On suspension of disbelief

Suspension of disbelief - the temporary freezing of your standard logical framework, usually in order to appreciate (understand and enjoy) a work of art. Sometimes in order to achieve a new scientific or mathematical understanding.

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Suspension of disbelief is, I believe, a painfully underpracticed skill by modern readers and writers (and those outside the realm of the carefully written word). Herein I will establish why it is so important, particularly with regard to the carefully written word, and what practicing this skill allows one to do.

On practicing suspension of disbelief when reading - this is how the reader allows themself to bask in the wideness of what a poem can reveal (also good for depth but not as important)**. When one comes to a point in a poem that makes them think, “hmm, this seems strange, I am having trouble understanding” they will often think “this doesn’t fit.”

One should never read a poem and say “this doesn’t fit” (except when critiquing).

Instead, when arriving at this point in the poem, one should ask themself “what part of my framework is this challenging, that I cannot make sense of it?” Then: “how might I alter my own ‘logical’ framework to understand all of what this poetic moment is? What lens do I need to be wearing in order for this to become clear?”

Herein lies the depths of the beauty of language - what seems the impenetrable depths of the ocean, so dark you cannot see anything save the baiting lures of that which would eat you, is really just begging you to sense it in a different way - to feel the currents as they pass you, the changing temperature, even the electromagnetic field of life abounding, to listen for the song of the distant whale.

On practicing suspension of disbelief when writing - if a poem is a moment of perception juxtaposed against the various and infinite scales of the universe, the poet must know that each moment they stop and think, there is a poem here, they must know it contains its own logical framework and do their utmost to interpret said framework into the poem. This is the other side of the coin to Keats’ negative capability, without any irritable reaching after fact or reason. He was referring to the ability of Billy Shakes’ works to: )be( in uncertainties, mysteries, and doubts… Hence the paradox: there is no overarching logic and reason, but every individual moment has and needs its own. We might turn to the old Buddhist text too, the Sandokai, written many centuries ago by Sekito Kisen: (it has been translated many ways, and here I will lean on Shunryu Suzuki): When you listen to the words, you should understand the source of the teaching. Don’t establish your own rules.

How to practice suspension of disbelief - go prepare some tea. As you do so, attend to each of your senses. How does the boiling water sound? How does the dry tea leaf smell? What is the form of your tea pot? Feel it with your fingers and look at it with your eyes. How much does it weigh? How does it feel the strain of supporting its spout? What color is it? Then attend to the moment the hot water and the tea come together. The scent of the steam as it mushrooms up into the air. Now the trick: how do the herbs of the tea feel in this moment of contact? How does the world change for the water? How is some new liquid impregnated and born in this moment? The world has been permanently changed. How? Why? What impact does this change have on the future? On the past?

Other strategies: confront yourself with something that makes no sense to you. Literature, film, etc… For example, the fable of the tortoise and the hare. Ask yourself this question: what confuses me about this moment? Perhaps I feel there is no way the hare would sleep in the midst of a race. How could anyone? With such stakes none would ever embrace such nonchalance. Next question: If I assume this moment that confuses me is the truth, what new realization do I come to? Okay: so the hare can be utterly nonchalant in a competitive atmosphere. Perhaps competition (and therein winning) is not as important to everyone else as it is to me. Perhaps the hare has some backstory with racing. Their parent was an all-time great racer, they never lost, and now the hare feels immense pressure to perform in a way they never cared for. Perhaps the hare is just extremely overconfident. Last question: Am I still confused, or have I come to a new and larger (wider, deeper) understanding of the work?

** By wideness I mean broadening the meaning, all the different scales on which the poem operates. By depth I mean the incredible attention to just one scale, most often the scale immediately available to human perception.