What's the thing when people can't suspend disbelief when reading/watching fictional works?

D

Dogsinplastic

avuncular to no one
Oh yeah...

...even more annoying than deus ex machina. :thu:


Come on, even reality has it's share of deus ex machina-like moments. So it shows up in non-fiction works as well. In both situations it can seem horribly contrived, but in good work it melds.

That said, many of us have been wired or wired ourselves to overly analyze entertainment. Here it probably comes from critical listening of music and applying that process to movies/tv and books.

If you can't suspend disbelief, stop watching most movies and tv and reading most books. Stick to non-fic and docs (again it'll still pop up, just with far less frequency) to avoid getting bogged down in this crap.
 
Disbelief is easier to suspend when the writing isn't garbage. Lazy writing and overused tropes take me right out of a story.
 
Am I expected to believe that all those vampires and werewolves couldn't find someone else besides Kristen Stewart to be crushing on? Is there no one else in the entire Pacific Northwest that is at least comparably attractive?
 
smurfco said:
Disbelief is easier to suspend when the writing isn't garbage. Lazy writing and overused tropes take me right out of a story.
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Definitely. Same with music. Cliched harmonic and melodic devices are the fucking worst.

But writing has been taking a huge hit in modern times. Mediocre writers are selling massive amounts of books and inspiring even less inspired writers to do the same. Hitting on Void's thing (sorta)...the books that inspired the Kristen Stewart flicks were not very good from everything I've heard about them. Stephen King literally (literally, as in with words) eviscerated their author, slamming her story lines, writing style, and more. Then her books lead to tons of fan-fic one of which was Fifty Shades of Grey which I understand is total shit. So incredibly successful crappy art begets more crappy art, and continued success makes that new low standard the standard...until someone else comes along and further lowers the bar.

Same shit with movies, tv, plays, music, et. al.
 
Dogsinotpalc said:
Definitely. Same with music. Cliched harmonic and melodic devices are the fucking worst.

But writing has been taking a huge hit in modern times. Mediocre writers are selling massive amounts of books and inspiring even less inspired writers to do the same. Hitting on Void's thing (sorta)...the books that inspired the Kristen Stewart flicks were not very good from everything I've heard about them. Stephen King literally (literally, as in with words) eviscerated their author, slamming her story lines, writing style, and more. Then her books lead to tons of fan-fic one of which was Fifty Shades of Grey which I understand is total shit. So incredibly successful crappy art begets more crappy art, and continued success makes that new low standard the standard...until someone else comes along and further lowers the bar.

Same shit with movies, tv, plays, music, et. al.
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You left out reality tv, politics, and the NFL.
 
Suspension of disbelief and suspension of logic are two different things. I'll happily do plenty of the former, but not so much the latter.

Interstellar is a good example. I'll happily suspend my disbelief and accept that the United States has become a wasteland inhabited by technophobes. But I can't accept that the new NASA launches a Saturn V size rocket from their main office building. Worse, while the crew ship requires a Saturn V size rocket to escape earth, the shuttle, which is only slightly smaller, quite easily launches from the other planets it visits - no booster required. There are lots of other examples in this movie, but I'm getting nauseous reliving the details.
 
Dogsinotpalc said:
Oh yeah...

...even more annoying than deus ex machina. :thu:


Come on, even reality has it's share of deus ex machina-like moments. So it shows up in non-fiction works as well. In both situations it can seem horribly contrived, but in good work it melds.

That said, many of us have been wired or wired ourselves to overly analyze entertainment. Here it probably comes from critical listening of music and applying that process to movies/tv and books.

If you can't suspend disbelief, stop watching most movies and tv and reading most books. Stick to non-fic and docs (again it'll still pop up, just with far less frequency) to avoid getting bogged down in this crap.
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I have a friend who, when watching movies or TV, seems to go in with a chip on his shoulder just looking for nits to pick. Maybe it's his naturally OCD nature or something, but he ends up dissatisfied a lot.

Personally, I don't dislike myself enough to want to sabotage my own enjoyment of things. I'll forgive a lot if the story and characters are engaging.
 
Sam Weber:
What's this?

Nick:
I'm not sure.

Sam Weber:
What's it about?

Nick:
I don't know.

Sam Weber:
Who's that?

Nick:
I think the guy in the hat did something terrible.

Sam Weber:
Like what?

Nick:
You're so analytical. Sometimes you have to let art... flow... over you.
 
i have issues with tv shows that are supposed to be relatively serious and then show a revolver with a silencer on it. no can do.
or auto pistols that fire 47 rounds without reloading. or when they do things that are so against every known operational procedure and then don't get killed by their stupidity.

the whole reason i stopped watching Scorpion is because of these kinds of thing. half the shit they show on Scorpion, doesn't even exist or is a blatant violation of the laws of physics.
and no one can get a freakin' dna match in 25 seconds. :mad:
 
VoidTerraFirma said:
Am I expected to believe that all those vampires and werewolves couldn't find someone else besides Kristen Stewart to be crushing on? Is there no one else in the entire Pacific Northwest that is at least comparably attractive?
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But she's the only one that would fuck dogs.
 
I read a lot of mysteries, and there is often a lot of serendipity; the sleuth just happens to be at the right place at the right time to find a clue or overhear a conversation. I can deal with that. But when the author relies solely on that type of thing, it becomes annoying. There aren't that many fucking gods in the machinery, that is just poor writing.
 
People are different. My wife for example cannot sit through a LOTR movie, but can read field reports from Vietnam for hours. I can allow for some whacky concepts if the whole story is clearly fantasy, but some technical details in a movie like Gravity drove me nuts. Same with things like the SBHTS. Watching some band rocking out with unplugged guitars just doesn't cut it.
 
And then suddenly, like a dog barking on a moonless night, Dogsinotpalc's mom appeared to explain that he was dropped on his head as a child...explaining a number of his current foibles.
 
335clone said:
People are different. My wife for example cannot sit through a LOTR movie, but can read field reports from Vietnam for hours.
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After-action reports and dispatches from the Vietnam war were so full of exaggeration, fabrication, and just plain BS that the LOTR are fact-based in comparison!
 
bsman said:
After-action reports and dispatches from the Vietnam war were so full of exaggeration, fabrication, and just plain BS that the LOTR are fact-based in comparison!
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To a point, yes, but many were not. My wife spent 5 years as a ASL translator for vets that lost their hearing in Nam, and documented many of their stories.
 
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