Text 10026, 87 rader
Skriven 2007-01-11 08:07:51 av Jon Schild (13446.babylon5)
   Kommentar till text 9995 av rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated (13415.babylon5)
Ärende: Re: Suspension of disbelief - an open debate
====================================================

David Williams wrote:
> OK...  Here we go.
> As mentioned in another post, I haven't contributed much to the group in 
> quite a while.  But, after a two-person... "discussion" with the wife, I 
> thought this might be an entertaining forum to open it up a little more.
> 
> Suspension of Disbelief (or SoD)
> It's the technical term for the mental adjustment we all have to make to 
> accept the basic premises of dramatic presentations.  Sometimes we need to 
> adjust more than at others.  E.g. "Frasier" requires a lot less SoD than 
> "Babylon5."  Etc.
> BUT, regardless of how fantastic the premise is, the characters and plot 
> still have to follow a certain sort of logic, within that premise.  And when 
> they don't, that's where a plot fails.
> 
> OK, real simple example that started the... err... "discussion" with the 
> wife:
> Chick-Fil-A restaurants has a long-running ad campaign that features 
> intelligent cows trying to convince people to Eat Mor Chikin.  Cute campaign 
> that is funny.  But one current TV commercial annoys me because of what I 
> feel is a violation of SoD.  The ad is part of a campaing that features 
> Cow-mandos doing outrageous stunts to change people's eating habits away 
> from burgers.  In one ad, a couple with a small child in the back seat pulls 
> through a fast-food drive-in and gets a bag of Circus Burgers.  The mother 
> (front passenger seat) places the bag of burgers into the back seat, and 
> they take off down the highway.  A Cow-mando lands on their roof, and does a 
> daring (cliche) Hollywood stunt, reaching down through the open sun-roof, 
> and extracting the bag of burgers.
> 
> Fine.  Suspension of Disbelief WOULD allow this to be funny, except for one 
> HUGE glaring logical error:  WHY were the burgers placed in the back 
> seat?!?!  Think about it - when you go through a fast-food drive-through, 
> you don't buy your burgers, then calmly place them in the back for a 
> leisurely drive through the country..!  You pass them out and eat them! 
> Immediately!  While they are still hot!  Regardless of driving safety, you 
> pass out ther burgers and EAT THEM!
> 
> The wife couldn't understand why I would "nit-pick" THAT detail, when the 
> commercial featured a cow doing stunts on the roof of a moving car.  And 
> that started the whole... "discussion" about SoD, and its rules and 
> limitations.  She eventually decided she had serious Disbelief that she was 
> having this discussion and went to bed.  (She has to get up much earlier 
> than I.)
> 
> So, does anyone else have any thoughts on the subject, and/or examples of 
> violations of SoD they'd like to share?
> 
> Regards,
> David W.


I think that every TV show and every movie depends on SoD. In your 
example, Frasier, stop and think for a minute if you could actually 
stand to be in the presence of those two arrogant snob brothers for 
longer than a few seconds. However, we will watch them for hours. This 
happens because we suspend our disbelief that their company could be 
enjoyable. Science fiction and fantasy shows require somewhat higher 
suspension. We have to be willing to believe, at least temporarily, that 
there is some magic that gets around the speed-of-light limit on both 
physical travel and information transmission. (for B5 it's the jumpgates 
and hyperspace.) We have to be willing to believe that magic exists and 
works and that there is an ultimate evil trying to take over the 
universe. Everyone willingly does this. But everyone has limits. I quit 
watching BS Galactica very early in the revival series because I could 
not suspend far enough to believe that a robot would be so well made and 
well programmed that a human male having sex with that female robot 
would be unable to tell it was not human. Some people's limits are so 
low that they can not enjoy science fiction or fantasy at all.

Commercials take a LOT of SoD. Do people really rave about the scent of 
air fresheners? Do they argue about whether a light beer is better 
tasting or less filling? Do real women obsess about no longer looking 
21? Can a magic pill really make fat melt off while you continue to live 
on the couch and eat way too much? Does a cow have anywhere near enough 
intelligence to know or care whether its fate is to be eaten?

I think your problem with that particular commercial is that you are 
willing to suspend the firm belief that cows are barely smarter than 
hamburgers, but not willing to allow humans to act irrationally. The 
reason they put the bag of burgers in the back seat is so the cows could 
get them. If they don't, there is no story. Sort of like an otherwise 
rational, responsible, intellegent girl will abandon the children she is 
supposed to be watching to go down into a dark cellar without so much as 
a flashlight to investigate a noise.
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