Suspension of Disbelief
and other real tales
by Loren G. Warnemuende
Author Loren G. Warnemuende, whose Daughter of Arden Trilogy is published by Bandersnatch Books, joined the team at the Realm Makers Expo July 18–20 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She has graciously allowed us to share her reflections from the event.
Last week, I hopped on a plane and flew to Michigan, where I joined up with my sister Carrie to help represent Bandersnatch Books at the Realm Makers Conference Expo. I’ve been flying on planes since I was little—our family jetted to the other side of the world when I was five, and there have been plenty of flights since. As a child, I loved to fly, and I took the airplane rides completely for granted. I had no concerns about their airworthiness. The older I’ve gotten, though, the more I have to shut off part of my brain each time I enter an airplane, particularly at takeoff. On Monday evening, as my last flight rose into the air, I couldn’t help but think how absolutely surreal it was that this metal tube1 could lift off the ground. This particular plane was a smaller one, and it didn’t seem like we were going nearly fast enough when the nose rose and the body followed—smoothly, effortlessly, soaring like a bird. As we rose, the phrase “suspension of disbelief” floated into my mind, and I almost laughed out loud. I was literally suspended, but I was fighting to believe it.
I first learned this phrase, “suspension of disbelief,” when I was student teaching and my mentor teacher explained the concept as the students prepped to read Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. I remember I took notes right along with the students, navigating this new idea (to me) that there were stories that we could fall into and accept because the author had given us a way to believe something that in our “real” world is impossible. When I read Frankenstein, for instance, I don’t wrangle with the impossibility of Victor Frankenstein cobbling together a man from dead pieces of humans, and then bringing the spark of life to his creation. The story carries me along with it, and within its frame, Frankenstein’s tragic monster is completely acceptable. I can suspend—pause—my disbelief, and as a result, the truth of the story comes through.
“Suspension of disbelief” is key to speculative fiction. In a fantasy or science fiction story, if the literary world one sets before the reader has too many holes, or pieces of the story stretch disbelief too far, the reader crashes down, back into our own world, and any hope the author had of carrying the reader to a new place is lost. Jonathan Rogers of The Habit often says, “In the world that God made…” and then talks about how we can stretch reality only so far. C. S. Lewis wrote of a world where the seas are copper-colored, the lands are jewel tones, and fibrous islands ride the waves (Perelandra), and the Lady of the world is emerald green. It’s a world that takes me by the hand and comes alive with its bubble trees and bread-like fruit. I have no trouble accepting it. If he had then tried to convince me, though, that it would be perfectly fine for the Green Lady to sleep on the Fixed Land, something Maleldil had forbidden, the story would have deconstructed, just like our world did when Eve believed the serpent who told her God really didn’t mind if she ate the forbidden fruit. Some boundaries can’t be crossed without suspension of disbelief crashing and burning.
I spent the weekend in the real world, chatting with real people about fantastical realms—places that can only be dreamed up in the imagination of humans. For some, fantasy is their choice of story, whether tales of descendants of the Little Mermaid, or warrior dwarfs suffering PTSD who find restoration working in a garden. Others take on science fiction and weave tales where AI has become the norm, or being a Christian is safe so long as one stays in certain communities, or people convince themselves they are safe from the dark so long as they keep everything light. Each of these stories include aspects that aren’t part of our world as we know it, but they deal with concepts and truth we can all relate to. The trick is for them to build a strong enough world internal to the story so that any disbelief is forgotten. Sometimes the truth can only come through stories like these, and it’s one reason why fantasy and sci fi are important as genres.
The other reason they’re important is because, as Tolkien speaks of in his essay “On Fairy Stories,” they offer escape—not escape from reality, but escape to reality, escape from prison. Good stories will open the door for us and either give us the strength we need to deal with hard things in our lives, or give us new eyes to see the beauty and wonder of the world God made. One of Bandersnatch Books’ titles, Above, Not Up, by Mark Forrester, tells of an average teenage boy who meets a being from the fourth dimension who opens up the wonder of our world to him—things we can see, and things we can’t see that actually exist. It is a wonder that we live in such a world, a world where humans have discovered and created so many marvelous things, including metal tubes that lift into the air like birds and bring us safely home again. I know some of the logistics of this fantastical process, but who am I kidding—I can’t grasp the reality of it! I have to willingly suspend my disbelief, trust the builders and the pilots, and most of all, trust God.
1 N. D. Wilson was the first author who I first heard use this description of airplanes. He’s gifted at getting people to see the wonder of our world. This bio gives a taste.
September 24, 2025 - Release of The Song of the Stone Tiger, a middle grade fantasy novel by Glenn McCarty
November 2025 - Release of Joe the Fourth and the King’s Crown, a lower middle-grade novel by Mary Barrows
November 2025 - Release of I’ve Got a Bad Case of Poetry, our illustrated children’s poetry anthology edited by Rachel S. Donahue - Preorder on the Kickstarter Platform
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“Honor the world by observing it truly and writing about it with humility.”
Walter Wangerin, Jr., Beate Not the Poore Desk
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I love this musing/discussion!
Great article, Loren!