Samuel Taylor Coleridge coined the phrase “the willing suspension of disbelief” to explain how when engaging with a work of fiction, especially a fantastical or unrealistic work of fiction, it is required on the part of the reader to willingly suspend their disbelief, or in other words, to buy into the unreality of the fiction in order to fully enjoy it. Basically, a story might be unbelievable, but we must check our unbelief at the door because even in fiction there is still some truth or at least some experience that can be gained even in an unbelievable story. Art that requires an act of will for the consumer of the art to disengage their sense of unbelief has always seemed something of a failure to me. If the art really is excellent, then it should not require any effort on my part to enjoy it or to buy into its premise, however fantastical or unrealistic it may seem to the casual observer. Therefore, I have a counter proposal to Coleridge’s willing suspension of disbelief. I believe in the Unwilling Rapture of Belief. This is when the art or the story is so beautiful and honest and real that it sucks you in and you believe it without effort, against your will even, no matter how fantastical or unrealistic it might seem from the outside. When we create art, even and perhaps especially unrealistic and fantastical art, we are following in the footsteps of our Father in Heaven. Creating in imitation of and homage to and as embellishment on His Creations. Such creativity does not run counter to belief but is rather the purest and highest form of belief and faith. In his essay “On Fairy-Stories”, JRR Tolkien said, “Fantasy is a natural human activity. It certainly does not destroy or even insult Reason; and it does not either blunt the appetite for, nor obscure the perception of, scientific verity. On the contrary. The keener and the clearer is the reason, the better fantasy will it make. If men were ever in a state in which they did not want to know or could not perceive truth (facts or evidence), then Fantasy would languish until they were cured. If they ever get into that state (it would not seem at all impossible), Fantasy will perish, and become Morbid Delusion. For creative Fantasy is founded upon the hard recognition that things are so in the world as it appears under the sun; on a recognition of fact, but not a slavery to it... Fantasy remains a human right: we make in our measure and in our derivative mode, because we are made: and not only made, but made in the image and likeness of a Maker.” I know that God created us to in turn become creators of our own. If we engage honestly and with full faith in the creative process, then we will make such works of art that will wrest others out of their own heads against their wills in a rapture of belief and wonder that they would never before have supposed possible. When we create with the same Spirit with which our Father created, others will have no choice but to believe.
