Immersion in a World

This chapter, entitled The Psychology of the Novel mentions suspension of disbelief, a topic that he uses to explain why some students like Kafka's Metamorphosis, and why some students don't. The students that don't like the story are the ones that are unable to immerse themselves into the fantasy of a man transforming into a cockroach. This is because they were unable to understand what was going on, which distanced them from the characters, and therefore the story. The people that were able to immerse themselves in the story therefore enjoyed it more. On a personal level, this act of suspending disbelief appeals to me, as a Dungeons and Dragons gamer. In reading a novel, and more so in acting out a character in a completly different world, it is important to use suspension of belief. To talk about the D&D game a little bit further, it is a game where the players are placed in danger. If the players are not immersed in the world, then they don't feel the danger, which removes the risk from the game. This results in a lack of fun, because where is fun without the risk or danger. While this doesn't extend to suspension of disbelief in novels, it is still important from a gaming point of view. In novels, suspension of disbelief is a little less important. Because the reader doesn't have anything invested in the novel, apart from the money the spent on it, the book needs to draw them in. This results in the characters needing to be easier to understand. They do this by making sure that the story makes sense and that there are no plotholes.