

The point here, though, is not about magic, of course, but about that direction mentioned above, about what it is that is sought by moving towards realism, in relationship to the suspension of disbelief.  The narrowing of that gap for the reader has a value, but I think that it is a single option of how a writer might consider what is to be done to get the reader invested, to get them to have the ability to believe the story being told in a way that allows it to be affecting.  I think this is always the key goal, when discussing belief as an aspect of storytelling, and I believe that the obvious way to achieve this seems clear, is in, as said before, reflecting more of reality in some way.  However, that is always an illusion.  Including more of certain details does not mean a work is actually containing a greater amount of reality, or even adhering more to the way the world functions.  Story is a construct, is not a thing that exists in the world itself, but an organizational process, a way in which we order events.  Our experiences are not stories until we recall them.  While it is happening, it is an experience, which we may quickly be organizing into a story, supposing more will happen, but it is not yet a story.  The act of organizing events into a story requires choosing what is or is not important, is a process of distorting and changing the events.  Even remembering is itself a distortion, and our conscious experience of the world is already being filtered by aspects of the mind outside conscious awareness which are choosing what to notice, what matters, without any of our awareness or attention.  We cannot reflect reality in fiction, not in the sense I mean here.  It is not possible to construct an experience of reality that is fully believable.  Even telling a true story is not a reflection of the actual reality around the events, is only an experience communicated as best it can be. 

All this, I am sure, seems quite random and meandering, but I do have a center here, have been circling in towards a point that I have been attempting to clarify in my own thinking for some time.  As I discussed, considering the concept of suspension of disbelief in the context of magic shows up something almost opposed to the notion.  It is a protest, is saying, "this must be believed," is demanding to be seen as actual and real.  Now, how can this be done in fiction?  It is not a thing that is to be done by reflecting reality in a literal sense, is a matter of creating an experience for the reader that is real, is a matter of crafting something that is not fictional, that the book is presenting which they experience in the world outside that book.  I do not mean a fact or observation, but rather a real experience where they have a moment of wondering how the book could be aware of the world around them in that moment.  This has been accomplished by great writers many times, in those moments where a reader feels as though the book is written for them alone, is personal and intimate, is written by one familiar with their own personal experience.

At the same time, I also think their is another potential in understanding this, not just in terms of recognizing the importance of that sort of connection between a reader and a work of fiction, but also as a way of clarifying my own fascinations as a writer.  I consider language a tool of subjective experience, and it is clear to me, from looking into the science of this and studying, in specific, the ways language deprivation impacts the cognitive development of deaf individuals, that consciousness exists as a product of our linguistic development.  In that context, language is more than just the tool of the self, is the tool that built the self.  The interaction with language has a potential as a result, if it is understood from a phenomenological perspective, if the impact of it as experience for the self is seen.  The words used can cultivate more than just a direct understanding of what is communicated, but can be used to evoke specific responses, to impact the reader in ways that they do not expect.  The reader can be lead to an experience through language without knowing that is being done, and when it happens, the writer will know, can comment on the experience itself at the right moment, shock the reader by knowing them in that way, by being their, in their mind, because the reader does not consider that words are thoughts too, that reading involves letting another person think inside your mind.