Readers simultaneously believe fiction and know it is fabricated

Evidence

Every reader reading is a self-deceiver: We simultaneously “believe” a story and know that it is a fabrication. Our belief in the reality of the story may be so strong that it produces physical reactions—tears, trembling, sighs, gasps, a headache. At the same time, as long as the fiction is working for us, we know that our submission is voluntary, that we have, as Samuel Taylor Coleridge pointed out, suspended disbelief. — Janet Burroway; Elizabeth Stuckey-French; Ned Stuckey-French, Writing Fiction, Tenth Edition, 583

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Coleridge’s willing suspension of disbelief and to immersion theory in games and film studies. — connects to: Magic realism convinces readers the extraordinary occurs within the ordinary — Janet Burroway; Elizabeth Stuckey-French; Ned Stuckey-French, Writing Fiction, Tenth Edition: A Guide…, 496; A fabricated fiction of God sustains panoptic deterrence — Jeremy Bentham, The Panopticon Writings, 41; Bentham distinguishes necessary logical fiction from deceptive priestly and legal fiction — Jeremy Bentham, The Panopticon Writings, 409 (+2 more)