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Old 01-21-2003, 04:36 PM   #9
The Silver-shod Muse
Shade of Carn Dûm
 
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: The shoulder of a poet, TX
Posts: 388
The Silver-shod Muse has just left Hobbiton.
Pipe

Is that, perhaps, "willing suspension of <I>dis</I>belief?"<P>This happens when there is a breach in the coherence of the plot, but the reader/viewer ignores it because it isn't important in the world they are immersed in. This is why it isn't hard to believe that elves can live forever or that the world was curved by the Valar for the sake of these immortals. Tolkien's work is so incredibly coherent for its immensity that (in most cases) the reader gladly suspends disbelief.
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"'You," he said, "tell her all. What good came to you? Do you rejoice that Maleldil became a man? Tell her of your joys, and of what profit you had when you made Maleldil and death acquainted.'" -Perelandra, by C.S. Lewis
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