Suspension of Disbelief: The Pact Between Author and Reader

Excluding ultra-realism fans, every time a reader opens one of their favorite books (though the same principle applies to films, plays, comics, etc.), they mentally enter a very specific situation: they set aside all critical spirit and voluntarily agree to believe something they know perfectly well isn't real. This mechanism, by which the reader consciously decides not to challenge a story's "non-realism," is called suspension of disbelief. Thanks to it, we learn that a man flies faster than a bullet, what two individuals said to each other centuries ago, that a zombie wreaks havoc in a small town, that a superweapon can explode an entire planet ten thousand years in the future, or that a demon and an angel have incarnated in two ordinary individuals in modern-day London. The examples are countless.

The first to theorize this concept was the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, in 1817. In his Biographia Literaria, the author described the relationship between author and audience as a “willing suspension of disbelief,” a voluntary suspension of incredulity. For Coleridge, the audience is willing to believe impossible or unreal elements if the author imbues them with human interest and a semblance of truth. This explanation remains valid today. But, in short, what is the suspension of disbelief? What does it mean?

Simply put, the audience readily accepts the "fantastic" connotations of a story, provided they appear true in how they are presented. The reader activates a psychological mechanism by which they do not dispute unreal facts, as long as the work demonstrates internal consistency among all elements, emotional truth, and a plausible narrative. In practice, a tacit contract is established between author and reader. Let's analyze its elements in detail.

1. Internal consistency: The story's internal universe has its own rules, which must be respected. If we read a vampire novel, the reader will believe in vampires. If a vampire suddenly appears in a historical novel without any explanation, the suspension of disbelief breaks down. The point is not realism, but consistency;
2. Emotional truth: We can read about a fantastic character or an ordinary person thrust into an enchanted world and believe them if they react to situations realistically and credibly, meaning their emotions feel authentic, and their psychological reactions appear real.
3. Plausible narration: Unreal elements must be measured and not arbitrary. The reader can accept a fantastic setting or characters, but the narration must be solid, credible, without excessively accumulating hyperbolic elements.

Consequently, the suspension of disbelief breaks down when the reader perceives a violation of the story's rules. This can happen when certain “writing errors” occur:

1. Narrative inconsistency: Some elements or events openly contradict what had been established in the story until that point (e.g., an unmotivated psychological change in a character, an altered context without reason, etc.);
2. Deus ex machina: Although a fundamental figure in classical dramaturgy, the deus ex machina, in the guise of an arbitrarily introduced last-minute element, destroys the suspension of disbelief by “hastily” resolving an event or situation, because the solution to the dramatic conflict is not perceived as “earned”;
3. Broken emotional logic: This occurs when characters in the story react to events unnaturally and inconsistently with their psychological characteristics. Violations of physics and chemistry can be accepted, but those of psychology never.

The suspension of disbelief offers an interesting reflection, which in fact represents a paradox: it works precisely because it is not real, as it allows for the isolation of conflicts, emotions, and moral dilemmas in a purer way compared to “normal” daily life. Indeed, its effectiveness arises from a fundamental conceptual distinction: that between realism and credibility. A novel can be entirely unrealistic yet, at the same time, function perfectly and be absolutely credible. Just think of The Lord of the Rings or Alice in Wonderland, to offer a couple of easy examples. Both are works full of impossible elements or worlds, yet readers joyfully accept them because the internal rules of those narrative universes are clear and respected.

In conclusion, how does the suspension of disbelief capture the reader's attention and approval? By following these fundamental cornerstones:

1. Establish the rules of the narrative universe: The reader must immediately understand how that specific reality works;
2. Avoid narrative shortcuts: Events and occurrences stemming from dramatic conflicts must emerge as a consequence of characters' actions and choices, not from arbitrary coincidences;
3. Protect emotional logic: The characters' narrative arc must have clear logic, and they must act according to clear and understandable motivations;
4. Avoid "info-dumping": It's okay to show, but not everything needs to be justified. If that universe appears natural to the characters within it, it will be natural for the reader to accept it. In summary, the suspension of disbelief is not a magician's trick, but a form of mutual trust between author and reader: the former promises a coherent and emotionally authentic story, and the latter agrees to enter a world that doesn't exist. If that trust is reciprocated and not betrayed, true magic happens: every time that book is opened, the fantastic world becomes truer than reality.