Friday, December 10, 2004
Fiction Science
Some people feel the need to over-analyze everything. The Science of Harry Potter? Who cares...that's not the point. Another totally unnecessary attempt to ruin childhood memories is a new analysis of Tintin, explaining that his failure to age over the course of the series must be the result of a growth hormone deficiency from numerous concussions. Puh-leez. As Granny Weatherwax once said, "just because you know how it works doesn't mean it's not magic." And why aren't these researchers spending time figuring out how to treat real hormone disorders??
This brings me to another pet peeve of mine. The whole "suspension of disbelief" concept. I view this as a symptom a very dense reader. If you are reading fiction, you accept the author's rules for the universe of the story. In Rowlings' world, there are wizards and Dementors and hippogryphs. If you can't accept this as true, because it's not the way this world is (as far as you know), you should stick to reading elementary physics textbooks. There is nothing in those that will challenge your view of Reality.
This brings me to another pet peeve of mine. The whole "suspension of disbelief" concept. I view this as a symptom a very dense reader. If you are reading fiction, you accept the author's rules for the universe of the story. In Rowlings' world, there are wizards and Dementors and hippogryphs. If you can't accept this as true, because it's not the way this world is (as far as you know), you should stick to reading elementary physics textbooks. There is nothing in those that will challenge your view of Reality.
