[on suspending your belief]

[reenka]

Nothing quite makes me happy the same way as finding articles about how children's fantasizing is a science (of sorts) or how Narnia is more a world than an allegory (to children)-- in other words, things that take children's faith and fantasy to be what it is, rather than inevitably filtering it through adult eyes, the adult need to make absolutely everything directly applicable and practical and (*shudder!!*) applicably realistic. (It is times like these when I remember why we all thought adults were The Enemy once upon a time, and why, exactly, adults weren't allowed in Narnia or Neverland or Wonderland... I mean, I've mostly grown out of that, but sometimes... I have to tell you... when I hear people talk about Narnia-- or HP-- in terms of 'how morally useful is this' and 'how does this directly apply to the Real World', I remember being 9 quite well, thank you. Probably -too- well for my emotional equilibrium, as the resentment of Them-- yes, Them-- still simmers, but that's neither here nor there.)
    Well, unless you can see how fantasy can be realistic and belief isn't necessarily dogmatic; in that case we understand each other quite well.

The thing that just made me inordinately happy in particular is the bit in the Narnia essay where the author quotes Lewis himself:
    "To enjoy reading about fairies—much more about giants and dragons—it is not necessary to believe in them," he wrote in another essay on children's books. "Belief is at best irrelevant; it may be a positive disadvantage."

That phrase: "belief is at best irrelevant". Adults don't really tend to understand this, do they? When they believe or don't believe, most adults are -sure-, one way or another, and they fit every belief into their overall world structure of 'this is how reality is', and if it doesn't fit then it's panic and pandemonium (and the very idea that this could bring wonder and joy would probably be alien to most). Whereas it's not that children can't tell the difference between 'real' and 'unreal', but rather that often enough, the difference is irrelevant. If you can't understand this, you probably can't still enjoy Narnia (and even Aslan) the way you did when you were a child (I'm guessing).

It's also why I like to suspend my -belief- as well as my -disbelief- when reading fanfic (even so-called shipper-fic)-- to me they're flipsides of the same coin. I want the story to convince me, to take me away, to set up a new world where only -its- rules apply and things make sense all over again in new and marvelous ways. It's not an escape; it's a remaking.

Comments

[asynca.livejournal.com]

An interesting exploration of the relevence of belief. I don't know if it's possible to generalize that ALL adults care about being able to appropriate messages and content and apply them to realities they live in (ie, interpret EVERY fantasy movie as a metaphorical representation of REAL reality); there are such a large population of adults who couldn't care less about applying their fandoms to reality. You could even argue that because their fandoms exist in their every day life (they think about them, imagine them, watch movies of them, write about them) they ARE the reality of the adults involved?

Mmmm. Tangeant.

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

Heh, I wasn't seriously trying to generalize about All Adults Do This, though it may have come off that way-- there are clearly some childhood issues involved (heh), but I realize there are many different sorts of adults, though I daresay fandomers are far from um, representative of the 'median' (or mean? or whatever) of society at large. We're already obsessive weirdo freaks to even be in a fandom, so that probably skews the results a little, y'know~:) But yeah, I think lots of fandomers keep applying fanfic to 'reality' in that 'but such-and-such pairing wouldn't -work- in real-life' or 'such-and-such character would be an -asshole- in real life if I met him, so I say fie! fie on them!'-- this is all pretty common (more common than not). Most, though not all, people are quite literal-minded, for all they're obsessive fandomers :> (Or maybe I'm bitter??)

Being obsessed about something 'not-real', in other words, whether it's a TV show or a book, isn't enough-- I'd say it's all about how you -treat- it-- how you interact with it, how you understand its role, etc. Adults aren't all unimaginative dolts, but at the same time they're given to put limits on their imagination or compartmentalize it (saying 'this is -just- fiction' or 'this is -just- a fantasy'). The point I tried to make about children is that this 'just' doesn't exist, y'know? That separation is more fluid & more healthy at the same time, it seems to me.

[asynca.livejournal.com]

Yes. Weirdo nerd Pride!

And.

I'm writing a novel. Its genre is fantasy. I spend a lot of time thinking about it, working on it and applying situations and reactions I get from interaction with 'real people' to the plot. To me, this novel is my reality, I've been working on it for years, it partly defines who I am. People might say, "It's just a story, the characters aren't real!", to me they absolutely are real. This fantasy novel is part of my reality.

Reality is completely subjective, and it bothers me when people suggest there is One True Reality In Which We All Live. I think a lot of adults fall into the trap of subdividing what matters to them and what other people consider as 'real' reality.

Fandoms in my opinion are similar. People who don't connect with them keep reminding us, "It's just a story," because that's what it is to them. I think it's failure to be able to understand the subjectivity of reality.